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“Discovery can encompass the experience of discovering something for the first time or rediscovering something that has been
lost, forgotten or concealed.”

It is important to remember that the discovery of something does not need to be tangible items such as a forgotten toy, a lost
card, a past birthday present, it can include intangible items such as familial love, happiness, grief, or lost/suppressed memories.
The low modality of ‘can’ entails the infinite possibilities presented by a discovery, where it becomes defined by both the
process and the outcome, further affirming the continuing impact discoveries can have on individuals. Both discovering
something for the first time and rediscovering another thing can bring surprise, discomfort or joy to the individual, and it offers a
significant opportunity for them to reassess their previous perspectives and in turn adopt new transformations.

Particularly in the domain of rediscovering a forgotten family heritage/lineage or cultural identity, the impact of the discovery
can permanently reshape an individual’s outlook or leave them severely disappointed, such as the experience of many in the
Stolen Generations who were unable to retrace their family members or who became devastated when they discover their
family members have all died.

The sense of curiosity and intrigue that accompanies the discovery of something for the first time can become the catalyst for
continual discoveries. It is also important to keep in mind that discoveries can be made on an individual or collective basis, and
this differentiation can have yield significantly different results. Often the rediscovery of something requires new courage, and
particularly in the domain of suppressed memories as a result of a traumatic event, the rediscovery of concealed memories can
be therapeutic for individuals to rationalise what had occurred and gain a sense of reconciliation through acceptance of such
memories.

"Discoveries can be sudden and unexpected, or they can emerge from a process of deliberate and careful planning evoked by
curiosity, necessity or wonder."

The notion of an unexpected, sudden discovery can emerge from recollecting back to the movie “The Chronicles of Narnia: The
Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” by Andrew Adamson where the main characters was bored on one rainy day, and discovered
a magical wardrobe that opened the doors to a new world. Discoveries can be sudden and unexpected because they may not be
voluntary, other individuals in our lives may want to guide us to discoveries without our conscious awareness of it. Sometimes
sudden and unexpected discoveries can be as simple as being surprised at a birthday party, which often invokes unexpected joy.
Unexpected discoveries also occurs frequently in the process of experimentation, whether it be creative, technological or
scientific, where one may find unexpected marine species on a scuba diving trip or a new cure for a disease.

Both the nature of discoveries and the impact of these discoveries can be unexpected. For example, individuals may start
investigating into a particular religion by a chance encounter or through the encouragement of others which may give them a
renewed sense of spirituality. It might also be worthwhile to consider the various sudden and unexpected discoveries that
individuals make about their personality and their capacities when they are left on an island and are forced to survive a hunter-
gatherer lifestyle or just going on a camping experience.

Some of the most unexpected discoveries lies in natural disasters which although can be minimised with advanced scientific
instruments predicting the probability of its occurrence, can never be quite obliterated. The outcome of any discoveries is not
necessarily the outcome that was being planned, and the same discovery can have different emotional and intellectual impacts
on different individuals.

The process of deliberate and careful planning often can restrict the nature of discoveries, often suitable for people who always
desire to have a sense of control over their destiny. Careful planning often is associated with that of a travel itinerary, where one
may plan the places where discoveries may be made, but often the exact nature of the discovery can never be fully appreciated
unless the individual is undergoing that particular experience. Curiosity, necessity and wonder represents different motivators
for individuals to embark on discoveries. Curiosity can be of geographical landscapes, personalities, or just of gaining more
knowledge and often is an innate desire of humanity. Necessity may represent things of personal significance, for example, one
may wish to take a break from academic pressures and go on a travelling trip around the world to discover and explore about
their desires and broaden their understanding of the world before they consider how they wish to live the next stage of their
lives.

Discoveries motivated by wonder may entail a sense of aspiration or inspiration, perhaps of an idol, this may catalysed, for
example, a visit into places such idols have lived or researching and extending the work of their idols. It is important to keep in
mind that humanity are complex creatures, and real life discoveries may often be motivated by more than one factor, for
example, a carefully planned discovery may be the result of necessity and wonder at the same time. One might argue an
example of such a discovery was the Space Race in the Cold War period, where there was both the wonder of the new frontier
of space exploration as well as the necessity for countries such as America and Russia to display their scientific advancement as
an accompaniment to the Cold War rhetoric and geopolitical landscape of the time. Sometimes sudden discoveries can be
lifesaving
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With all these discoveries, it is important to keep in mind the possibility of disappointment, the process of careful planning may
increase the opportunity of a successful discovery, but it does not guarantee one in anyone. A prime example is to consider rare
astronomical events such as lunar eclipses where even if you planned the right spot at the right time, there might be unexpected
clouds that inhibits you from viewing the sight. Hence often, whether a discovery is successful or not is both a product of careful
planning as well as a bit of fortuitous luck.

