Perceptual actions are... Formation and development of perceptual actions

One of the most important sources of knowledge of the world around us is its study with the help of the senses. The scientific name for this phenomenon is perception. It is known that the foundations of perception, that is, sensory perception, are laid in a person even while he is in the mother’s womb. With age, perception begins to play an increasingly important role in the worldview and the formation of a picture of the world.

Sensory perception of the world helps people correctly assess the situation

Perception in psychology

Perception in psychology is a person’s attitude to the world, which is formed under the influence of information received from the outside through the main sense organs. Translated from Latin, this word means “perception.” The opposite concept is apperception. A person needs to perceive the world correctly, because perception:

• helps to develop the right attitude towards people;
• promotes activation of cognitive function of the brain;
• promotes effective communication;
• makes it possible to correctly evaluate yourself and those around you.

This concept is one of the most studied in theoretical and practical psychology. Perception skills are formed from early childhood, so parents should give their child as much information as possible that can be learned through the senses. This could be music and various sounds, beautiful images, toys for the development of tactile skills.

Definition, Pros and Cons

Reflection - what is it in psychology, definition
A perceptive person is a keenly feeling person. This state of mind has its advantages and disadvantages. Like the noun, the word perceptive comes from the Latin perceptio, meaning perception. The main disadvantage of a person with heightened senses is that even the slightest sound, visual or tactile stimulus can throw him off balance. The advantages are that such an individual can easily find a common language with any person, and is also very receptive to different types and genres of art. Parents and teachers should make the most of these qualities of the child and develop them. Typically, such individuals from childhood are distinguished by giftedness and talent in any particular field of activity.

How to learn effective communication?

There are many ways and tips to improve your communication skills, but we provide you with the most interesting and effective ones.

Always be aware of the context of what is happening. You need to understand what format your dialogue has:

• Social event.
• Formal contact at work or at home.
• Random episodic meeting.
• Asymmetrical situation (in training, leadership).
• A game.
• Relaxed informal dialogue.

Based on the context, it will be easier for you to choose the right behavior style.

Choose the right behavior style. Each situation dictates its own style of behavior and action. If you misread the context, communication will be difficult.

You have probably seen from the outside how ridiculous a person looks who behaves inappropriately in the context and how dozens of barriers are immediately erected between him and others.

It is believed that there are three styles of behavior: humanistic, manipulative and ritual.

Humanistic is a style that is aimed at mutual study of the ideas of partners, which leads to the emergence of empathy.

Manipulative - you are trying to instill your point of view in another person. It's just a tool that you can use for good or bad.

The ritual style is determined by a certain culture. In American society, it is customary to answer “Wonderful!” to the question “How are you?”

If you correctly understand the context of the situation, and also manage to choose the right behavior, you will significantly increase your chances that your message will be received as intended.

Use transactional analysis. Eric Berne in his book “Games People Play” presents his original view of transactional analysis - a direction that involves regulating the actions of interlocutors by regulating their positions. For Bern, these are the Parent (“I must!”), the Adult (“I want!” and “I must!”) and the Child (“I want!”).

You will communicate effectively with people if your positions coincide. For example, if a person approaches you in the role of an Adult, and you answer him in the same way. If there is a Parent-Adult or Parent-Child interaction, the goal of the conversation may not be achieved.

We wish you good luck!

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Key words:1Profiling

Types of perception

In psychology, perceptual is associated with perception. Perceptual actions are actions aimed at sensory knowledge of the surrounding world. They can have a different character, depending on the type of perception. Experts distinguish three types of sensory knowledge of the surrounding world:

• cognition through vision;
• cognition through hearing;
• formation of a picture of the world using tactile sensations.

Self-control - what is it in psychology, definition
Knowing the leading type of sensory perception of the patient, the psychologist can easily find an individual approach to him. To do this, it is necessary to make maximum use of exactly that perceptual sphere to which a particular person is most sensitive, using exclusively auditory, visual or tactile stimuli and stimuli. This is not difficult to do; in modern practical psychology there are many ways to activate the work of various senses.

