Person Perception chapt 2 9.9.09.docx

9/9/09 8:49 AM September 9, 2009 Perception Perceiving: Interpreting and making meaning out of stimuli For example: pictures, people, words, nonverbals, interactions. Filtering Filtering: Attempting to register/absorb sensory information Perceptual filters: physiological limitations Psychological sets: psychological expectations Heavily influenced by culture Perception and Communication How we perceive ourselves influences our communicative styles How much we talk How we talk How confident we are How we perceive others influences how we communicate with them How much we talk to them How we talk to them Steps of perception 1. Selection Pick out what we should focus on Ex. Think about what you are doing right now. How many different stimuli could you focus on right now? 2. Organization Arranging the stimuli in a meaningful way What do you focus on? What is most important to you, and what do you pay attention to? ?organize? or rank what is most important to you 3. Interpretation Determining what the behavior, person, or interaction means Hopefully you determined that lecture was most important an made meaning out of my message. Self Concept Self-concept Your perception of who you are Likes, dislikes, talents, roles? Describe? Yourself physically Your psychological state What you are good at Your weaknesses Your roles Self-Esteem Self-Esteem Evaluation of self-concept Self-worth Influences to self-concept & self-esteem Feedback: Influenecs how we perceive ourselves and how much self-esteem we have Reflected appraisal theory: Others? judgements Social comparison theory: Watching others Shyness May choose other routes to convey the self. How we form impressions 1. Self-fufilling prophecies ?Expectations about an even influence behavior to make expectations reality? In other words, we encourage them to occur Ex. Pygmalion in the classroom or placebos 2. Humanness We evaluate ourselves differently than others You: embody humanness Your ?in-groups?: embody humanness Others: less humanness Ex. Family member commits crime vs. story of criminal in the newspaper 3. Behavior Attribution ?Attribution theory? (heider) How people explain the behaviors of themselves versus others How we perceive/ interpret behaviors You: react based on the situation Others: react based on their dispositions Ex. Mother in NY who drove the wrong way Drinker? (within her control) Stroke? (out of her control) How we judge others 1st impressions- primacy effect Evaluating oters based on our initial encounters with them Physical attractiveness Expressiveness and charisma Good ?talker? Effective communicator ? Person Perception- Chapter 2 9/9/09 8:49 AM 9/9/09 8:49 AM