This document discusses perception and its role in communication. It defines perception as the process of using senses to acquire information from the environment. Key points include: - Perception involves selection, organization, and interpretation of sensory information - Differences in perception can arise from physiological, experiential, emotional, and cultural factors - Errors in perception include stereotyping, first impressions, and self-serving biases - Perception checking involves describing behaviors, suggesting interpretations, and seeking clarification to understand others' perspectives - Understanding perception is important for effective communication

1. Perception, Self & Communication
ENG 2013 COMMUNICATION SKILLS
CHAPTER 2:
• Definition of Perception
• Differences in Perception
• The Perceptual Process
• Errors in Perception
• Perception Checking

2. What is PERCEPTION?
The process of using the
senses to acquire
information about the
surrounding environment
or situation
(Pearson et al., 2013)

3. Active Perception: the mind
selects, organises, and
interprets what is sensed
(Pearson et al., 2011)
Subjective Perception:
Your uniquely constructed
meaning attributed to
sensed stimuli”
(Pearson et al., 2011)
PERCEPTION
Passive Perception: Like
video recorders, people are
simply recorders of stimuli.
(Pearson et al., 2011)

4. Perception & Communication
The way others
perceive us / The way
we carry ourselves
Affects their
communication with us
Affects how we
communicate with
others
Affects how we
understand events,
others and ourselves
Affects how we view
and present ourselves

5. Differences in PERCEPTION
We don’t see
things as they are;
We tend to see
things as we are

6. Why do differences in PERCEPTION occur?
Physiological Factor
Past Experience and
Roles
Present feelings and
circumstances
Culture
People differ from each other in height, weight, gender, age, ethnicity,
body type and senses
Temporal conditions - Headache, fatigue, pulled muscles, hunger, thirst
Perceptual constancy:
Perceptual constancy– your past experiences lead you to see the world in
ways that rarely change, so your initial perceptions persist.
Role: The role you play in various social contexts
Your current emotions, health, personal events can affect your
perceptions
Culture: a system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors that the
members of a society use to grasp the world.

7. The Perceptual Process
What occurs in PERCEPTION?
Organization InterpretationSelection

8. SELECTION
paying attention to some stimuli and neglecting some others
Selective
exposure
 Exposing yourself to information that reinforces your beliefs/ opinions
 What we choose to be exposed to
Selective
attention
 Exposing yourself to certain cues of information / ideas and ignoring other
 What we choose to pay attention to
Selective
perception
 Exposing yourself to see, hear and believe what you want to
 What we choose to notice
Selective
retention
 Exposing yourself to remember things that reinforce your beliefs
 What we choose to remember
What kind of selectivity are these examples of?
1. “I can’t remember my little brother’s friends’ names, but I know all the lyrics of my favourite rapper.”
2. “All of my friends use Whatsapp, so I was shocked to find out that my cousin Linda doesn’t.”
3. “After I dyed my hair blonde, I swear like half the girls I saw had dyed blonde hair.”
4. “I had heard that song lots of times, but I didn’t realize how good it was until that guy played it in his car.”

9. What did you see?
Candlestick
OR
Two people facing each other
ORGANIZATION
Grouping of stimuli into units or wholes to help us understand it
 Figure: The focal point of your attention
 Ground: The background against which
your focused attention occurs.
 We focus on one thing and ignore the
surroundings
Figure and Ground

10. Closure
The tendency to fill in missing
information to complete an otherwise
incomplete figure / statement
We fill in gaps of information using
assumptions

11. Proximity
Non-verbal Proximity
You want to try a new brand of shampoo at
Watsons. You see a woman standing near
the shelf in the drugstore wearing a purple
shirt with a tag and you assume that she is a
saleswoman. She turns out to be a customer.
Verbal Proximity
Your boss announces that, due to economic
turndown, he is forced to lay off 30
employees. 10 minutes later, he calls you
into his office. The proximity of the
messages leads you to believe that you will
be laid off.
Objects physically close to each other
will be perceived as a unit or group
We assume relationships based on
location or time

12. Similarity
Elements are grouped together because
they share same attributes
We assume relationships based on
resemblance

13. ORGANIZATION
Grouping of stimuli into units or wholes to help us understand it
Figure and
ground
 Figure: The focal point of your attention
 Ground: The background against which your focused attention occurs.
 We focus on one thing and ignore the surroundings
Closure
 The tendency to fill in missing information to complete an otherwise
incomplete figure / statement
 We fill in gaps of information using assumptions
Proximity
 Objects physically close to each other will be perceived as a unit or group
 We assume relationships based on location or time
Similarity  Elements are grouped together because they share same attributes
 We assume relationships based on resemblance
What kind of organization are these examples of?
1. “Right after I saw a shark, I felt something brush my leg, so I freaked out.”
2. “That guy stole my sister’s watch. His best friend is over there. Don’t trust him either.”
3. “I was in a noisy stadium but I heard my name called from far away.”
4. “I didn’t catch the end of the movie but I can guess what happened.”

