Perception in
Interpersonal
Communication
Unit: 6
 Perception is the
process of
becoming aware
of objects and
events through
the senses
I. Stages of Perception
The way we
Sense
Organize
InterpretEvaluate
information
A. Stimulation
1. take in stimuli
through the 5 senses
2. we are selective in the
stimuli we choose to
perceive
a. selective attention =
attend to things that you
anticipate will fulfill your
needs
b. selective exposure =
expose yourself to things
that will confirm your
beliefs
B. Organization
1. proximity =
things that
are close
together in
physical
distance are
seen as one
unit
Separate
but
together
2. Schemata = organize
material by creating
mental templates or
structures
3. Scripts = type of schema
C. Interpret-Evaluate
1. we assign meaning to
stimuli as soon as we
perceive it.
2. we evaluate stimulus as
either pos. or neg. as
soon as we perceive it.
D. Memory = stored
perceptions and their
interpretationsevaluations for later
recall
E. Recall = is
reconstructive not
reproductive
II. Perceptual Process
A. Implicit Personality
Theory =
your own unscientific
theory based on
certain characteristics
belonging with others
B. Self-Fulfilling Prophecy =
strongly influence
situations based on
how we view and label
things
(There are 4 Steps)
The 4 Steps are:
1. make a prediction
2. act as if the prediction is
true
3. because you act as if true,
it becomes true
4. prediction is confirmed
C. Perceptual Accentuation =
process that leads you
to see what you expect
to see and what you
want to see
D. Primacy-Recency
1. Primacy-Effect = what
comes first is the most
influential
2. Recency- Effect = what
comes last is the most
influential
E. Consistency =
tendency to maintain
balance among
perceptions or attitudes
F. Stereotyping =
is a fixed
impression
of a group
of people
III. Attribution Theory =
process of attributing
motivation to a
person’s behavior
A. Two Types of
Motivation
1. internal control =
inside the person
2. external control =
outside of the
person
B. Attribution Errors
1. self-serving bias =
only take
responsibility for the
positive behaviors
2. over-attribution =
single out a couple of
obvious
characteristics and
attribute everything
that person does to
them
3. fundamental
attribution error = over
value internal factors
and under value
external factors of
others