Interesting. People who are equally well developed in all types of sensory perception are extremely rare. Most often, one type is in the lead (for example, visual), other types fade into the background. A person who has no developed perception at all is also a very rare phenomenon.

Visual

A person who has a heightened visual perception of the world reacts especially vividly to any visual stimuli and irritants. As a rule, such people are interested in painting, love to look at pictures, have an excellent visual memory and remember people by their faces.

Auditory

A person who has the most developed auditory method of cognition of the world around him often has absolute pitch and easily reproduces any intonation he hears. Such people often connect their lives with music. The main disadvantage is increased sensitivity to loud and disharmonious sounds.

The perception of sounds plays an important role in the formation of a picture of the world

Tactile

There are people who, in order to remember information, must touch an object with their hands, feel it and remember their tactile sensations. In this case, we can talk about a heightened sense of touch. This type of perception develops especially strongly in early childhood, so exercises with children to improve fine motor skills have the most beneficial effect on memory and intelligence.

Social perception

Social perceptivity is the perception of another person through the prism of specific social attitudes and stereotypes. It is not always adequate. Perceptual actions are a broad concept, which, in particular, includes the assessment of others, focusing on existing norms in society.

Perceptual skills in social terms are skills that allow you to correctly perceive others. They will be useful for teachers, social workers, and psychological service workers. Mastering the essence of these skills is very important. To do this you need:

• be attentive to others;
• try to notice important details;
• perceive the external and internal world of a person as one whole.

All this will help create a correct understanding of other people and the composition of their psyche.

Intensive communication will help you understand another person.

Mechanisms of social perception

The main mechanisms of social perception are:

• thinking using stereotypes:
• reflexive mechanisms;
• empathy (projective ability to transfer the feelings of others);
• identification of a person with any type of personality.

With the help of these mechanisms, the individual sees others in one light or another.

Effects of social perception

Social perception, unlike physical perception, can be characterized by a person’s attitude towards the world around him and other people. The significance of this effect cannot be underestimated, since the simple or complex social adaptation of an individual largely depends on correct perception. Also, this phenomenon directly affects a person’s character and his level of sociability and openness.

Perceptual component

The presented element makes it possible to correctly interpret the appearance and behavior of the interlocutor.

Based on the acquired information, a conclusion is made about the distinctive personality traits and factors of actions.

Without perception, communications would be rather ineffective and superficial. A person would perceive only the “external picture” - the image of the opponent and his words.

Real thoughts, behavioral motives, hidden experiences and much more could simply not be noticed. It is precisely thanks to social perception that the possibility of correct perception of surrounding objects and building successful interaction with them arises.

This element fully takes place when a person is freed from stereotypes, previously formed beliefs and attitudes. They interfere with an objective assessment of a partner and form a certain image in the mind, which is often far from reality.

It is also important not to rush to a conclusion and give yourself time to form a reliable assessment of your interlocutor. Often people make false conclusions about an interlocutor with whom they have not built up long-term communication.

An adequate assessment of a person’s personality is possible only by obtaining complete information about him and observing him in various situations of everyday life.

Note 1

The perceptual component makes it possible to change an already formed opinion about an individual.

This opportunity to refuse the initial assessment arises as a result of accepting and understanding those traits of the interlocutor that are noted in him at a given moment in time.

Manifestations in relationships with others

All people have different perceptual abilities. This depends, in part, on genetics and culture. This quality can also be developed, which is especially important for people whose work is related to communication and teaching. For example, the perceptual abilities of a teacher are the skills of observation, to find an individual approach to each student, regardless of his academic performance, character, or nationality. In relationships with others, perceptive individuals demonstrate a high level of empathy - emotional empathy for the interlocutor.

A person with a high level of development of sensory perception easily finds a common language with others

Gender characteristics of perception

There are more perceptive personalities among women than among men. Therefore, women are more successful in teaching. This feature must be kept in mind when creating a favorable psychological climate in the team. Men, compared to women, have better developed tactile perception of the world and cognition through tactile experience.

Interesting. In Russia there is a saying that a woman loves with her ears, and a man loves with her eyes. This, in a nutshell, means that representatives of the stronger sex perceive verbal information (for example, compliments) best, while gentlemen are typical visual learners.

