Social perception. Perceptual - what is it? Perception and the perceptual side of communication

A person is surrounded by a whole world, which he perceives through various senses. Several analyzers, which are given physiologically to a person, allow us to perceive the world in all its diversity. This is called perception, which has its own effects and mechanisms. What is unique is that during perception a person makes something external a part of himself.

How does the process of perception occur?

Imagine the situation: someone is staring at you on the street stranger. What do you usually do in such a situation? What thoughts do you have? Some people turn away because they are embarrassed. Others start staring because they feel threatened. Still others ask the stranger why he is looking at them, because they feel like they want something from them. Each person will react differently. But what happens in the real world?

In fact, it’s just one person looking intently at another, and that’s all. Perhaps this person was simply thinking about something of his own, which is why his gaze settled on you. And you have already managed to think something of your own (that he is looking at you, threatening you, wanting something).

Note that you come up with your own ideas about why they look at you, why they don’t smile, why they don’t say hello, etc. Although in fact the reason may be innocent and simple. And you’ve already thought of it!

The conclusion that follows is that there is no need to evaluate the outside world. They are looking at you, let them look. They don’t say hello to you, don’t let them say hello. People around you are laughing, let them laugh. Don't react because it doesn't play any role in your life. Is it really important for you to be looked at and told why they are doing this? Will this help you discover the meaning of life or will large sums of money appear in your pocket? There is no need to evaluate the outside world. Didn't say hello, so what? Continue to live and enjoy your existence and all that truly matters to you.

Don’t react to little things, because it’s easy to ruin your mood, but being happy is much more difficult. So, don’t spoil your mood by thinking that the whole world is against you. It’s better not to think anything at all, but just be on your own wavelength and mind your own business and worries.

What is perception?

Perception is not just the perception of the surrounding world, but also its interpretation. You can pay attention to the fact that each person assesses this or that situation in his own way. If you see a crying child on the street, people will assess what is happening differently:

  • Some will say that he was lost.
  • Others will begin to claim that the child is scared.
  • Still others may think that the child has hammered his leg.
  • Still others will argue that the child is calling his mother in this way.

Essentially, the baby is just crying. And people are already adding reasons for his crying and the current situation.

In psychology, perception refers to sensory knowledge of the surrounding world. This happens at the level of physiology, when a person perceives certain manifestations of the world around him, as well as at the level of emotions, when it involves analysis and drawing conclusions.

The surrounding world is perceived as a whole through perception. This allows a person to study it, separate it from other objects, discover certain information, draw conclusions, etc.

Social perception

A person actively participates in the lives of other people. Society is built on relationships between people, who should be friendly and respectful. However, it can be noted that not all people treat each other kindly and kindly. What is the reason? Here we should consider such a phenomenon as social perception.

This concept refers to the establishment of relationships between people that are based on their own assessments of each other.

  • How does a person perceive another?
  • How are the actions, gestures, and character of the interlocutor assessed?
  • How does the process of interaction between individuals occur?
  • What emotions and feelings does the interlocutor evoke in a person?

These and many other criteria affect how people will build relationships with each other in the future.

Almost all people give ratings. They can be negative and positive, since the individual divides the world around him into good and bad. If he likes something, then he gives a positive rating; if he doesn’t like something, then he gives a negative rating. It seems like a fun game, since you are allowed to give "pros" and "cons" to everything that surrounds you. I didn’t like it – “minus”, I liked it – “plus”. And no one will judge you for this or humiliate you if your assessment does not hurt anyone’s pride.

But in this exciting game there is one pitfall that the swimmer who grades everyone does not notice. Negative and positive assessments do not just talk about exactly how a person relates to a partner, thing, phenomenon, animal, etc. Negative and positive ratings don't just raise or lower the rating of something. This exciting game also tells the person himself, who gives estimates of what he will do and what he will not do.

By giving a positive rating to something, you are giving yourself a “green light” to move on, or a “red light” and turning away from something in the case of a negative rating. In other words, with your assessments you tell yourself: “Yes, I’ll take it... I’ll do this... I’ll communicate with him...” or “No, I don’t want that...” I don't want to see him anymore... This is absolutely not interesting to me...” But who knows what is useful for you and in what situations? Until you try, you won't know. And with your assessments you slow yourself down on the path of development, testing and gaining experience.

