Importance Of Perception In Interpersonal Communication

Interpersonal communication can be very complicated. This assignment will discuss an interaction from my own experience whereby miscommunication occurred, or I misjudged somebody. I will be answering question one which is based on ‘perception’ with reference to specific communication theories, which include stereotyping, implicit personality theory and attribution theory. Lastly, I will discuss how having an understanding of the role that perception plays in interpersonal communication might have helped avoid the miscommunication.

“Perception is the process by which a person filters and interprets information to create a meaningful picture of the world” (Solomon and Theiss, 2012). However, in the context of interpersonal communication our perception shapes how we react and interpret to another person’s messages. Being able to select, organize and interpret information starts the perceptual process. All three stages can happen simultaneously. In the context of interpersonal communication, our perceptions shape how we

The aim of the ice breaker was to choose someone whom we had not met before on our table groups and make assumptions about them based on our first impressions of them e.g. you are very confident and outgoing, and later share with them the assumptions we had made about each other and find out if they were correct or not. One of the assumptions that I made about Kim was that she participated in Kapa Haka in high school, because I assumed that she was Maori, based on her appearance. She responded by laughing and telling me that she had never participated in Kapa haka, and that she’s not Maori but instead Fijian Indian. Through this communication interaction I misjudged Kim’s ethnicity/culture which therefore allowed me to interpret inaccurate information about