Chapter 2

Perception: The Process of Understanding

Perception Defined

•The mental process through which we interpret that which we sense.

•Active perception: Individually, we provide meaning

•Language is an ARBITRARY system

Filtering• Developmental features which impact

our perception– Education, Religion, Occupation, Social

status

•Organization Figure/Ground

•Closure Proximity

•Similarity Interpretation

Starts on Page. 25

Self-Awareness and

Self-Concept:

Understanding Yourself

Self-Awareness

• Your sense of self; your accommodation with your past; plans for your future; and all the prejudices, potentialities, and possibilities that are you.

• Symbolic interactionism---previous communicative events that make you who you are today.

Basic Needs: Water, Shelter, Food

Safety Needs

Love and Belonging Needs

Self-Esteem Needs

Self

Actualization

Self-Concept

• Self-Image: The picture you have of yourself, the sort of person you believe you are.– Descriptors

– Roles

– Categories

• Self-Esteem: How we feel about ourselves, how well we like & value who we are.– Past

successes/failures

– Self-consciousness

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

• Tendency to become what people (including yourself) expect you to become

Gender Differences in Self-Concept

• MEN

• WOMEN

• ANDROGYNY: Female & Male Traits

Improving Self-Concept

AWARENESS

Establish a POSITIVE ATTITUDE

Locus of Control:

Internal/External

What Occurs In Perception?

• Selection--Some stimuli gains our attention while we neglect some stimuli

• Selective Attention--Focus on certain cues and ignore others

• Selective Retention--We categorize, store, and retrieve certain information…while we discard other information

• Stereotyping--placing people/things into convenient categories rather than perceiving them based on individual characteristics.

Time to stop stereotyping