Mc109/Comm100: Introduction to Communication

MC109/COMM100: INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNICATION 1 SULAY JALLOH

PERCEPTION DEFINITION: Perception is the process by which you become aware of the many stimuli infringing on your senses.

THE PERCEPTION PROCESS THREE STAGES IN THE PERCEPTION PROCESS (Figure 3.1)

These stages are not disunited and separate; in reality they’re continuous and blend into and overlap one another.

1) SENSORY STIMULATION OCCURS At this stage the sense organs are stimulated. You hear a recording. You see someone… and you taste… However, Even when you have the sensory ability to perceive stimuli, you don’t always do so. E.g. Daydreaming in class…

2) SENSORY STIMULATION IS ORGANIZED At the second stage, the sensory stimulations are organized according to three principles. a) Proximity: People or messages that are physically close to one another are perceived together, or as a unit. E.g: Couples b) Closure is when you perceive as closed, or complete, a figure or message that is in reality unclosed or incomplete. E.g: You see a broken circle as a circle even though part of it is missing. c) Contrast is when you note that some items don’t belong together; they’re too different from each other to be part of the same perceptual organization. E.g: In a conversation listeners will focus their attention on changes in intensity since these contrast with the rest of the message.

MC109/COMM100: INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNICATION 2 SULAY JALLOH

3) SENSORY STIMULATION IS INTERPRETED-EVALUATED Like communication, perception is a transactional process and as a result is greatly influenced by your past experiences, needs, wants, value systems, beliefs about the way things are or should be, physical or emotional states at the time, expectations, and so on.

PROCESSES INFLUENCING PERCEPTION

Between stage 1 and 3, perception is influenced by a number of significant psychological processes. There are seven major processes that influence your perception of others:

1. IMPLICIT PERSONALITY THEORY (HALO EFFECT)

This theory hold that If you believe an individual has a number of positive qualities, you make the inference that she or he also has other positive qualities and vise versa (Reverse halo effect)

Potential Barriers with Implicit Personality Theories

Two serious barriers: 1. Implicit personality theory can lead you to perceive qualities in an individual that your "theory" tells you should be present when they actually are not. E.g: you may see "goodwill" in the "charitable" acts of a friend when a tax deduction may be the real motive.

2. Implicit personality theories can also lead you to ignore or distort qualities or characteristics that don’t conform to your theory. E.g: You may ignore (simply not see) negative qualities in your friends that you would easily see in your enemies. MC109/COMM100: INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNICATION 3 SULAY JALLOH

2. THE SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY

The self-fulfilling Prophecy 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 were true.

Four basic steps in the self-fulfilling prophecy: 1. You make a prediction or formulate a belief about a person or a situation.

2. You act toward that person or situation as if that prediction or belief were true..

3. Because you act as if the belief were true, it becomes true.

4. You observe your effect on the person or the resulting situation, and what you see strengthens your beliefs.

Potential Barriers with the self-fulfilling Prophecy Two potential barriers:

1. Your tendency to fulfill your own prophecies can lead you to influence another’s behavior so it confirms your prophecy.

2. The self-fulfilling prophecy also distorts your perception by influencing you to see what you predicted rather than what is really there.

3. PERCEPTUAL ACCENTUATION

Perceptual Accentuation leads you to see what you expect to see and what you want to see. E.g: You probably see people you like as being better looking and smarter than people you don’t like. MC109/COMM100: INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNICATION 4 SULAY JALLOH

Potential Barriers with Perceptual Accentuation: Four potential barriers:

1. Your tendency to perceive what you want or need can lead you to distort your perceptions of reality.

2. Accentuation can influence you to filter out or distort information that might damage or threaten your self image (for example, criticism of your writing or speaking) and thus make self-improvement extremely difficult.

3. Projection (defense mechanism): Accentuation can lead you to perceive in others the negative characteristics or qualities you have.

4. The Pollyanna effect : Accentuation can influence you to perceive and remember positive qualities better than negative ones, and thus distort perceptions of others.

4. PRIMACY-RECENCY

Primacy- is the use of early information to provide yourself with a general idea of what a person is like.

Recency is the use of later information to be more specific with the general idea

Potential Barriers with Primacy-Recency Two major barriers:

1. The tendency to give greater weight to early information and to interpret later information in light of these early impressions.

2. Primacy may lead you to discount or distort later perceptions to avoid disrupting your initial impressions. MC109/COMM100: INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNICATION 5 SULAY JALLOH

5. CONSISTENCY

Consistency represents people’s need to maintain balance among their attitudes. You expect certain things to go together and other things not to go together.

Potential Barriers with Consistency

Three major barriers: 1. The tendency to see consistency in an individual can lead you to ignore or distort your perceptions of behaviors that are inconsistent with your picture of the whole person.

2. Your desire for consistency may lead you to perceive specific behaviors as emanating from positive qualities in the people you like and from negative qualities in the people you dislike.

6. STEREOTYPING

Stereotype is a fixed impression of a group of people such as: religious groups, racial groups, criminals, prostitutes, teachers, or plumbers.

Although we often think of stereotypes as negative. E.g: They’re lazy, dirty, and only interested in getting high. Stereotypes may also be positive. E.g: They’re smart, hardworking, and extremely loyal".

Whether negative or positive, stereotypes distort your ability to perceive other people accurately. They prevent you from seeing an individual as an individual rather than as a member of a group. MC109/COMM100: INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNICATION 6 SULAY JALLOH

Potential Barriers with Stereotyping

Stereotyping can lead to two major barriers: 1. The tendency to group people into classes and to respond to individuals primarily as members of that class.

2. Stereotyping can also lead you to ignore the unique characteristics of an individual and therefore fail to benefit from the special contributions each can bring to an encounter.

7. ATTRIBUTION Attribution is a process through which you try to discover why people do what they do and even why you do what you do. I.e.: your task is to determine whether the cause of the behavior is internal (Personality/ Responsible) or external (Circumstances/ not responsible).

Principle used in making causal judgments, or attributions: a) Consensus Does this person act in accordance with the general consensus? If the answer is no, you’re more likely to attribute the behavior to some internal cause. b) Consistency Does this person repeatedly behave the same way in similar situations? If the answer is yes, there’s high consistency, and you’re likely to attribute the behavior to internal motivation. c) Distinctiveness Does this person acts in similar ways in different situations. If the answer is yes, you’re likely to conclude the behavior has an internal cause. MC109/COMM100: INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNICATION 7 SULAY JALLOH d) Controllability Controllability refers to the degree to which you think a person was in control of his or her behavior.

Note: Low consensus, high consistency, low distinctiveness, and high controllability lead to an attribution of internal causes. As a result you praise or blame the person for his or her behaviors. High consensus, low consistency, high distinctiveness, and low controllability lead to an attribution of external causes. As a result you might consider this person lucky or unlucky.

Potential Barriers with Attribution

Four Potential Barriers:

1. The self serving Bias: Bias is when you evaluate your own behaviors by taking credit for the positive and denying responsibility for the negative.

2. The fundamental Attribution Error: The tendency to conclude that people do what they do because that’s the kind of people they are, not because of the situation they are in.

3. Overattribution. is the attributing that everything a person does is because of one or two obvious characteristics.

MAKING PERCEPTIONS MORE ACCURATE 1) BECOME AWARE OF YOUR PERCEPTIONS 2) CHECK YOUR PERCEPTIONS 3) REDUCE UNCERTAINTY 4) BE CULTURALLY SENSITIVE