It is known that internal perception, useful in interpersonal relationships, as well as intuition, can be developed with the help of special training and spiritual practices, as well as a teacher-psychologist. During some psychological exercises, especially at a young or childhood age, for example, in preschoolers, the main senses begin to perceive the world around them more acutely. At such moments of learning, perception becomes the leading source of knowledge.

InterpretationTranslationPerceptual activity

Human psychology from birth to death. — SPb.: PRIME-EUROZNAK. Under the general editorship of A.A. Reana. 2002.

See what “Perceptual activity” is in other dictionaries:

• perception is a holistic reflection of objects, situations and events that arises from the direct impact of physical stimuli on the receptor surfaces (see receptor) of the sense organs. Together with the processes of sensation... Great Psychological Encyclopedia
• perception - PERCEPTION is a form of sensory cognition that subjectively appears to be immediate and relates to objects (physical things, living beings, people) and objective situations (the relationships of objects, movements, events). For... ... Encyclopedia of Epistemology and Philosophy of Science
• Interpersonal cognition: methods - Skills, abilities and methods of interpersonal cognition (IK) have been studied for a long time as cognitive structural formations. So, in the 1940s. J. Bruner proposed the concept of perception, the central place in which is occupied by the concept ... ... Psychology of communication. encyclopedic Dictionary
• Perception - - 1) a subjective image of an object, phenomenon or process that directly affects the analyzer or system of analyzers (the terms “image of perception”, “perceptual image” are also used); 2) the process of forming this image... ... Dictionary-reference book for social work
• Perception is the ability to synthesize visual images from individual sensations (A.N. Leontiev). The process of perception itself presumably proceeds in several stages and with the participation of such processes. The latter are: 1. focusing on the sensory... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary of Psychology and Pedagogy
• Perception - (from Latin perceptio perception), the process of direct active reflection by the cognitive sphere of a person of external and internal objects (objects), situations, events, phenomena, etc. * * * (Latin perceptio - perception) - perception (as opposed to ... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary of Psychology and Pedagogy
• PSYCHOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF THE METHOD - abstraction, automation, automatism, agrammatism, adaptation, sensory adaptation, social adaptation, adaptability, adequacy of perception, adequacy of sensations, acculturation, acmeology, acceleration, act of activity, activation,... ... New dictionary of methodological terms and concepts (theory and language teaching practice)
• PERCEPTION is a continuous sequence of internal figurative representations that arise in the cognitive system of living beings, reproducing sensory recognizable objects, events, states, etc. Initially, human knowledge is of a sensual nature.… … Philosophical Encyclopedia
• communication is a complex, multifaceted process of establishing and developing contacts between people (interpersonal communication) and groups (intergroup communication), generated by the needs of joint activities and including at least three different processes: communication... ... Great Psychological Encyclopedia
• REPRESENTATION - an image of an earlier perceived object or phenomenon (P. memory, recollection), as well as an image created by the productive imagination; form of feelings. reflection in the form of visual knowledge. In contrast to perception, P. rises above the immediate means... Philosophical Encyclopedia

Interpretation: Perceptual actions are structural units of the human perception process.
P. d. provide the conscious selection of one or another aspect of a sensory given situation, as well as the transformation of sensory information, leading to the construction of an image adequate to the objective world and the tasks of activity. Brief psychological dictionary. — Rostov-on-Don: “PHOENIX”. L.A. Karpenko, A.V. Petrovsky, M. G. Yaroshevsky. 1998.

perceptual actions
Etymology. Comes from Lat. pertertio - perception. Category. The main structural units of the perception process, ensuring the construction of an object image. Specificity. They are implemented using various sets of perceptual operations.
Psychological Dictionary. THEM. Kondakov. 2000.

