1. Week 3: Perceptions of Self and Others in Interpersonal Communication

2. The Self in Interpersonal Communication
How we perceive ourselves
How we present ourselves (or try to present ourselves)
How we actually are

3. The Self in Interpersonal Communication
Self concept – how you perceive yourself comes from four sources
Others’ images of you (looking glass self)
Social comparisons
Upward
Downward
Cultural teachings
Self evaluation

4. The Self in Interpersonal Communication (cont.)
Self awareness – how well you know yourself
The Johari Model emphasizes four aspects of self awareness
Open – known to self and others
Blind – known to others but not self
Hidden – known to self but not others
Unknown – no one knows

5. The Self in Interpersonal Communication (cont.)
The Johari Model
Known to self
Unknown to self
Unknown to others
Known to others
Open Self
Blind Self
Hidden Self
Unknown Self

6. The Self in Interpersonal Communication (cont.)
Growing in self awareness
Ask yourself about yourself
Listen to others
Actively seek information about yourself
See your different selves
Increase your open self

7. The Self in Interpersonal Communication (cont.)
Self Esteem – how valuable you think you are.
Ways to increase self esteem
Attack self destructive beliefs
Seek out nourishing people
Work on projects that will result in success
Secure affirmation

8. Perception in Interpersonal Communication
Perception is the process by which we become aware of objects, events, and people around us
Interpersonal perception is a continuous series of processes that blend into each other
We separate processes into five stages for study and analysis

9. Perception in Interpersonal Communication (cont.)
Five stages of perception
Stage One: Stimulation
Selective perception
Selective attention (Only attend to what we like)
Selective exposure (Expose ourselves only to what confirms our existing beliefs)

10. Perception in Interpersonal Communication (cont.)
Stage Two: Organization (of received info)
Rules
Proximity (physically close things perceived as a unit)
Similarity (similar things = a unit)
Contrast (different things = don’t belong with each other.)
Schemata (schema) (mental templates /stereotypes/ developed via experience)
Scripts (general idea of how some event should unfold; i.e. eating in a restaurant)

11. Perception in Interpersonal Communication (cont.)
Stage Three: Interpretation and Evaluation
Combined because they are simultaneous
Stage Four: Memory (storing interp. to memory– What would you remember about Ben, the football player?)
Stage Five: Recall (likely to recall info consistent with your schema OR contradicts your schema)

12. Impression Formation Impression formation processes
Self-fulfilling prophecy
Implicit personality theory
“Halo effect” (if you believe a person has some positive qualities, you’re likely to infer he also has other positive qualities)
Ex. “Susan is cheerful, positive, and (outgoing, shy).
“Reverse halo effect” or “horns effect” (opposite of halo)
Ex. “Bradley is fat, lazy, and (dumb, smart).”
When asked to rate photos of attractive/less attractive individuals, participants overwhelmingly believed more attractive subjects have more socially desirable personality traits than either averagely attractive or unattractive subjects.
A good idea is a good idea even if it is proposed by the town drunk.  A bad idea is a bad idea, even if it is proposed by the town hero.
Perceptual accentuation (magnify what will satisfy your needs: a thirsty person will see a mirage of water / you see ppl you like as more attractive)

13. Impression Formation Impression formation processes
Perceptual accentuation (magnify what will satisfy your needs: a thirsty person will see a mirage of water / you see ppl you like as more attractive)
Tend to perceive the person you LIKE or HAVE INTEREST FOR as being better than everyone else i.e. smarter, better looking, stornger, wiser, more experienced.
Perceptual accentuation could also lead you to be easily bluffed. An insurance agent who seemingly looks polite, kind and wise may just as well smooth-talking his way into closing a deal with you.

14. Impression Formation (cont.)
Primacy-recency effect
Primacy: What comes first exerts most influence (i.e. first impressions)
Recency :What comes last exerts most influence.
“Ben is smart, attractive, a good conversationalist, insecure, and selfish.
“Ben is selfish, insecure, smart, attractive, and a good conversationalist.”

15. Impression Formation (cont.)
Consistency (expect certain things to go together)
“I expect my friend to (like, dislike) my friend.”
Attribution of control
“I couldn’t tear myself away from the beach. I wanted to get a tan.” (Selfish, therefore negative response)
“I was driving here when I saw an old man get mugged. I broke it up and drove the couple home, but they didn’t have a phone, so I couldn’t call.” (Good Samaritan, therefore positive response)
“I got in a car accident and was taken to the hospital.” (Feel sorry that he got into an accident)

16. Impression Management: Goals and Strategies
Impression management – how to communicate to others the image of yourself you want them to see
Self-presentation
Identity-management

17. Impression Management (cont.)
Impression management strategies
To be liked
Affinity seeking strategies – techniques to get others to like you
Politeness strategies– make ourselves appear likeable (“Would you mind opening a window.” vs. “Open that window!”)

18. Impression Management (cont.)
Politeness and Face
Positive face – desire to be seen favorably or positively by others
Keep positive face – help someone look favorably
Attack positive face – make someone look bad

19. Impression Management (cont.)
Politeness and Face
Negative face – desire to be autonomous or free to act as we wish
Keep negative face – ask someone nicely to do something
Attack negative face – order or command someone to do something

20. Impression Management (cont.)
To be believed
Credibility strategies (ex. emphasizing your education)
To excuse failure
Self-handicapping strategies
To secure help
Self-deprecating strategies

21. Impression Management (cont.)
To hide faults
Self-monitoring strategies (closely censor what you share with others)
To be followed
Influencing strategies (stress your knowledge, expertise, or position)
To confirm self image
Image-confirming strategies (behaviors that confirm your self-image i.e. as a funny person)

22. The Son of Man, 1946 by Rene Magritte

23. Makoto Fujimura- “Joy”

24. MBTI

25. MBTI Case Study
Mary enjoys working in her lab, but has started to notice problems in communicating with the postdoc who’s been assigned to mentor her. Mary prides herself as a “do-er” who works hard and is very willing to put in extra hours in the evenings and weekends in the lab. She enjoys working with her hands, and so has developed excellent technical skills. She prefers having detailed protocols that she can closely follow, so that she doesn’t have to create new protocols or make changes.
But her postdoc often asks questions during their weekly meetings about her research that don’t seem relevant to her, and gives her papers to read that seem to be outside of her field. Mary has been very busy with her coursework and research, and would prefer to focus on only her project. But the postdoc keeps bringing in ideas and papers that seem too abstract to Mary.
Furthermore, he recently asked why a particular step in the protocol was needed, and Mary was stumped. She felt embarrassed, because the particular step consumed an expensive reagent and she realized that she had simply followed the procedure without thinking carefully.

26. MBTI Case Study Questions:
1. Which of the 4 Myers-Briggs category types might explain their different preferences?

2. Based upon this description, what do you think is Mary’s MB type? Explain your reasoning, referring to details mentioned in the case study.

3. What do you think is the postdoc’s MB type? Explain your reasoning.
4. How might Mary adapt, to work better with her postdoc? What might she say or ask the postdoc?

5. How might Mary use her strengths from her MB type to help resolve her problem?

6. What underdeveloped type skills (see tables below for some ideas) might Mary need to address as she considers how to improve the communication with the postdoc?

27. MBTI Case Study
Have you or someone in your group experienced similar situations, where you had different types?
Please share your situation: how the different preferences impacted the relationship, the consequences, if the situation changed, how you dealt with the differences, etc.