Name: Saadia Mazhar [131]

Class: MCOM [Section D]

Subject: Managerial
Communication

Assignment: Role Of Perception In

Communication

Presented To: Mrs. Lal

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 ROLE OF PERCEPTION IN COMMUNICATION

Perception
“Perception is the process by which the data gathered
by the senses is selected, sorted, organized and interpreted
by the brain in order to form meaningful and coherent
messages or information.”

Introduction

Perception is an image of a person, that we perceive to be.

There are many inputs to this process among which, physical stimuli
are only one input, while there are internal inputs from the individual
himself as well, in the form of his motives, expectations, personality,
past experience etc. This is why perception is so personal i.e.
each individual’s view point is unique.

Factors Of Perception

1. Selective Perception

By selective perception we mean preconceived/pre-

understood notion/idea. Our subconscious or sub attentive mind
decides that what kinds of stimuli are relevant for us that we want to
accept and what are irrelevant for us that we want to ignore.

When we focus on selected stimuli we say we are paying

attention towards them or that they have attracted us. Other signals
are still coming in, and may attract or distract our attention at any
time, so that our attention shifts towards a new stimulus.

Tunnel vision changes every time hence the perception

changes from time to time. This causes miscommunication because,

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what we perceive about any person doesn’t mean that, that person
has the same image in reality as we have in our mind.

For a good communicator following areas are important to be

considered:
(a) As a listener and reader, because of the need:
1. to minimize potential distractions(interruptions, background
noise, items of visual interest and so on); and
2. to be aware that some signals, or aspects of a message, may
be being filtered out, distorting the overall meaning; and
(b) as creator and sender, because of the need to attract and
hold the recipient’s attention to the important points and
meaning of the message, when there is a competition
between various stimuli, within and outside the message
itself.

2. Expectations

Expectations learned from past experiences, create a

readiness to respond in a particular way to a given stimulus. If we
expect something in the certain way on the basis of any past
experience, or by keeping an opinion for a person whom we trust and
rely upon, we perceive that thing to be so, and our mind will filter out
the data that is inconsistent and fill out the missing data, to create
the picture that we expect to see about that person or the certain
things related to him.

3. Motives And Interests

The idea of motivation is based on the belief that human beings

behave in a ‘purposive’ or goal-directed way: they act in order to
satisfy needs, wants or aims. Its suggested that a human has three
types of need that are innate, such as physiological needs like food,
cloth, shelter, sleep, oxygen, self preservation and sexual fulfillment,
psychological needs like need of attention, love, belonging,
achievement, independence, status and respect, fulfillment of
personal potential and so on. Needs are crystallized as wants if they
move towards luxurious environment, like when we need more food,

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more bread, more fruit or whatever. Wants are unlimited and if they
are backed by the buying power then they become demands.

Our attention is drawn to communications especially from the

marketer’s point of view, related to his products and promotions,
which seem or claim to be relevant to our needs and wants at any
given time. The stronger the need, the greater is the tendency to
filter out the stimuli that are irrelevant to that need. When we are
hungry we are most likely to see a food advertisement rather than
watching any other advertisements at that time, as it is related to our
particular need. Messages may be designed, so as to:

1. offer satisfaction of an existing sense of need; or

2. arouse a sense of need, to which satisfaction is then offered.

4. Attitudes And Beliefs

When we put together expectations and experiences, motives

and interests all together, then we have the attitudes.

“An attitude is a relatively consistent learned predisposition to

behave in a certain way in response to a given object.”

(a) Relatively consistent. Attitudes can be changed, and may

depend upon circumstances, but they are reasonably well
established.
(b) Learned. Attitudes are shaped by the individual’s experience
and information, and the influence of other people.
(c) Predisposition. Attitudes create a mental state of readiness or
motivation to respond in a certain way to their object, which
may be a thing, person, event, complex or whatever. If
someone asks a member of the green party, that what they
think about logging in the rain forests or draining an area of
natural wetlands, they do not have to analyze their response
afresh in all its details: they will respond in their ‘accustomed’
way according to their attitude.

A belief is a perception, in which we have confidence: our own

experience or observations, or credible information for someone else,

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gives us the confidence or expectation that it is ‘true’ or ‘right’. We
tend to believe:

(a) things that we have personally observed or experienced, and

which we expect to hold true in general (the sun will rise
tomorrow; I will be promoted if I work hard); and
(b) things other people tell us, if they are a credible source, and
the information does not conflict with a belief we already hold
(Henry VIII had six wives).

It is worth notable here that, because these things depend on

perception – whether of our own experience or the creditability of the
source – our beliefs are highly subjective. To an extent we believe
what we want to believe, because the perceptions on which our
believes are based, are shaped by our motives, needs, interests,
expectations and so on.

We need to bear all those characters in our mind when we plan

our business message. The sheer range of personal differences and
their implementations for perception, motivation and attitudes should
suggest to us that we will need to give some thought to the audience
of our message – the person or people to whom we are
communicating – in order to establish creditability and congeniality,
and overcome distortion and noise.