Perception and Communication

1. Perception and Communication

2. Self, perception and communication

3. A Little Revision: Self-sabotage or self-fulfillment • “You are what you think”; thoughts are the seeds of actions. • The true sabotage lies within communication with oneself, in thoughts and in words • Intra personal communication is the communication is the communication you have with yourself about yourself and others. (Perkins, page 2-3)

4. Perception of ourselves • The question “Who am I?” is complex. • How others treat us affect how we view ourselves. • Who we perceive ourselves to be is determined by our experiences and communication with others. • Communication with oneself is the basis of all other communication experiences.

5. Perception and ourselves • Our self concept or self identity is our perceived self, which consists of an organised collection of beliefs and attitudes about the self. • This include the roles and values we have selected for ourselves, and how we believe others see us.

6. Understanding self concept • Self concept consists of 2 subcomponents, closely related: • Self image The mental picture of self 2. Self-esteem Our feelings and attitudes towards ourselves including our evaluation of ourselves

7. Self-concept as a process • Communication is a dynamic process and so is our self-concept. • Self perception and the perception of others have of us differ from time to time, from situation to situation and from person to person

8. Self-concept and communication • The perception we believe others have on us affect our communication. • Our view of ourselves influences how we communicate with others. • Communication and self concept are inseparable and both involve process.

9. Perception

10. Sensation and perception • How do our brain register “what is out there”? • What other senses do we use to register the amazing world? • How do we see, smell, hear, feel and taste? • Are there other “extra-sensory” preceptors? • How are we aware of our bodies? • How are we aware of other people? • Are we aware of everything around us?

11. Sensation • Psychologists define sensation as the registration of properties of an object or event that occurs when a type of receptor ( as the retina and the skin) is stimulated (Kosslynn and Rosenberg, 2006) • Sensation arise when enough physical energy strikes the sense organ, so that the receptor cells send neural impulses to the brain. • In other words, sensation is the process that yields our immediate experience of the stimuli in our environment (Gerow, 1997)

13. Other senses • Vestibular sense: tells us about balance, about where we are in relation to gravity and about acceleration/ deceleration. • Kinesthetic sense: tells us the about the movement or position of our muscles and joints. • Pain: a special sense • Subliminal perception • Extra-sensory perception

14. Sensation and Perception • If all of us receive the same stimuli from our senses, are our perception the same too?

15. Perception • Perception occurs when you organized and interpreted the sensory input as signaling a particular object or event . • Perception relies on two phases of processing: • Organization into coherent unit • Identifying what and where

16. Perception • Perception is the process of selectively attending to information and assigning meaning to it. (Verderber and Verderber, 2005) • The process of selecting, organizing and interpreting sensory information ( Huffman, 2007) • The brain select the information it receives from our sense organs, organizes the information selected, interprets and evaluates it . (Verderber and Verderber, 2005)

17. Perception • Perception involves selecting, organizing and interpreting information in order to give personal meaning to the communication we receive ( Seiler and Beall, 2008; page 30) • What we perceive about ourselves, objects and others give meanings to our experiences. • It is these meanings, based on our perceptions that we communicate to others.

18. Perception • Perception may sounds simple but it is actually a very complex process. • If not understood, will lead to miscommunications. • The process of perception starts with awareness and then followed by perception formation.

19. Perception: Awareness • Being aware of what is going on, and taking in the sights, sounds, smells etc., can only occur when we are paying attention to them • Do you think that if we are in the same room, we are aware of the same things?

20. Perception: Perception Formation • The way our mind filters and sorts information has a deep effect on how we perceive others, how we talk to them and how they respond to us. • Each of us organise and interprets the world differently. • Psychologists use the term cognitive complexity to explain how our minds process and store information. • Children has simple processing information system whereas adults have complex processing systems.

21. The Nature of Perception • Lack of information on how perception works leads to miscommunications; including misjudgments of other people’s behaviours and ideas.

22. The Nature of Perception • Does our brains absorb information like the camera?

23. The Nature of Perception: Selection • There is too much information- so the brain selects. • We are exposed to millions of bits of information, at one time, but the mind can process only a small fraction.

26. How do we select? • On the conscious and subconscious level, the brain selects information based on needs, interests and expectations.

27. Needs, Interests and Expectations • We are likely to pay attention to information that meets our needs – of all types. • We pay attention to things or people which/ who are of our interest. • We are likely to see what we are expected to see and to miss information which violates our expectations.

28. How do we select? • We choose to experience or not experience certain things is called selective exposure. • Focusing on specific stimuli while ignoring or paying less attention to other stimuli is called selective attention. • Selecting to remember certain stimuli but no others is called selective retention. • Selection is the sorting of stimuli from another.

29. The nature of perception: Organization • Imagine when you walk into a room filled with people. • Organization is categorizing of stimuli from the environment in order to make sense of it.

30. The role of experience

31. How do we organize information? • Closure: filling in missing information so as to form a complete picture • Proximity : Grouping of two or more stimuli that are close to one another, based on assumption that because the objects or people appear together, they are basically the same. • Similarity ( or pattern) : the grouping of stimuli that resemble one another in size, shape, colour or other traits • Simplicity

32. The Nature of Perception : Interpretation • Interpretation is the process of assigning meaning to the stimuli.

33. How do we interpret? • Past experience

34. How do we interpret? • New information • Based on other people’s opinions

35. Improving perception • Recognise the uniqueness of each person frame of reference and therefore always question the accuracy of our perception. • Be an active perceiver: Seek more information • Realize that perception change over time • Distinguish facts from inferences. • Aware of the role of perceptions play in communication. • Keep an open mind • Perception checking

36. Conclusion • Perception is the process of selecting, organizing and interpreting information in order to give meaning( or make sense of the situation). • Perception is being influenced by many factors such as experience, culture, gender, context, etc • To improve communication we must remember that perception is seldom the same for everyone; our perception is one of the many possibilities. • Make efforts to improve our perception.

37. References: • Seiler, W. J and Beall, M. L ( 2008). Communication. Making Connections ( 7thed). Boston: Pearson • Perkins,P. S ( 2008). The Art and Science of Communication. Tools for Effective Communication in the Work Place. New Jersey: Wiley. • Hybels, S., and Weaver II, R. L ( 2004). Communcating Effectively ( 7thed). Boston: Mc Graw Hill • Verderber, R. F. and Verderber, K.S (2005) Communicate( 11thed). CA: Thomson/Wadsworth

38. References • Aamodt, M.G (2007). Industrial /organizational psychology. An applied approach. Belmont, CA: Thomson • Kosslynn & Rosenberg ( 2006). Psychology in Context (3rded). Boston, MA: Pearson International edition. • Gerow, G. R ( 1997). Psychology. An Introduction (5thed). New York: Addison-Wesley Publishers Inc.