Communication & Perception

Communication &

PerceptionHuman CommunicationDr.Inas A.Hamid

Perceptual process

Sens

ory

orga

n

Sound(stimul

e)

Interpreting the message (perception)

Store forget

processing Additional,

confirm existing knowledge

(beliefs)

Cognition(organizing &

developing relations)

Emotions(Attitudes)

Perception Stimuli could be a sound, taste, smell, sight , heat

or touch. All these stimuli trigger a reaction in one of the

sensory organs ( ear, eye, skin, etc.) of the body , so it sends a message to the brain. This message contains information about the external stimuli (encoding).

The mind interprets (decode) the message and give them meaning on the basis of past experience (perception), and this why messages frequently are decoded to contain meaning which the sender did not intend.

Perception relates to the way we mentally process the various stimuli we receive.

In the perceptual process; the mind will relate the new information with information already stored, and then either to store or forget the new information.

The mind may store the new information as additional confirmation of knowledge or as additional knowledge.

The mind process all of the information in memory (existing and new)to form beliefs about the object, person, or situation. New information may change the beliefs the person already held.

Then the mind will develop concepts, or general categories under which specific items of information about persons, objects, or situations may be stored.(cognitive process).

Also in Cognitive process relationships among objects and situations are developed, such as; forming a relation between education and high income.

The message succeeds when the receiver accepts the message and process the information to store new knowledge desired by the sender.

Beliefs Fishbein and Ajzen strongly emphasized the

role of beliefs in determining human behavior. They classified beliefs into three categories

depending on the source of information (source of stimuli):

•Beliefs based on direct observation by the person himself.

•(seeing, hearing,….)

Descriptive beliefs

•Beliefs based on rational processing of past experiences, using logic. Inferential

beliefs

•Beliefs formed on the basis of communication messages.

•This type is the most important for communicator.

Informational beliefs

It is more realistic to assume that most beliefs are inferential beliefs, in which both descriptive and informational beliefs are pooled to arrive at a belief .

Descriptive

Beliefs

Informational Beliefs

Inferential Beliefs Beliefs

Attitudes Perceptions are processed by the mind

not only to arrive at knowledge and cognitions, but at the same time they are processed to arouse emotions.

Those emotions may be those of pleasure or displeasure, love, hate, desire, fear, anger.

Identify the intensity of feeling, enables us to measure the emotional impact which incoming messages have upon the receiver.

This positive – negative emotional reaction is called our “attitude” toward the entity.

The intensity of our negative/positive attitude toward an object / person may be measured along by using points scale, as follows:

Extreme Disliking Natural Extreme liking

Positive attitude

like

support

desire

prefer

Happy for

feel

Motivation: Communication Goals

According to psychologist, most if not all of the activity is goal directed. It is organized to attain some desired result, to satisfy some needs, to get some rewards or avoid some punishment.

This goal is the motive for the behavior. Motivation is an inner tension to engage in

behavior that will lead to the achievement of this goal (hunger is the motive for eating).

What needs (goals) do people seek to satisfy (achieve) by communication?

Psychology books contain many classifications of human needs. One of the best known of these is that of Maslow.

He claims that all human needs can be classified into five classes.

Individual can not satisfy needs on any particular level unless his needs on the levels below have been satisfied.

The highest level of needs is called “ self-actualization” needs, which defined as the need to accomplish everything that the person has the capacity to become.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs

Self – actualization

Esteem needs

Love and belongingness needs

Safety needs

Physiological or survival needs

Physiological needs: this category consists of the primary needs of the human body; such as food and water.

Safety needs: consists of such things as protection from physical harm, ill health, and economic disaster and avoidance of the unexpected.

Belongingness and love needs related to the social nature of humans.

Esteem needs consist of both the need for the self-awareness of importance to others and actual esteem from others. Satisfaction of these needs leads to feelings of self confidence and prestige.

Self-actualization needs. The desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything one is capable of becoming.

Ads always use these needs in persuading their customers to use their products and services; as following:

Assignment Do you thing all incoming informational

messages result in forming beliefs? Do you thing all incoming informational

messages result in forming intended beliefs by the sender?