Take a moment do a quick inventory of your senses: What do you see? Smell? Hear? Feel? Every second of every minute of every hour of every day, we are exposed to stimuli. Yet, what we choose to attend to and how we interpret it varies greatly from person to person. In this chapter, we will learn about the perception process and how we interpret a wide range of stimuli, from objects to people to behaviors. We will also address cultural and personality differences, and we will discuss how to improve communication competence.

 

Essential Questions

  • How does the perception process work?
  • How and why can we improve the role of perception in interpersonal communication?

Successful students will be able to:

  • explain three parts of the perception process
  • describe how we form impressions of people and make attributions for behaviors
  • recognize ways that culture and personality may affect perception
  • demonstrate the skill of perception checking
  • explain the roles of context and reflection in improving perception

Back to: I.C.A.T Interpersonal Communication Abridged Textbook > Chapter 3: The Perception Process & Perception of Others