How I Perceive Myself and
My Ability to Communicate
How I Perceive Myself and My Ability to Communicate
Rianna Gonzalez
RCC 10FAL-COM
October 2,2020
Self-perception, or self-concept, is important because it defines how we view ourselves
based off of our experiences, interests, behaviors, and how we use this to fit ourselves into the
roles of society. And the way we communicate to others is closely intertwined with this.
Psychologist Prabhakararao Sampthirao (2016) describes the relation between communication as
self-concept as follows,
“Self-concept, self-image, self-esteem and self-efficacy are major factors in the way we
communicate. Whether we are introverts or extroverts that can be seen in the way we
communicate with others. Communication becomes smooth when we become part of it.”
(para. 1 / abstract)
Sampthirao brings up the idea of self-esteem and how it impacts communication, and from a
personal standpoint I can see how. I would say that my ability to communicate as of now would
be somewhere on the positive side, but is crippled by my own introversion and anxiety, which
limits specially how I communicate with people I don’t know very well and when I’m in large
social situations.
How I Perceive Myself and
My Ability to Communicate
But how do I perceive myself? The first thing that comes to mind is inexperienced, and
how my lack of knowledge about the world and even myself affects my overall perception.
Through Johari’s Window we can see how self-disclosure, or the distribution of information,
can affect our self-perception. Most people, myself included, are typically always seeing through
the first and second windows, but it is the third and fourth windows which can limit our field of
view. When we don’t know something and everyone does, or when everybody is the dark, we
will simply lack knowledge, which can create biases or misconceptions. Only through disclosing
information to others or by receiving information can we broaden our views and start to see what
we lacked.
Overall, I think a lot of how I perceive myself has been impacted by media, society, and
the co-cultures that I choose to align myself with. I like the things about myself that society, and
its reflective appraisal and other people tell me to like. Aspects like my intelligence, how polite
and responsible I can be, the things I can give to others. And these aren’t all bad, I do like that
I'm considered by many to be smart, or that I'm hardworking, creative, dependable. But there’s a
lot about myself that I don’t like that society has instilled in me, that I wish I could ignore. I
don’t like certain aspects of my appearance, or the way I present myself to other people, how I
limit and push down who I really am to appease the people around me. But my parents or my
close friends don’t see this. And that’s just how perception works, even if everyone is looking at
the same thing, we all have our own individual perception of it. My mom perceives me
differently than my dad, or my best friend. She always seems to see the good in me, which at
times irrationally irritates me, or she sees the things that I don’t like that she loves.
How I Perceive Myself and
My Ability to Communicate
As I said earlier, when it comes to communicating, I definitely feel like I articulate my
thoughts and ideas fairy well. But I know that there are parts of me that have limited my ability
to communicate to my fullest potential, specifically my alignment with High Uncertainty
Avoidance. The fear and anxiety that can rock me when I am speaking, has led too many missed
opportunities inside class, a failure to communicate for essential things, and even
miscommunication between my own family and friends. Which is what I want to change about
myself as a communicator. I need to start pushing myself to speak out more, which I can do in
class or in public even if it scares me. I'm certain that If I can just find something to motivate me,
besides the prospect of getting over my social anxiety, I can transform myself into becoming the
best communicator I can possibly be.