Perceiving the Self and Others

 Understand how your personal perspective influences communication  How we use schemas when communicating  How we use attributions to explain behavior

 Understand how cultural differences influence perception  Identify how your self-concept influences communication  Describe how cognitions and behavior affect your communication

A cognitive process through which we interpret our experiences and come to our own unique understandings

 Gathering, organizing, & evaluating information  Goes beyond senses  Involves personal factors

 Selecting  Organizing  Interpreting

Mental structures that put together related bits of information Help you understand how things work and how they should proceed Evolve and change over time

Mindlessness Selective perception Undue influence Bar pickup schema Good Will Hunting Hitch, as we’ve seenHitch

Using personal characteristics to explain others’ behavior Can change over time (Interaction appearance theory) Can be problematic (Fundamental attribution error)

 Verify your perceptions  Be thoughtful when seeking explanations  Look beyond first impressions

Culture affects how we perceive ourselves & others

 The narrow perspective (Cultural myopia)  Stereotyping  Prejudice

 Be mindful  Consider multiple identities and co- cultures  Expand your perspective  Deconstruct your schemas

 Self-concept  Self-esteem  Self-efficacy

 Who you think you are  Influenced by thoughts, actions, abilities, values, goals, ideas…  Influences how you communicate  Comes from how others communicate with you  Direct & indirect evidence  Social comparison theory

 A set of attitudes you hold about your own emotions, thoughts, abilities, skills, behavior, and beliefs.  Linked to Self-Concept: Must know yourself to have attitudes about self.

 Ability to predict actual success based on yourself-concept and self-esteem  Affects your ability to cope with failure and success  Can lead to self-fulfilling prophecies

 Self-Actualization  The feelings & thoughts you get when you know you have negotiated a communication situation as well as you possibly could  Leads to sense of satisfaction & fulfillment

 Self-Adequacy  Assessing your communication competence as sufficient or acceptable  Can lead to contentment or self-improvement

 Self-Denigration  A negative assessment about a communication experience.  Self-criticism  Often unwarranted. Often occurs when communicators place undue importance on weaknesses

 Self-presentation  Intentional communication designed to show elements of self for strategic purposes  Occurs through various channels  Requires self-monitoring

 Self-disclosure  Revealing yourself to others by sharing personal information  Must not be information easily known to others  Sharing must be voluntary

 Self-presentation can be more controlled  Make conscious choices about what to reveal to others  Allows for experimentation with identity