PERCEPTION

Perception is the process by which you become aware of the many stimuli impinging on your senses. It influences the way you see people, the evaluations you make of them and of their behaviours. Perception is complex. What occurs out there might differ greatly from what reaches your mind. Examining how and why these messages differ is crucial in understanding communication.

Perception Process
 

Perception process explains how perception works It shows how you first see an object / a person and how you formulate your perception towards the object / person 3 steps / stages involved in the process:
1. Sensory Stimulation Occurs 2. Sensory Stimulation Is Organized 3. Sensory Stimulation is Interpreted-Evaluated

These steps are continuous and overlap one another. The focus is also narrower from step 1 to 3.

PERCEPTION PROCESS

Sensory Stimulation Occurs

Sensory Stimulation is Organized

Sensory Stimulation is InterpretedEvaluated

Step1 Sensory Stimulation Occurs

  

At this stage, your organ senses are stimulated Eg. of senses - eyes, ears, nose, taste, etc. Eg.:
You see someone, You smell food / perfume You taste food You listen to music You touch a durian

Step 2 Sensory Stimulation is Organized



At this stage, the sensory stimulations are organized according to various principles for eg.
Proximity Similarity Contrast

How you organize your sensory stimulation into a pattern that is meaningful to you (based on your experience / background, etc.). This pattern is not necessarily true or logical.

Step 3 Sensory Stimulation is Interpreted-Evaluated

How you interpret is based on how you evaluate somebody / something  It is a subjective process involving your judgments towards the person / object  People who are exposed to the same message might interpret-evaluate differently  This is influenced by your past experience, needs, wants, value systems, beliefs about the way things are or should be, physical or emotional states at the time, expectations, etc.


7 Major Processes that Influence Perception

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 

Implicit Personality Theory Self-fulfilling Prophecy Perceptual Accentuation Primacy-Recency Consistency Stereotyping Attribution These processes contain potential barriers to accurate perception that can distort your perceptions and your interpersonal interactions

1. Implicit Personality Theory

IPT is an implicit system of rules that says which characteristics of an individual go with other characteristics  Eg. of IPT principles are Halo Effect and Reverse Halo Effect


if you believe an individual has a number of positive (or negative) qualities, you make the inference that she or he also has other positive (or negative) qualities.

Eg. your perceptions towards religious leaders, criminals, etc.  Potential Barrier:


IPT could lead you to ignore or distort qualities / characteristics that dont conform to your theory. Eg. You may ignore negative qualities in your friends that you would easily see in your enemies.

2. Self-fulfilling Prophecy


SfP occurs when you make a prediction or formulate a belief that comes true because you made the prediction and acted on it as if it was true 4 basic steps in the self-fulfilling prophecy:
You make a prediction or formulate a belief about a person / situation. ii. You act toward the person or situation as if that prediction or belief were true. iii. Because you act as if the belief were true, it becomes true. iv. You observe your effect on the person or the resulting situation, what you see strengthens your beliefs. i.

Potential Barriers: i. Your tendency to fulfill your own prophecies can lead you to influence anothers behavior so it confirms your prophecy. ii. It distorts your perception by influencing you to see what you predicted rather than what is really there.

3. Perceptual Accentuation
It is a process in which it leads us to see what we expect to see and what we want to see.  Eg. We probably see people that we like as smarter and better looking than people that we dont like.  Potential Barriers: i. It can distort your perceptions of reality (you see what you need / want to see, not what is really there) ii. It can influence you to perceive and remember positive qualities better than negative ones thus distort perceptions of others. iii. It can lead you to perceive in others the negative characteristics or qualities you have (a defense mechanism)


4. Primacy-Recency
   

Primacy effect : what comes first exerts the most influence Recency effect: what comes last exerts the most influence Your perception is influenced by the things you first seen / read / experienced etc. Eg. The first impression you made in an interview is more likely to influence the interviewers perceptions towards you. Potential Barriers:
It could lead you to form a total picture of an individual on the basis on initial impressions that may not be accurate. Primacy may lead you to discount or distort later perceptions to avoid disrupting your initial impressions.

5. Consistency
Consistency represents peoples need to maintain balance among their attitude  You expect certain things to go together and other things not to go together  Eg. You expect your friends to like (not dislike) you You expect your friends to dislike (not like) your enemies  Your expectations depend on what would satisfy you most


Potential Barriers: It can lead you to ignore or distort your perceptions of behaviours that are inconsistent with your picture of the whole person It can lead you to perceive specific behaviors as coming from positive qualities in the people you like and from negative qualities in the people you dislike. You may fail to see the positive qualities in the people you dislike and the negative qualities in the people you like.

6. Stereotyping
   

Stereotype is a fixed impression of a group of people Eg. Stereotype against religious groups, racial groups, job categories (eg. Doctors), etc. Stereotype could be negative or positive Stereotype could be helpful at the beginning it provides you with some helpful orientation about that person But it could create problems at a later stage when you apply to that person all the characteristics you assign to members of that group without examining this unique individual

Potential Barriers: It can lead you to perceive someone as having those qualities (usually negative) that you believe characterize the group he / she belongs. It can lead you to ignore the unique characteristics of an individual.

7. Attribution

A process through which you try to discover why people do what they do  Asking if the person acts in such a way because of his personality (internal) or because of the situation (external)  If the behaviour is internal you might hold the person responsible for his or her behaviour  If the behaviour is external, you might not hold the person responsible for his / her behaviour


4 principles you use in making attribution:

i. Consensus
      asking whether other people behave the same way as the person in the same situation If yes high consensus. If not low consensus. Asking whether a person repeatedly behaves the same way in similar situations If yes high consistency. If no low consistency asking whether the person acts in similar ways in different situations If yes low distinctiveness. If no high distinctiveness Asking whether you think the person was in control of his / her behaviour. If yes High controllability. If no Low controllability

ii. Consistency

iii. Distinctiveness

iv. Controllability

       

Low Consensus High Consistency Low Distinctiveness High Controllability High Consensus Low Consistency High Distinctiveness Low Controllability

Attribution of Internal Causes

Attribution of External Causes

Potential Barriers: i. Self-serving bias

  You attribute your negative behaviours to uncontrollable (external) factors You attribute your positive behaviours to controllable (internal) factors the tendency to conclude that people do what they do because thats the kind of people they are, not because of the situation they are in. overvalue the contribution of internal factors and undervalue the influence of external factors Attributing everything a person does to one or two obvious characteristics

ii. Fundamental Attribution Error

 

iii. Overattribution


How to make an accurate perception?

i. Become aware of your perceptions
    recognize your own role in perception avoid early conclusions and beware of your own biases ask the other person for confirmation. give the other person a chance to elaborate on his or her thoughts and feelings Observe that person while he / she is engaged in an active task (eg. Interacting informally with other people) Collect information about that person through asking others Interact with the individual do not assume that all cultures are the same like yours do not assume all members of a culture behave / think similar

ii. Check your perceptions

iii. Reduce Uncertainty

    

iv. Be Culturally Sensitive