PERCEPTUAL ACTIONS are the basic structural units of the human perception process.
P. d. are associated with the conscious identification of one or another aspect of a sensory given situation, as well as various kinds of transformations of sensory information, leading to the creation of an image adequate to the tasks of the activity and the objective world. The concept of P. d. was first put forward by A. V. Zaporozhets, in whose school they were most fully studied (see Theory of the development of perception through the formation of perceptual actions). Currently, the understanding of perception as a system of physical activity is widespread in Russian psychology. Close to it are the statements of such prominent foreign psychologists as J. Piaget, J. Gibson, R. Held, W. Neisser. Studies of the ontogenetic (see Ontogenesis) development of perception processes show that at first they are included in the external practical actions of the child. As the activity becomes more complex and the demands it places on the objective reflection of the situation, the process itself is distinguished, carried out in terms of a sensory image. The genetic connection of physical activity with practical actions is manifested in their extensive, external motor nature. In the movements of the hand, feeling an object (see Touch), in the movements of the eyes, tracing the visible contour, in the movements of the larynx, reproducing an audible sound, there is a continuous comparison of the image with the original, its verification and correction is carried out. Further development of activity is accompanied by a significant reduction in the motor components of P etc., as a result of which the process of perception externally takes the form of a one-time (simultaneous) act of “discretion.” These changes are determined by the development in the child of a whole system of operational units of perception and sensory standards that mediate perception and transform it from a process of image construction into a more elementary process of recognition. It is important to note that sensory standards correspond to such socially developed systems of sensory qualities as the generally accepted pitch scale of musical sounds, the “grid” of phonemes of the native language, or a system of geometric shapes. Having mastered systems of sensory standards throughout childhood, the child learns to use them as a kind of sensory standards for systematizing the properties of the surrounding reality. Any sensory action can be realized with the help of a significant number of different perceptual operations.
Of great practical importance is the study of the operational and technical side of specific perceptual (observational) types of labor activity of radar station operators, decipherers of traces of elementary particles and aerial photographs. Among them, such functions were identified and studied as signal detection, identification of information features and familiarization with them, identification, recognition (categorization), i.e., assigning a perceived object to a particular class. The process of coordinating various P.D. and their component operations in micro- and macro-intervals of time has been studied relatively little (see Method of microstructural analysis). It also seems relevant to study the semantic relationships that connect P. d. with the activity in the context of which they are carried out. Solving these problems will allow us to get closer to understanding the psychological mechanisms of aesthetic perception and visual thinking. Large psychological dictionary. — M.: Prime-EUROZNAK. Ed. B.G. Meshcheryakova, acad. V.P. Zinchenko. 2003.

Other books on request “perceptual actions” >> —>

Congruence is the correspondence of the client’s experiences with his physiological reaction and the expression of these experiences in the external plane.

Incongruence is a lack of unity in experience, lack of sincerity. The information a person conveys is ambiguous and inaccurate. Causes tension and protection.

Rogers developed client-centered therapy.

The goal of therapy is to eliminate the dissonance between real experience and self-concepts.

Conditions – phenomenological approach. An important concept in therapy is the internal locus of assessment (the personality’s ability to attribute one’s successes or failures to internal factors), which ensures the client’s autonomy. If the internal locus of assessment is formulated, then the leading locus of assessment becomes the motive for personal growth.

The motive of personal growth sets the vector of direction of all the vital forces of the individual. Rogers defines the motive of personal growth as self-realization (self-actualization).

Self-realization is possible with the ability to live in the present, here and now. A person whose self is actualized is able to live here and now. The concept of self denotes an actualized personality striving for self-actualization and integrity.

Rogers believed that therapy based on the phenomenological theory of personality should be instructive. The psychotherapist should not impose his opinion on the patient, but lead him to the right decision, which the patient makes independently. During the therapy process, the patient learns to trust himself more, his intuition, his feelings and impulses. He begins to understand himself better, and then others. As a result, that “illumination” (insight) occurs, which helps to rebuild one’s self-esteem, “restructure the gestalt,” as Rogers said after Wertheimer and Koehler. This increases congruence and enables a person to accept himself and others, improves his communication with them, reduces anxiety and tension.

Rogers's work has had a significant impact on the general understanding of the potential of the human person. He can rightfully be considered one of the founders of the movement for the general humanization of psychology.

