Perception: What You See is What You Get

1. Perception: What You See is What You Get • Chapter Summary • The Perception Process • Influences on Perception • Common Tendencies in Perception • Perception Checking • Empathy and Communication • The Pillow Method 1

2. The Perception Process • The Four Steps • Selection • Organization • Interpretation • Negotiation 2

3. The Perception Process • Selection • What attracts your attention? • Stimuli that are intense attract us • You are more likely to remember items that stand out • Tall or short people. • Items that excite your senses. • Unchanging people or things become less noticeable over time • If you’re running late, you’ll notice all the clocks around you 3

4. The Perception Process • Organization After selecting information from the environment we must organize it in some meaningful way • What do you see? • In this example there are only two ways to organize the impression • In reality there are many more FIGURE 3.1 Page 85 4

5. The Perception Process • Organization After selecting information from the environment we must organize it in some meaningful way • In contrast to figure 3.1 how many impressions do you see here? FIGURE 3.3 Page 86 5

6. The Perception Process • Organization • We classify people in the same way we did the examples • Appearance • Male or Female, Beautiful or Ugly • Social Roles • Student, Teacher, Attorney • Interaction Style • Friendly, Helpful, Mean 6

7. The Perception Process • Organization • Psychological Traits • Curious, Nervous, Insecure • Membership • Republican, American, Democrat • How you’ve classified someone will change the way you react to them in the future 7

8. The Perception Process • Organization • Stereotyping • After we’ve chosen an organizing scheme to classify people we use that scheme to classify similar groups • Exaggerated generalizations lead to stereotyping • After a stereotype is created we seek out isolated behavior to support these inaccurate beliefs • Decategorize those you stereotype 8

9. The Perception Process • Organization • Punctuation • How arguments are punctuated can lead to a variety of problems FIGURE 3.4 Page 90 9

10. The Perception Process • Interpretation • Interpretation plays a role in every interpersonal act • Degree of involvement with the other person • We treat people differently when perusing a relationship • Past experience • Have you been in the situation before • Assumptions about human behavior 10

11. The Perception Process • Interpretation • Interpretation plays a role in every interpersonal act • Attitudes • The attitudes we hold shape the way we view others • Expectations • Anticipation shapes interpretation • Knowledge • Knowledge of a situation will change your interpretation of it 11

12. The Perception Process • Interpretation • Self-Concept • How you view yourself will alter your interpretation • When you’re feeling down the work looks much worse • Relational Satisfaction • Positive behavior may be viewed as negative depending on your current satisfaction in a relationship • It is possible for each section of the perception process to occur out of order 12

13. The Perception Process • Negotiation • Our personal worlds are described as narratives • Ask two children what they’re fighting about • Chances are you’ll get different narratives • When narratives coincide they are said to be shared • These narratives do not have to be true to be powerful • In some cases couples have a happy relationship simply because they share the narrative that they’ve always had one • Negotiating each narrative can be tricky 13

14. Influences on Perception • ABC News Video Click on box to play video 14

15. Influences on Perception • Physiological Influences • The Senses • How each of our senses changes the way we interact and shapes our perceptions • How many times have you heard someone complain about the temperature and you thought it was just fine 15

16. Influences on Perception • Physiological Influences • Age • Experience changes the way one perceives the world • Biological factors also shape perception • Health • When you’re feeling sick your perception of the world changes • Fatigue • Just as being ill can have harmful affects on your relationship so can being sleepy 16

17. Influences on Perception • Physiological Influences • Hunger • People often get grumpy when they’re hungry • Several biological changes occur in the body • Biological Cycles • Your body changes constantly throughout your daily cycle • Change influences your perception positively and negatively • Psychological Challenges • Mental illness and disorder can dramatically change the way one interacts with and perceives the world 17

18. Influences on Perception • Cultural Differences • Cultures value different principles of communication • Collectivist v. Individualist Culture • Ethnocentrism • The attitude that one’s own culture is superior to others • Cultural differences can occur with in a single country • North vs. South • East vs. West 18

19. Influences on Perception • Social Roles • Gender Roles • Socially instructed ways men and women should act • Violations to these rules is seen as unusual and undesirable • Occupational Roles • Depends on level of experience • Can change instantly when new people are added to the group • Philip Zimbardo conducted the an experiment that popularized the theory of occupational roles • Prisoners and Guards (pg. 101-102) 19

20. Common Tendencies in Perception • How We Judge Ourselves • We judge ourselves more charitably than others • Even when situation are similar our tendency is to fault the other person rather than admit we also made the same mistake • He wasn’t listening • He flies off the handle • What did you expect from someone who curses • Egocentric tendencies cause us to rate ourselves more favorable than others 20

21. Common Tendencies in Perception • Others’ Negative Characteristics • We pay attention to others’ negative characteristics • To avoid bombarding our self-concept with doubt we tend to focus more harshly on the short comings of others • We are influenced by the obvious • Because we select stimuli that is most noticeable it is not surprising that obvious events tend to have the most impact • We assume that others are similar to us • Be careful when telling jokes and using slang 21

22. Common Tendencies in Perception • Perception Checking • Elements of Perceptions Checking • A description of the behavior you notices • At least two possible interpretations of the behavior • A request for clarification about how to interpret the behavior • Perception Checking Considerations • Completeness • Nonverbal Congruency • Cultural Rules • Face Saving • Can be a way to raise an issue without directly threatening 22

23. Common Tendencies in Perception • Empathy and Communication • Empathy • The ability to re-create another persons perspective or to experience the world from their point of view • Perspective Taking • The attempt to take on the viewpoint of another • Requires a suspension of judgment • Sympathy • You view the other person’s position from your point of view 23

24. Common Tendencies in Perception • The Pillow Method • The Pillow Method is a tool for building empathy • The Pillow Method consists of four sides or positions FIGURE 3.5 The Pillow Method Page 113 24

25. Perception: What You See is What You Get • Chapter Summary • The Perception Process • Influences on Perception • Common Tendencies in Perception • Perception Checking • Empathy and Communication • The Pillow Method 25