Learning Objectives:

1. Identify and evaluate signals in the environment as they relate to professionalism, hidden rules, work ethic and perception.
2. Define key words that relate to professionalism, work ethic, perception and attitude.
3. Explain the meaning of professional presence.
4. Determine ways attitude affects perception of communication and environment.
5. Understand how use of technology impacts how communication is interpreted and how attitudes are communicated.

Perception

Have a look at this short video:  http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=perception+video&FORM=VIRE1#view=detail&mid=2BAD8E8EEF3DE5A7A37E2BAD8E8EEF3DE5A7A37E

And this one, too:
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Wrong+Perception&Form=VQFRVP#view=detail&mid=FF0D4529AB2AAD0902B5FF0D4529AB2AAD0902B5 man chasing man…wallet “SORRY THIS VIDEO NO LONGER AVAILABLE”

The perceptual process allows us to experience the world around us. Take a moment to think of all the things you perceive on a daily basis. At any given moment, you might see familiar objects in your environment, feel the touch of objects and people against your skin, smell the aroma of a home-cooked meal and hear the sound of music playing in your next door neighbor’s apartment. All of these things help make up our conscious experience and allow us to interact with the people and objects around us.

In this overview of perception and the perceptual process, we will learn more about how we go from detecting stimuli in the environment to actually taking action based on that information.

What Is Perception?

Perception is our sensory experience of the world around us and involves both the recognition of environmental stimuli and actions in response to these stimuli. Through the perceptual process, we gain information about properties and elements of the environment that are critical to our survival. Perception not only creates our experience of the world around us; it allows us to act within our environment.

Perception includes the five senses; touch, sight, taste smell and taste. It also includes what is known as proprioception, a set of senses involving the ability to detect changes in body positions and movements. It also involves the cognitive processes required to process information, such as recognizing the face of a friend or detecting a familiar scent.

Definition

Perception is the process of using the senses to acquire information about the surrounding environment or experience; an impression or understanding based on what is observed or thought.

The Perceptual Process

The perceptual process is a sequence of steps that begins with the environment and leads to our perception of a stimulus and an action in response to the stimulus. This process is continual, but you do not spend a great deal of time thinking about the actual process that occurs when you perceive the many stimuli that surround you at any given moment.

The process of transforming the light that falls on your retinas into an actual visual image happens unconsciously and automatically.

The subtle changes in pressure against your skin that allow you to feel an object occur without a single thought.

The Environmental Stimulus

The world is full of stimuli that can attract our attention through various senses. The environmental stimulus is everything in our environment that has the potential to be perceived.

This might include anything that can be seen, touched, tasted, smelled or heard. It might also involve sensations from nerve endings, such as the movements of the arms and legs or the change in position of the body in relation to objects in the environment.

For example, imagine that you are out on a morning jog at your local park. As you perform your workout, there are a wide variety of environmental stimuli that might capture your attention. The tree branches are swaying in the slight breeze; a man is out on the grass playing fetch with his Golden Retriever; a car drives past with the windows rolled down and the music blaring; a duck splashes in a nearby pond. All of these things represent the environmental stimuli, serving as a starting point for the perceptual process.

The Attended Stimulus

The attended stimulus is the specific object in the environment on which our attention is focused. In many cases, we might focus on stimuli that are familiar to us, such as the face of a friend in a crowd of strangers at the local coffee shop. In other instances, we are likely to attend to stimuli that have some degree of novelty.

From our earlier example, let’s imagine that during your morning jog, you focus your attention on the duck floating in the nearby pond.

The duck represents the attended stimulus. During the next step of the perceptual process, the visual process will progress.

The Image on the Retina

Next, the attended stimulus is formed as an image on the retina. The first part of this process involves the light actually passing through the cornea and pupil and onto the lens of the eye. The cornea helps focus the light as it enters the eye, and the iris of the eye controls the size of the pupils in order to determine how much light to let in. The cornea and lens act together to project an inverted image on the retina.