In the 80s of the 20th century, the work of C. Rogers “Freedom to Learn” appeared, in which for the first time a person-centered approach to education was psychologically substantiated. K. Rogers, noting the underestimation of the student himself and his activity as one of the shortcomings of the traditional teaching system, proposes to organize teaching itself as activation, facilitation of the learning process.

Three universal conditions (according to C. Rogers) that form a climate that ensures growth and development:

The first element is sincerity or congruence. The more the therapist is himself in relation to the client, the less he is separated from the client by his professional or personal facade, the more likely it is that the client will change and move forward in a constructive way. Authenticity means that the therapist openly experiences the feelings and attitudes that are occurring in the moment. There is a correspondence or congruence between what is experienced at the somatic level, what is presented in consciousness, and what is expressed to the client.

The second most important attitude is acceptance, caring or recognition - an unconditional positive view of the client. When the therapist experiences a positive, nonjudgmental, accepting attitude toward the client regardless of who the client is at the moment, therapeutic progress or change is more likely. The therapist's acceptance involves allowing the client to be in whatever his immediate experience is - confusion, hurt, outrage, fear, anger, courage, love or pride. This is selfless concern. When the therapist acknowledges the client holistically rather than conditionally, progress is more likely.

The third facilitative aspect of relationship is empathic understanding. This means that the therapist accurately perceives the feelings, personal meanings experienced by the client, and communicates this perceived understanding to the client. Ideally, the therapist penetrates so deeply into the inner world of another that he can clarify not only those meanings that he is aware of, but even those that lie just below the level of awareness. This special, active brand of listening is one of the most powerful forces known to bring about change.

InterpretationTranslationperceptual fieldAviation medicine: perceptual field

Universal Russian-English dictionary. Akademik.ru. 2011.

See what a “perceptual field” is in other dictionaries:

• SENSORY FIELD - 1. See perceptual field. 2. See the area of ​​perception... Explanatory Dictionary of Psychology
• BODY - 1) the name of a material extended thing as something objectively physical; 2) inaccurate name of the material carrier of the life of an organism, in particular the human body; 3) the name of a three-dimensional figure in stereometry. Philosophical encyclopedia ... Philosophical encyclopedia
• Perceptual organization - For most psychologists, the topic of perceptual organization serves as a symbol of Gestalt psychology. It was Kurt Koffka who announced to the scientific world that perception is an organized process. Koffka sharply criticized the so-called. “constancy hypothesis” ... ... Psychological Encyclopedia
• BERKELEY - (Berkeley) George (1685 1753) English. philosopher and religious figure, one of the most prominent and consistent representatives of immaterialism in modern times. Since 1734, bishop in Cloyne (Ireland). Main works: “The Experience of a New Theory of Vision” (1709), ... ... Philosophical Encyclopedia
• CONDILLAC - (Condillac) Etienne Bonnodet (1715 1780) the only major French. empiricist philosopher. At the same time, one of the few educators who was engaged in logical research. Brother G.B. de Mably. From 1752 until the end of his life, royal censor. Grandson's teacher... ...Philosophical Encyclopedia
• PHENOMENOLOGY OF PERCEPTION - 'PHENOMENOLOGY OF PERCEPTION' ('Phénoménologie de la perception'. Paris, 1945) is the main work of Merleau Ponty, which explores the problems of the specificity of the existence of existence (see EXISTENCE) and its relationship with the world as 'vital... ... History of Philosophy: Encyclopedia
• PHENOMENOLOGY OF PERCEPTION - (Phenomenologie de la perception. Paris, 1945) the main work of Merleau Ponty, which explores the problems of the specificity of the existence of existence (see Existence) and its relationship with the world as vital communication, as ceaseless and... ... History of Philosophy: Encyclopedia
• Paul VIRILIO (b. 1932) French philosopher, social theorist, urbanist and architectural critic. He studied philosophy at the Sorbonne, was a professional artist in his youth, and was a religious activist in the 1950s. Took part in campaigns... Sociology: Encyclopedia
• Adlerian psychotherapy (adlerian psychotherapy) - The basics of AP were developed by A. Adler at the time when he was part of S. Freud's group. After separating from Freud's circle in 1911, Adler quickly expanded the basics. provisions of his theory and continued to develop it until his death in... ... Psychological Encyclopedia
• Perception (perception) - By perception, or perception, we mean both the subjective experience of receiving sensory information about the world of people, things and events, and those psychological. processes, thanks to Crimea this is accomplished. Classical theory The idea that all of our... ... Psychological Encyclopedia
• GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY - (from German Gestalt structure, image, form, configuration) one of the influential trends in psychology, trans. floor. 20th century Formed under the direct influence of philosophy. phenomenology (E. Husserl), which argued that the perception of the world is... ... Philosophical Encyclopedia

