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Instructor’s Manual and Test Bank for Essentials of Human Communication, Eighth Edition

Unit Planner

CHAPTER 2: PERCEPTION OF SELF AND OTHERS

CONCEPTS OF THIS CHAPTER

· the self in human communication

· self-disclosure

· perception

· impression formation

· impression management: goals and strategies

KNOWLEDGE OBJECTIVES

After completing this chapter, students should be able to:

· define self-concept and explain how it develops

· define self-awareness and explain how it can be increased

define self-disclosure, the factors influencing it, and its potential awards and dangers

explain the nature and working of perception as related to self and others

understand the processes related to impression formation and management

SKILLS OBJECTIVES

After completing this chapter, students should:

· communicate with a better understanding of who they are

regulate their self-disclosures and respond appropriately to the disclosures of others

· increase their accuracy in perceiving other people and their messages

regulate their self-disclosures on the basis of the potential rewards and dangers

INSTRUCTIONAL OUTLINE

The Self in Human Communication

–

ho you are and how you see yourself influence not

only the way you that you communicate, but also how you respond to the communication of

others.

•

Self-Concept

– refers to how you perceive yourself: your feelings and thoughts about your

strengths and weaknesses, your abilities and limitations. Self–concept develops through:

–

Others’ Images of You

– According to the concept of the looking-glass self, you

develop images of yourself by attending to the way others, particularly others who are

most significant in your life, communicate with you.

–

Comparisons with Others

– You develop images of yourself by engaging in social

comparison, comparing yourself with others, particularly your peers. Social media has

made comparing ourselves with others very easy.

Search engine reports – allow you to see how often your name appears on websites.

Network spread – numbers of friends or contacts is a measure of your potential

influence.

Online influence – Klout and PeerIndex measure the score of your online influence.

Twitter activities – not only the number of times you tweet, but also how often you

are retweeted.

Blog presence – how many people visit or follow your blog.

Reference to written works – how often your works are cited.

–

Cultural Teachings

– Culture instills in you a variety of beliefs, values, attitudes that

serve as benchmarks against which you measure yourself. Masculinity and femininity

are

also important aspects of culture, telling men and women how they should act.

–

Self-Interpretations and Self-Evaluations

– You react to your own behavior; the more

Instructor’s Manual and Test Bank for Essentials of Human Communication, Eighth Edition

you understand why you view yourself the way you do, the better you’ll understand who

you are.

•

Self-Awareness

– the degree to which you know yourself and know how you appear to

others; One tool commonly used to assess self-awareness is the Johari window, a metaphoric

division of the self into four areas:

– Your Four Selves

the open self – represents all information, behaviors, attitudes, and feelings about

yourself that you and others know

the blind self – represents knowledge about you that others have but you do not.

large blind self indicates a lack of self-awareness.

· the unknown self – represents those parts of yourself that neither you nor

others know

the hidden self – represents all the knowledge that you have of yourself but keep

secret from others

–

Growing in Self-Awareness

– To become more aware of your own needs, desires, habits,

beliefs, and attitudes:

· listen to others and notice their feedback

· increase your open self by reveal yourself to others

· seek out information about yourself to reduce your blind self

dialogue with yourself through journal writing, meditation, contemplation

•

Self-Esteem –

a measure of how valuable you think you are; how good you feel about your

perception of yourself. Increasing self-esteem leads to a better personal and professional life.

Suggestions for increasing self-esteem include:

–

Attack Self-Destructive Beliefs

– challenge unproductive beliefs about yourself,

including that you must be:

· perfect

· strong

· pleasing

· fast and complete

· and doing more

–

Beware of the Imposter Phenomenon

– thinking that you are only the imposter of a

success

– Seek Out Nourishing People – who are positive and optimistic

–

Work on Projects That Will Result in Success

– rather than projects that may be

impossible to complete

–

Remind Yourself of Your Successes

– rather than dwelling on your failures

–

Secure Affirmation

– both through self-affirmation and affirmation from others with

whom you identify

II.

Self-Disclosure

– communication in which you reveal information about yourself, your history,

and your circumstances to others; moving information from the hidden self to the open self. We

often

self-disclose to varying degrees on Twitter.

