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Chapter 3
Perceiving the Self and Others
CHAPTER OUTCOMES
•
Describe how our personal perspective on the world influences our communication
•
Explain how we use and misuse schemas when communicating with others
o Understanding perception’s role in the communication process is crucial to our success as
communicators.
reality
information.
© 2018 Bedford/St. Martin’s. All rights reserved.
o Attributions: Interpreting Your Perceptions
− Attributions are when you use personal characteristics to try to explain behavior. These
may include:
− Internal attributions: Attributing behavior to someone’s personality
− External attributions: Attributing behavior to something outside a person’s control
− A negativity bias occurs when we focus on the negative over positive or neutral
o The Cultural Context
− Culture has a profound effect on the way we perceive ourselves and those around us.
− Diversity is the differences among people, such as race, education, ability, and geography.
Effective communication requires us to understand and appreciate those who are different
from ourselves.
• Prejudice is a deep-seated feeling of unkindness and ill will toward particular groups or
an individual, usually based on negative stereotypes.
•
Cognition About Ourselves explores the three important influences on our cognitions, or
thoughts about ourselves: self-concept, self-esteem, and self-efficacy.
o Self-Concept: Who You Think You Are
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© 2018 Bedford/St. Martin’s. All rights reserved.
• Indirect evidence—revealed through innuendo, subtle nonverbal cues, or lack of
communication
• Social comparison theory—how we compare ourselves to others as we develop ideas
about ourselves
o Self-Esteem: How You Feel About Yourself
− Self-esteem is the way a person feels (or attitude) about himself or herself.
• Feelings of low efficacy can cause some to dwell on shortcomings, or interpret events
negatively, which can lower self-esteem.
• Self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that causes an individual to alter behavior in a
way that makes the prediction more likely to occur.
o Assessing Our Perceptions of Self
perceive others and how they perceive us.
o We all have aspects of ourselves we want to share and aspects we want to keep private. How
we communicate with others shapes how they view us.
o The self has cognitions that include self-concept, self-esteem, and self-efficacy, all of which
influence verbal and nonverbal behavior. These behaviors generate feedback, which leads to
can implement situation-appropriate communication behaviors.
• Low-self-monitoring people are not as sensitive to situational cues about communication
behavior and communicate according to their deep-seated values or beliefs.
• Competent communicators monitor themselves enough to present themselves
1. What are some schemas that you use in your everyday life?
2. What are some things that we tend to not select when it comes to perception? What do we
tend not to see? What do we tend not to hear? Why is that?
3. How does your culture influence your perceptions? Do you think your gender influences your
perceptions? What about your age? Give some examples.
they enjoy? Age usually influences those choices.
4. What are some spaces in which you are more likely to self-monitor how you present
yourself? Why do you think that is?
5. When applying for a job or internship, would you rather do an in-person interview, a phone
interview, or a Skype interview? Why? How do you think each of those mediums would
affect an interviewer’s perception of you?
6. You are required to make a presentation and you have to introduce yourself. What is one way
you can tell your story?
1.
This I Believe
Who influences you? Think of one or two of your specific beliefs and ask yourself how you
developed them. Who has helped shape these beliefs over the years?
2.
Long-Lost Families
a narrative.
3.
Do I Perceive a Bias Here?
4.
Do You Hear What I Hear?
notice or perceive certain sounds before? Be specific and detailed in your answer.
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Perception Line
1.
A list of categories by which you might organize or group your students; examples include
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2.
Space in the classroom for students to line up, facing the class
Directions:
1.
Ask for seven to eight volunteers in the classroom (or about half the class if your class is
smaller than fourteen).
3.
Explain to the class that perception involves selection, organization, and interpretation and
4.
Ask students who are seated to come up to the line of students one at a time, select some
visible “thing” about those students, and then rearrange the line of students to organize
5.
Repeat this process a few times, depending on time allotted. If you have time, you can
even circle back around, having students go through the process again. (Note: To be fair,
you may wish to be the last person to go through the group because you began with the
“easy” example of gender.)
forth. Talk about how we might attach meanings to these particular organizations.
2. I Know That Guy!
Goal: To have students understand how perception influences their characterizations of
1.