As you might already be aware, the image on the retina is actually upside down from the actual image in the environment. At this stage of the perceptual process, this is not terribly important. The image has still not been perceived, and this visual information will be changed even more dramatically in the next step of the process.

Transduction

The image on the retina is then transformed into electrical signals in a process known as transduction. This allows the visual messages to be transmitted to the brain to be interpreted.

The retina contains many photoreceptor cells. These cells contain proteins known as rods and cones. Rods are primarily for seeing things in low light, while cones are associated with detecting color and shapes at normal light levels.

The rods and cones contain a molecule called retinal, which is responsible for transducing the light into visual signals that are then transmitted via nerve impulses

Neural Processing

The electrical signals then undergo neural processing. The path followed by a particular signal depends on what type of signal it is (i.e. an auditory signal or a visual signal).

Through the series of interconnect neurons located throughout the body, electrical signals are propagated from the receptors cells to the brain. In our previous example, the image of duck floating in the pond is received as light on the retina, which is then transduced into an electrical signal and then processed through the neurons in the visual network.

In the next step of the perceptual process, you will actually perceive the stimuli and become aware of its presence in the environment.

Perception

In the next step of the perception process, we actually perceive the stimulus object in the environment. It is at this point that we become consciously aware of the stimulus.

Let’s consider our previous example, in which we imagined that you were out for a morning jog in the park. At the perception stage, you have become aware that there is something out on the pond to perceive.

Now, it is one thing to be aware of stimuli in the environment, and quite another to actually become fully consciously aware of what we have perceived.

In the next stage of the perceptual process, we sort the perceived information into meaningful categories.

Recognition

Perception doesn’t just involve becoming consciously aware of the stimuli. It is also necessary for our brain to categorize and interpret what it is we are sensing. Our ability to interpret and give meaning to the object is the next step, known as recognition.

Continuing our example, it is at the recognition stage of the perceptual process that you realize that there is a duck floating on the water.

The recognition stage is an essential part of perception since it allows us to make sense of the world around us. By placing objects in meaningful categories, we are able to understand and react to the world around us.

Action

The final step of the perceptual process involves some sort of action in response to the environmental stimulus. This could involve a variety of actions, such as turning your head for a closer look or turning away to look at something else.

The action phase of perceptual development involves some type of motor action that occurs in response to the perceived and recognized stimulus. This might involve a major action, like running toward a person in distress, or something as subtle as blinking your eyes in response to a puff of dust blowing through the air.

Three things Shape Perceptions:

1. Accumulated data points
2. Maps & Lenses
3. Expectations

Accumulated Data Points

Since perceptions are conclusions we draw about people, places, and things, a wheelbarrow full of accumulated information feeds our minds with information and stimuli that percolate before eventually simmering into drawn conclusions.

For example, the more closely we follow our favorite local sports team, the wider and deeper our observations and information base grows. The more movies we see, the more opinionated we grow about what constitutes a good script, bad actor, memorable score, or fabulous director.

Unfortunately, not all data points are fact-based. Opinions shape perceptions, too. Unfortunately, the views and opinions of others can also be a bit distorted. Opinions are shaped only by what is observed rather than facts

Maps & Lenses

Our view of the world is shaped by two things: our upbringing, followed by life’s significant emotional events and other experiences.

Our upbringing through the years of 0-to-13 accumulates life experiences and influences based on family (or lack thereof), surrounding support systems and infrastructure, culture, socioeconomic status, environment, education, teachers, coaches, religion, friends, enemies, and cultural expectations. The list is long but how we process all these things during our formative years projects us forward to who we become as adults. They create “our map of the world” and provide the lenses through which we look at life, each other, and things happening around us.

After those formative years have shaped how we look at things, significant emotional events and experiences will change them. These are the big events — positive and negative — that cause us to stop, reflect, and self-assess. Getting married or having children are positive. Getting divorced or laid off work or losing a loved one can be emotionally debilitating. These are the things that reshape us as we advance through different stages of life.

