Perception: what you see is what you get

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Perceptionwhat you see is what you get

• Chapter topics

• The Perception Process
• Influences on Perception
• Common Tendencies in Perception
• Perception Checking
• Empathy, Cognitive Complexity and Communication

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The Perception Process

• Four Steps of the Perception Process
• Selection
• Organization
• Interpretation
• Negotiation

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The Perception Process

• Selection
• What attracts your attention?
• Selecting which impressions we will attend to
• Stimuli that are intense often attract our
  attention
• Were more likely to remember
• Extremely tall or short people
• An obnoxious laugh
• A person who speaks loudly

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The Perception Process

• Organization
• Along with selecting information, we must arrange
  it in some meaningful way
• What do you see?
• Which image stands out?

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The Perception Process

• Organization
• Vase-Face has a two figure relationships
• How many ways can you view the boxes?

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The Perception Process

• Organization
• We classify people based on their
• Appearance
• Beautiful or Ugly, Young or Old
• Social Role
• Student, Attorney, Wife
• Interaction Style
• Friendly, Helpful, Aloof
• Membership
• Democrat, Immigrant, Christian

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The Perception Process

• Organization
• Stereotyping
• After the organizational scheme has been chosen,
  we use that scheme to make generalizations
• These generalizations lead to stereotyping
• Stereotypes may be based on a small amount of
  truth but beyond the facts at hand usually have
  no valid basis

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The Perception Process

• Organization
• Stereotyping
• Three Characteristics
• You often categorize people on the basis of an
  easily recognized characteristic
• You ascribe a set of characteristics to most or
  all members of a category
• You apply the set of characteristics to any
  member of the group

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The Perception Process

• Organization
• Punctuation
• Consider the punctuation of these sentences
• I dont like your friend because he never has
  anything to say.
• He doesnt talk to you because you act like you
  dont like him.
• I keep talking because you interrupt so much.
• I interrupt so much because you dont give me
  the chance to say whats on my mind.

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The Perception Process

• Interpretation
• After we organize information we interpret it in
  a way that makes sense to us
• Interpretation plays a role in nearly every
  interpersonal act
• Consider these scenarios
• Is a friends kidding a sign of affection or
  irritation?
• Should you take an invitation to drop by any
  time literally or not?

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The Perception Process

• Interpretation
• Several factors influence our interpretation of
  an event
• Degree of involvement with the other person
• Personal experience
• Assumptions about human behavior
• Attitudes
• Expectations
• Knowledge
• Self-concept

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The Perception Process

• Negotiation
• Sense-making occurs between people as they
  influence one anothers perception
• Narratives
• Interpersonal acts have more than one narrative
• These narratives often differ
• Ask two quarreling children what they are
  fighting about
• You will be bombarded with two very different
  narratives
• Shared narratives provide the best chance for
  smooth communication

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Influences on Perception

• Physiological Influences
• Each of us perceives the work in a unique way
• The Senses
• How we experience our senses changes the way we
  interact and shape our perception
• Consider these everyday situations
• Turn down the radio! Its going to make me go
  deaf.
• Its not too loud. If I turn it down, it will be
  impossible to hear it.

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Influences on Perception

• Physiological Influences
• The Senses
• Scents that please some people, repel others
• Temperature is subjective as well

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Influences on Perception

• Physiological Influences
• Age
• Older people view the world differently because
  they have a greater scope of experiences
• Health and Fatigue
• How do you experience the world?
• When you are tired?
• When you are sick?
• Did you feel less sociable?
• When youre hungry?

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Influences on Perception

• Cultural Differences
• Perception is also affected by your culture
• Every culture has its own world view
• The range of cultural differences is wide
• In Middle Eastern countries
• Personal scents play an important role in
  communication
• In Asian cultures
• Talk is perceived differently
• Silence is valued
• How does this differ for Western cultures?

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Influences on Perception

• Cultural Differences
• Ethnocentrism
• The attitude that ones own culture is superior
  to others
• Geography
• Even ones physical location can shape the way
  they view the world
• Consider living in a particular part of the
  country
• What does it mean to live in the North?
• What does it mean to live in the West?

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Influences on Perception

• Social Roles
• Gender Roles (Sex vs. Gender)
• Sex refers to biological characteristics
• Gender refers to psychological dimensions of
  masculine and feminine behavior
• Gender roles are socially approved ways that men
  and women are expected to behave
• Androgynous Gender Role
• Combines masculine and feminine traits

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Influence on Perception

• Social Roles
• Occupational Roles
• The kind of work we do influences our view of the
  world
• Imagine five people taking a walk through the
  park
• A botanist
• A zoologist
• A meteorologist
• A psychologist
• A pickpocket

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Influence on Perception

• Social Roles
• Relational roles
• Roles you play in relation to others
• The role of parent
• Does being a parent change the way you view the
  world?
• The roles involved in romantic love
• Partner, spouse, boyfriend/girlfriend, sweetheart
• Your romantic roles can also change the way you
  view others

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Common Tendencies in Perception

• We Judge Ourselves More Charitably
• Self-serving Bias
• An attempt to convince ourselves that the
  positive face we show the world is true
• Consider this example
• When they botch a job, they werent listening
  well or trying hard enough
• When we botch a job, the problem was unclear or
  perhaps there wasnt enough time

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Common Tendencies in Perception

• We Cling to First Impressions
• Halo Effect
• The tendency to form an overall positive
  impression of a person on the basis of one
  positive characteristic
• We assume that others are similar to us
• We are influenced by the obvious

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Perception Checking

• The Skill of Perception Checking
• Serious problems can arise when we treat our
  interpretations as matters of fact
• Consider the following
• Why are you mad at me? (Who said you were?)
• Whats the matter with you? (Who said anything
  was the matter?)
• Come on now. Tell the truth. (Who said you were
  lying?)

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Perception Checking

• Elements of Perception Checking
• A perception check has three parts
• A description of the behavior you noticed
• At least two possible interpretations of the
  behavior
• A request for clarification about how to
  interpret the behavior

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Perception Checking

• Example
• You havent laughed much in the last couple of
  days. (behavior)
• It makes me wonder whether somethings bothering
  you, (first interpretation)
• or whether youre just feeling quiet. (second
  interpretation)
• Whats up? (request for clarification)

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Perception Checking

• Perception Checking Considerations
• Completeness
• A perception check doesnt always need all parts
• Nonverbal Congruency
• Nonverbal behavior reflects open-mindedness
• Cultural Rules
• A straight forward approach may cause problems
• Face Saving
• Can help raise an uncomfortable topic

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Empathy, Cognitive Complexity and Communication

• Empathy
• The ability to re-create another persons
  perspective, to experience the world from the
  others point of view
• Sympathy
• Viewing another persons situation from your
  point of view

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Empathy, Cognitive Complexity and Communication

• Cognitive Complexity
• The ability to construct a variety of frameworks
  for viewing an issue
• Cognitive complexity
• Increases the chances of satisfying communication
  in a variety of contexts
• Can be enhanced through training
• Can help increase ones empathy

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Empathy, Cognitive Complexity and Communication

• The Pillow Method
• A quick tool for clarifying misunderstandings

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Empathy, Cognitive Complexity and Communication

• The Pillow Method
• Position 1 Im Right, Youre Wrong
• Position 2 Youre Right, Im Wrong
• Position 3 Both Right, Both Wrong
• Position 4 The Issue Isnt as Important as it
  Seems
• Position 5 There is Truth in All Four
  Perspectives

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Chapter Review

• The Perception Process
• Influences on Perception
• Common Tendencies in Perception
• Perception Checking
• Empathy, Cognitive Complexity and Communication