2018/03/07

AZA1433
Marianne Louw

Recap
1 Communication process
2 Frame of
reference

Frame of reference

1
 2018/03/07

Frame of reference

Values
 The things…
 we value in life
 that make life meaningful
 that are essential to our happiness

 Anything can be value:

 Object (cell phone)
 Activity (playing soccer)
 Person
 Concept (loyalty, romance, integrity…)

Examples of values
Being a Being an Being artistic Being highly
team player achiever educated
Being honest Being in Being in Being
charge shape popular
Being Being Growing as Having a
thorough wealthy a person close family
Having a Having an Having fun Having inner
romantic established peace
partner routine
Having Having Helping Making a
integrity variety others difference

2
 2018/03/07

Beliefs
 Anything you believe…
 consistently
 over a long period of time

Cape Town is
beautiful
Beer tastes
awful I will
Girls are only
never
after money
drive a
Family Honda
God comes first
exists The earth
is round

Attitudes
 An attitude:
 reflects your feelings and opinions about
something/someone
 has two dimensions:
1. Direction (whether you feel positive/negative)
2. Intensity (how strongly you feel)

3
 2018/03/07

Perception =

Sensory
Interpretation
observation

Perception

In Communication, we are
concerned with social perception.
But we can learn a lot about that
by looking at physical perception.

4
 2018/03/07

There are only six ‘real’

triangles. The rest we
‘complete’ in our
perception.

We believe we ‘see’
reality/truth, but we are really
putting some pieces together
and filling in the blanks, and not
always accurately.

What do
you see?
A horse and rider

Our perceptions depend on our frame of reference

(experience).

Which orange
circle is bigger?

They are the same size, but

the circles around them
make them look different.

Our perceptions are influenced by the context.

5
 2018/03/07

We perceive what we expect to perceive (frame of

reference).

How many ‘f’s in the following sentence?

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT

OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY
COMBINED WITH THE
EXPERIENCE OF YEARS...

There are six ‘f’s in the text. (Our brains do not

register ‘of’.)
During perception we filter information, keeping what
we consider important and discarding ‘irrelevant’
information.

Different people may perceive very different and even

conflicting things in the same situation.

6
 2018/03/07

How many faces can you see?

Awareness of something can help us perceive it better.

Do you see
Michael Jackson?

Hint: squint

Focused attention
can help us
perceive better.

7
 2018/03/07

Mountain and lake… or praying mother and child?

We can perceive something different when we take a

different perspective/viewpoint.

Woman and
mirror… or skull?

Two very different

perceptions can
both be true.

8
 2018/03/07

Perceptual filters
Limits the scope of our Distorts our
observation interpretation of what
we have observed
(preventing us from (preventing us from
perceiving fully) perceiving accurately)

Perception: selectivity & subjectivity

 Stimulus = anything perceived through
senses
 Selective attention = sub/consciously filtering
out certain stimuli (have to avoid overload)
 Selective perception = sub/consciously
interpreting only certain stimuli or with bias
 Perceptual predisposition = tendency to
perceive certain stimuli in a specific way
(frame of reference plays big role)

Perception
 Our perceptions are:
 Subjective
 Inaccurate
 Incomplete

 Our perceptions are our reality

 Distorted perceptions  ineffective
communication

9
 2018/03/07

Self-perception

My behaviour in line
with my expectations
Others’
response to
my
behaviour

My beliefs
about self &
others’
responses My beliefs
about self are
strengthened

10
 2018/03/07

Primacy & recency effect

 Primacy effect
 First information we receive about a person is the
most decisive in forming our first impression about
him/her.
 First impressions can be inaccurate
 Yet important (job interview)

 Recency effect
 Last information = most decisive
 Does not necessarily exclude primacy effect

11
 2018/03/07

Appearance & perceptions

 Wearing glasses – ‘more intelligent’
 Children prefer good-looking classmates
 Attractive people – more popular, sexual,
successful… and happier!
 Young people dating: physical appearance
plays central role
 Beauty = talent
 But ‘beauty backlash’ for career women
 Effect strongest early in relationship

Perceptions & appearance

 Prior information can affect perceptions
(e.g. feminists seen as less attractive)
 Tend to judge people of higher status and
people we like as taller than people of low
status and people we dislike
 We also perceive people we like as smarter
and better looking than people we dislike
 Good communication skills can improve
your perceived appearance!