“Discoveries can be fresh and intensely meaningful in ways that may be emotional, creative, intellectual, physical and
spiritual. They can also be confronting and provocative.”

Discoveries are fresh in that they can be unexpected or sudden. This part of the rubric places a heavy focus on inner journeys
and discovery. Emotional discoveries often arises from reconnecting with important people or at the achievement of an arduous
journey or goal, for example, the conclusion of a marathon, or the renewal of a friendship. Creative discoveries arises from
experimentation and is often distinguished by an individual’s proactive desires to challenge existing boundaries and create new
things. Intellectual discoveries are often the process of careful planning, consider the scientific discoveries that have won Nobel
Prizes in the past century, often these research are built on the existing work of other scientists, hence discoveries can be an
accumulative and continuous process, which does not necessarily be completed by one person, but by multiple people. Physical
discoveries often arises from the exploration of physical landscapes, whether they may be familiar or unfamiliar or even
imagined ones. Spiritual discoveries often have a strong long lasting emotional impact on the discoverer, these can include a
journey to achieve a sort of religious fulfilment, such as going on a pilgrimage or the decision to become a missionary.
Discoveries can be confronting because they often results in the reassessment of previous prejudices, assumptions and social
stereotypes and provocative as it may inspire the discoverer to undertake new discoveries and even become a different person,
i.e. changing their current occupation as a result having a new idea of what they want to do with the rest of their lives.

"They can lead us to new worlds and values, stimulate new ideas, and enable us to speculate about future possibilities."

New worlds and new values may have both positive and negative impacts on the individual, for example, some discoveries can
lead us to adopt cynical or sceptical values about the world, for example, the discovery that we were betrayed or lied to by an
individual that we previously have trusted heavily. The stimulation of new ideas can be the catalyst for creative discoveries. The
importance of discoveries in igniting our imagination is very important, because often discoveries are limited by the restraints of
our own imagination, rather than any physical restraints. The potential for discoveries to enable us to speculate upon future
possibilities allows us to adopt a new positive outlook on the future and hence provides a mechanism for us to deal with
disappointing or traumatic discoveries. For example, the discovery that a particular animal species have gone extinct may be
disappointing, but the speculation of possibilities such as cloning any remaining DNA we may have of that species may leave us
with new motivations to preserve not only that particular extinct species, but become more active in our wildness preservation
efforts of other species. It is important to emphasise the use of the collective pronoun ‘us’ in this rubric, because this
emphasises that discoveries can be made on a collective scale, such as part of a group of friends, family or simply like minded
individuals and the stimulation of new ideas, as a result, can arise from discussions or challenging of our perspectives by other
individuals. The word ‘enable’ also deserves special mention, as it entails that discoveries can be empowering individuals,
particularly from the new knowledge they gained to make own choices and achieve greater autonomy in their lives.

"Discoveries and discovering can offer new understandings and renewed perceptions of ourselves and others."

Sometimes scientific discoveries can deconstruct previous myths. Discovering, for example, that there are raw minerals in space
that are not available on Earth and their enormous potential for economic gain as led to renewed perceptions on whether space
exploration are really economically feasible or beneficial for society. Sometimes discoveries made outside comfort zones leads
to renewed perceptions, consider what new insights and perspectives we have gained when we may have been forced to play
truth or dare with our friends and backed out because we realised the particular dare was not something that aligned with our
personal values.

The emergent use of social media in recent decade has both proliferate new discoveries around the world, yet has also inhibited
a genuine understanding because of the ease to share so much differing opinions where it is often hard to achieve a succinct,
truthful understanding accumulated amongst so many different biases. Discoveries and discovering represents a continual,
lifelong process, much like the notion that learning is a life long process, which can be reshaped to be understood as the
discovery and continual discovering of new knowledge. This part of the rubric also emphasises the impact of time, the evolution
of time allows us to accumulate new experiences and new interactions which can forces us to reassess previous perspectives.

