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2 Self, perception and communication

A Little Revision: Self-sabotage or self-fulfillment ■ “You are what you think”; thoughts are the seeds of actions. ■ The true sabotage lies within communication with oneself, in thoughts and in words ■ Intra personal communication is the communication is the communication you have with yourself about yourself and others. (Perkins, page 2-3) 3

Perception of ourselves ■ The question “Who am I?” is complex. ■ How others treat us affect how we view ourselves. ■ Who we perceive ourselves to be is determined by our experiences and communication with others. ■ Communication with oneself is the basis of all other communication experiences. 4

Perception and ourselves ■ Our self concept or self identity is our perceived self, which consists of an organised collection of beliefs and attitudes about the self. ■ This include the roles and values we have selected for ourselves, and how we believe others see us. 5

Understanding self concept ■ Self concept consists of 2 subcomponents, closely related: 1.Self image The mental picture of self 2. Self-esteem Our feelings and attitudes towards ourselves including our evaluation of ourselves 6

Self-concept as a process ■ Communication is a dynamic process and so is our self-concept. ■ Self perception and the perception of others have of us differ from time to time, from situation to situation and from person to person 7

Self-concept and communication ■ The perception we believe others have on us affect our communication. ■ Our view of ourselves influences how we communicate with others. ■ Communication and self concept are inseparable and both involve process. 8

9 Perception

Sensation and perception ■ How do our brain register “what is out there”? ■ What other senses do we use to register the amazing world? ■ How do we see, smell, hear, feel and taste? ■ Are there other “extra-sensory” preceptors? ■ How are we aware of our bodies? ■ How are we aware of other people? ■ Are we aware of everything around us?

Sensation ■ Psychologists define sensation as the registration of properties of an object or event that occurs when a type of receptor ( as the retina and the skin) is stimulated (Kosslynn and Rosenberg, 2006) ■ Sensation arise when enough physical energy strikes the sense organ, so that the receptor cells send neural impulses to the brain. ■ In other words, sensation is the process that yields our immediate experience of the stimuli in our environment (Gerow, 1997)

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Other senses ■ Vestibular sense: tells us about balance, about where we are in relation to gravity and about acceleration/ deceleration. ■ Kinesthetic sense: tells us the about the movement or position of our muscles and joints. ■ Pain: a special sense ■ Subliminal perception ■ Extra-sensory perception

Sensation and Perception ■ If all of us receive the same stimuli from our senses, are our perception the same too? 14

Perception ■ Perception occurs when you organized and interpreted the sensory input as signaling a particular object or event. ■ Perception relies on two phases of processing: (1)Organization into coherent unit (2)Identifying what and where

Perception ■ Perception is the process of selectively attending to information and assigning meaning to it. (Verderber and Verderber, 2005) ■ The process of selecting, organizing and interpreting sensory information ( Huffman, 2007) ■ The brain select the information it receives from our sense organs, organizes the information selected, interprets and evaluates it. (Verderber and Verderber, 2005) 16

Perception ■ Perception involves selecting, organizing and interpreting information in order to give personal meaning to the communication we receive ( Seiler and Beall, 2008; page 30) ■ What we perceive about ourselves, objects and others give meanings to our experiences. ■ It is these meanings, based on our perceptions that we communicate to others. 17

Perception ■ Perception may sounds simple but it is actually a very complex process. ■ If not understood, will lead to miscommunications. ■ The process of perception starts with awareness and then followed by perception formation. 18

Perception: Awareness ■ Being aware of what is going on, and taking in the sights, sounds, smells etc., can only occur when we are paying attention to them ■ Do you think that if we are in the same room, we are aware of the same things? 19

Perception: Perception Formation ■ The way our mind filters and sorts information has a deep effect on how we perceive others, how we talk to them and how they respond to us. ■ Each of us organise and interprets the world differently. ■ Psychologists use the term cognitive complexity to explain how our minds process and store information. ■ Children has simple processing information system whereas adults have complex processing systems. 20

The Nature of Perception ■ Lack of information on how perception works leads to miscommunications; including misjudgments of other people’s behaviours and ideas. 21

The Nature of Perception ■ Does our brains absorb information like the camera? 22

The Nature of Perception: Selection ■ There is too much information- so the brain selects. ■ We are exposed to millions of bits of information, at one time, but the mind can process only a small fraction. 23

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How do we select? ■ On the conscious and subconscious level, the brain selects information based on needs, interests and expectations. 26

Needs, Interests and Expectations ■ We are likely to pay attention to information that meets our needs – of all types. ■ We pay attention to things or people which/ who are of our interest. ■ We are likely to see what we are expected to see and to miss information which violates our expectations. 27

How do we select? ■ We choose to experience or not experience certain things is called selective exposure. ■ Focusing on specific stimuli while ignoring or paying less attention to other stimuli is called selective attention. ■ Selecting to remember certain stimuli but no others is called selective retention. ■ Selection is the sorting of stimuli from another. 28

The nature of perception: Organization ■ Imagine when you walk into a room filled with people. ■ Organization is categorizing of stimuli from the environment in order to make sense of it. 29

The role of experience

How do we organize information? ■ Closure: filling in missing information so as to form a complete picture ■ Proximity : Grouping of two or more stimuli that are close to one another, based on assumption that because the objects or people appear together, they are basically the same. ■ Similarity ( or pattern) : the grouping of stimuli that resemble one another in size, shape, colour or other traits ■ Simplicity 31

The Nature of Perception : Interpretation ■ Interpretation is the process of assigning meaning to the stimuli. 32

How do we interpret? ■ Past experience 33

How do we interpret? ■ New information ■ Based on other people’s opinions 34

Improving perception ■ Recognise the uniqueness of each person frame of reference and therefore always question the accuracy of our perception. ■ Be an active perceiver: Seek more information ■ Realize that perception change over time ■ Distinguish facts from inferences. ■ Aware of the role of perceptions play in communication. ■ Keep an open mind ■ Perception checking 35

Conclusion ■ Perception is the process of selecting, organizing and interpreting information in order to give meaning( or make sense of the situation). ■ Perception is being influenced by many factors such as experience, culture, gender, context, etc ■ To improve communication we must remember that perception is seldom the same for everyone; our perception is one of the many possibilities. ■ Make efforts to improve our perception. 36

References: ■ Seiler, W. J and Beall, M. L ( 2008). Communication. Making Connections ( 7 th ed). Boston: Pearson ■ Perkins,P. S ( 2008). The Art and Science of Communication. Tools for Effective Communication in the Work Place. New Jersey: Wiley. ■ Hybels, S., and Weaver II, R. L ( 2004). Communcating Effectively ( 7 th ed). Boston: Mc Graw Hill ■ Verderber, R. F. and Verderber, K.S (2005) Communicate( 11 th ed). CA: Thomson/Wadsworth 37

References ■ Aamodt, M.G (2007). Industrial /organizational psychology. An applied approach. Belmont, CA: Thomson ■ Kosslynn & Rosenberg ( 2006). Psychology in Context (3 rd ed). Boston, MA: Pearson International edition. ■ Gerow, G. R ( 1997). Psychology. An Introduction (5 th ed). New York: Addison-Wesley Publishers Inc. 38