ITSINTER_ch03_lecppt.pptx

1. CHAPTER 3
Perception and the Self
Copyright © 2022 W. W. Norton & Company

2. Perception and the self
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3. 3.1 The perception process
• Perception is the mental process of receiving and
interpreting sensory information—what you can
taste, touch, smell, see, and hear.
• Perception helps you make sense of the messages
you receive, and it can also help you understand
how the messages you send affect other people.
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4. The process of perception (1)
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5. The process of perception (2)
• Selective attention is your tendency to pay
attention to what interests you the most at a
given moment and tune out what doesn’t.
• Schemas vs. scripts
• Selective perception vs. selective memory
• Memory reconstruction occurs when you alter
aspects of a memory.
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6. The significance of attributions (1)
• An attribution is a reason you come up
with to explain someone’s communication
behavior.
• You may make an attribution when you
perceive that a friend has not returned
your text message in a timely manner, for
example.
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7. Factors that play a role in perception (1)
• Culture
• First impressions
• Confirmation bias is when you focus your
perception on communication behaviors that
confirm what you’ve perceived in the past.
• Frame of reference
• Physiological differences
• Stereotypes
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8. 3.2 Self-perception and IPC
• The messages you receive and internalize from
others may influence the perceptions you have of
yourself.
• Your sense of self is your private, inner world
and consists of three intricately interrelated
elements: self-concept, self-esteem, and self-
confidence.
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9. Elements of self
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10. 3.3 Improving perceptual accuracy
• A fundamental attribution error occurs when you
attribute a person’s behavior to internal factors
without considering external factors.
• Self-serving bias is your tendency to attribute a
positive outcome to your own inner qualities and
attribute a negative outcome to outside factors.
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11. The significance of attributions (2)
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12. Factors that play a role in perception (2)
“My sister-in-law, Amelia, and I have
always been close, but we’ve been
arguing about carpooling recently. Last
week, I saw her and my nephews in the
grocery store and waved. She
pretended that she didn’t even see me
and kept her gaze on the cart and the
boys. Later, at a graduation party, I
confronted her: ‘To pretend you didn’t
see me just to avoid saying hello is a bit
rude, don’t you think?’ Amelia said she
didn’t see me, but I’m not convinced.”
—Briana
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13. Factors that play a role in perception (3)
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14. Self-concept (1)
• Your self-concept (also referred to as your self-
image or perceived self) is how you see yourself
as a person.
• This is composed of the relatively stable,
multifaceted perceptions you have of yourself
and can also change over time.
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15. Self-concept (2)
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16. Self-concept (3)
• Intrapersonal communication is the
communication you have with yourself, also
called self-talk.
• Social comparison is when you use your
perception to determine how you measure up to
others.
• Self-delusion is the act or state of deceiving
oneself.
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17. Self-concept (4)
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18. Self-concept (5)
“When I was 17 years old, I gave birth to my
son, whose ethnicity is Egyptian, Eritrean,
and Italian. I was feeling pretty bad about
myself for having a child out of wedlock, and I
felt a bit of an outcast from my family—many
are very religious and a few are outright
racist. During a family get-together, my aunt
said, ‘Your son is so adorable. He makes me
smile every time I look at him. What a gift!’
She really lifted my spirits. She affirmed that
my son is a part of me and we are both
deserving of love and respect. I’m not totally
comfortable with how he came into this
world, but I tell myself every day that I’m
blessed to have him and that I’m a very good
mother.” —Alessandra
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19. Self-esteem (1)
• Self-esteem is how you feel about yourself as a
result of how you perceive yourself.
• Like self-concept, your self-esteem is relatively
stable, but it too can fluctuate in short spurts or
over a period of time.
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20. Self-esteem (2)
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21. Self-esteem (3)
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22. Self-confidence
• Self-confidence is the degree to which you
believe in your abilities and judgment.
• A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that
comes true because the prediction itself causes
you to act in ways that make it come true.
• Communication apprehension (CA) is the
anxiety or nervousness you feel in a social
situation.
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23. The elements of self are interconnected
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24. Public image, impression management, and saving face (1)
• Your public face (also referred to as public image or
presenting self) is how you want to appear to others.
• Impression management (also referred to as
facework) is what you say or do to influence how
others perceive you.
• Saving face (also referred to as corrective facework) is
the effort you make to protect or repair your public
face when it’s threatened.
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25. Public image, impression management, and saving face (2)
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26. Guard against attribution errors
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27. Check your perceptions
• Perception checking is the way in which you test the
accuracy of your perceptions.
• A two-step perception check is a technique in which
you vocalize what you are sensing using an
observational I-statement followed by a question for
clarification.
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28. Take into consideration personality differences (1)
• Your personality consists of the stable psychological
characteristics or traits unique to you, including how
you prefer to think, behave, and relate to people.
• Your personality is formed by your past social
interactions with other people, life experiences, age,
and genetics.
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29. Take into consideration personality differences (2)
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30. Take into consideration personality differences (3)
“Emily and I were playing against another
couple in a game of foosball. The score was
close, and I kept telling her what to do and
my intensity stressed her out. In the
middle of the game, Emily said, ‘Would you
excuse us?’ She took me by the hand and
led me out of the room. She held both my
hands in front of her, took a deep breath,
smiled, looked me in the eyes, and said, ‘I
know you thrive on being in control and
winning, but it’s getting out of hand.’ We
came right back; she smiled at everyone
and said, ‘I think we are ready to play now.’
I made sure to keep my cool the rest of the
night.” —Noah
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31. Credits
This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for Chapter 3.
For more resources, please visit It’s Interpersonal, An Introduction
to Relational Communication, at:
http://digital.wwnorton.com/interpersonal
Copyright © 2022 W. W. Norton & Company