It is very easy to give someone or something a positive or negative rating. Evaluating is one of the exciting activities person, especially if he is in a bad mood. Appreciated by the whole world negative words– and you feel not so bad, not so humiliated. But it is precisely with these very assessments that you give yourself the “green” or “red” light to go or not to go, to take or not to take, to do or not to do. With your assessments, you set limits for yourself that do not exist in nature at all.

If you gave a negative rating, you built a kind of wall between yourself and the person or thing you gave a negative rating to. What if this is exactly what you need to be happy? Maybe this person could help you become more successful? And you gave him a negative rating only because he came in with torn shoes.

Be careful what and who you evaluate. Most perfect option– get rid of any assessments altogether. Why build barriers for yourself? After all, you can go anywhere and do anything. So start living a freer life, leaving the process of evaluating the world around you to other people.

Thus, social perception includes:

  1. Individual perception of what is happening.
  2. Personal interpretation of what is happening and what is expected.
  3. Planning your own behavior.
  4. Emotional assessment.

Social perception is carried out exclusively during human interaction with people, which includes personal prejudices, attitudes, emerging emotions, etc.

Mechanisms of social perception

The process of social perception involves mechanisms that make this process complete:

  • Identification. A person puts himself in the place of his interlocutor in order to understand his emotions, motives, and motivations. Here a person proceeds from his own ideas about how the interlocutor would act and feel in a given situation.
  • Stereotyping. Evaluating a person according to which group of people he can be classified as. Here the ratings are based on:
  1. Age.
  2. Semi.
  3. Professions.
  4. Financial situation, etc.
  • . The person empathizes with the interlocutor. By catching the emotional mood of another, you can understand what state he is in.
  • Causal attribution. A person is endowed with qualities that he shows in his actions. Attempts are being made to find out the reasons for his behavior. There are types:
  1. Personal – the reason lies in the person himself.
  2. Objective – the cause is the object to which the actions are directed.
  3. Circumstantial - the reasons lie in the conditions in which the action was performed.
  • Reflection. Knowing yourself through another person. Usually a person imposes on others those qualities that he himself possesses.
  • . A person experiences specific, stable feelings towards a partner.

Effects of social perception

Interpersonal relationships arise based on assessing each other’s personalities. However, stereotypes are formed here that lead to social perception effects:

  • The primacy effect is ideas about a person at the moment of meeting him based on available data: clothes, appearance, rumors about him, etc.
  • The novelty effect is the emergence of new information that corrects or completely erases what a person thought about a partner. Here we often observe a change in relationships between people.
  • The halo effect is the preservation of one’s opinion, despite what other people say about a person. At the same time, the partner’s qualities are often exaggerated or downplayed. It is more common for a person to stick to his or her formed opinion than to change it based on new data and experience.
  • The projection effect is the attribution of personal qualities to a partner, improving or worsening it. If a partner is assessed positively, then positive personal qualities are attributed to him; if negatively, shortcomings are attributed to him.
  • The average error effect is the neutralization of the qualities of another person if a final decision has not been made on how to treat him. Pronounced features are averaged out.

What does perception ultimately provide?

A person perceives the world not only with his senses, but also with his emotions, thoughts, beliefs and desires. All this creates a perception, on the basis of which a person forms his attitude towards people, things, events, etc. What does perception ultimately give? The attitude of a person on the basis of which a worldview is created.

A person thinks that his life does not depend in any way on what character or worldview he has. However, this is a mistaken opinion, since everything that a person has is interconnected.

A person’s life consists of the decisions he makes and actions he takes every day (this can be called the formation of destiny). Conclusions and actions are based on what kind of character a person has, and this, in turn, is formed thanks to what kind of thinking, worldview and values ​​the individual possesses. It turns out that in order to form his happy destiny, a person needs to have a certain type of thinking (worldview), which will influence the development of his character, which will manifest itself in the form decisions made and actions done.

It all depends on what you think. It is not for nothing that the sages say that life begins with a thought, since it soon becomes embodied in real world. You thought - and this influenced your character, which allowed or did not allow you to commit this or that act, which led to specific consequences. Do you think a passive person can achieve wealth? Can an individual who eats more food than normal lose weight?

Your thoughts are pushing on certain actions, but due to your character you commit them or not. Any of your actions or inactions leads to certain results, and this generally shapes the life you live or will live. Therefore, the person himself shapes his destiny! Every day he makes decisions, performs specific actions, which lead to certain results with which the person then lives. Although I could have lived with completely different consequences if I had taken different actions and drawn different conclusions.

