Chapter Two: Perception and Communication pp. 31-52 Meaning The significance we attach to phenomena such as words, actions, people, objects, and events. Symbolic Non-fixed Human Perception The active process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting people, objects, events, situations, and activities. Active How we make sense of the world Three processes: selecting, organizing and interpreting Perception Selecting: – We can’t attend to everything in our environment, too much! – Things we notice: stand out, attend to our senses, change or variation, deliberate, expectations – Influenced by who we are and what is going on inside us Perception Organizing: – We must make sense of what we’ve noticed – We organize perceptions in ways that make them meaningful to us – Constructivism: we organize and interpret experience by applying cognitive structures called schemata (schema) – Schemata: prototypes, personal constructs, stereotypes, and scripts Perception (Schemata) Prototypes: a knowledge structure that defines the best or most representative example of some category – Used to define categories – Exemplary Perception (Schemata) Personal Constructs: mental yardsticks that allow us to position people and situations along bipolar dimensions of judgment – More detailed assessments or particular qualities – Intelligent -------------------- Not-Intelligent – Attractive -------------------- Not-Attractive – We define something only in terms of how it compares to the constructs we use Perception (Schemata) Stereotypes: predictive generalizations about people and situations – We predict what it will do – May be accurate or inaccurate – Generalizations (sometimes based on facts that are generally true of a group but sometimes on prejudice or assumptions) Perceptions (Schemata) Scripts: guides to action based on what we’ve experienced and observed. Consists of a sequence of activities that define what we and others are expected to do in specific situations Schemata help us make sense of what we notice and help us anticipate how we and others will act in particular situations Perceptions Interpretation: the subjective process of explaining perceptions to assign meaning to them – Attributions: explanations of why things happen and why people act as they do – Self-Serving bias: We tend to construct attributions that serve our personal interests Check of Understanding What are the three processes to human perception? (Selection, organization and interpretation) Influences on Perception Physiology Culture--Standpoint Theory Social Roles Cognitive Ability—Cognitive Complexity & Person Centered Influences on Perception Physiology: People differ in sensory abilities and physiologies – health, stress, age, environmental Culture: Consists of beliefs, values, understandings, practices, and ways of interpreting experience shared by a number of people – Standpoint Theory Influences on Perception Standpoint Theory: particular locations within a culture Each social community distinctively shapes the perceptions, identities, and opportunities for its members. Standpoints reflect power positions in social hierarchies – Those in positions of power have a vested interest in preserving the system that gives them privilege S.E.A.R.C.H. Sex, sexual orientation, gender Ethnicity, education level Age Race, religion Class (socio-economic class) Handicap Influences on Perception Social Roles: others communicate to us social roles. We receive messages that tell us that we are expected to fulfill particular roles, as well as the actual demands of those roles, thus affecting how we perceive and communicate Influences on Perception Cognitive Abilities: how elaborately we think about situations and people, and the extent of our personal knowledge of others, affect how we select, organize, and interpret experiences – Cognitive Complexity: number of constructs, abstraction of constructs, and elaboration of interaction – Person-Centered: the ability to perceive another as a unique and distinct individual Enhancing Communication Competence Words crystallize perceptions. When we name feelings and thoughts, we create precise ways to describe and think about them. Communication is based on a process of abstracting from complex stimuli. Guidelines for Enhancing Competence Recognize that all perceptions are subjective Avoid mind reading Check perceptions with others Distinguish between facts and inferences Monitor the self-serving bias
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