Renewed perceptions may not necessarily be beneficial, because perhaps the discovery that someone betrayed us can alienate
us from such relationships and individuals. It is also important to note that we often discover ourselves through interactions
with others, through the process of communication, other people can accumulate an external understanding of ourselves that
we cannot achieve through introspection, for example, often we know more about our personality through being told by our
friends what they think of us. These renewed perceptions can be the catalyst for self improvement or they may have little
impact if we don’t gain a sincere appreciation of the potential significance and benefits of acceptance of these renewed
perceptions. In a way, one may say that discovering encompasses continual discoveries, it is very hard in real life to draw a
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definitive line marking the start of one discovery and the conclusion of another, rather, they are much like the electromagnetic
spectrum, where different types of waves are differentiated by arbitrary divisions of wavelength ranges and frequencies, but
their essential character remains the same despite the different classifications of say X-rays and infra red. (both are still self-
propagating waves composed of electric and magnetic fields).

"An individual’s discoveries and their process of discovering can vary according to personal, cultural, historical and social
contexts and values. The impact of these discoveries can be far-reaching and transformative for the individual and for broader
society."

An individual’s values can impact on their reaction to discoveries and where or how they may choose to make new discoveries
or prevent themselves from making certain discoveries. For example, if one was raised up in an extremely conservative culture
which advocates that women should stay at home to care for kids and take care of the husband, it is unlikely that these women
would make discoveries of working in external domain or challenge social norms or expectations for fear of severe
repercussions. Hence, one’s values may serves as the parameters for which they make their discoveries in, or they may serve as
the fundamental foundations for one to challenge and make new discoveries. It is important to maintain a strong awareness
that cultural, historical values may not be monochromatic, but is often complicated by multiple influence, as may arise when
one individual migrate from one country to another, or where an individual are raised up in a household of mixed cultures.
Social, cultural and arguably, even familial contexts (personal) have a significant impact on how individuals react to discoveries,
because they serve as significant influences on developing an individual’s perspectives and values. There is often a strong
tendency for individuals to conform rather than pursue individuality for fear of a lack of support towards their goals or simply
the desire for social affirmation.

The transformative impact of discoveries is most prominent in the scientific domain, consider the work of Einstein, particularly
the equation E=mc^2 which encapsulates the new idea of energy can be converted to mass when accelerated to a high enough
speed and vice versa, this discovery both reinforced Einstein’s pacifist views of the need to use science for morally sound
purposes, rather than for the purposes of annihilation, but arguably this can be complicated by political pressures, such as
Einstein writing a letter to President Roosevelt for him to develop a nuclear bomb in fear that Germany was going to develop
one first and destroy the world. The discovery of such a relationship had far reaching impact not just on the progression of world
war II, as evidenced by Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings and the subsequent surrender of japan, but also on nuclear
developments in nuclear energy plants. Also consider Malala Yousafzai who was the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate of 2014, the
discoveries she made on the limitations imposed on women in terms of pursuing educational opportunities made her an activist
for empowering women through education, and her story has made significant international resonance and inspired many to
join the dissent of voices that inhibits women from pursuing such opportunities which have the potential to significantly and
permanently change their lives. The notion that with enough belief, one can change the world resonates strongly in this segment
of the rubric.

"Discoveries may be questioned or challenged when viewed from different perspectives and their worth may be reassessed
over time. The ramifications of particular discoveries may differ for individuals and their worlds."

The validity of discoveries may be challenged, as often occurs in the scientific domain, where in psychology experimentations,
often results may be vulnerable to being manipulated for the pressures of getting published, otherwise it is hard to maintain a
reputable career. Discoveries are challenged when viewed from different perspectives because of the different experiences one
may have. For example, the discovery of shells on the beach may leave a child elated, but from an adult who may have had a
near drowning experience near the beach, it may be a traumatic rediscovery of an unfavourable memory. The ability to reassess
the value of discoveries through the progression of time is very important, because it gives us potential for change, potential for
the same discovery to have a differing impact on us. For example, at the time, the discovery of an antique coin may not be worth
much, but perhaps if we know if the coin has some special significance to a country’s history or is worth a lot financially, we may
reassess the worth of such past discoveries, perhaps made by our grandparents long before we were born.

The ramifications of particular discoveries differing for individuals have been emphasised through this deconstruction. It is
important to emphasise on the use of the low modality word ‘may’ as it also entails the possibility that discoveries and the
impact of discoveries are not necessarily different, they can be very similar, for example, miscarriages are often traumatising for
mothers in different stages of their pregnancy. It is also to be aware that often discoveries don’t just have an impact on
individuals, but it may have an impact on our dependants, namely our close family and friends, for they may come to share
similar grief, or transform their perspectives through our experiences, this conforms to the notion of vicarious
learning/modelling in psychology, where we often may not need to physically experience something but we can observe and
learn consequences just through looking at what others go through.