Ch. 3: Interpersonal Communication And Perception, COM 252: Interpersonal Communication

Fundamental Attribution Error

Error that arises from attributing another person's behavior to internal, controllable causes rather than external, uncontrollable causes.

Attribution Theory

Theory that explains how you generate explanations for people's behaviors. We develop reasons to explain the behavior of others.

Social Identity Model of Deindividuation Effects (SIDE)

Theory that people are more likely to stereotype others with whom they interact online, because such interactions provide fewer relationship cues and the cues take longer to emerge than they would in face-to-face interactions.

Improving Interpersonal Perception Skills

There are 5 suggestions for improving Interpersonal Communication skills: 1. Be aware of your personal perception barriers- Read the descriptions of IC barriers and identify those which which you find yourself falling prey to, then think of specific situations in which you may have perceived someone inaccurately. What could you have done differently? Be aware of these barriers when you interact with others. 2. Be mindful of the behaviors that create meaning for you- Be aware of the conclusions that you draw. 3. Link details with the big picture- Look and listen for cues that can help you develop a more accurate understanding of who your new acquaintance is. 4. Become aware of others perceptions of you- Listen to criticisms and observations from others. 5. Check your Perceptions- check to assure that your perceptions are accurate by indirect and direct perception Checking.

Selective Perception

Process of seeing, hearing, or making sense of the world around us based on such factors as our personality, beliefs, attitudes, hopes, fears, and culture, as well as what we like and don't like.

Interpersonal Perception

Process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting your observations of other people.

Selective Recall

Process that occurs when we remember things we want to remember and forget or repress things that are unpleasant, uncomfortable, or unimportant to us.

Indirect Perception Checking

Seeking through passive perception such as observing and listening additional information to confirm or refute interpretations you are making.

Superimpose

To place a familiar structure on information you select.

Stereotype

To place a person or group of persons into an inflexible, all-encompassing category.

Ignoring Information

We don't focus on important information because we give too much weight to obvious and superficial information.

Focusing on the Negative

We give more weight to negative information than to positive information.

Imposing Consistency

We overestimate the consistency and constancy of others' behavior.

Avoiding Responsibility.

We save face by believing that other people, not ourselves, are the cause of problems; when things go right, it's because of our own skills and abilities rather than help from others.

Cognitive Schema

A mental framework used to organize and categorize human experiences.

Impression

Collection of perceptions about others that you maintain and use to interpret their behaviors.

Direct Perception Checking

Asking for confirmation from the observed person of an interpretation or a perception about him or her.

Horn Effect

Attributing a variety of negative qualities to those you dislike. If we dislike someone, we generalize negative qualities about them even if they aren't proven to be true.

Halo Effect

Attributing a variety of positive qualities to those you like. If we like someone we generalize positive qualities about them, even if they aren't proven to be true.

Become Other-Oriented

Becoming other oriented involves a two step process: social decentering (consciously thinking about anothers thoughts and feelings) and empathizing (responding emotionally to anothers feelings). To improve your ability to socially decenter and empathize, strive for 2 key goals: 1. Gather as much information as possible about the circumstances that are affecting the other person, and 2. Collect as much information as possible about the other person.

Mindful

Being conscious of what you are doing, thinking, and sensing at any given moment.

Construct

Bipolar quality or continuum used to classify people.

The Social Media Effect

Increasingly, others evaluate you in interpersonal situations based on what you post online. The photos and info you include in your profiles provide both explicit and implicit cues about your personality, interests, and communication style. But, there is evidence that what others say about you on social media applications is more likely to influence how others feel about you than what you, yourself, post. What others say about you has more credibility. The number of friends you have online also affects how others perceive you. Having too few or too many friends makes others perceive you as less attractive.

Culture

Learned system of knowledge, behavior, attitudes, beliefs, values, and norms shared by a group of people.

Thin Slicing

Observing a small sample of someone's behavior and then making a generalization about what the person is like, based on the sample.

Intercultural Communication Theory

Our cultural experiences and backgrounds influence how we view the world.

Blaming Others, Assuming They Have Control

People are more likely to believe that others are to blame when something goes wrong than to believe that the problem was beyond their control.

Predicted Outcome Value Theory (POV)

People predict the value of a relationship based on initial self-assessment compared to the potential costs and rewards of the relationship. We make predictions about the future of a relationship based on early information we learn.

Active Perception

Perception that occurs because you seek out specific information through intentional observation and questioning.

Passive Perception

Perception that occurs without conscious effort, simply in response to one's surroundings.

Stereotyping

Preconceived notions about what they expect to find may keep people from seeing what's before their eyes and ears. We allow our pre-existing rigid expectations about others to influence our perceptions.

Perception

Process of experiencing the world and making sense out of what you experience.

Closure

Process of filling in missing information or gaps in what we perceive.

Selective Attention

Process of focusing on specific stimuli, locking on to some things in the environment and ignoring others.

Punctuation

Process of making sense out of stimuli by grouping, dividing, organizing, separating, and categorizing information.

Impression Formation Theory

Theory that explains how you develop perceptions about people and how you maintain and use those perceptions to interpret their behaviors.

Primacy Effect

Tendency to attend to the first pieces of information observed about another person in order to form an impression. The first impression that a person forms of you will be maintained throughout your relationship, even if it is proven to be incorrect.

The Recency Effect

Tendency to attend to the most recent information observed about another person in order to form or modify an impression.

Self-Serving Bias

Tendency to perceive our own behavior as more positive than others' behavior.

Selective Exposure

Tendency to put ourselves in situations that reinforce our attitudes, beliefs, values, or behaviors.

Stage 3: Interpreting

The final stage in perception, in which we assign meaning to what we have observed.

Stage 1: Selecting

The first stage in the perceptual process, in which we select certain sensations on which to focus awareness. The number of sensations you can mindfully attend to at any given time is limited. You select the sensations on which to focus. We perceive and remember selectively. 4 principals frame the process of how we select what we see, hear, and experience: 1. Selective perception 2. Selective attention 3. Selective exposure 4. Selective recall

Stage 2: Organizing

The second stage in the perceptual process, in which we assemble stimuli into convenient and efficient patterns. We organize our world by creating categories, linking together the categories, and seeking closure by filling in the gaps that we perceive. The cognitive framework we use to organize and categorize our experiences is our cognitive schema- a "mental basket" for sorting and identifying.

Casual Attribution Theory

Theory of attribution that identifies the cause of a person's actions as circumstance, a stimulus, or the person himself or herself. We ascribe a person's actions to circumstance, a stimulus, or the person himself or herself.

Standpoint Theory

Theory that a person's social position, power, or cultural background influences how the person perceives the behavior of others. We interpret the behavior of others through the lens of our own social position, power, or cultural background.

Uncertainty Reduction Theory

Theory that claims people seek information in order to reduce uncertainty, thus achieving control and predictability.

Forming Impressions of Others

When we first meet someone, we form a first impression without having much information, and we often hold onto this impression throughout the relationship. Researchers have found that we often give special emphasis to the first and last things we observe about another person. We also generalize from specific positive or negative perceptions we hold.

Implicit Personality Theory

Your unique set of beliefs and hypotheses about what people are like.