CHAPTER 3
The Self, Perception
and Communication
The Perception Process (page 69)
• William James, a famous psychologist in 1890
described a child’s word as a “one great blooming,
buzzing confusion.”
• Perception is the process of selectively attending to
information and assigning meaning to it.
• Perception is reality!
– Attention / Selection
– Organization
– Interpretation
Attention and Selection is based on…
• Needs: biological and psychological
• Interests: pertains to our interests
• Expectations: what we expect
A Sensory Test of Expectation
•
Paris
in the
the spring time
Once
in a
a lifetime
Bird
in the
the hand
Perception of Self:
Self Concept and Self Esteem
Self-Concept: (self-identity) the relatively
stable set of perceptions you hold of yourself.
(page 61)
Self Esteem: overall evaluation of your
competence and personal worthiness (page 62)
Forming and Maintaining a Self-concept
(page 62)
• We form our self-concept based on
– our own experiences and
– others’ reactions and responses to us.
 (We place a great deal of emphasis on the first experience
we have with a particular phenomenon, particularly if it is
a negative one - page 26 )
 The power of such comments is increased when the praise
is immediate rather than delayed (Hattie, 1992) (page 27)
 Our Ideal self-concept is what we would like to be! (page 27)
Forming and Maintaining a Self-Concept
(cont.)
• Reflected Appraisals (Harry Stack Sullivan): The
looking-glass self
Reflected appraisal - each of us develops a
self- concept that matches the way we believe
others see us
Significant others - people whose opinions we
especially value
• Self-esteem is not just how well or poorly we do
things, but the importance or value we place on
what we do well or poorly
Effects of Self-Esteem
(page 62)
Someone with high self-esteem will
•
likely to be committed to a partner who perceives them favorably (Leary,
2002)
• attribute their success to hard work (Hattie, 1992)
• take credit for their successes
• defend their views
Someone with low self-esteem will
• likely to be committed to a partner who perceives them less favorably
(Leary, 2002)
• attribute their success to luck (Hattie, 1992)
• overemphasize negative self-talk or may overinflate their sense of selfwork
• put themselves down to avoid hearing criticism of others
Africa
Thailand
The Influence of Gender and Culture on
Self-Perceptions
Culture and the Self-Concept
Individualistic Cultures (page 64)
• Self is separate, individuals should be independent
• Individual should take care of him/herself and immediate
family
• Friends are based on shared interests and activities
• Reward for individual achievement and initiative
• High value on autonomy, individual security, equality
The Influence of Gender and Culture on
Self-Perceptions
Culture and the Self-Concept
Collectivistic Cultures (page 64)
• People belong to extended families or a group
• Person should take care of extended family before self
• Emphasis on belonging to a very few permanent ingroups
• Reward for contribution to group goals
• High value on duty, order, tradition, age, group security,
status, and hierarchy
Accuracy and Distortion of
Self-Concept and Self-Perceptions
• The self-concept is subjective and resists change
Cognitive conservatism: tendency to cling to an
existing self-concept even when evidence shows that
it is obsolete
• Incongruence - gap between our inaccurate selfperceptions and reality.
• Unfortunately, our self-perceptions affect our
behaviors more than our true abilities!
Accuracy and Distortion of
Self-Concept and Self-Perceptions
Individuals tend to reinforce their self-perceptions by adjusting
their behavior to conform with their perceived selfconceptions (page 65)
In other words, improving your perception of self will improve how you
interact with others and improving how you interact with others will
improve your self perception!
SelfConcept
Your
Perception
of Events
Your
Behaviors
Others’
Responses
to You
Accuracy and Distortion of
Self-Concept and Self-Perceptions
• Our inaccuracy of our self-concept is
magnified through:
– Self-fulfilling prophecies
– Filtering messages
– media
The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy (page 32)
• Self-fulfilling prophecy - occurs when a person’s
expectations of an event make the outcome more likely
to occur than would otherwise have been true
– When people expect rejection, they behave in ways that lead
others to reject them (Downey, Freitas, Michaelis, Khouri, 2004) – page 66
• Types of self-fulfilling prophecies:
Self-imposed prophecies
Imposed prophecies by others
• Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) studied effects of
self-fulfilling prophecies in elementary school….
what happened 8 months after beginning study?
Filtering Messages
• We pay more attention to messages that
reinforce our current self-image and messages
that contradict our self-image our downplayed
Influence of Media
Influence of Media
• Social Learning theory – we strive to copy
characteristics and behaviors of characters we
see as “ideal” – (Bandura, 1977)
• Fiji – From 3% to 15% after 3 years – (Becker, 2004)
• Young women’s perceptions of their bodies
changed after 30 minutes of watching
televised images of the “ideal” female form.
Miss America? The Swan?
Self-concept, self-esteem, and
communication
• Self-perceptions moderate self-talk:
– internal conversations with ourselves
• Self-perception influences how we talk about
ourselves with others:
– People with higher self-esteem and stronger selfconcept usually take credit for their successes
• Self-perceptions affect communication
apprehension
– Those who suffer with communication apprehension
tend to engage in negative self topic which leads to
self-fulfilling prophecy (Richmond & McCroskey, 1995)
Communication and Identity
Management
(page 81-82)
Identity Management – the communication strategies
people use to influence how others view them. (page 81)
Public and Private Selves
• Perceived self – reflection of the self-concept, the person you
believe yourself to be
• Presenting self – public image, the way we want others to view us
(We create different “selves” to present in different situations and
with different people)
• Erving Goffman used the word face to describe the presenting self
(page 82)
• Facework describes the verbal and nonverbal ways we act to
maintain our presenting image and the image of others
Presenting The Self to Others
How Do We Manage Identities?
Face to Face Impression Management
• Manner – consists of a communicator’s words and
nonverbal actions
• Appearance – personal items people use to shape an image
• Setting – physical items we use to influence how others
view us
Perception of Others
• Uncertainty reduction – we monitor our environment to learn
more about ourselves and others. The more we learn about
each other and find commonalities, the less uncertain we feel
about each other.
• Social Perceptions are often made on the basis of physical
characteristics and social behaviors. We stereotype!
– We judge one’s friendliness and intelligence on how physically
attractive they are (Aronson, 1999)
– We learn stereotypes from family, friends, coworkers, etc (Hall, 2002)
Perceptions of Others
• Implicit Personality theories: assumptions people have
developed about which physical characteristics and
personality traits or behaviors are associated with another
(Asch, 1946; Michener & DeLamater, 1999).
• Halo effect: you generalize and perceive a person has a whole
set of characteristics when you have only observed one
characteristic, trait, or behavior (Thorndike, 1920).
Common Perceptual Tendencies
(page 72-76)
• We make snap judgments
• We often judge ourselves more charitably
than we judge others – self-serving bias
• We pay more attention to negative
impressions than positive ones
• We cling to first impressions, even if wrong
• We tend to assume that others are similar to
us