The main personal bias I am aware of having is class-related, although I am not biased against those who simply do not have much money and struggle to get by, but rather those who appear to use handouts and never seem to work toward bettering themselves. I tend to have a negative view toward those who seek to work they system in their favor, such as people who always use food stamps but also spend all of their own money on drugs or alcohol, or people who believe that the state will take care of all their problems.
The reason I have this bias is due to my upbringing and in my later experiences in the military. When I was much younger, my own family shared many of these attitudes. My father’s main values were that a person’s primary responsibility in life was to take care of himself first, and if he had a family, his responsibility was to provide for that family. He didn’t like what he called an increasingly welfare state, where people would be taken care of by the government. He was not a racist, but he would sometimes make blanket statements about certain ethnic groups he believed took advantage of government programs, which means he may have had some racial bias.
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I would like to believe I did not inherit these same racial biases, because my own personal bias is related more to an attitude than a specific culture. However, one group where I am aware that I may have a personal bias would be towards homeless persons who are unable or unwilling to provide for themselves and instead seek handouts or charity. While I understand that many homeless persons have addiction problems, my feelings are that they made poor decisions that resulted in their addiction. Other arguments are that some homeless persons are veterans and unable to take care of themselves because of mental issues such as PTSD, but as a military veteran myself, I am disinclined to believe this is a valid reason for not being able to take care of oneself.
In the military, we were trained to be self-reliant, because there may be situations where no one is going to be able to offer help. While we were trained to function as part of a team, we each had our own responsibilities to make the team function effectively. Not doing your part meant not only were you letting yourself down, you were also letting down your entire team. This made me value the concept of self-reliance, because being self-reliant also meant you were strong enough to support others who truly needed help, and not just those who were choosing to not work as hard.
Although I am aware of my own personal biases, I also recognize that my biases are based on experiences and situations that have shaped my views, and there are situations and exceptions to these views. For instance, while I have a biased belief that issues such as mental illness can be an overly broad category to explain what essentially amounts to lazy behavior, I am also aware that there are some instances where mental illness is truly severe, and results in situations where people generally cannot take care of themselves. For instance, people with severe schizophrenia or those who are unable to even grasp reality cannot be expected to care for themselves without assistance. I also understand that severe physical disabilities can make it difficult to find gainful employment, so my belief is not that everyone is expected to support him or herself, regardless of ability. However, my general view is that policies regarding mental illness and disabilities can sometimes be exploited by those who are seeking handouts, and these are the types of person to whom my personal bias extends. I am not biased against those who are truly disabled or mentally ill, but rather toward those who use these as excuses for not doing any meaningful work.
To mitigate this bias, and to ensure it does not negatively impact my future work with people from diverse backgrounds, my goal is to open myself to as many experiences as possible and working with people from all backgrounds. I believe the attitude that people should become self-reliant is a positive trait, because it will encourage me to help people how to become self-reliant and proactive in improving their circumstances. I also realize I may need to work on being more empathic overall.
