Perception, Self And Comm Flashcards
Perception..
- subjective, active and creative.
- differences in perc may be due to identity factors, past experiences, roles, present feelings and circumstances.
Active perc - own selection, organisation and interpretation of own sense.
Subjective perc - own constructed meaning.
Identity factors…
- personal characteristics, ie: age, attractiveness affects how you see yourself and how others treat you.
- biological sex, gender identity etc - lead to perc differences.
- gender identity - how you express and feel about your gender.
Temporary conditions…
- headaches etc, challenges perc.
- psycho needs ie: hunger, thirst also affects perc skills.
Perceptual constancy …
- the idea that your past influences how you view the world.
- past influences a person’s current perc.
- one might avoid certain situations due to bad experiences from the past.
Roles…
- affect comm
- roles tend to change depending on the context, ie: in a class a student would be expected to act like a student.
The perceptual process…
There are 3 separate activities that happen during perc:
- selection, organisation, interpretation.
Selection…
- you select and focus on selected stimuli whilst neglecting other stimuli.
- you also select messages you attend to, ie: losing focus during a lecture to read a text.
4 types of selectivity:
Selective exposure - exposing yourself to info that reinforces own beliefs.
Selective attention - focusing on just certain cues whilst ignoring others.
Selective perc - seeing, hearing, believing only what one wants.
Selective retention - remembering things that reinforce your beliefs, ignoring other things that don’t.
Organisation …
- grouping of stimuli into meaningful units or wholes.
- stimuli is organised through figure and ground, closure, proximity and similarity.
Figure and ground
- figure: focusing on some parts, focal point of attention.
- ground: distancing yourself from other parts, background against focal point of attention.
Closure
- filling in missing info to complete an incomplete figure or statement.
- mental closures: filling in the meaning of what you hear and observe.
Proximity
- concept that objects physically close to each other are a unit or group, making them related.
- works verbally and non-verbally.
Similarity
- elements grouped together because they resemble each other ie: size, colour, shape.
- human groups are organised through race, religion etc.
Mindfulness & self-fulfilling prophecy …
- focused, attentive, absorbed and taking into consideration as much as you can.
- making conjectures about yourself or others. We look for info that validate our assumptions.
The intergroup perspective…
In-group…
Out-group…
- theory that emphasises ways in which people in a social interaction identify themselves or others.
- in-group - a group someone belongs to that gives them pride, self-esteem and sense of self-belonging. They engage in activities that promote a positive image for the in-group.
- out-group - a group marginalised by the dominant culture.
Perc are egocentric…
- we choose people we believe are similar to us.
Interpretive perc…
- perc involving a blend of internal states and external stimuli.
- the more ambiguous the stimuli, the greater the interpretation.
Stereotyping…
- the generalisation of a group based on judgment.
- age, sex, religion, gender, race etc.
- through selective attention (what we want to see) and selective retention (going through our past for memories) we insist that our stereotypes are correct.
- Hughes & Baldwin - neg stereotypes create diff comm patterns when white and blacks interact.
Prejudices…
- led on by stereotypes.
- negative attitude on an individual just because they come from a stereotyped group.
First impressions…
Perc checking…
- basing an opinion about people upon meeting them. Powerful, quick and sometimes inaccurate.
- forms in 3 secs
- non-verbal cues are powerful. Clothing, height, weight, physical attractiveness etc are all noticed.
- initial judgments are on attractiveness and trustworthiness.
- perc checking - describing, interpreting and verifying helps us understand people more accurately.
Personal identity…
- perc of what makes an individual unique.
- influences your perc of others
Symbolic interactionism…
Impressions management…
- dev of self through messages and feedback received by others, shaping the person in the current moment.
- sharing personal details to present an idealised self.
Mead (1934) - ‘I’ & ‘Me’
Self-talk…
- I: compulsive part of self
- Me: social norms and expectations that exist in a community.
- self talk - convo between self, thoughts of the past, what we could have done differently, future plans etc.
21st century self…
- the modern self: a western thought and views the self as stable over time.
- postmodern self: views self as unstable
- multiple self: having more than one self.
Self presentation…
- Erving Goffmann described the process of self-pres, with people seen as actors and the interaction seen as the performance.
- self disclosure - what a person choose to disclose, includes new info, the more we disclose the more we are trusted, leads to mutual understanding.
The Johari window…
- Luft and Ingham (1955)
- technique helping ppl understand relationships better, achieve understanding, enhances comm.
- used in self-help groups.
- feedback/disclosure model of self-awareness.
The Johari window (cont)…
- open/self area or arena - info about a person known by person and others.
- blind self or blind spot - info about a person only others know of, person is unaware.
- hidden area or facade - info known to the person but unknown to others.
- unknown area - info unknown both to the person and also to others.
