1. Perceptions, Self and Communication

2. Perceiving Others Narratives Attributes What influences one’s perceptions? Culture Empathy vs. Sympathy

3. Self Perception Self-concept Self-Fulfilling prophecies

4. Perceiving Others Narratives: “The personal stories that one creates to make sense of one’s personal world.”

5. How We Perceive Others Self-serving bias: “Judging oneself more generously than one judges others.” We take the “easiest route”  What is most obvious  First Impressions  Similarities to oneself

6. Perceptions of others, cont. We value negative impressions over positive ones We blame innocent victims for their misfortunes

7. Perceptions are Situational Relational satisfaction Degree of involvement Past experience Expectations Social Roles Knowledge Self-concept

8. Perceptions and Culture Empathy: experience the world through other’s perspective Sympathy: feel both compassion for others and accept others reasons as valid Perception checking: awareness of perceptions

9. Perceiving the Self Self-concept: “A set of relatively stable perceptions that each of us hold about ourselves.” Self-esteem: evaluation of self-worth Reflected appraisal: “We develop an image of ourselves from the way we think others view us.”

10. Self-fulfilling Prophecy “When a person’s expectations of an outcome make the outcome more likely to occur than would otherwise have been true.”

11. Types of Self-Fulfilling Prophecies Your own expectations influence your behavior Expectations of others influence your actions