Concept of perception

Definition 1

Perception is a cognitive process of direct active reflection by a person of various phenomena, objects, events, situations.

If this knowledge is aimed at social facilities, 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 the most great importance This concept is given by psychology.

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. Thus, perception is a unique form of sensory display.

Characteristics and properties of perception

This phenomenon has the following main characteristics:

  • identification of individual signs;
  • correct absorption of information;
  • formation of an accurate sensory image.

Perception is related to logical thinking, attention and memory. It depends on a person’s motivation and has emotional coloring a certain type.

Basic properties of perception:

  • structure,
  • apperception,
  • objectivity,
  • contextuality,
  • meaningfulness.

Perceptual factors

Perceptual factors are of two types:

  • internal,
  • external.

External factors include:

  • intensity,
  • size,
  • novelty,
  • contrast,
  • repeatability,
  • movement,
  • recognition.

Internal factors of perception include:

  • motivation, which lies in the fact that a person sees what he considers important or what he strongly needs;
  • settings of personal perception, when an individual expects to see what he saw previously in a similar situation;
  • experience that enables a person to perceive what past experience has taught him;
  • characterological features of personality.

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 a person’s understanding and evaluation of himself, other people, and other social objects.

This term was introduced in 1947 by psychologist D. Bruner. The introduction of this concept into psychology allowed scientists to look differently at the problems and tasks of human perception. Man is a social being and is a subject large quantity different relationships. Positive or negative attitude the individual’s attitude towards the people around him depends on the perception and assessment of communication partners.

Social perception comes in several forms:

  • human perception;
  • perceptions by group members;
  • group perception.

Mechanisms of social perception

Perception has certain features of the functioning of its mechanisms. The following mechanisms of social perception exist:

  • stereotyping, which is the formation of a persistent image or idea of ​​people and phenomena characteristic of all representatives of one social group;
  • identification, expressed in intuitive identification and cognition of an individual or group in a communication situation, in which a comparison or juxtaposition of the internal states of partners occurs;
  • empathy, which implies emotional empathy for others, the ability to understand other people by providing them with emotional support and getting used to their experiences;
  • reflection, that is, self-knowledge through interaction with other people;
  • attraction - knowledge of other people based on a positive, persistent feeling;
  • causal attribution, which is the process of predicting the feelings and actions of surrounding people.

The specificity of interpersonal cognition is that it takes into account both various physical characteristics and behavioral characteristics. Therefore, social perception has a huge dependence on the emotions, motives, opinions, attitudes, and prejudices of both partners. In social perception there is also a subjective assessment of another person.

Perception is a complex mechanism of psychological interaction between an individual and the object he perceives. This interaction occurs under the influence of a large number of factors.

Quite a popular subject psychological research are human and animals. Depending on the complexity, it is customary to distinguish three levels of the psyche or reality: these are sensory and perception, ideas and the highest - verbal-logical level. Let's try to understand the first one in more detail.

Sensory-perceptual processes

Perceptive is the perceiver, to put it another way. Perception is cognition and ultimately the formation in the mind of a holistic image of an object or environmental phenomenon. It should be said right away that the immediate ones differ from each other. Despite the fact that without individual sensations that arise as a result of the action of reality on the sense organs (sensors), perception could not exist, it is not limited to them.

Sensations create the base, but perceptual is a qualitatively different process, more active and meaningful. For example, you can compare how you can simply hear sounds and listen carefully, see and purposefully look, watch someone or something.

Basic properties of perception

A large theoretical work is devoted to a detailed analysis of the sensory-perceptual organization in humans, the author is the famous Soviet psychologist B. G. Ananyev. From the point of view of specialists in this field, the following can be distinguished: characteristics perception:

Differences between perception and apperception

Along with perception, the closely related concept of apperception is distinguished. The perceptual process is perception. Apperception also represents the reception and processing of visual, auditory and other information. Adding the prefix an- to the main concept is intended to show the complexity of perception. We don't just hear, see, taste, smell and touch - the result of this passes through an individual prism. It necessarily includes previous perceptual experience, on the basis of which a judgment is made about the subject. So we compare each image with the existing standards of shape - is it a circle or a triangle, colors - green or aqua, etc.

