Lecture (3) PDF - The Self and Perception in Human Communication

Lecture (3) Dr. Asmaa kandil The “Self” and “Perception” in “Human Communication” The Self in Human Communication  Self-concept Your self-concept is your image of who you are. Self-concept is how we perceive our behaviors, abilities, and unique characteristics Who you...

Lecture (3) Dr. Asmaa kandil The “Self” and “Perception” in “Human Communication” The Self in Human Communication  Self-concept Your self-concept is your image of who you are. Self-concept is how we perceive our behaviors, abilities, and unique characteristics Who you are and how you see yourself influence others in the communication process. Examples of self-concept A person sees herself as an intelligent person. A man perceives himself as an important member of his community. A woman sees herself as an excellent spouse and friend. A person thinks of himself as a caring person. Four Contributors of how you see your Self  Others’ images of you ❑If you want to see how your hair looks, you probably look in a mirror, But what would you do if you wanted to see how friendly or how assertive you are? ❑According to the concept of the “looking-glass self” (Cooley, 1922), you’d look at the image of yourself that others reveal to you through the way they communicate with you.  Others’ images of you ❑Of course, you would not look to just anyone. Rather, you would look to those who are most significant in your life such as your friends, family members, and so on.. ❑If these significant others think highly of you, you will see a positive self-image reflected in their behaviors; if they think little of you, you will see a more negative image.  Comparisons with Others ❑Another way you develop self-concept is by comparing yourself with others, most often with your peers. ❑After an exam, you probably want to know how you performed relative to the other students in your class. This gives you clearer idea of how effectively you performed. ❑You gain a different perspective when you see yourself in comparison to your peers.  Cultural Teachings ❑Your culture instills in you a variety of beliefs, values, and attitudes about such things as success (how you define it and how you should achieve it). ❑Your ability to achieve what your culture defines as success, for example, contributes to a positive self- concept; in the same way, your failure to achieve what your culture encourages contributes to a negative self- concept.  “Self-Interpretations” and “Self- Evaluations” ❑Your self-interpretations contribute to your self- concept. ❑Self evaluations (the value—good or bad—that you place on the behavior also contribute also to your self- concept.  Exaples of “Self-interpretations” and “Self-Evaluations” ❑Steal is a Sin ❑Lying is wrong ❑Help someone at great personal risk If you know wrong is wrong, good is good you are closely to Self Awareness. ❑let’s say that you pull someone out of a burning building at great personal risk. You will probably evaluate this behavior positively; you’ll feel good about this behavior and, as a result, about yourself.  Self-Awareness ❑Your knowledge of who you are; of your traits, your strengths and limitations, your emotions and behaviors, is basic to all communication. ❑You can achieve self-awareness by examining the several aspects of yourself as they might appear to others as well as to yourself. ❑ One tool that is commonly used for this examination is called the Johari window, a metaphoric division of the self into four areas. Self-Awareness  Johari Window ❑Your Four Selves divided into four areas or “panes,”. ❑ the Johari window shows different aspects or versions of the self. ❑The four aspects are: ❖ the Open Self ❖ Blind self ❖Unknown self. ❖Hidden self  The Open Self ❑This self represents all the information, behaviors, attitudes, and feelings about yourself that you know and that others also know. ❑Such knowledge could include everything from your name, skin color, and age, to your religion and political beliefs. ❑The size of the open self varies according to your personality and the people to whom you’re relating. ❑You may be more open with some people than you are with others.  Blind Self ❑Information about yourself that you don’t know but the other’s know. ❑It is that part of our personality that is invisible to us but visible to the others. ❑It contains information such as non-verbal communication, our characteristics which others see in us, or possibly translate different than us.  Unknown Self ❖Represents those parts of yourself that neither you nor others know. ❖This is information that is buried in your subconscious. for Example: learn of your obsession with money, your fear of criticism, through hypnosis ‫التنويم المغناطيسي‬, dreams, psychological tests.  Hidden Self ❑This self represents all the knowledge you have of yourself but keep secret from others. ❑The hidden self windowpane includes all your successfully kept secrets; for example, your fantasies, embarrassing experiences, and any attitudes or beliefs of which you may be ashamed.  Person’s Johari Window Each person’s Johari window will be different, and each individual’s window will vary from one time to another, and from one communication situation to another.  Self-Esteem Is a measure of how valuable you think you are. People with high self-esteem think very highly of themselves, whereas people with low self-esteem view themselves negatively.  How to Increase and develop our “ Self-Esteem” Attack Self-Destructive Beliefs. Remind Yourself of Your Successes. Work on Projects That will Result in Success. Seek out Positive and optimistic people because they make us feel good about ourselves. Avoid noxious people, those who make you feel negatively about yourself.  Perception “Perception” is the process by which you become aware of objects, events and people through your senses; sight, smell, taste, touch, and sound. “Perception is an active”, not a passive, process. Your “Perceptions” result from what exits in the outside world and from your own experiences, desires and needs.  Perception Perception is so important in communication because it influences your communication choices. The messages you send and listen to, the photos and messages you post and view and comment on, will depend on how you see the world, how you size up specific situations, and what you think of people with whom you interact.  Stages of Perception 3 1 2 4 5 Interpretation- Stimulation Organization Memory Recall Evaluation  Stage 1: Stimulation At the first stage, your sense organs are stimulated (you hear a new album, read someone's tweet, see a friend …. etc.). Stage 2: organization you organize the stimuli in some way At the second stage of perception, you organize the information your senses pick up. Three interesting ways in which you organize your perceptions are: There are many Ways to Organize information like: “Organization by Rules”.  Organization by rules Proximity: The rule says that things that are physically close together constitute a unit. ❖Thus, you would perceive people who are often together, or messages spoken one right after the other, as units, as belonging together. Similarity: a principle stating that things that look alike or are similar in other ways belong together and form a unit. ❖ This principle leads you to see people who dress alike as belonging together. Contrast: when you conclude that some items (people or messages, for example) don't belong together because they are too different from each other. Stage 3: interpretation-evaluation You interpret and evaluate what you perceive. The “Interpretation-evaluation” step is inevitably subjective and is greatly influenced by your experiences, needs, wants, values, expectations, emotional state, gender.  Interpretation-Evaluation Example For example, when you meet a new person who is introduced to you as a colleague football player, you will tend to apply your schema to this person and may view him as a strong, ambitious, academically weak, and egocentric. You will, in other words, see this person through the filter of your schema and evaluate him according to your schema for colleague athletes.  Stage 4: memory you store your perception in memory You store in memory both your perceptions and their interpretations-evaluations.  Stage 5: Recall At some later date, you may want to recall or access information you have stored in memory. when you want to retrieve this information from memory, you are likely to: Recall information that is consistent with your schema. you retrieve the information when you needed them.