•

Self-Disclosure Rewards

–

Self-knowledge

– gaining new perspectives on yourself and deeper understanding of your

own behavior.

–

Improved coping abilities

– helping you deal with problems; by verbalizing it you can often

see it more objectively.

–

Communication enhancement

– You understand others’ messages better as you understand

the person.

–

More meaningful relationships

– By sharing information with others, you tell them that you

Instructor’s Manual and Test Bank for Essentials of Human Communication, Eighth Edition

trust, respect, and care for them.

• Self-Disclosure Dangers

– personal risk of exposure to possible attack

– social risk of possible rejection by loved ones and friends

–

professional risk that may result in material, status, employment losses

– Self-disclosure, like any communication, is irreversible.

• Guidelines for Making Self-Disclosures

– consider the motivation for the self–disclosure

– consider the appropriateness of the self-disclosure

– consider the disclosures of the other person

– consider the possible burdens self-disclosure might entail

• Guidelines for Facilitating and Responding to Self-Disclosures

– practice the skills of effective and active listening

– support and reinforce the discloser

– be willing to reciprocate

– keep the disclosure confidential

– don’t use the disclosures against the person

• Guidelines for Resisting Pressure to Self-Disclose

– don’t be pushed

– be indirect and move to another topic

– be assertive in your refusal to self-disclose

III.

Perception

– becoming aware of the world around you, using an active process by which you

become aware of objects, events, and especially people through your senses and the lens of your past

experiences and your desires, wants and needs, loves and hatreds. Our perceptions influence

our

communication choices including whom we choose to interact with, where we choose to

interact,

what we choose to share, how we choose to share, as well as our understanding of what

we have

created through our interactions with others

•

Stimulation (Stage 1)

– hearing, seeing, smelling, touching, tasting something. People

engage in selective perception because it is impossible to take in everything. Selective

perception includes

–

selective attention: attending to those things that we anticipate will meet our

– needs, bring us pleasure

–

selective exposure: attending to people or messages that confirm our existing

– beliefs, help us meet our objectives, satisfy us

–

We are also more likely to perceive things that are greater in intensity than surrounding

stimuli.

•

Stage Two:

Organization

– categorization of sensory stimuli often based on rules.

–

Rule of proximity: Things that are physically close together constitute one unit.

–

Rule of similarity: Things that are physically similar or look alike belong together and

form a unit.

–

Rule of contrast: Things that are too different do not belong together.

•

Stage Three:

Interpretation-Evaluation

– assigning meaning and judgment to sensory

stimuli based on past experiences, needs, wants, beliefs, expectations, physical and emotional

states, how the stimuli has been organized, etc.

– Gender influences evaluations.

– Judgments about other cultures are often ethnocentric.

•

Stage Four:

Memory

– storing information for later retrieval

– Cognitive tags help us store information about specific roles.

•

Stage Five

Recall

– reconstruction of sensory stimuli. Recall is open to a variety of

Instructor’s Manual and Test Bank for Essentials of Human Communication, Eighth Edition

inaccuracies because of how we may have categorized the sensory stimuli.

IV.

Impression Formation

– academic terms for what we do every day. We use a variety of

processes to manage these impressions, called

impression formation processes.

•

Impression Formation Processes

–

The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

– occurs when a prediction becomes true because a person

acts on it as if it were true; self-fulfilling prophecies can have positive effects (e.g.,

Pygmalion effect) or negative effects; they occur in four steps:

You make a prediction or formulate a belief about a person or situation.

You act towards the situation as if the belief we true.

Because you acted as if it were true, the belief becomes true.

You observe your effect on the person or situation, and your observation strengthens your

belief.

– The self-fulfilling prophecy can also apply to predictions you make about yourself.

–

Primacy-Recency

–

the relative influence of stimuli according to when they occur in

time

primacy: what occurs first exerts greater influence

recency: what occurs most recently exerts greater influence

–

Stereotyping

–

a fixed and often distorted impression of a group of people; stereotyping

can lead a person to ignore an individual’s unique characteristics. Stereotyping is also

prevalent online because of the lack of visual and auditory cues.

