1. WHAT IS PERCEPTION?
a. Perception: The process of interpreting the messages of our senses to provide order and meaning to the environment.
Help sort out and organize the complex and varied input received by our senses of sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing.
Interpreting: base their actions on the interpretation of reality that their perceptual system provides rather than on reality itself.
2. COMPONENTS OF PERCEPTION
a. A perceiver, a target that is being perceived, and some situational context in which the perception is occurring. -> Influences the perceiver's impression or interpretation of the target.
b. Factors that influence perception c. The Perceiver: The perceiver's experience, needs, and emotions can affect his or her perceptions of a target. Influences his or her impressions of a target is experience. Past experiences lead the perceiver to develop expectations, and these expectations affect current perceptions.
Example: Ratings of the perceived importance of race and gender for promotion opportunities in executive jobs Perceptual defense: The tendency for the perceptual system to defend the perceiver against unpleasant emotions.
d. The Target: Perception involves interpretation, and the addition of meaning to the target, and ambiguous targets are especially susceptible to interpretation and addition. Providing more info about the target might not improve perceptual accuracy. A reduction in ambiguity might not be accompanied by greater accuracy.
e. The situation: Every instance of perception occurs in some situation context, and this context can affect what one perceives. The MOST important effect that the situation can have is to add info about the target.
For example, the perceiver and the target are the same, but the perception of the target changes with the situation.
3. SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY
a. Social identity theory: A theory that states that people form perceptions of themselves based on their personal characteristics and memberships in social categories.
b. Personal identity is based on our unique personal characteristics, such as our interests, abilities, and traits.
c. Social identity is based on our perception that we belong to various social groups, such as our gender, nationality, religion, occupation, and so on.
d. As individuals, we categorize ourselves and others to make sense of and understand the social environment. The choice of specific categories depends on what is most salient and appropriate to the situation.
e. Prototypes: once a category is chosen, we tend to see members of that category as embodying the most typical attributes of that category.
f. Forming self-perceptions based on our social memberships and memberships in social categories. B/c social identities are relational and comparative.
g. Social identity theory helps us understand how the components of the perceptual system operate in the formation of perception. We perceive people in terms of the attributes ...
