Chapter 2: Perception, Self, and Communication
Essay Questions
1. Define perception and explain in an essay the differences between the active and passive views of perception.
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Understand
2. How do physiological factors affect perception?
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Remember
3. Explain how past experience affects perception by including the concept of perceptual constancy and the influence of culture and/or co-culture
on perception.
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Understand
4. Write an essay in which you state how selection, organization, and interpretation function in perception.
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Understand
5. Provide an example that is not in the book of how figure and ground operate to organize our perceptions.
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Apply
6. Define and provide an example of how proximity might be used to organize perception.
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Understand
7. Compare and contrast closure and similarity as they help us organize perceptions.
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Understand
8. A car accident occurs, and the two witnesses tell rather different stories about what they saw. Use what you know about perception to explain
the differences.
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Application
9. How does self-perception influence communication?
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Understand
10. Explain the difference between stereotypes and prejudice.
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Understand
11. Write an essay describing an example from your own life where culture affected your perception. Clearly explain how culture impacted your
view of the situation. How might have someone from a different culture perceived the same instance?
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Apply
12. Discuss an example of how you have used interpretive perception.
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Apply
True/False Questions
13. Perception is the mental process through which we interpret that which we sense.
14. “No matter who sees a chair, they all see the same chair” illustrates the idea of active perception.
15. The position adopted in the book is that everyone sees everything in his or her own unique way.
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16. Our physical characteristics are unrelated to our perceptions.
17. Temporary conditions like fatigue, hunger, or a headache can affect your perceptions.
18. Perceptual constancy means that past experience has little effect on our perceptions.
19. People of different cultures tend to perceive things in the same way.
20. The process of perception includes selection, organization, and interpretation.
21. Noticing the women in the room more than the men in the room is an example of selective attention.
22. Proximity is when we organize stimuli based on their likeness or similarity.
23. A speech of self-introduction initially requires intrapersonal communication.
24. We use similarity to engage in the organization of stimuli.
25. Ground is what you focus on the most; figure is the context in which you see the ground.
26. Closure is related to how we organize stimuli.
27. “Birds of a feather flock together” is an expression that illustrates the concept of closure.
28. When you perceive nine lines as three groups, rather than nine unconnected lines, you are illustrating the concept of proximity.
29. Interpretive perception involves only internal stimuli.
30. Prejudices can be positive where you pre–judge that another person is “good” without any evidence
31. Prejudices interfere with our accurate perceptions of others.
32. Stereotypes are initially based on classifications of people.
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33. Prejudices and stereotypes are unrelated.
34. Identity management is the control of the communication of information through a performance.
35. How you perceive yourself plays a central role in communication.
36. The idea that our past experiences lead us to see the world in a particular way that is difficult to change is called
a. perceptual constancy.
b. selective retention.
c. cultural selection.
d. stubbornness.
37. Which of the following is the best example of how role affects perception?
a. I am a Cuban American whose parents fled Havana in 1906.
b. I am an honor student and president of the student body.
c. I am a person of color.
d. Although few know it, I am a former Baptist.
38. Which statement about stereotyping is true?
a. Stereotyping occurs when we have had a long time to form an informed opinion about someone.
b. Some stereotypes are positive.
c. Our stereotypes of people from different groups are often positive.
d. We try to find similarities between ourselves and the people we stereotype.
39. Which of the following activities does not occur in perception?
a. exploration
b. interpretation
c. organization
d. selection
40. Which of the following is the best example of selective attention?
a. She immediately spotted the guy with the earring who looked so much like someone she had known before.
b. They agreed with each other because they both liked the idea of government ownership of basic industry.
c. He was an expert “body man” in a chop shop; she was a hair stylist in the low-rent district.
d. They fought constantly over how the children should be disciplined.
41. When you remember how wonderful your mother was but forget how often she made you feel inadequate, then you are exhibiting the
perception concept called
a. selective retention.
b. stereotyping.
c. sexual discrimination.
d. selective attention.
42. Which of the following would be the reason why an individual looking at a class picture might see his or her own face first?
a. because of its proximity to the other faces
b. because it is figure and the rest of the class is ground
c. because it is the image that allows closure
d. because it is ground and the rest of the class is figure
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manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
Answer: B
Bloom’s level: Understand
43. If I notice that Bill and Yolanda are often together and I “fill in” my inference that they are now lovers, then I am illustrating the concept of
perception called
a. closure.
b. figure and ground.
c. proximity.
d. filtering.
44. Which of the following is not cited in the book as one of the three reasons why differences in perception occur?
a. physiological factors
b. past experience
c. present feelings and circumstances
d. present eating habits
45. Perceptual checking is a skill that helps us
a. understand another person and his or her message more accurately.
b. view everyone as equals.
c. compare our behaviors with others’ behaviors.
d. ignore damaging or harmful information.
46. Which of the following characteristics is not true of active perception?
a. subjective
b. interpretive
c. active
d. simple
47. Erving Goffman’s theory of self-presentation is based on what type of perspective?
a. psychology
b. dramaturgy
c. statistics
d. definitional
48. According to the textbook, first impressions
a. are based on comparisons to ourselves.
b. provide accuracy in our perceptions of others.
c. involve group communication among different groups.
d. occur independent of the communication context.
49. If Jeffrey was unable to control his communication in a way that presented an “idealized” version of himself, he would be lacking in
a. self-accrual.
b. identity management.
c. interaction control.
d. symbolic portrayal.
50. Which of the following would be an example of a physiological factor that affects perception?
a. mental distractions such as daydreaming
b. a homosexual orientation and lifestyle
c. a background in Roman Catholicism
d. a woman who weighs ninety-seven pounds
51. During this part of perception, a person groups stimuli into meaningful units.
a. selection
b. interpretation
c. organization
d. interactionism