–

Attribution of Control

–

the process by which we try to explain why someone behaved

as he or she did. We tend to ask if they were in control of the situation. We tend to

commit three errors when assessing attribution of control.

Potential Attribution Errors:

–

self-serving bias: an error made to preserve your self-esteem by taking credit

for the positive and denying responsibility for the negative

–

overattribution: the tendency to single out one or two obvious characteristics of

a person and attribute everything that person does to the one or two

characteristics

–

fundamental attribution error: the tendency to conclude that people do what

they do based primarily on internal factors (e.g., their personality types) rather

than considering the influences of external factors (e.g., different situations,

circumstances) on people’s actions

•

Increasing Accuracy in Impression Formation

– successful communication depends

largely on accuracy of perception. Some ways to increase perceptual accuracy include:

– Analyze Your Perceptions

Recognize your own role in perception: consider the influence of your emotional

and physical states and your biases on your perceptions

Avoid early conclusions: delay formulating conclusions until you have had a

chance to process a wide variety of cues

Beware of the just world hypothesis

believing good things happen to good

people and bad things happen to bad people

– Check Your Perceptions

Description/Interpretation: Describe what you see or hear and how you interpret

the behavior.

Clarification: Avoid mind reading: seek confirmation of your assumptions.

Set up a mental “ghost thinking team” using people you admire to use as a

mental “think tank.” Pose a question or problem and listen to how you think the

team would assess the situation.

Instructor’s Manual and Test Bank for Essentials of Human Communication, Eighth Edition

– Reduce Uncertainty

Observe people in information situations while engaged in an active task.

Construct or manipulate situations to observe the person in a specific context.

Lurk online and view people’s online profiles.

Collect information about a person through asking others.

Interact with the individual with an open mind.

– Increase Cultural Sensitivity

Be mindful of cultural differences.

Be mindful of differences within cultural groups.

V. Impression Management: Goals and Strategies

To Be Liked: Affinity-Seeking and Politeness Strategies

To Be Believed: Credibility Strategies

To Excuse Failure: Self-Handicapping Strategies

To Secure Help: Self-Deprecating Strategies

To Hide Faults: Self-Monitoring Strategies

To Be Followed: Influencing Strategies

To Confirm Self-Image: Image-Confirming Strategies

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. What is self-concept? Why is self-concept important in communication?

What is self-awareness? Why is self-awareness important to communication?

How can you increase your self-awareness? What specific measures have you taken to increase

your self-awareness?

How can the Johari window help us to understand the nature of self-disclosure?

What is self-disclosure? What are the factors that influence self-disclosure?

6. What are the dangers of self-disclosure?

What are the guidelines for making self-disclosures? How have you or someone you’ve interacted

with used these guidelines or violated them?

The guidelines for making self–disclosures include considering the motivation for the disclosure,

What are the guidelines for facilitating and responding to self-disclosures? How have you or

someone you’ve interacted with used these guidelines or violated them?

What are the guidelines for resisting pressure to self-disclose? How have you or someone you’ve

interacted with used these guidelines?

10.

Define perception using the textbook as well as your own frame of reference.

12.

Have you even seen the self-fulfilling prophecy in action? What belief was reinforced? Do you

now see how your own behavior could have affected the outcome?

13.

What are the four basic steps in the self-fulfilling prophecy? How have you or someone you know

used this process?

14.

What steps have you taken in your own interactions to increase your perceptual accuracy?

15.

Besides gender, sexual orientation, or race, what are some other areas where we often apply

stereotypes? How do these specific stereotypes cause you to overlook the unique of certain

individuals?

ACTIVITIES FOR SKILL DEVELOPMENT

2.1 Expanding Intercultural Openness

Description:

On a worksheet or as part of your PowerPoint™ presentation, present the following

statements to the class. Ask each student to indicate how open she would be to communicate in each

scenario using the following scale: 5 = very open and willing; 4 = open and willing; 3 = neutral; 2 =

closed and unwilling; and 1 = very closed and unwilling.

– Have a “best friendship” with a __________

– Have a long romantic relationship with a __________

– Adopt a _________ child.

