Lecture 13 Communication and Perception

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PERCEPTION

Perception is the process by which youbecome aware of the many stimuli impingingon your senses.

It influences the way you see people, theevaluations you make of them and of their behaviours.

Perception is complex. What occurs µout

there¶ might differ greatly from what reachesyour mind.

Examining how and why these messagesdiffer is crucial in understanding

communication.

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Perception Process

Perception process explains how perceptionworks

It shows how you first see an object / a

person and how you formulate your perception towards the object / person

3 steps / stages involved in the process:1. Sensory Stimulation Occurs

2. Sensory Stimulation Is Organized3. Sensory Stimulation is Interpreted-Evaluated

These steps are continuous and overlapone another. The focus is also narrower from step 1 to 3.

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PERCEPTION PROCESS

Sensory

Stimulation is

Interpreted-

Evaluated

Sensory

Stimulation is

Organized

Sensory

Stimulation

Occurs

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Step1 ±

Sensory Stimulation Occurs

At this stage, your organ senses arestimulated

Eg. of senses - eyes, ears, nose, taste, etc. Eg.:

 ± You see someone,

 ± You smell food / perfume

 ± You taste food ± You listen to music

 ± You touch a durian

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Step 2 ±

Sensory Stimulation is Organized

At this stage, the sensory stimulations are organizedaccording to various principles for eg. ± Proximity

 ± Similarity

 ± Contrast

How you organize your sensory stimulation into apattern that is meaningful to you (based on your experience / background, etc.). This pattern is notnecessarily true or logical.

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Step 3 ±

Sensory Stimulation is

Interpreted-Evaluated

How you interpret is based on how you evaluate

somebody / something

It is a subjective process involving your judgmentstowards the person / object

People who are exposed to the same message might

interpret-evaluate differently

This is influenced by your past experience, needs,wants, value systems, beliefs about the way things

are or should be, physical or emotional states at the

time, expectations, etc.

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7 Major Processes that Influence

Perception

1. Implicit Personality Theory

2. Self-fulfilling Prophecy

3. Perceptual  Accentuation

4. Primacy-Recency

5. Consistency

6. Stereotyping

7. Attribution These processes contain potential barriers

to accurate perception that can distort your perceptions and your interpersonal

interactions

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1. Implicit Personality Theory

IPT is an implicit system of rules that says whichcharacteristics of an individual go with other characteristics

Eg. of IPT principles are ³Halo Effect´ and ³Reverse

Halo Effect´ ± if you believe an individual has a number of positive (or negative) qualities, you make the inference that she or healso has other positive (or negative) qualities.

Eg. your perceptions towards religious leaders,criminals, etc.

Potential Barrier: ± IPT could lead you to ignore or distort qualities /

characteristics that don¶t conform to your theory.

 ± Eg. You may ignore negative qualities in your friends thatyou would easily see in your enemies.

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2. Self-fulfilling Prophecy

SfP occurs when you make a prediction or formulate a belief that comes true because youmade the prediction and acted on it as if it was true

4 basic steps in the self-fulfilling prophecy:

i. You make a prediction or formulate a belief about aperson / situation.

ii. You act toward the person or situation as if thatprediction or belief were true.

iii. Because you act as if the belief were true, it becomestrue.

iv. You observe your effect on the person or the resulting

situation, what you see strengthens your beliefs.

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Potential Barriers:

i. Your tendency to fulfill your own prophecies can

lead you to influence another¶s behavior so itconfirms your prophecy.

ii. It distorts your perception by influencing you to

see what you predicted rather than what is really

there.

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3. Perceptual Accentuation

It is a process in which it leads us to see what weexpect to see and what we want to see.

Eg. We probably see people that we like as smarter and better looking than people that we don¶t like.

Potential Barriers:

i. It can distort your perceptions of reality (you seewhat you need / want to see, not what is reallythere)

ii. It can influence you to perceive and remember positive qualities better than negative ones thusdistort perceptions of others.

iii. It can lead you to perceive in others the negativecharacteristics or qualities you have (a defense

mechanism)

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4. Primacy-Recency

Primacy effect : what comes first exerts the mostinfluence

Recency effect: what comes last exerts the mostinfluence

Your perception is influenced by the things you firstseen / read / experienced etc.

Eg. The first impression you made in an interview ismore likely to influence the interviewers¶ perceptionstowards you.

Potential Barriers: ± It could lead you to form a µtotal¶ picture of an individual on

the basis on initial impressions that may not be accurate.

 ± Primacy may lead you to discount or distort later perceptionsto avoid disrupting your initial impressions.

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5. Consistency

Consistency represents people¶s need to maintain

balance among their attitude

You expect certain things to go together and other 

things not to go together 

Eg.

 ± You expect your friends to like (not dislike) you

 ± You expect your friends to dislike (not like) your 

enemies

Your expectations depend on what would satisfy youmost

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Potential Barriers:

 ± It can lead you to ignore or distort your perceptions of behaviours that are inconsistentwith your picture of the whole person

 ± It can lead you to perceive specific behaviors ascoming from positive qualities in the people youlike and from negative qualities in the people you

dislike. ± You may fail to see the positive qualities in thepeople you dislike and the negative qualities in thepeople you like.

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6. Stereotyping

Stereotype is a fixed impression of a group of people

Eg. Stereotype against religious groups, racialgroups, job categories (eg. Doctors), etc.

Stereotype could be negative or positive

Stereotype could be helpful at the beginning ± itprovides you with some helpful orientation about thatperson

But it could create problems at a later stage ± when

you apply to that person all the characteristics youassign to members of that group without examiningthis unique individual

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Potential Barriers:

 ± It can lead you to perceive someone as having

those qualities (usually negative) that you believecharacterize the group he / she belongs.

 ± It can lead you to ignore the unique characteristics

of an individual.

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7. Attribution

A process through which you try to discover why

people do what they do

Asking if the person acts in such a way because of his personality (internal) or because of the situation

(external)

If the behaviour is internal you might hold the person

responsible for his or her behaviour 

If the behaviour is external, you might not hold the

person responsible for his / her behaviour 

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4 principles you use in making attribution:i. Consensus

asking whether other people behave the same way asthe person in the same situation

If yes ± high consensus. If not ± low consensus.

ii. Consistency Asking whether a person repeatedly behaves the same

way in similar situations If yes ± high consistency. If no ± low consistency

iii. Distinctiveness� asking whether the person acts in similar ways in

different situations

� If yes ± low distinctiveness. If no ± high distinctiveness

iv. Controllability Asking whether you think the person was in control of 

his / her behaviour.

If yes ± High controllability. If no ± Low controllability

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Low Consensus

High Consistency  Attribution of 

Low Distinctiveness Internal Causes High Controllability

High Consensus

Low Consistency  Attribution of 

High Distinctiveness External Causes

Low Controllability

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Potential Barriers:

i. Self-serving bias You attribute your negative behaviours to

uncontrollable (external) factors

You attribute your positive behaviours to controllable(internal) factors

ii. Fundamental  Attribution Error  the tendency to conclude that people do what they do

because that¶s the kind of people they are, not because

of the situation they are in. overvalue the contribution of internal factors and

undervalue the influence of external factors

iii. Overattribution Attributing everything a person does to one or two

obvious characteristics

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