Perception

Perception

Influenced by the world and the social, political, and cultural factors

Perception is…

A unique way we order and interpret stimuli to create reality

Personality and individual characteristics

Emotional state, outlook, knowledge

Cognitive complexity

The degree to which a person’s constructs are detailed involved or numerous

Constructs

Categories people develop to help them organize information

Perceptual procedures

Selection, organization, Interpretation

Selection

The process of choosing which sensory information to focus on

Selective attention

Consciously or unconsciously attending to just a narrow range of the full array of sensory information available.

Primacy effect

Tendency to form a judgment or opinion based on the first information received - INFO FIRST

Recency effect

Tendency to form a judgement or opinion based on the most recent information received - INFO LAST

Organization

Involves how we structure what we perceive

Figure/Ground

The tendency to distinguish a focal element from its background

figure ground examples

A man playing the saxophone when background is black

A women if the background is white

Patterning

Our tendency to detect patterns in stimuli, even when they are incomplete

Cognitive representation

The ability to form mental models of the world

Schemas

Cognitive maps that help us organize information

Prototype

A representative or idealized version of a concept

Script

A relatively fixed sequences of events that function as a guide or template for communication behavior

Categorization

A cognitive process used to organize information

Label

Name assigned to a category based on one’s perception of the catagory

Stereotyping

Creating schemas that overgeneralize attributes of a specific group

Attribution theory

Explanation of the process we use to judge our own and other’s behaviors

Attributional Bias

A cognitive bias that refers to the systematic errors made with people evaluate or try to find reasons for their own and other’s behavior

Self-serving bias

Tendency to give one’s self more credit than due when good things happen and accept too little responsibility for those things that go wrong

Fundamental Attribution Error

Tendency to attribute others’ negative behavior to internal causes and their positive behaviors to external causes

Overattribution

Selecting an individual’s most obvious characteristic and using it to explain almost anything else

Frames

Assumptions and attitudes that we use to filter perceptions to create meaning

First-Order reality

The thing itself

Second-Order

what the thing means

Ethnocentrism

Tendency to view one’s own group as the standard against which all other groups are judged

Stereotypes

Creating schemas that overgeneralize attributes of a specific group

Prejudice

Experiencing adverse or negative feeling towards a group as a whole or towards an individual because they belong to a particular group

Ego-defensive function

The role prejudice plays in protecting individuals sense of self worth

Value Expressive Function

The role played by prejudice in allowing people to view their own values, norms, and cultural practices as appropriate and correct

Power

Power and performativity are shaped by ideology that serves the interests of those who already have power

Social Roles

The specific position or positions one holds in society

Social Construction

Reality emerges through our actions, and that our world (and its rules) are a product of communication

Blank state theory

Life experiences create reality. The receiver is passive

Construction theory

Receiver is active in creating reality. Choosing how to react

Symbolic interaction

The self is a product of the messages that it has encountered over past interactions

Impression management

We build an impression of ourselves for me and others

Cultural Location

Provides a way of seeing oneself within social categories in relation to each other

Mediated or sustained by power

Positionalities

Where we stand in relation to various categories or elements of difference

Examples of Positionalities Markers

Race, economics, background.

Shape our identities and perceptions unintentionally

Essentialist perspective

Assumptions that people are essentially their positionalities

Stereotypes of Positionalities

Easy conclusions about people that reduce them from unique individuals to predictable archetype

Standpoint Theory

Theory that we occupy relationships with one another within systems of power

Cultural location & Standpoint theory

Relationships within systems of power are mediated by social, political, and economic power

The person with less privilege has more comprehensive understanding of power.

Watzlawick (1977) argues:

“The belief the one’s own view of reality is the one reality the most dangerous of all delusions.”

Watzlawick (1977) also argues:

“There are many different versions of reality, some of which are contradictory. These versions of reality are the results of eternal, not reflections of eternal, objective truths.”

Parting Thoughs

The danger with perception is not that we use it, but that we use it as REAL and will not change when change is warranted

Tend to assume our reality is the only reality.