– Work for a ____________

– Participate in a therapy group composed most of people who are __________

– Live in a neighborhood in which most of the people are ____________

– Trust your child to be cared for by a _____________

The instructor may choose to use the same nationality or ethnic or religious groups for each statement or

use different ones for each statement. For example, the instructor could use “Canadian,” “Pakistani,”

“Haitian,” “Korean,” “Ugandan,” “Serbian,” and “Iraqi.” After students have answered the questions

individually, have them work in groups to discuss how open they would be to communicate in each

situation with each of the nationalities indicated. After students have had time to discuss their answers

with others, lead the class in a discussion of the differences in openness that may have been expressed and

the reasons for why these differences occurred. Relate the discussion to concepts of scripts, schema,

stereotyping, etc.

2.2 Regulating Self-Disclosure

Description:

Divide the class into groups of 4 to 5 students. Hand each group one of the scenarios

indicated below. On an overhead or a worksheet indicate you want each group to discussion the

following: What should the person consider before engaging in an act of self–disclosure? What specific

questions should he or she ask himself? If the person indicated in the scenario came to you for advice on

how and what to disclose, what would you tell him or her? After students have had a chance to discuss

Instructor’s Manual and Test Bank for Essentials of Human Communication, Eighth Edition

their scenarios in groups, have each group read their scenario and summarize their discussion of each of

the above questions noting similarities and differences among group members. Lead the class in a

discussion of the factors that influence each scenario and other possible ways the disclosures could be

articulated.

Scenarios for Regulating Self-Disclosure Exercise

Gregory plagiarized a term paper in anthropology. He is sorry, especially since the plagiarized

paper only earned a grade of C+. He wants to disclose to his instructor and redo the paper.

Roberto, a college sophomore, has just discovered he is HIV positive. He wants to tell his parents

and best friends but he fears their rejection. His major advisor at school seems sensitive and

empathic, and he wonders whether he should tell this instructor.

Mary and Jim have been married for 12 years. Mary has disclosed a great deal to Jim about her

past romantic encounters, fears, insecurities, ambitions, etc. Yet, Jim doesn’t reciprocate. Lately,

Mary has withdrawn from Jim because of his lack of responsiveness. Jim senses something is

wrong, but he doesn’t know what. He wants to disclose to Mary his sense of confusion and

frustration.

Tom is engaged to Cathy, but over the past few months he has been dating another woman and

has fallen in love with her. He now wants to break his engagement and disclose his new

relationship.

Sam has been in a romantic relationship with another man for the past several years. Sam wants

to tell his parents and his colleagues at work.

Kathy and Kelley, now seniors in college, have been friends since grade school. The problem is

that Kathy has been secretly dating Kelley’s boyfriend, Hogan. Kathy plans to disclose this affair

and

to tell Kelley that she and Hogan are getting engaged.

2.3 And That’s me in a Brown Paper Bag (Oral Activity)

Description:

This oral activity works well as a transition into the discussion of self-disclosure, as well as

getting the students to know one another early on, fostering an open communication climate in the class.

also gives them an early public speaking experience, speaking about a topic they know a lot about—

themselves! Give students a lunch-sized brown paper bag and ask them to bring five items (no

photographs) that represent who they are. You may have a quick discussion about the different aspects of their

lives: all are students, some are parents, some are siblings, some are employees, some are partnered, some are

members of a religion or specific culture, etc. When they return with the five items for the next

class, write the

following on the board or on a PowerPoint™ slide: “And That’s Me in a Brown Paper

Bag.” Each student

then comes up and introduces themselves to the class, and shows each item and

quickly mentions how it

represents whom they are. When they are done (self-disclosing) use the

guidelines for appropriate

self-disclosure to discuss what you heard.

2.4 Self-Defeating Drivers

Description:

The objective of this exercise is for students to reflect on and recognize unrealistic beliefs

they

may have that are self-defeating and contribute to unhealthy and unproductive self-images. To

prepare

students for this exercise, provide them with the following information:

Pamela Butler (1981) identified several unrealistic beliefs or drives that may motivate people to act in ways

that are self-defeating and lead to negative self–images and unhealthy self-concepts. Below are

descriptions of these drives:

The drive to be perfect impels you to try to perform at unrealistically high levels. Whether it is

work, school, athletics, or appearance, this belief tells you that anything short of perfection is

unacceptable and that you are to blame for any imperfections.