14. External Stimuli
(What you perceive with your ears /
eyes / nose / touch)
Interpretation is affected by :
1. Degree of involvement
2. Relational satisfaction
3. Personal Experience
4. Assumption of human behavior
5. Expectations
6. Knowledge of others
Internal Stimuli
(your self image / past experiences / beliefs/
perception / stereotypes/ prejudice)
INTERPRETATION
Involves a blend of internal and external stimuli. We interpret what we perceive in order to fill in gaps of
information based on our prior understanding of the world.
Two policemen are walking at
night, and they see two men
standing on the corner. “Are they
dangerous?” one asks.
“I don’t know. Policemen are
unpredictable” says the other man.

15. Self-Perception

16. Post-Video Analysis
1.What are your overall impressions of the video? How does it
make you feel?
2.Do you think the self-perceptions these women had are typical of
most people?
3.Do you think these self-perceptions are universal, or are they
more culturally specific at all?
4.How might such self-perceptions affect communication with the
people in their lives?
5.Why do you think the strangers’ perceptions of each other were
so much more positive?

17. Errors in Our Perceptions
Stereotyping  Making a hasty generalization about a group based on a judgment about
an individual from that group.
First
Impression
 An unfavourable prejudgment that we make about an individual
because of his/her membership in a stereotyped group
 Favour negative impressions instead of positive ones
Self-serving
Bias
 An initial opinion about people upon meeting them
 We cling to first impression even if it’s wrong
Prejudice
 We often judge ourselves more charitably than we judge others in which
the outcome is always favourable to our situation.
What kind of errors in perception are these examples of:
1. “I haven’t met my roommate, but I heard she’s from Japan, so I’m sure she’ll be quiet and clean.”
2. “My lecturer’s shirt collar was wrinkled on the first day of class. Oh, great! I have a slob for a teacher.”
3. “When I was in Australia, I met a guy from France who smoked all the time. Man, don’t French people know
cigarettes are unhealthy?”
4. “Oh great! I failed this paper again! The lecturer never really taught properly in the lectures. I didn’t understand!”

18. Sometimes we focus on
intense, contrastive, or
repetitious information and
draw our conclusions from it.
But the most noticeable
behaviours from others isn’t
always the most important.
Errors in Our Perceptions
We are influenced by
what is most obvious
We tend to assume that
others are similar to us.
We tend to assume that others are similar to us.
People commonly imagine
that others possess the
same attitudes and
motives that they do.

19. Thinking Out Loud
1. What is your first
impression of this
man?
2. Will you befriend
him?
3. What do you think
his job is?

21. Interpreting behaviour of others
Empathy
 A process of describing, interpreting and verifying that helps you
understand another person or his / or her message / situation more
accurately.
 Three steps involved:
 Describe the observed behaviour
 Suggest at least TWO (2) possible interpretations of the behaviour
 Seek clarification to check that behaviour
Perception
checking
 The ability to re-create another person’s perspective – to experience
the world from other’s point of view.
 Three dimensions of empathy
1. Perspective taking : to take on viewpoint of other person
2. Emotion : to experience the feelings of other people
3. Concern : to genuinely care for other person’s well-being

22. Perception Checking
Step 1:
Description of behaviour
Step 2:
Suggestions of possible
interpretations
Step 3:
Request for Clarification
You stomped out of the room and
slammed the door when I walked
in.
1. I wasn’t sure whether you were mad at me
OR
2. You were just in a hurry.
Can you tell me what’s going
on?

23. Perception Checking
Step 1:
Description of behaviour
Step 2:
Suggestions of possible
interpretations
Step 3:
Request for Clarification
YYou said you really like my new job
1. But there is something in your voice that
tells me you don’t really like my new job
OR
2. Am I just imagining it?
Can you tell me how you
REALLY feel?

24. What have we learned in this topic?
1. In your own words, define PERCEPTION.
2. List at least THREE (3) causes of differences in perception?
3. Name the THREE (3) Perceptual Processes
4. What causes ERRORS in Perception?
Describe ONE (1) of them with an example
5. List down the THREE (3) steps of Perception Checking

25. References
• Adler, R. B. & Rodman, G. 2006. Understanding Human
Communication. 9th Ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press
• De Vito, J. A. 2014. Human Communication. The Basic Course. 12th Ed.
Essex: Pearson
• Pearson et al., 2013. Human Communication. 6th Ed. Singapore:
McGraw Hill