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4: Perception

  • Page ID
    297894
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    Take a moment do a quick inventory of your senses: What do you see? Smell? Hear? Feel? Every second of every minute of every hour of every day, we are exposed to stimuli. Yet, what we choose to attend to and how we interpret it varies greatly from person to person. In this chapter, we will learn about the perception process and how we interpret a wide range of stimuli, from objects to people to behaviors. We will also address cultural and personality differences, and we will discuss how to improve communication competence.

    Learning Objectives
    • How does the perception process work?
    • How and why can we improve the role of perception in interpersonal communication?

    Successful students will be able to:

    • explain three parts of the perception process
    • describe how we form impressions of people and make attributions for behaviors
    • recognize ways that culture and personality may affect perception
    • demonstrate the skill of perception checking
    • explain the roles of context and reflection in improving perception

    • 4.1: Perception Process—Parts 1 and 2 (Selection and Organization)
      The Perception Process involves three parts. In this section, we will discuss the first two parts of the perception process: selection and organization. Selection is how we determine what to pay attention to, while organization refers to how we categorize or sort information.
    • 4.2: Perception Process - Part 3 (Interpretation)
      The final stage of the perception process is interpretation. This refers to how we assign meaning to the stimuli we encounter in our everyday interactions.
    • 4.3: Influences on Perception
      There are many factors that influence how we perceive others. Our own health and physiology, the culture or cultures we are raised within, the social/professional roles we take on, our cognitions, and the physical and environmental surroundings are just some of the circumstances that affect how we see, hear, feel, and react to other people. This section will focus on these influences on perception.
    • 4.4: Stereotyping, Microaggressions, and Bias
      As humans, we often make assumptions about other people, based on surface physical characteristics. Stereotyping provides a shortcut to reducing uncertainty about others, but many times comes with the cost of inaccuracy. We will discuss stereotyping, as well as the role of bias in our perceptions. As effective communicators, we want to avoid microaggressions and treat each individual with respect.
    • 4.5: Perception Checking

    Contributors and Attributions

    • Sections: 3.0, 3.4.2, 3.4.3: Interpersonal Communication Abridged Textbook (I.C.A.T.); Central New Mexico Community College; 2019; CC BY NC SA 4.0
    • Sections: 3.1.1 – 3.1.3, 3.2.1- 3.3.2, 3.4.1: adapted from Communication in the Real World: An Introduction to Communication Studies; University of Minnesota; 2016; CC BY NC SA 4.0

    This page titled 4: Perception is shared under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Pamela J. Gerber & Heidi Murphy (https://www.cnm.edu/) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.