Instructor’s Manual and Test Bank for Essentials of Human Communication, Eighth Edition

The drive to be strong tells you that weakness and any sort of vulnerable emotions, such as

sadness, compassion, or loneliness, are wrong.

The drive to please others leads you to seek approval from others. Pleasing yourself is secondary

and, in fact, self-pleasure comes from pleasing others. The logic is that if you gain the approval

others, you are a worthy and deserving person; if others disapprove of you, you are surely

worthless and undeserving.

The drive to hurry up compels you to do things quickly and to do more than can be reasonably

expected in any given amount of time; it leads you to be impatient and always to rush.

The drive to try hard makes you take on more responsibilities than any one person can be

expected to handle.

Guidelines:

Have students individually or in small groups create a scenario for each of these drivers to

illustrate its use in self-defeating and unproductive ways and a scenario to illustrate how, in more

moderate form, these drivers can be used in self-enhancing, productive ways. Ask for volunteers to roleplay

scenarios and lead the class in a discussion of why these drivers can be self-defeating if used to the

extreme or

self-enhancing if used in moderation.

Another way to use this exercise is as a reflection activity to create a structured activity for students to

increase their self-awareness and consider ways to enhance their self-images.

2.5 Taking Another’s Perspective

Guidelines:

To prepare students for this exercise, it may be helpful to lead the whole class through the

following example: Suppose they saw someone giving a beggar in the street a $20 bill. What

circumstances do they think would lead someone to take this action? Prompt students to include both

positive and negative perceptions, such as

Divide the class into six small groups. Assign each group one of the scenarios from the text as well as

instruct each group to identity either circumstances that would lead to a positive perception or a negative

perception. Have each group report back to the entire class. Lead the class in a discussion of the

perceptual processes that are indicated by their answers and how perceptual accuracy could be increased.

2.6 Perceptual Empathizing

Guidelines:

Use this exercise to give students practice considering differing perceptions people involved

the same situation might have given their different circumstances. Working alone or in dyads, ask

students to try to empathize with each of the individuals in the following scenarios. Ask them to indicate

how

each person might reasonably view the situation.

After students have had time to write down their own answers, lead them in a discussion of why the

perceptions of those involved in each scenario may be different and how these differences may affect

interaction. Relate this discussion to the perceptual concepts of scripts, schema, stereotyping, attribution,

etc.

Scenarios for Perceptual Empathizing

Instructor’s Manual and Test Bank for Essentials of Human Communication, Eighth Edition

–

Leslie, a supervisor in an automobile factory, was ordered to increase production or be fired.

In desperation, Leslie gave a tough message to the workers – many of whom were greatly

insulted and as a result slowed down rather than increased their efforts.

Leslie sees . . .

The average worker sees . . .

Leslie’s supervisor sees . . .

The average stockholder sees . . .

–

Pat, a single parent, has two children (ages 7 and 12) who often lack some of the things

children should have, such as adequate school supplies, appropriate clothing, and toys,

because Pat cannot afford them. Yet Pat smokes two packs of cigarettes a day.

Pat sees . . .

The 12-year-old daughter sees . . .

The children’s teachers see . . .

–

Chris has extremely high standards and feels that getting all A’s is an absolute necessity. In

fear of that first B (after three and half years of college), Chris cheats on an examination and

gets

caught by the instructor.

Chris sees . . .

The instructor sees . . .

The average B or C student sees . . .

2.7 Barriers to Accurate Perception

Description:

This exercise is designed to reinforce an understanding of impression formation processes.

Provide students with a handout of the dialogue below. Have them first individually work through the

dialogue and identify the impression formation processes that may be at work here (primacy-recency,

stereotyping, self-fulfilling prophecy, etc). This can be assigned as work outside of class.

Pat:

All I had to do was to spend two seconds with him to know he’s an idiot. I said I went to

Graceland and he asked what was that? Can you believe it? Graceland! The more I got to know him,

the more I realized how stupid he was. A real loser; I mean, really.

Chris: Yeah. I know what you mean. Well, he is a jock, you know.