12
 2018/03/07

Private theory of personality

 Attribution of personality traits on the
grounds of physical traits & behaviour
 Most people consider themselves good
judges of character
 Experiment:
 Subjects had to judge people's IQ's from
photographs.
 Agreed on intelligence or lack
 Judgments were NOT accurate

Private theory of personality

 We all have different private theories of
personality (but some similarities within
culture)
 You do this when you meet a person for the
first time
 Characteristics that do not fit in:
 Look for an explanation for it
 Try to make it fit it in with the existing profile

 Certain traits = more central in forming

impressions (e.g. ‘cold’)

13
 2018/03/07

Halo effect Horn effect

Extending a positive Extending a negative

impression of one trait to impression of one trait to
other traits other traits

Stereotypes
 Originally a printing term
 Today means generalisation about a group
of people
 Examples?
 What is the problem with stereotypes?
 Are stereotypes always false?
 May have kernel of truth
 But when applied to individual: often
inaccurate

14
 2018/03/07

Stereotypes
 We don’t perceive someone as unique but
as member of category (black, woman,
actress, disabled, beautiful…)
 Generalisations:
 Distort perceptions
 Interfere with accurate judgment
 Example of noise

 Stereotypes constrain others’ behaviours,

leading to confirmation of stereotypes

Stereotyping: race/culture
 “Blacks are lazy”
 “Whites are racist”
 “Afrikaners are conservative”
 “Indians are dishonest”
 Even positive stereotypes can be damaging:
 Foster resentment
 Inaccurate perceptions

Stereotyping: age
 In cultures with an emphasis on youth, age
stereotyping is common
 Older people find it difficult to change jobs
 Sickly, deaf, weak, talking too much,
dependent, incompetent
 Young people: impulsive, rebellious,
undisciplined, liking excitement & novelty

15
 2018/03/07

Stereotyping: gender

Stereotyping: disability
 helpless
 pathetic
 sickly
 childlike
 unintelligent
 dependent
 victims

16
 2018/03/07

Stereotyping: appearance

Improving perceptual skills

 Recognise your perceptions are fallible
 Try to be objective
 Give others the benefit of the doubt
 Verify your perceptions

17
 2018/03/07

Frasier
Niles
Roz Daphne
Martin

Psychiatrist with
Frasier’s
radio programme,
programme
intellectual snob Frasier’s
producer and dad who
friend Martin’s British
lives with
live-in
him, ex-
Frasier’s brother, physiotherapist
cop, simple
psychiatrist, (Niles is madly
guy
intellectual snob but secretly in
love with her)

Introduction
 Developed (1969) by psychologist RD Laing
 Focuses on:
 Relationships
 How communication affects relationships

 Relationships fluctuate as perceptions,

expectations & behaviour vary

18
 2018/03/07

Behaviour versus experience

Behaviour Experience
Observable actions Internal perceptions &
(‘public’) feelings (‘private’)
e.g. A shouts at B e.g. B feels embarrassed

Two levels of experience

Direct perspective Meta-perspective
Interpret behaviour Interpret experience
observed directly

Accuracy Direct perspectives

& similarity + meta-perspectives
-----------------------------
= how define relationship
Healthy
relationship

19
 2018/03/07

Inaccurate meta-perspectives

A: inaccurate
meta-perspective

Spirals misunderstanding
B: negative
conflict
response

B: incorrect
meta-perspective
A: behaviour

20