Soon the world’s population will surpass seven billion, which means we are surrounded by seven billion brilliantly unique sets of maps and lenses. These exist in each of us, and should be respected as such.

Everyone is unique. There is a magic to that that is undeniably good. Difference can be embraced as good or bad. Maps and lenses shape our core beliefs and should be understood in ourselves and respected in others. Since core beliefs rarely change, arguing about them creates little except bitterness and bad feelings by the unknowing. Seeking to understand more and judge less can enable interpersonal effectiveness to rise.

Expectations

Individuals find in life what they look for. Look for the good, see the good. Look for the bad, see the bad. Negative thoughts accelerate negative conclusions. Closed minds miss opportunities. Open minds mean all things remain possible. Curiosity and exploration of differences can improve outcomes.

White—Black—Mexican—Muslim—Christian—Democrat—Republican—Rich—Poor—Homeless—Sales person—Politician—Preacher—Criminal—Men—Women—Elderly—Teenager–Baby

Think about the labels shown above. Chances are you have a perception regarding at least a couple of those labels.  How did that happen?  The answer to how our perceptions are formed lies within the coming together of two elements.

The first element in understanding how our perceptions are formed is experience.  Our parents get a divorce.  We go to our first school dance.  We go to college.  We don’t go to college.  We start a business.  We fail in business.  We get promoted.  We get married. We trust someone. Someone breaks our trust.

Life’s significant experiences are filled with emotions and thoughts that play a big role in how our perceptions are formed, but it’s only half of the equation.

The second element in the union of perceptions is our information.  We are told that marriage is good, or we are told that it is bad.  We are informed how to look at rich people, homeless people, preachers, and criminals. We gather a variety of reactions, emotions, and other signals around each experience. This information becomes reality whether it is reliable information or not.

Information surrounds us.  Bad experience and bad information results in faulty perceptions. Faulty perceptions will then lead to misdirection and disconnection.

Regardless of whether it is good or bad though, our information is what we use to process our experiences and form our perceptions.  Better experiences and better information result in better perceptions leading to direction and connection.

Here’s the bottom line regarding how our perceptions are formed.

Bad experience and bad information results in faulty perceptions.  Faulty perceptions will then lead to misdirection, disconnection.  We miss out on experiences, opportunities and relationships that could have been healthy and beneficial. And in the end, forms how we are perceived by others.

In Summary

Our past experiences, reaction of our senses, and our personal history form perceptions. Our perceptions inform how we think about a current experience. Attitudes about people, places, and things are formed. Then behavior /action happens. Action causes results and consequences, either positive or negative, and ultimately how we are perceived by others.

Sometimes there are good perceptions based on factual data. There are also perceptions that form by what others want us to think based on their own perceptions. The good news is that perceptions are not permanent and with self-awareness and curiosity, can be changed. Changing perceptions changes reality as well as outcomes.

http://oceanpalmer.com/2011/07/perceptions-part-1-of-3-how-perceptions-are-formed/ Copyright © 2015 Ocean Palmer, need permission to use

Answer the questions below during your process of reflection.

1. What assumptions and meaning did you attach to what you heard or observed?
2. What conclusions did you make that formed a basic belief that you might not be aware of?
3. What action did you take and what different action might you have taken if you had tested your assumptions along the way?

https://mindspring.wordpress.com/2008/01/20/ladder-of-inference/ © mindspring.wordpress.com, Ashraf, from Chris Argyris, Harvard Business School, Accessed 9/3/2015 – Need permission to use.

Directions: Make at least 1 observation of someone performing on the job when you are out shopping, out to eat or somewhere where you are a customer. Then observe a televised news program and select a story to respond to. For the third observation, record an observation of something that occurs in your daily life….radio, television, You Tube, newspaper article, etc.

Record what you observe or hear in the right hand column. Record your immediate reaction or interpretation of what you see or hear in the left hand column.

Read your observations and interpretations at a later time and analyze what you see related to the Ladder of Inference.

Consider what have you learned about youself doing this exercise. List at least one thing below: