Perception is a cognitive function of the psyche that forms an individual perception of the world. This function is a reflection of a phenomenon or object as a whole with its direct influence on the receptor surface parts of the sense organs. One of the core biological processes of the psyche, which determines the complex operation of receiving and transforming information acquired through the senses, which form a personalized holistic image of an object that influences analyzers through a complex of sensations caused by this object, is considered the function of perception or perception.
Perception in psychology is the process of direct active reflection by the cognitive sphere of the subject of internal objects and external objects or phenomena. As a form of sensory representation of an object, perception combines the identification of an object as inseparable, the distinction of individual qualities in it, the detection of informative content in it corresponding to the purpose of the action, and the development of a sensory image. Perception is the process of becoming aware of the stimulation of sensory receptors.
The concept of perception in psychology
Definition 1
Perception is a cognitive process of direct active reflection by a person of various phenomena, objects, events, situations. If this cognition is aimed at social objects, then the phenomenon is called social perception.
The mechanisms of social perception can be observed every day in our daily lives. Mention of perception was already found in the ancient world. Philosophers, physiologists, artists, and physicists made a huge contribution to the development of this concept. But psychology attaches the greatest importance to this concept.
Perception is an important mental function of cognition, which manifests itself as a complex process of transforming and receiving sensory information. Through perception, the individual forms a complete image of the object, which affects the analyzers.
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Thus, perception is a unique form of sensory mapping.
Characteristics and properties of perception
This process has the following main indicators:
- determination of individual parameters;
- tactful data absorption;
- formation of an accurate sensory image of perception.
Perception is in close collaboration with logic, thinking, attention and memory. It is determined by the stimulation of the individual and has an emotional coloring of a specific type.
Note 1
The main characteristics of perception are: structure, apperception, materiality, contextuality, rationality, awareness.
Perceptual factors
Perceptual factors are divided into two types:
- internal;
- external.
External factors include: saturation, size, novelty, contrast, cyclicity, movement, discernibility, definability
Internal perception factors include:
- stimulation, consisting of a visual examination by the individual of everything important and significant for her, of what she needs;
- settings of personal perception, when a person’s expectations are reduced to seeing what was considered earlier in an identical situation;
- experience that opens up the possibility of perceiving what is already familiar, studied during life, both by the individual himself and by other people;
- specific character of a person, reflecting the individual specifics of perception. Each person has a different character, has a different temperament, which leads to different views on the same things, their different perceptions;
- perception of one's own personality. Each person has his own prism of perception, reflecting his own perceiving mechanism.
Finished works on a similar topic
Course work Perception in psychology 420 ₽ Essay Perception in psychology 230 ₽ Test paper Perception in psychology 240 ₽
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Person's perception by person
An interesting picture emerges when it comes to the perception of a person by a person. Interesting because in reality we don’t see each other when we first meet as we really are, and there are many reasons for this.
Have you noticed that when you meet a person who has a pleasant appearance for you, you automatically consider him kind and good? And if he has external similarities with his beloved friend, mother, brother, then sympathy for him increases significantly?
The perception of others is determined by many more factors that we consciously or not pay attention to: posture, gestures, speech culture, manners, behavior, his profession, status and others.
So, there are 4 ways to interpret the characteristics of other people:
- emotional – beautiful, which means good, sincere;
- analytical - frowning eyebrows, sharp cheekbones “characterize” an evil person;
- perceptual-associative - similar to a harmful neighbor, which means just as unpleasant;
- social-associative – attributing social qualities to a person based on appearance. Torn, dirty clothes “tell” us about a dysfunctional personality and makes us want to stay away. But a neat suit and an expensive car elevate a stranger in our eyes.
Interaction with society through perception
The concept of a variety of our perception—social perception—is widely used in psychology.
Definition 2
Social perception is the conscious perception, acceptance and adequate assessment of one’s own personality, other people, and other objects of society.
This term was introduced into scientific practice in 1947 by psychologist D. Bruner. The introduction of this term into psychology opened up the possibility for scientists to have a different look at the problems and tasks of human perception. Being a social being, a person is the subject of the implementation of various social relationships, of different quality and quantity.
Social properties are inherent in every personality. It is in the social environment that a person becomes an individual. Going through the process of socialization is an important stage in the development and formation of basic spiritual and moral properties.
In the process of their life activities, there is a constant construction of communication connections of various types. The nature of these relationships depends on the personal perception of the personality of the objects of the social world.
An individual’s positive or negative attitude towards the people in his environment is determined by his perception and assessment of communication partners. There are three main forms of manifestation of social perception:
- human perception. It is realized by creating an image of perception of surrounding people based on their internal and external properties;
- perceptions of group members. There is an assessment of the social collective in which the individual belongs;
- group perception. It is associated with the assessment of the qualities of group members and the perception of other groups and their members.
Perception begins with assessing the personality of the external appearance of the object. As they say, “you meet people by their clothes.” Only then does the perception of the object occur according to its internal parameters, i.e. the model of his behavior is assessed. Based on the internal and external assessment, the person perceives the object in a certain way and builds a communicative connection with it corresponding to the perception.