Sources used:

• https://srazu.pro/teoriya/percepciya-v-psixologii.html
• https://psihologiya_cheloveka.academic.ru/268/perceptual_activity
• https://psychology.academic.ru/3799/perceptual_actions
• https://studopedia.ru/10_219653_fenomenalnoe-pertseptivnoe-pole—eto-opit-poluchenniy-individom-v-hode-vsey-zhizni-i-yavlyayushchiysya-unikalnim-dlya-nego-igraet-bolshuyu-rol-v-formirovanii- ya-kontseptsii.html
• https://universal_ru_en.academic.ru/1980153/perceptual_field

Article on the topic “Perceptual function of communication”

Perceptual function of communication

The perceptual function implies

interpersonal perception (social perception) of the speaker and the listener. The specifics of social perception in communication include the following points:

• 1) messages are perceived and evaluated in the light of the actual needs of the addressee;
• 2) distortion of the meaning of a message is always inevitable due to differences in the experience of the speaker and the listener;
• 3) unfamiliar information is perceived more slowly than familiar information;
• 4) in an unfamiliar situation, people tend to focus on solutions that they have already tested in similar situations;

At least two people are involved in the communication process, so it is necessary to take into account not only your own needs and attitudes, but also the needs, motives, and attitudes of your communication partner. The following psychological mechanisms have been identified:

identification, reflection, attraction, causal attribution.

Identification

is a way of understanding another person through conscious or unconscious assimilation of oneself to his characteristics.
In everyday life, people often do not know the real reasons for another person’s behavior or do not know them enough. Then, in conditions of information deficiency, they begin to attribute (attribute) to each other both the causes of behavior and the patterns of behavior themselves. Identification is one of the simplest ways to understand another person. When identifying, the mechanism of empathy is used. Empathy
is an emotional response to the interlocutor’s problem, empathy for his life circumstances and internal state.

Reflection

is a person’s awareness of how he is perceived by his communication partner.

Attraction (attraction)

- a form of knowing another person, based on the formation of a stable positive feeling towards him.

Causal attribution

– a mechanism for interpreting the actions and feelings of another person (finding out the reasons for the object’s behavior).

To increase the success of communication, it is important to take into account a number of effects

that arise when people perceive each other. The following effects have been most studied: “halo” (galla effect), novelty and primacy, projection or stereotyping.

The essence of the halo effect

is explained by the formation of a specific attitude towards the perceived person, as well as through the directed attribution of certain qualities to him on the basis of this attitude. Information received about a person is processed in a certain way: only that information is selected and stored that corresponds to the image that was created earlier. This pre-existing image acts as a “halo” that prevents one from seeing the real features of a given person.

So, if a favorable impression is formed about a person, then his positive qualities are overestimated, and the negative ones are either not noticed or justified. And vice versa, if the general impression of a person is negative, then even his worthy behavior is not noticed or is interpreted as accidental, insincere.

The “halo” effect manifests itself most clearly when we do not know our communication partner well.

Three main mistakes lead to the halo effect:

■ superiority error;

■ attractiveness error;

■ error in attitude towards us.

Mistakes of Superiority

arise when meeting a person who is superior to us in some important parameter for us, we evaluate him somewhat more positively than if he were equal to us. If we are dealing with a person whom we are superior in some way, then we underestimate him.

Groups of subjects were asked to describe a person from a photograph. Before showing the same photograph, one group was made to understand that it was a photo of a hero, and the other - a criminal. Depending on the proposed status of the person, the descriptions changed.

