Perception in Interpersonal Communication Unit: 6

 Perception is the process of becoming aware of objects and events through the senses

I. Stages of Perception The way we Sense Organize Interpret- Evaluate information

A.Stimulation 1.take in stimuli through the 5 senses 2. we are selective in the stimuli we choose to perceive

a.selective attention = attend to things that you anticipate will fulfill your needs b.selective exposure = expose yourself to things that will confirm your beliefs

B.Organization 1.proximity = things that are close together in physical distance are seen as one unit Separate but together

2.Schemata = organize material by creating mental templates or structures 3.Scripts = type of schema

C.Interpret-Evaluate 1.we assign meaning to stimuli as soon as we perceive it. 2.we evaluate stimulus as either pos. or neg. as soon as we perceive it.

D.Memory = stored perceptions and their interpretations- evaluations for later recall

E.Recall = is reconstructive not reproductive

II.Perceptual Process A.Implicit Personality Theory = your own unscientific theory based on certain characteristics belonging with others

B.Self-Fulfilling Prophecy = strongly influence situations based on how we view and label things (There are 4 Steps)

1.make a prediction 2.act as if the prediction is true 3.because you act as if true, it becomes true 4.prediction is confirmed The 4 Steps are:

C.Perceptual Accentuation = process that leads you to see what you expect to see and what you want to see

D. Primacy-Recency 1.Primacy-Effect = what comes first is the most influential 2.Recency- Effect = what comes last is the most influential

E.Consistency = tendency to maintain balance among perceptions or attitudes

F. Stereotyping = is a fixed impression of a group of people

III.Attribution Theory = process of attributing motivation to a person’s behavior A.Two Types of Motivation

2.external control = outside of the person 1.internal control = inside the person

B.Attribution Errors 1.self-serving bias = only take responsibility for the positive behaviors

2.over-attribution = single out a couple of obvious characteristics and attribute everything that person does to them

3.fundamental attribution error = over value internal factors and under value external factors of others