A set of photos of people whom you know but who are unknown to the class
3.
Document camera
Directions:
2. Ask the class to create a detailed story about the person(s) in each photo, including the
following:
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•
Are these nice people? (Note: Students will often resist answering this because they
3. Tell students to be ready to answer the question, “Why did you think that?” in relation to
4. Once students have finished their stories, have a volunteer from each group read them to
the class. If a document camera is available, put each photo in turn on the document
camera so the rest of the class can see it. Go through and ask the students, “Why did you
think that?” for each of the questions (this is less threatening when done with the whole
3.
Self-Concept and Self-Esteem
Goal: To understand the difference between self-concept and self-esteem
1. Tell students they have three minutes (extend it to five if needed) to write down as many
answers as they can to the question, “Who are you?”
2. After they have done this, have students circle any nouns they have included, such as
“brother,” “student,” “mother,” and so on.
Debriefing: Explain to students that the terms they circled relate to their self-concept—who
they understand themselves to be. The other terms are related to their self-esteem—how they
feel about who they are. (Note: This exercise relates directly to the And You? on p. 48.)
4.
People Eat That?
1. Samples of foods that are not common to many students; examples include artichoke,
avocado, kumquat, sardine, tofu, and ugli fruit
3. Optional: Access to the internet to search for “unusual food” or “strange food”
Directions:
2. Ask students which of them have eaten each of these foods.
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3. Next, ask students a series of questions about the foods they may have eaten. For
example, ask if anyone in the class had eaten something that came from a cow. Something
that came from a horse? (Note: Expect mainly “Yes” responses to the first question and
4. Lead students in a discussion about our perceptions of food. What do we (culturally) see
as edible, and what do we consider inedible? Why do we think and feel these things? If
5.
Are You a “Good” Student?
1.
Ask students to perform bodily the “good student.” What does a “good student” look like?
6.
Do You Remember?
2.
Instruct students that they are not allowed to look in any direction other than right at their
paper. Ask students to answer the following questions:
pertinent to your classroom.)
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© 2018 Bedford/St. Martin’s. All rights reserved.
Debriefing: Ask students to check the answers to the questions. Did they get any answers
right? If so, why do they think they were able to remember those details? Why do they think
they were unable to remember others? What led people to perceive (and remember) some
aspects of the room, while ignoring others?
1.
How can a person’s perception alter communication? In what ways do you perceive the
world?
2.
How does stereotyping affect your own communication?
3.
What are some advantages to stereotyping?
11.
Give examples from your own life when you used self-actualization and self-denigration.
12.
Think of a time when you formed a first impression that turned out to be wrong. How did
your impressions and perceptions change?
MEDIA
A Lot Like Love (Beacon Pictures, 2005)
be there for each other. Discuss with students what things pull the two apart and what
continues to draw them together.
Easy A (Sony Pictures, 2010)
power of language in our lives and the inability to “undo” what one has already said.
50 First Dates (Columbia Pictures, 2004)
Marine biologist Henry Roth finds the perfect woman in Lucy Whitmore. Whitmore has a
rare brain disorder that wipes her memory clean every night, so Roth must devise ways to
bathroom humor, animal stunts, and crude language. Have students keep track of Henry’s
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different approaches on each date and discuss which ones are the least or most effective,
and why.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith (20th Century Fox, 2005)
look at occupation, marriage, and perceptions.
The Social Network (Columbia, 2010)
12 Years a Slave (Fox Searchlight, 2013)
Adapted from Solomon Northrup’s 1853 memoir about being abducted into slavery at a
when expressing one’s self-concept is inhibited by circumstances.
Water (Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2006)
Zika and the Catholic Church (CNN, 2016)
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© 2018 Bedford/St. Martin’s. All rights reserved.
cultural perspectives, including religion, have to be considered. Narrow perspectives
would cause this virus to continue to spread. A fine line between cultural sensitivity to
narrow perspectives and medical emergencies must be balanced. Access the video at
http://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2016/02/11/zika-virus-catholic-church-question-paton-
walsh-pkg.cnn/video/playlists/the-catholic-church/