Here is a description of the criminal: “A degraded man, very embittered, unkemptly dressed, unkempt. One might think that before becoming a criminal, he was an employee or an intellectual. A very angry look." And here is the description of the hero: “A very strong-willed person. Eyes that are not afraid of anything look from under their brows. The lips are compressed, one feels spiritual strength and resilience. The expression on his face is proud.”

No less frequent are mistakes related to whether we like our communication partner in appearance or not.

The mistake of attractiveness is that if we like a person externally, then at the same time we tend to consider him better, smarter, more interesting, etc.

L.N. Tolstoy wrote in The Kreutzer Sonata: “It’s amazing how complete the illusion can be that beauty is good. A beautiful woman says stupid things, you listen and don’t hear stupid things, but hear smart things. She says, does nasty things, and you see something cute. When she doesn’t say anything stupid or nasty, but is beautiful, then you are now convinced that she is a miracle, how smart and moral.”

A very common mistake is the mistake of attitude towards us

. Those people who treat us well seem to us much better than those who treat us poorly or indifferently.

The students communicated for half an hour with a new teacher, who behaved friendly with some subjects and distant with others, emphasizing social distance. After this, students were asked to rate a number of characteristics of the teacher. The results were quite convincing. The ratings of students with whom the teacher behaved kindly turned out to be significantly higher than the ratings of the teacher, but in the role of “distant”. From this we can conclude that a positive attitude towards us gives rise to a strong tendency to attribute positive properties and discard negative ones, and, conversely, a negative attitude causes a tendency not to notice the positive aspects of a partner and highlight the negative ones.

The effect of primacy and novelty

concerns the influence of the order in which information about a person is presented to form an idea about him. Our perception of strangers is most influenced by the primary information presented first. On the contrary, in situations of perception of familiar people, the novelty effect operates, which consists in the fact that the latest, newer information turns out to be the most significant.

Stereotyping effect

extremely common when organizing communication with unfamiliar people. A stereotype is a relatively stable and simplified image of a person that develops in conditions of a lack of information as a result of a generalization of a person’s personal experience and often preconceived ideas accepted in society.

There are stereotypes:

professional, anthropological, ethno-national, social-status, expressive-aesthetic, verbal-behavioral.

Stereotyping can have two different consequences.

On the one hand, this leads to a simplification of the process of knowing another person, which helps reduce the time for processing information and making decisions. In another case, stereotyping can lead to prejudice. G. Allport wrote on this occasion that “labels act like singing sirens, making us forget all the subtle differences that we should otherwise notice.”

Anthropological stereotypes

force us to attribute internal, psychological qualities to a person on the basis of his anthropological characteristics, features of his physical appearance (face shape, location of the eyes, size of the mouth, etc.). For example, good nature is associated with a “large” appearance and obesity, while confidence and attractiveness are associated with being slim; contact - with the absence of sudden movements. Currently, these discoveries are widely used in cinema, show business, advertising, etc. Who among us does not remember good-natured housewives smilingly praising bouillon cubes, slender girls in a cloud of the aroma of an advertised deodorant.

We often evaluate a person depending on what nation or ethnic group he belongs to. Here are some common ethnonational stereotypes:

Americans are aimed at achieving success, Jews are cunning, Germans are pedants, the southern man is a temperamental, hot-headed nature. It has been proven that ethnonational stereotypes most influence precisely those people who are not familiar with this ethnic group and have not lived among people of this nationality. Ethnonational stereotypes are not so harmless at all. Very often they are the basis for discrimination of some people by others.

Every nation has its own scapegoats. In England, the most popular people for jokes are the Scots and the Irish, in America it is the narrow-minded and stupid Indian, in Russia it is the Chukchi.

Almost every person who has experience in communication is able to quite accurately determine his characteristics based on a person’s appearance, his clothing, manner of speaking and behavior, but they almost always contain one or another percentage of errors, since the assessment of the interlocutor is carried out by using social stereotypes.

Social stereotypes are divided into:

■ social status (depending on the status of the interlocutor, his superiority);

■ expressive-aesthetic (depending on the perception of the partner’s appearance);

■ verbal-behavioral (depending on the behavior and attitude of the interlocutor).

In many cases, the assessment of a person’s personal qualities depends on his status.

Students were informed that an experiment was being conducted to evaluate the eye. It was necessary to estimate a person’s height “by eye” and write down the assessment on a piece of paper. The person whose height needed to be assessed was introduced as Mr. England from Cambridge. In another group he was introduced as a lecturer from Cambridge. In the next group, Mr. England became a professor from Cambridge. The purpose of the experiment was not to evaluate the eye. The results were amazing. The difference in height estimates in the group where the social status of “Mr. England” was the lowest (student), and the last group, where the status was the highest (professor), was 12 cm. The higher the social status, the taller the person seemed.

Research shows that to determine the parameter of superiority and assess the status of the interlocutor, we have two main sources of information at our disposal:

• 1) a person’s clothing, his external “decoration” (insignia, glasses, hairstyle, awards, car, office furnishings, etc.);
• 2) a person’s behavior (how he sits, walks, talks, where he looks, etc.).

Information about superiority is somehow “embedded” in clothing and behavior; they always contain elements that indicate a person’s belonging to a particular social group. Apart from these signs, we have no others. But these sources are really significant only because the information is contained in them in accordance with historically established stereotypes.

In business communication, to emphasize high social status, an official style is adopted - a formal business suit.

In behavior, as in clothing, there are always elements that allow one to judge a person’s status.

Expressive-aesthetic stereotypes

consist in the dependence of personality assessment on a person’s external attractiveness (“beauty effect”). If a person seems attractive to us in appearance, then we unwittingly endow him with positive personality traits, i.e. We project the external onto the internal. We tend to consider him smarter, better, more interesting and, conversely, some qualities of a person may be underestimated by people.

To the direct question: “Do you judge a person’s inner attractiveness by his appearance?” - most people will most likely answer in the negative. However, the facts indicate otherwise.

Illustrative history

English King Richard III, the “black legend” of Britain. Judging by historical data, the chronicles of Thomas More, which W. Shakespeare used, the king, who rose to the throne “over the corpses of relatives and enemies,” was a notorious villain, and even a hunchbacked huge freak. But more recently, historians have established; that after Richard’s death, a clan hostile to him falsified not only part of the historical information, where the king was portrayed as a villain and a freak, but also forced court artists to rewrite Richard’s portrait. The king's enemies, wanting to denigrate him in the eyes of his descendants, did not limit themselves to slandering his affairs; the portrait was supposed to assure everyone that Richard was an evil man.

During one of the experiments, psychologists prepared in advance photographs of three groups of people whose faces were rated by a group of experts as beautiful, ordinary and ugly. Then the experiment participants (men and women aged 18 to 50) were asked: “What can you say about the inner world of each of the people depicted in the photograph?” Men and women described “beautiful” people as more confident, happy, sincere, balanced, energetic, kind, resourceful, and more spiritually rich than “ugly” people and even those who were in the ordinary category. In addition, men rated beautiful women as more caring and attentive. Thus, there is an attractiveness fallacy here.

Expressive-aesthetic stereotypes

influence not only the assessment of a person’s personal characteristics, but also the assessment of the results of his activities. The action of this mechanism is described by the writer Doroshevich, a contemporary of Chekhov, in the tragicomic story “The Writer.” An elderly, ugly writer, Maurina, notices that her works are by no means mediocre! — not a single editorial office stubbornly publishes. She comes up with the idea of ​​asking her friend, a young and beautiful governess who is left without a job, to go to the editorial offices with the same manuscripts, posing as Maurina. And a miracle happens: editors, who have not bothered to read a story or story for weeks, now not only read, but also publish these works. They are influenced by the girl’s beauty and youth: “It’s interesting to know what such a beautiful head thinks... And how does she know all this? Such a young woman with looks full of pessimism.” When a girl refuses “cooperation” and the writer has to again seek publication herself, the situation of refusals, inattention and neglect is repeated. It is quite obvious that the factor of attractiveness played a role here: the inner world of an elderly and ugly woman was not of interest, but the experiences and thoughts of a young beauty attracted attention.