Specific knowledge and skills, the current state, mediate our study of the world around us and determine differences in perception different people. Personal characteristics have a great influence - inclinations, interests, character, lifestyle in general, which also influence the perception of ourselves.

What does it consist of? As we found out, perceptive is a synonym for the word perceiver. You can perceive not only inanimate things, animals, the relationship is also formed in terms of “person-to-person”. This means that even in communication there is a perceptual side. That is, it is the perception and evaluation of other people. Perceptual communication also presupposes the ability to feel the interlocutor and mood, to understand his needs and desires, motives of behavior.

There are a number of factors on which interpersonal interaction can depend. Firstly, this is the fact of the superiority of another in certain parameters, due to which he will be perceived as an authoritative person and, accordingly, have a positive image. Secondly, the external attractiveness of the partner. They enjoy more sympathy beautiful people. Thirdly, the attitude towards the observer. If your partner treats you well, then most likely it will cause the same feelings in return. Each of these points can reduce adequacy and significantly affect the impression of someone.

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.

Social perception

The origin and further successful development of interpersonal communicative interaction is possible only on the condition that there is mutual understanding between the parties involved in this process. The extent to which subjects reflect each other’s feelings and qualities, understand and perceive others, and with their help, their own personality, largely determines the communication process, the relationships formed between the participants, and the methods by which they implement joint activities. Therefore, the process of cognition and comprehension by one subject of another acts as a mandatory component of communication. This component can roughly be called the perceptual aspect of communication.

Social perception is one of the most serious and most important phenomena social psychology. The definition of social perception was first introduced by D. Bruner after the formation of a qualitatively different view of the subject’s perception of the subject.

Perception in psychology is an action that arises during the interaction of individuals with each other and combines the perception, passage, comprehension and evaluation of social objects by individuals.

The concept of perception combines:

  • individual process of perception of observed actions;
  • interpretation of perceived causes of actions and expected consequences;
  • building a personal behavior strategy;
  • emotional assessment.

Social perception is the process of perceiving social objects in the social sense. This is a process that arises during personal interaction, is based on natural communications and occurs in the form of perception and comprehension by the individual.

Interpersonal perception is characterized by dependence on emotional reactions, views, attitudes, ideas, hobbies and prejudices. The nature of interpersonal relationships differs significantly from the essence of social relationships. Since a specific feature of interpersonal interaction is the presence of an emotional basis. Therefore, interaction of an interpersonal nature should be considered as the cause of the psychological “microclimate” of the team. Emotional foundation interpersonal relationships combines all types of emotional reactions of the individual, such as feelings, emotions.

There are certain mechanisms of social perception. First of all, these should include identification, and.

The processes of social perception have a significant difference in the perception of objects of a non-social nature. This difference is that objects of a social nature do not have passive and indifferent features in relation to the person of perception. In addition, social models are always characterized by the presence of evaluative interpretations and semantic judgments. In a sense, perception is interpretation. However, the interpretation of another person or group of persons always depends on the past social experience of the perceiving subject, the behavioral reactions of the object of perception at a particular moment, the system of value guidelines of the perceiving person and other factors.

There are fundamental functions of perception, which include: knowing oneself, a communication partner, organizing collective activities based on mutual understanding and establishing the necessary emotional relationship.

The functions of perception are necessary for a better understanding of the essence of perception. In the course of communicative actions, mutual understanding is necessary in order to effectively assimilate information. The perception of a communication participant is called the perceptual side of communicative interaction. This process can be represented as internal foundation process of communication that has reached quite high level development.

The phenomenon of social perception is based on the mutual understanding of subjects. Therefore, it should be noted that there are several levels of mutual understanding. The first level occurs when the system matches social meanings and individual meanings among communicating individuals, and there are no coincidences in the degree of mutual assessment of personal qualities.

An example of this level of perception is professional communicative interaction. The next level is observed when not only semantic systems coincide, but also the degree of mutual assessment of personal qualities. It is observed when subjects are mutually satisfied with their own emotions, which arise in relation to one person to another. The third level is when there is a high degree of mutually directed trust of individuals and their openness. Communication at this level presupposes the absence of secrets from each other, which significantly affect the interests of the partner.

Like anyone else mental process, perception is characterized by its properties.