Pat:

Jocks! The worst. And I bet I can guess whom he goes out with. I bet it’s Lucy.

Chris: Why do you say that?

Pat:

Well, I figure that the two people I dislike would like each other. And I figure you must dislike

them, too.

Chris: Definitely.

Pat:

By the way, have you ever met Marie? She’s a computer science major, so you know she’s

bright. And attractive – really attractive.

Chris:

Yes. I went out of my way to meet her, she sounded like she’s be a nice person to know.

Pat:

You’re right. I knew she’d be nice as soon as I saw her.

Instructor’s Manual and Test Bank for Essentials of Human Communication, Eighth Edition

Chris

: We talked at yesterday’s meeting. She’s really complex, you know. I mean, really complex.

Really.

Pat:

Whenever I think of Marie, I think of the time she helped that homeless man. There was this

homeless guy –really dirty – and he fell, running across the street. Well, Marie ran right into the

street and picked this guy up and practically carried him to the other side.

Chris

: And you know what I think of when I think of Lucy? The time she refused to visit her

grandmother in the hospital. Remember? She said she had too many other things to do.

Pat:

I remember that – a real selfish egomaniac. I mean really.

Guidelines:

Ask for student volunteers to take on the roles of Chris and Pat. Have these volunteers read

the scripts aloud. As the student volunteers are reading the scripts, ask the entire class to identify the

impression formation processes that may be occurring in this example. Discuss these processes with the

class.

2.8 Let’s Apply the Concepts

Description:

Either alone or in groups, students should consider their responses to one or more of the

following scenarios. Relate their responses to concepts indicated in the brackets.

When you met your current partner – with whom you want to spend the rest of your life – you

minimized the extent of your romantic past. You now want to come clean and disclose your “sordid” past.

What do you say? Through what channel? [Corrective Self-Disclosure]

Your next-door neighbor is extremely secretive. You want to encourage greater disclosure but don’t

want to seem pushy or nosy. What do you say? Through what channel? [Disclosure Encouragement]

You’re dating this wonderful person who self-discloses easily and fully and who, unfortunately, is

putting pressure on you to reveal more about yourself. You just aren’t ready to do so at this time.

What do you say? Through what channel? [Disclosure Pressure]

You’re going to enter a new job – one that you hope you’ll keep for a major part of your professional

career – and you really need honest feedback on your total performance at your present job. What do

you

say? To whom? Through what channel? [Blind Self]

Your best friend has hit a new low in self–esteem – a long-term relationship failed, an expected

promotion never materialized, a large investment went sour. You want to help your friend regain

self-esteem. What do you say? To whom? Through what channels? [Self-Esteem]

You made a bad impression at work – you drank too much at an office party and played the clown.

This is not the impression you want to give and you need to change it fast. What do you say? To

whom? Through what channel? [First Impressions]

Your partner forms initial impressions of people and never changes them. You want to show that this

is illogical and prevents him from developing relationships with exciting people who may have given

a negative first impression. What do you say? Through what channel? [Primacy-Recency]

Your friends overattribute your behavior, attitudes, values, and just about everything you do, to your

racial origins. You want to explain that this is illogical. What do you say? Through what channel?

[Overattribution]

Your friends consistently attribute their successes to internal factors (intelligence, creativity) and their

failures to external factors (the unfair test, the biased supervisor). You’re determined not to fall into

this attribution error and decide to have a talk with yourself. What do you say? [Attribution Error]

You’ve been dating someone over the past six months. You want to move the relationship to a more

exclusive one where you date only each other. But, you first want to discover whether your date

feels as you do. What do you say? To whom? Through what channel? [Relationship Uncertainty]

Instructor’s Manual and Test Bank for Essentials of Human Communication, Eighth Edition

AVAILABLE ASSETS ON MYCOMMUNICATIONLAB

“Sarah’s Blog”

“How Open Are You Culturally?”

“I’d Prefer To Be”

“Disclosing Your Hidden Self”

“I’m Not Hungry”

“My Brother’s in Trouble”

“The Timing of Self Disclosures”

“Friends”

“How Might You Perceive Other’s Perceptions?”

“Art Appreciation”

“Tonya”

“She Can Stay”