Chapter 3 Perceiving the Self and Others
Chapter 3—Perceiving the Self and Others
At a Glance
How We Perceive Others
How We Explain Our Perceptions
Learning Objectives
After studying this chapter you should be able to:
1. Explain perception.
3. Explain the reasons we commit perceptual errors.
5. Differentiate self-serving bias and fundamental attribution error.
7. Use the Johari window model to demonstrate how the self-concept is multi-faceted.
9. Describe how image management is collaborative, complex, and involves the
management of multiple identities.
10. Define face and facework, and differentiate the three face needs: fellowship face,
autonomy face, and competence face.
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Lecture Outline
I. How We Perceive Others
A. Perception is a process of making meaning from what we experience in the world
around us.
2. We engage in interpersonal perception, which helps us to make meaning
1. Selection is the process by which your mind and body help you isolate certain
2. Organization is the classification of information. We use a perceptual
schema, which is a mental framework for organizing information into
3. Interpretation involves assigning meaning to information that has been
selected for attention and organized. Interpretation involves three factors:
1. Cultures and co-cultures influence perception.
2. Stereotypes, or generalizations about groups or categories of people,
influence perception.
a. Stereotyping is a three-part process:
i. First, we identify a group to which we believe another person belongs
3. Primacy and recency effects influence perceptions.
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a. The primacy effect is the tendency to emphasize the first impression over
later impressions when forming a perception. According to this principle,
first impressions are critical because they set the tone for all future
interactions.
b. The recency effect is the tendency to emphasize the most recent
impression over earlier impressions when forming a perception.
According to this principle, the most recent impression we have of a
person’s communication is more powerful than our earlier impressions.
4. Perceptual sets, or predispositions to perceive only what we want or expect
to perceive, also influence perceptions.
1. Locus refers to where the cause of a behavior is “located.”
a. Some of our behaviors have internal loci, meaning that they are caused by
2. Stability involves whether the cause of a behavior is stable or unstable.
a. A stable cause is permanent, semipermanent, or at least not easily
3. Controllability involves how controllable the causes for a behavior are.
a. You make a controllable attribution for someone’s behavior when you
1. The self-serving bias refers to our tendency to attribute our successes to
2. The fundamental attribution error refers to our tendency to attribute other
people’s behaviors to internal rather than external causes.
1. Self-concept is multifaceted.
a. What we call the self is actually a collection of smaller selves.
b. One way to think about your self-concept is to distinguish between aspects
of yourself that are known to others and aspects that are known only to
2. Self-concept is partly subjective, based on impressions we have of ourselves
rather than on objective facts.
1. Self-monitoring is an awareness of how you look and sound and how your
behavior is affecting those around you.
a. High self-monitors pay attention to how others are reacting to their own
behaviors, and they have the ability to adjust their communication as
2. Self-fulfilling prophecy is an expectation that gives rise to behaviors that
1. If you evaluate yourself positively and feel happy about who you are, you
probably have high self-esteem.
a. High self-esteem has advantages.
2. If you are pessimistic about your abilities and dissatisfied with your self-
concept, you probably have low self-esteem.
1. Image management is collaborative.
a. Each of us develops a life story, or way of presenting ourselves to others
2. We manage multiple identities.
a. People know you only in certain contexts, each of which carries its own
distinctive role expectations.
3. Image management is complex.
a. Image management may generate competing goals for our interactions
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b. People create narratives, or ways of telling their stories, that help them
maintain their image while still being persuasive.
B. Communication and face needs.
1. Each of us has a desired public image—a certain way that we want others to
see and think of us—and we work to maintain that image through the way we
communicate.
2. A face-threatening act is any behavior that threatens one or more face needs.
a. Face-threatening acts often lead people to behave in ways that help them
3. Face threats are common in many socially marginalized populations and may
lead people to feel disrespected and ashamed.
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Key Terms
perception
selection
organization
perceptual schema
interpretation
Johari window
self-fulfilling prophecy
self-esteem
image
image management
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© 2018 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in any
manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
1. As suggested in the “Sharpen Your Skills” section, watch the TED talk The Danger of a
Single Story by Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Adichie. Then hold a class discussion by
posing these questions:
• How was Adichie influenced by the stories she read as a child?
• What is the “single story” that Adichie discusses?
2. Spend a day having students present “Analogy Speeches.” For the assignment, encourage
students to bring an object they relate to at this point in their lives—a college “show and
3. Invite a representative from counseling services to come and speak about self-esteem and
4. The Dark Side of Communication discusses the risks of disclosing a mental illness.
Review the reasons discussed for patients choosing not to disclose their condition. When
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© 2018 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in any
manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
1. Divide students into pairs to illustrate the power of perception. Have students participate
in a partner “stare down” in which they write a list of 10 observations and 10 assumptions
about their partners. (For example, the observation of a ring on your left ring finger leads
me to make the assumption that you are married.) After the pair has completed their lists,
have them swap papers and check the accuracy of the partner’s perception. What
3. As an out-of-class or in-class writing assignment, challenge students to write their own
personal ad, not to exceed 30 words. What attributes, characteristics, physical traits, etc.
do they find most important to include? Explain to the students that their write up
4. The self-serving bias relates primarily to how we explain our own behaviors, and refers
to our tendency to attribute our successes to stable, internal causes while attributing our
5. Divide students into three teams and assign a fundamental face need to each group. Have
the teams create dramatic skits that illustrate an interaction when participants needed to
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For Review
1. How do we form perceptions of others?
2. What influences our perceptions?
3. How do we manage our image?
Over the course of life, we create and refine a self-concept. Our communication behavior
Pop Quiz
Multiple Choice
1. Noticing that someone is a communication major is an example of the schema for classifying
information about people known as
a. physical.
b. interaction.
c. psychological.
d. roles.
2. When Jacob makes attributions about his roommate’s communication behaviors, his
attributions might include all the following dimensions except
a. locus.
b. stability.
c. controllability.
d. self-serving bias.
3. The predisposition to perceive only what we want or expect to perceive is known as
a. interpretation.
b. perceptual set.
c. attribution.
d. perceptual schema.
4. The Johari window is a representation of self that consists of all the following parts except
a. open.
b. hidden.
Chapter 3 Perceiving the Self and Others
c. visual.
d. unknown.
5. The need to avoid being imposed on by others is known as
a. fellowship face.
b. competence face.
c. saving face.
d. autonomy face.
Fill in the Blanks
6. The first of the three stages of perception is the ______ stage.
7. According to the ______, first impressions are crucial because they set the tone for future
interactions.
8. The ______ causes us to attribute others’ communication behaviors more to internal causes
than to external causes.
9. The subjective evaluation of one’s value and worth as a person is known as one’s ______.
10. A(n) ______ is a behavior that threatens one’s face needs.