OL109 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Interpersonal Communication, Communication Problems
THE PROCESS OF PERCEPTION
Four Main Areas of Perception
1. Selection
➢ SELECTION: a communicator attends to a stimulus from the
environment. A way communicators manage dialectical tensions by
responding to one end of the dialectical spectrum and ignoring the other
➢ We are exposed to more input than we can manage
➢ Intense stimuli, repetitive stimuli, contrast / change in stimuli attracts
our attention
➢ Individuals motives and our emotional state affects what stimuli attracts
us
2. Organization
➢ ORGANIZATION: involves arranging data in a particular way (in order to
make sense of it)
➢ The data we receive can be organized in multiple ways, we do this by
using perceptual schema
➢ PERCEPTUAL SCHEMA: cognitive frameworks that allow us to give order
to the information we have selected
Types of Perceptual Schemas
❖ Physical constructs: classify people according to their appearance
and the way they sound
❖ Role constructs: use social position
❖ Interaction constructs: focus on social behavior (friendly)
❖ Psychological constructs: generous, nervous, insecure, etc.
Characteristics Distinguishing Stereotypes from Reasonable Generalizations
❖ Categorizing others on the basis of easily recognized, but not
necessarily important characteristics
❖ Ascribing a set of characteristics to most of all members of a group
Stereotyping
❖ Interpersonal communication has been found to play a role in
stereotype maintenance
❖ One way to avoid the kinds of communication problems that come
from excessive stereotyping is to de-categorize others
➢ We can organize specific communication transactions in different ways,
and these differing organizational schemes can have a powerful effect on
our relationships
➢ PUNCTUATION: the process of determining the casual order of events /
describe the determination of causes and effects in a series of interactions
3. Interpretation
➢ INTERPRETATION: the process of attaching meaning to sense data
➢ It is part of almost every interpersonal act
Factors of interpretation
❖ Degree of involvement: our relationship with a person
❖ Relational satisfaction: how satisfied you are with your
relationship with an individual
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Document Summary
Selection: a communicator attends to a stimulus from the environment. A way communicators manage dialectical tensions by responding to one end of the dialectical spectrum and ignoring the other. We are exposed to more input than we can manage. Intense stimuli, repetitive stimuli, contrast / change in stimuli attracts our attention. Individuals motives and our emotional state affects what stimuli attracts us: organization. Organization: involves arranging data in a particular way (in order to make sense of it) The data we receive can be organized in multiple ways, we do this by using perceptual schema. Perceptual schema: cognitive frameworks that allow us to give order to the information we have selected. Physical constructs: classify people according to their appearance and the way they sound. Interaction constructs: focus on social behavior (friendly) Categorizing others on the basis of easily recognized, but not necessarily important characteristics. Ascribing a set of characteristics to most of all members of a group.