Properties of perception include objectivity (the perception of objects not as an incoherent set of sensations, but as images that make up certain objects), structure (the object is perceived by consciousness as a simulated structure, abstracted from sensations), apperceptivity (the content of the psyche is affected), constancy (the immutability of perception object when the stimulus changes), meaningfulness (the object is perceived through consciousness, then mentally named and belongs to the class) and selectivity (singling out some objects over others). The properties of perception develop depending on the age period of the individual.

Mechanisms of social perception

An individual always enters into communicative interaction as a person, and in the same way he is perceived by his fellow communicator as a person.

Communication as perception presupposes the presence of interpersonal perception - the development of an initial impression and interpersonal perception in general. Therefore, it is possible to identify mechanisms of social perception, which are specific ways that determine an individual’s interpretation, understanding and evaluation of a partner in communicative interaction. The most common mechanisms include causal attribution, identification, empathy, attraction, social. Below are more detailed description these mechanisms.

Causal attribution is the attribution of reasons for a behavioral response to a subject. Each individual unintentionally makes his own assumptions about the reasons for the actions of the perceived individual, why exactly he behaves in this way. Attributing to partner various reasons behavior, the observer does this based on the similarity of his behavioral reactions either with some person known to him or a known personality image, or based on an analysis of his own motives that could manifest itself in an individual in a similar situation.

Casual attribution operates on the principle of analogy and depends on some aspects of the self-perception of the individual who perceives and evaluates another.

A way of comprehending another, in which a hypothesis about his state of mind is built based on attempts to put himself in the place of a fellow communicator, is called identification. In other words, there is a comparison of oneself with a second individual. During identification, the partner’s norms, his values, behavioral reactions, habits and tastes are learned. Identification has a special personally significant meaning at a specific age stage, approximately during the transition period and adolescence. Since at this stage, identification largely determines the nature of the relationship between the young person and his significant environment.

Communication as perception consists in the understanding of communicating persons of each other and is mediated not only solely by the presence common system encryption or decryption of information and jointly directed action, but also specific features of the individual’s perception of the individual.

Empathy is emotional empathy with another individual. Through emotional responses, the individual perceives internal state partner. Empathy is based on the ability to correctly imagine and understand what is happening inside another individual, how he evaluates environment what he is experiencing. Empathy in interaction with the second participant in communication is often considered as one of the most necessary professional traits of a psychologist, social worker and teacher.

Attraction is translated as attraction, and can be expressed as a special form of comprehension of another subject, based on the development of a stable positive feeling in relation to him. In this case, understanding of the interaction partner arises as a result of the formation of attachment, friendship or a deeper relationship of an intimate and personal nature towards him.

Through perception and subsequent interpretation of the environment and social environment, the subject also perceives and then interprets his own personality, actions and motives.

Social reflection refers to the process and consequence of an individual’s self-perception in a social context. By social reflection as a tool of social perception we mean a person’s understanding of his own individual characteristics and how they are expressed in external response, as well as comprehension of how he is perceived by the environment.

Interpersonal perception is typically governed by all of the above mechanisms.

Effects of social perception

Certain features that prevent interacting partners from adequately perceiving each other are called social perception effects. These include: halo effect, projection, primacy, novelty, average error.

Interpersonal perception involves mutual assessment by the participants of communicative interaction, but over time there is no change in value judgments partners. This occurs due to natural causes and is called the halo effect. In other words, the once formed judgment of one participant about another does not change, even though new information about the subject of communication accumulates and new experience arises.

The effect of social perception can be observed during the formation of a first impression about an individual, when the general good impression leads to a generally positive evaluation and, conversely, an unfavorable impression provokes a predominance of negative evaluations.

Effects such as primacy and novelty are closely related to such social effects. During the perception of an unfamiliar individual, the primacy effect prevails. The opposite of this effect is the effect of novelty, which consists in the fact that information received last is more significant. The novelty effect works when perceiving a previously familiar individual.

They also distinguish the effect of projection, which is the attribution of one’s own merits to a pleasant interlocutor, and one’s own shortcomings to an unpleasant interlocutor, in other words, to most clearly identify in interlocutors precisely those qualities that are clearly expressed in the perceiving individual. The effect of the average error is expressed in the tendency to soften the assessment of the most pronounced features of the partner towards the average.

The listed effects should be considered as an expression of a special process that accompanies the perception of an individual by an individual. This process is called stereotyping.

Thus, the concept of perception is a reflection of things and situations of reality during their impact on people’s senses. Wherein important role plays the age period in which the perceiving individual is located.

Why do we perceive a person this way? How is our attitude towards people formed?

When contacting people, we, without noticing it ourselves, evaluate each of them and draw conclusions about the person himself and his qualities. At the same time, no matter who we communicate with and whatever the duration of this contact, the process of perception of one individual by another always starts. How to understand another and, on the basis of knowledge, build exactly those relationships that are necessary with this person is one of the main questions of psychology.

Definition

The concept of social perception can be characterized as follows: it is the perception of one social unit by another. Psychology shows us the mechanisms by which we communicate, build relationships, characterize and understand what to expect from a person, not only based on his personal qualities, but also assessing his social affiliation. To do this, our subconscious takes as a basis a system of social stereotypes - stable ideas that arise within one of social communities– groups.

Since social perception is most often viewed as communication between individuals, psychologists have identified both special case interpersonal perception. Interpersonal perception is determined by the emotional manifestations and ideas of interacting people.

Psychological characteristics of interpersonal interaction are based on an emotional basis. It includes different kinds phenomena, including emotional reactions of the individual, such as affects, feelings, emotions.

Since a person is constantly in interaction with other people both in his social group and outside it, phenomena of social perception arise. According to psychologists, people from the same social group will have similar reactions to the same situation, will give the same assessment and be guided by similar criteria, since they have a common perception scale and rating systems.

This is why difficulties often arise for children who move from one school to another. At first, the class into which the newcomer finds himself perceives him as a subject from an alien social group, while almost all children react to him in the same way: they look closely, study. At the same time, in order to join the team, a new student will have to not only learn to be like everyone else, but also, first of all, turn on the mechanism of cognition through interest in the group in which he builds communication.

Where Perception Leads

Communication as a social perception can be implemented in the form:

1. Exchange of information.

2. Emotional exchange.

3. Development of a unified information context. Interpersonal perceptions are formed on the basis of stereotypes. In this case, the features that prevent individuals from objectively perceiving each other’s personalities form the following effects of social perception.

  • The primacy effect. Only after meeting a person do we form our opinion based on already available information: what he looks like, how he speaks, etc.
  • The effect of novelty - new information appeared, and suddenly “eyes were opened.” New information as if she had crossed out the old one or thoroughly corrected it. In this case, a sharp change in attitude towards the person may occur. The perceiver will suddenly see something good in him or take off his rose-colored glasses.
  • The halo effect is the same case when, no matter what they tell you about a person, you will not believe anyone and will not change your opinion about him.
  • Projection effect - we attribute our own qualities to a person, artificially “improving” or “worsening” him at the expense of them.
  • The average error effect is possible when you have not yet made a final decision about what your attitude towards a person is - in this case, you temporarily neutralize the traits and qualities of this person as much as possible.

Types of social perception:

  • Self-knowledge - the individual perceives and knows himself.
  • Individual - perception between two individuals - in this case they are in the process of getting to know each other.
  • A person’s perception of a group, while the process of perception and cognition occurs between the individual and social group and all its members.
  • Interpersonal group - cognition both within each group and between its members.

Science identifies the following most important functions social perception:

1. Self-knowledge - a person’s self-perception and self-esteem of himself.

2. Knowing another individual.

3. Establishing contacts in the team when carrying out joint activities.

How do perceptual mechanisms work?

Relationships are based on mechanisms of social perception. They are based on interest and the need to interact constantly or from time to time. These are the following communication tools.

Identification - we recognize an object by becoming like it. When someone tells you, “Stand in my place,” it is a call for identification. Of course it's not the only way perception, but it is most often used in the process of communication. Identification is very close to empathy.

It is most interesting to consider the work of these mechanisms within the framework of the teacher-student relationship. How does pedagogical social perception work? For any teacher, it is necessary not only to emphasize his status, but also not to alienate the student.

Include perceptual mechanisms within the framework educational process- this is the main task of the teacher. You can show children how they work without using complex terminology. The concepts of perception and apperception are different.

If perception is a more primitive manifestation of the unconscious, unconscious perception internal processes and surrounding objects, then apperception is a clear, meaningful category of perception, it is associated with past spiritual experience, and is based on human knowledge and abilities. That is, it is a conscious act of cognition of a person, and his perception is based on worldview and experience.

And if the essence of social perception is revealed through direct and everyday communication, then apperception is rather a tool in the hands of professionals who not only study perception and mechanisms, but also manage these processes. Author: Ruslana Kaplanova