Perception and Communication

 











Putting this week in perspective, I learned that every contact we make involves communications skills. This contact could be speaking and listening, speech patterns, the words we use, the tone of our voice, our body language, and even the silences all play a part in how successful our communications are.

I learned those good communicators are aware of their behaviors and their effect on others. Researchers call this awareness self-monitoring. High self-monitors pay close attention to the way they look, sound, and act in social situations. In contrast, low self-monitors often seem oblivious to their behaviors and other people's reactions to them. Self-monitoring usually makes people more competent communicators because it enables them to see how their behavior fits or doesn't fit in a given social setting. In addition, high self-monitors often have high levels of social and emotional intelligence, qualities that allow them to understand people's social behaviors and emotions accurately.

From this week's study, I also learned how personal schema influences our perception of others. Of course, we all have ideas and beliefs about other people, but we also hold the same sort of impressions about ourselves. All our various self-schemas combine and interact to form our self-concept. 

We develop perceptual schemas to organize impressions of people based on their appearance, social roles, interaction, or other traits; these schemas then influence how we perceive different things in the world. These schemas are heuristics or shortcuts that save time and effort on computation. The perceptions we make of others and that others make of us affect how we communicate and act (Kettering Global, 2016).

My takeaway from this week's learning is that humans use communication for expression, allowing people to convey, relay, and give feedback on their thoughts, feelings, and desires. It is not just the perception of the critical listener but also the speaker. Therefore, the conveyor of the information must consider their perceptions to understand how to best convey information to those who are listening or receiving the information.

For example, some people may require more information to know how to begin a project. In contrast, others may need a more literal guide, such that the perception of the speaker must not get in the way of conveying the information but must be delivered in a way that is most effective for both the speaker and the listeners. 

Understanding each other's perceptions is so important to me in dealing with my colleagues and parents. For me to have effective communication, I must be ready to engage others on an interpersonal level. So that confusion and misunderstandings are mitigated and efficiency is maximized.



                                      Reference


Kettering Global. (2016). Effective Communication Depends on How You Perceive the World

https://online.kettering.edu/news/2016/06/21/effective-communication-depends-how-you-perceive-world






Comments

  1. Lucy, I enjoyed your post this week. You are so right that literally everything we do, involves communication and those skills will make or break us. This week I really changed my focus on how others perceive me and how I need to be intentional with my communication (both verbal and non-verbal) to make sure that others are on the same page with me.

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  2. Hi Lucy,
    I enjoyed reading your blog post you made some good points about communication skills (speaking, listening, and different speech pattern etc. are all important when communicating with others. Your take away that people use communication as away of expression themselves is a good take away for all of us. Communication is the way of the world, we all communicate some form or fashion whether through verbal or nonverbal communication. Good Post!

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  3. Communication does play a role in everything! It is interesting how you used the example of ways people approach a project. This is such an important thought when communicating and how putting yourself in another person's perspective can be so valuable sometimes. Great post!

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