Influences on individual communication & interpersonal processes

INFLUENCES ON INDIVIDUAL
COMMUNICATION & INTERPERSONAL
PROCESSES
PA 209
Management Communication
by: Lindsey Marie A. Vismanos

INFLUENCES ON INDIVIDUAL COMMUNICATION &
INTERPERSONAL PROCESSES
Individual Communication
• Talking to a person or a few persons rather than
to a large group of people
Interpersonal
• Adjective
• Existing or occurring between persons;
• Of or pertaining to the relations between persons
Process
• a systematic series of actions directed to some
end

A series of actions that may
influence communication
between two or more persons.

• Perceptual processes
• Attribution processes
• Semantics
• Cultural context
• Communication skills

Perceptual processes:
• Processes individuals use to acquire
and make sense out of information
from the environment
• a sequence of steps that begins with
the environment and leads to our
perception of a stimulus and an action
in response to the stimulus

Our perceptions are influenced by:
• Physical Elements – what information
your eye or ear can actually take in, how
your brain processes it
• Environmental Elements – what
information is out there to receive, its
context
• Learned Elements – culture, personality,
habit: what filters we use to select what
we take in and how to react to it.

Three stages of perception:
• Selection / Stimulation
• Organization
• Interpretation / Evaluation

Selection / Stimulation
• Filtering of stimuli so that only
some information gets our
attention
• An individual only responds to
sensory stimulation they choose
based on stimuli that carries
meaning for them

Organization
• Patterning of information to match
familiar patterns
• involves putting together the
information received during interaction
with stimuli in a way that makes sense
to the individual
• an individual places their focus on
aspects of the stimuli that interests
them

Interpretation / Evaluation
• Giving meaning to selected and
organised information
• is subjective as it is based on
personal influences

Distortions: (perceptual processes
affecting communication)
Several perceptual processes influence
what you observe and what you fail to
observe, what you infer or what you fail to
infer about another person. These processes
enable you to simplify and categorize the
vast amount of information around you. But
they can also present impediments to
accurate perception and cause over
simplification or distortion of information.

Stereotyping
• Tendency to attribute characteristics to an
individual on the basis of an assessment
of the group to which they belong
• fixed impression of a group of people
• We all have attitudinal stereo types of
nationals, religious, sexual, religious
groups and professions as teachers,
plumbers or even prostitutes, criminals
etc.

Stereotyping
• When we have these fixed impressions,
when we meet a person from that group,
we apply to that person all characteristics
that we assign to that group
• Perceive an individual as having those
qualities that you believe is typical of his
group and fail to see the multi-faceted
nature of the individual.
• Ignore each person’s unique
characteristics

Halo effect
• Tendency to use a general
impression based on one or a few
characteristics of an individual
• These implicit rules regarding
characteristics of a person can
prevent us from perceiving a
person or a situation realistically

Examples:
Choose from the brackets the suitable word for the
individual.
• John is energetic , eager and .. (intelligent,
stupid)
• Mary is bold, defiant, and … (extroverted,
introverted)
• Joe is bright, lively and … (thin, fat)
• Jane is attractive, intelligent and .. (likable,
unlikable)
• Sumitha is cheerful, positive and .. (attractive,
unattractive)

Projection
• Tendency of an individual to assume
others share their thoughts, feelings and
characteristics
• The assignment of personal attributes to
other individuals.
• People are generally self-centered and
tend to evaluate other people and events
from the perspective of their own
attributes and values

Projection
• If we look carefully, we see that we are
constantly projecting our own needs and
feelings, values and attitudes, our own
traits and personal likes and dislikes on to
others

Perceptual defense
• Tendency to block out or distort
information one finds threatening
• occurs when a person's value
orientations act as a barrier to
stimuli that are threatening

Example
An alcoholic may avoid anti-drinking
and driving campaigns in fear of
what could happen because they
know they drink and drive
sometimes. They fear what could
possibly happen if they actually
accepted the message

Self-fulfilling prophecy
• occurs when you make a prediction that
comes true because you act on it as if it
were true
• If you expect people to act in a certain
way or if you make prediction about a
situation, your predictions will frequently
come true because of self-fulfilling
prophecy.

• For example, if you go to a group thinking
that other members in that group will not
accept you, you may end up feeling
rejected because of your behavior that
may provoke their response and confirm
your belief.
SAMPLE VIDEO

There are four steps in it:
a. You make a prediction or belief about a person.
For example, “Mark is stupid”.
b. You act as if your prediction were true. You act
as if Mark is going to do things stupidly.
c. Because you act as if it is true, it becomes true.
Because of how you act towards Mark, he
becomes tense and acts stupid.
d. You observe your effect on him and gets
strengthened in your beliefs. You observe
Marks’s behavior and gets confirmed in you
belief.

Perceptual accentuation
• “Any port in a storm” is an adage that explains
accentuation. Perceptual accentuation leads
you to see what you expect and want to see.

• For example, an alcoholic person may easily
spot a bar at the corner of a crowded street
hidden among other shops.

• You magnify that which will satisfy your needs
and wants. e.g., a thirsty person is sensitive to
cues of possible water supply in the area
• In the same way, the people you like may
appear as better looking than those you
dislike.

Primacy-Recency
• If what comes first exerts influence on
your evaluation, primary effect is playing a
role. If what comes last exerts most
influence, it is recency effect.
• There is a tendency to use early
information to get general idea about a
person, and use later information to make
this impression more specific.

Primacy-Recency
• The first impression you make is likely to
be the most important.
• Remember the adage, “first impression is
best impression”. It is through this that
others will filter additional information in
formulating a picture of how they perceive
you.

Primacy-Recency
• You may tend to formulate a total picture
of an individual on the basis of initial
impressions that may not be accurate
• You may discount or distort subsequent
perceptions so as not to disrupt your initial
impression.

Example
Study by Solomon Ash (1946). He read
descriptive adjectives to students and saw
their effects
• Intelligent, industrious, impulsive, critical,
stubborn, envious
• Envious, stubborn, critical, impulsive,
industrious, intelligent
The first was positively evaluated

Consistency
• the tendency to maintain balance among
perceptions or attitudes
• You expect certain things to go together
and other things not to go together

Example
Notice you response in the following sentence
completion.
• I expect a person I like (to like, dislike) me.
• I expect a person I dislike (to like, dislike)
me.
• I expect my friend to (like, dislike) my friend.
• I expect my enemy to (like, dislike) my
friend.
• I expect my enemy to (like, dislike) my
enemy.

Notice that there are certain expectations that
go together. You would expect someone
whom you like to possess qualities that you
like.

Influences on individual communication & interpersonal processes

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to Influences on individual communication & interpersonal processes

Similar to Influences on individual communication & interpersonal processes (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Influences on individual communication & interpersonal processes