Transforming Perceptions and Self: Essential Concepts in Communication

1. Chapter 3Communicator Perceptions, Self-Concept, and Self-Esteem Within the Core of the Transformational Model

2. Transformational model core

3. Perception • How communicators views themselves, their world, and others within it. • The meanings communicators assign to words, objects, and events are based on their perceptions. • Perceptions are the unique reality of each individual based on life experiences. Note: The nurse must become aware of the patient’s perspective and the perspectives of other health-care providers to develop sensitivity to the needs of others.

4. The Perception Process • Stage 1: Selection • Individuals are bombarded by stimuli, so they select the stimuli they want to focus on • Stage 2: Organization • Individuals arrange stimuli in meaningful ways dependent on their personality, knowledge, and past experiences • Stage 3: Interpretation • Individuals assign meaning to stimuli based on their unique reality

5. Our motivation to perceive others

6. Factors Influencing the Ability to Perceive Others Accurately • Form perceptions according to stereotypes • Cling to first impressions, even if they are wrong • Assume others think and behave like them • Favor negative impressions over positive ones • Influenced by expectations • Judge others more harshly than themselves, given the same situation • Take credit for success and deny responsibility for failure • Believe that other people are to blame when they make mistakes

7. Patient-Safe StrategyPerception Checking • Describe the behavior • Give 2 possible interpretations of the behavior • Request clarification for how to interpret behavior • Goals of perception checking • Purposeful interaction to test perceptions • Better understanding of needs • Less guessing about intended meaning • Less risk for misinterpretation of behaviors

8. Self-Concept • Who the communicators think they are • Sum of perceptions of self: • Personal descriptors • Social roles • Group membership • Culture • Possessions • Values, attitudes, and beliefs are learned responses from past experiences that shape self-concept

9. How Self-Concept Develops • Reflected appraisals • Supportive messages = Confident and capable • Criticism = Less valuable or capable • Social comparisons • Compare knowledge, values, attitudes, and skills with others • Cultural and societal influence • Traditions of culture • Norms of community • Expectations of society • Self-appraisal • Evaluation of self-behaviors and beliefs

10. Characteristics of Self-Concept • Resistance to change • Cling to positive or negative concepts of self • Disorientation in sense of self occurs when redefined by others in a new way • Self-fulfilling prophecy • Self-concept influences future behavior • Pygmalion effect • Beliefs and expectations of another cause an individual to change behavior • Self-imposed prophecy • Individual creates prediction of an outcome and then changes behavior to make that prediction come true

11. Perceiving Ourselves Accurately:Developing Self-Awareness • Looking Through Johari Window • Open Self • Behaviors, thoughts, feelings, attitudes, motivations, and aspirations known by you and others • Blind Self • Things people know about you but you do not know about yourself • Note: Get to know your blind self by eliciting feedback from others to develop self-awareness • Hidden Self • All that you know about yourself but keep hidden from others • Unknown Self • Truths about yourself that neither your nor others know

12. The Johari Window

13. Self-Disclosure Increasing Self-Awareness • self-disclosure within interpersonal relationships • Seek out information about yourself from others • Share personal information about yourself with another • Others learn who you are at a deeper, more personal level • Others share their observations, insights, and perspectives of you • Self-clarification: Clarify beliefs, opinions, thoughts, and attitudes • Self-validation: Elicit confirmation about self-beliefs • When you self-disclose, the other will disclose • Norm of reciprocity • Improves/maintains social interpersonal relationships

14. Guidelines for Disclosure in Nurse-Patient Relationships A Patient-Safe Communication Strategy • Nurses disclose to put the patient at ease • Encourage honesty and openness of the patient • Nurses do not disclose personal problems • Accurate patient information results in correct clinical decision making

17. Self-Esteem • The value or worth you place on yourself • Reflects the level of self-respect and the respect of significant others • Manifests in communications • Low self-esteem • Communication is indirect, vague, and dishonest • Responds to others fearfully • Results in loneliness and isolation • High self-esteem • Responds to others receptively with sensitivity • Is not afraid to fail and can learn from mistakes • Prerequisite for high-level communication competency

18. Developing Positive Self-Esteem • In yourself • Self-affirmations • Positive self-statements • Tune out negative criticisms • In your patients • Define clear and realistic goals • Give positive feedback