The first impression a person makes is important. Very often it has a decisive influence on the development of further relationships. People pay attention to the friendliness of a person, his emotional mood, facial expressions, and gestures. If a person smiles, then he is already attractive and ensures the transition to the next stage of building a communicative connection.
There are three main criteria that determine the perception of a person and the formation of a first impression about him:
- Excellence indicator. If a person has a superior level of development in some direction by the assessing personality, then he can be perceived by her as prevailing in other areas. The assessment of one's properties undergoes, in this case, a change. This perception is typical for people with low self-esteem. This leads to the fact that they trust the opinions of others too much and even rely on it in critical situations, regardless of their negative attitude towards this subject.
- The attractiveness indicator is a specific factor of social perception, through which the merits of members of a social group are analyzed. In this process, attention is focused on assessing external properties, while psychological and other internal qualities are not given due attention.
- The attitude indicator is based on the individual’s response to a social subject, reflecting the subject’s attitude towards him. This process of perception can have both positive and negative consequences. Negative consequences are manifested in the fact that with a positive attitude and differentiation of life position, a person begins to overestimate the properties of the people around him, giving them positive qualities that in fact are not such.
Development methods
Ways to improve:
- Meditation. Can be carried out individually or in a team. With their help you can quickly relieve moral and physical stress. Meditation allows you to suppress anxiety, get rid of negative thoughts and fears. Psychologists recommend combining meditation with breathing techniques to achieve greater effect.
- Games. They can be situational, business, creative, thematic. With their help, you can improve relationships between friends or colleagues. Games help overcome shyness, stiffness, and internal tension. With the help of gaming techniques, skills are quickly consolidated, behavior changes, and non-verbal skills are developed.
- Development of perception. The specialist demonstrates exercises to the participants, with the help of which they must non-verbally or verbally understand how they are perceived from the outside.
- Group discussions. Allows you to analyze issues of interest, problems of the team that interfere with development and achievement of set goals. Joint discussion helps to look at the situation from different angles, find uncharacteristic ways to solve the problem, and identify hidden opportunities.
You can improve the quality of social perception, learn to understand people better, and convey information better using the methods of psychologist Paul Ekman. The point of the practice is to, when communicating with another person, concentrate attention on three areas of his face - nose, chin, forehead. These zones are significant in the expression of sadness, disgust, fear, and anger. To better convey emotions, you need to use gestures.
Internal perception, effective interpersonal relationships, and intuition can be developed with the help of spiritual practices and trainings. It is better to use them at a young age, since in childhood the senses perceive the world around them better.
Mechanisms of social perception
Perception is characterized by specific features of the practical implementation of its mechanisms.
Figure 1. Mechanisms of social perception. Author24 - online exchange of student work
The main mechanisms of social perception are:
- standardization, based on the development of a stable model or a clear idea of certain people, processes, situations and phenomena characteristic of each member of the social collective of which this individual is a representative;
- identification, manifested in intuitive recognition and cognition of an individual or social group in a communicative situation in which a comparison or parallel is made with the internal state of comrades;
- empathy, which consists of emotional sympathy for others, the ability to understand and accept other individuals, by providing them with emotional assistance and introducing them into their personal feelings and experiences;
- reflection, that is, organizing the process of self-knowledge through a system of relationships with other people;
- deviation – orientation of the process of cognition of another person due to the presence of a positive stable feeling;
- establishment of cause-and-effect relationships, manifested in the construction of forecasts of the sensory side and actions of people in the immediate environment.
Figure 2. Mechanisms of social perception. Author24 - online exchange of student work
A feature of the implementation of the process of interpersonal cognition is the assessment of existing physiological properties and the specifics of behavioral reactions.
In this regard, social perception depends on the emotions, motives, opinions, attitudes, distrust, and bias of both participants in the communicative connection.
In social perception there is also subjective monitoring of another person. Perception is a complex device of psychological interaction between a person and the object of his perception. Such interaction is carried out on the basis of a large number of factors affecting the implementation of this process.
Perception - what is it?
The term "perception" can be considered in two contexts. In one of them:
Perception is the process through which images of the surrounding world are formed, a reflection of reality in the psyche.
In this case, the concept is a verb, that is, an action.
In another context, perception is a noun, an object, a result, an image itself.
Most often, science (what is this?) uses the first version of meanings. We will rely on it in this article.
Perception is synonymous with the word perception, which, in turn, translated from Latin perceptio means subjective, sensory knowledge of the environment. Words such as appreciation, acceptance, contemplation and others are also used equally.
What is perception in simple words? In the process of life, a person does not stop learning about the world. For example, in a store you are interested in some thing: you take it in your hands to understand what its texture, weight, density, color, smell, taste and so on, that is, you use the necessary senses (food - taste, book - vision).
All these characteristics cause different sensations, which together give rise to the image of the object. The process of cognition, therefore, is perception.
It is important to note that perception in psychology is not just the sum of sensations. It also includes our individual knowledge and beliefs about the world. This phenomenon is closely related to other mental processes: memory, thinking, speech, motivational sphere and attention.
