perception
the process of making meaning from the things we experience in the environment
interpersonal perception
the process of making meaning form the people in our environment and our relationships with them
selection, organization, interpretation
What are the three basic stages of perception process:
organization
the process of categorizing information that has been selected for attention
perceptual schema
a mental framework for organizing information
When one or more of your senses are stimualted
When does the process of perception begin?
being unusual or unexpected makes a stimulus stand out, repetition or how frequently you're exposed to a stimulus, and the intensity of a stimulus affects how much you take notice of it
Three characteristics that make a particular stimulus more likely to be selected for attention:
physical constructs
emphasize people' appearance causing us to notice objective characteristics
role constructs
emphasize people' social or professional position
interaction constructs
emphasize people's behaviors
psychological constructs
emphasize people's thoughts and feelings
physical, role, interaction, and psychological constructs
The four types of schema to classify information:
interpretation
the process of assigning meaning to information that has been selected for attention and organized
experience, knowledge, and closeness
The three factors to interpreting behavior:
perception
__________ is a process
physiology, our cultural and co-cultural backgrounds, and social roles
The three factors in particular influence the accuracy of our perceptions and can lead to errors:
physiology
the study of the mechanical and biochemical ways in which our bodies work
physiological states
conditions that are temporary. We enter and leave various physiological states, meaning that their influence comes and goes over time
physiological traits
conditions that affect us on an ongoing basis
social role
set of behaviors that are expected of someone in a particular social situation
cultures
influences our perceptions and interpretations of other people's behaviors
stereotypes
generalizations about groups of people that are applied to individual members of those groups
identify a group we believe another person belongs tom recall some generalization others often make about the people in that group, and apply that generalization to the person
Stereotyping is part of a three-part process:
be aware of the stereotypical perceptions you make, instead of assuming that your perceptions he guided by what you learn about them as individuals
What are two productive ways of dealing with stereotypes?
primacy effect
the tendency to emphasize the first impression over later impressions when forming a perception. Means that first impressions are powerful
recency effect
the tendency to emphasize the most recent impression over earlier impressions when forming a perception
What we see, our biases, our expectations, and our desires
Our perception of reality is influenced by the following things:
perceptual set
a predisposition to perceive only what we want or expect to perceive. relevant for interpersonal communication because it can shape it the way we interpret social situations
egocentric
unable to take another person's perspective
altercentric
focused on the perspective of another person instead of your own
positivity bias
the tendency to focus heavily on a person instead of your own
negativity bias
the tendency to focus heavily on a person's negative attributes when forming a perception
attribution
an explanation for an observed behavior
locus, stability, and controllability
Behavior that varies along three important dimensions:
external causes
means that they're caused by something outside ourselves
stable cause
one that is permanent, semipermnanent, or at least not easily changed
stable or unstable
internal causes can either be _________ or ________
self-serving bias, fundamental attribution error, and overattribution
Three of the most common attribution errors are:
controllable attribution
believe that the cause of that behavior was under the person's control
uncontrollable attribution
identifies a cause outside the person's control
self-serving bias
the tendency to attribute one' successes to internal causes and one' failures to external causes
fundamental attribution error
the tendency to attribute other's behaviors to internal rather than external causes
overattribution
a form of mental laziness. The tendency to attribute a range of behaviors to a single characteristic of a person
perception checking
the process of testing your perceptions for accuracy
direct perception checking
involves simply asking other people if your perception of situation is accurate
indirect perception checking
involves listening and observing in order to seek additional information about the situation
it requires you to look at information about the situation that doesn't match your original perception and it encourages you to ask yourself what information you don't have that might be relevant
Why is the practice of generating alternative perceptions is important for two reasons:
limited by characteristic of yourself, confusing facts and interpretations, and didn't consider any alternative perceptions
What are some reasons that perceptions maybe not accurate?
you have to be mindful of the facts that influence what perception you form of a situation, to check that perception by separating facts from interpretations, considering alternative perceptions, engaging in direct and indirect perception checking, and re
Improving you perceptual ability therefore involves two major struggles: