Introduction
Awareness is the ability of a person to view oneself as a unique soul different from the surrounding. Self-awareness enables one to reflect on their thoughts, behaviors, and feelings in regards to temperaments. The overall knowledge or idea somebody has about themselves is referred to as self-concept, basically. Self-esteem is a subjective evaluation, which describes how an individual values themselves, it also reveals the attitude one holds on their self. Initially, one may have a positive or negative rating, confident people have high esteem, and they are highly graded.
Perception is the process through which a person receives information from the environment, for instance, through hearing, seeing, tasting, feeling, and smelling. It also refers to the way people see the world and relate to their experiences. Stimulation is the first perception stage, where the five senses are triggered by receptors. Organization is the second phase where the brain recognizes concepts and ideas before relating them to experiences. In the interpretation stage, the body identifies features and events, and then, after a person applies biases and experience, a meaning is given to information that has been evaluated based on beliefs, values, and past experiences.
Memory is the fourth step of perception; the body stores information and events in the brain. In this phase, a person builds an association between experiences and beliefs. Lastly, past moments are recalled and evaluated, different events and information are given meanings according to a person’s perception. Perceptual accuracy is improved by doing an action several times and limiting factors that create errors. It can be improved by applying such strategies as empathizing with others, having a positive attitude, knowing oneself accurately, open communication, and postponing impression formation.
Perceptual accuracy is also improved by managing impressions, good communication, and avoiding Pygmalion. Quick impression formation about an individual or an event influences judgment, it is critical to postpone one’s views about someone until all necessary information has been collected. Self-fulfilling prophecy (Pygmalion) is thoughts and actions based on untrue dogmas, which triggers an action that makes initial false belief to appear true. It is critical to avoid self-serving bias, which is a tendency of an individual to blame external factors for failures and take credits for success. However, self-biasness helps in protecting self-esteem because it enables one to evade personal responsibilities based on their actions.
The Four Selves
Self-concept is an understanding of oneself by an individual based on body image, thoughts, personal experiences, and self-awareness. It also encompasses the consciousness one has due to past and present experiences as well as final expectations. There are four selves influencing self-concepts, which are the ideal self, the public self, the real self, and the critical self. The person one wishes to become is the ideal self while the public self refers to the image that an individual wants others to see in him or her. On the other hand, the real self is the natural, inner, spontaneous, and authentic personality of an individual while the critical self is the inner shaming voice.
Perception and interpersonal communication are connected in several ways, this is because perception determines how people communicate and relate to each other. For example, the way individuals perceive other’s conduct towards them guides communication (Giananti, 2020). An undesirable perception is created if a person being addressed feels offended. Consequently, negative perception fuels a rude and offensive response. In a conscious society, communication depends on the societal class, it also influences the way a person perceives others’ behavior toward them. If two people meet for the first time and one of them looks at the other in an invasive manner, a negative perception is created, which later causes rude and offensive talk and responses.
Reflection
I have always considered myself neat and wanted things to be done in my own way. For instance, I believed that tables and surfaces should be wiped before the floor, and a person should always be well-ordered, but the housemaid thought differently. An attempt to persuade her otherwise bore no fruits, in my opinion, being shaggy implied that an individual was rude, lazy, and unmotivated. Judging people based on the appearance was a norm for me, however, with time thoughts of my impression on others and their point of view about me were baffling. My employees considered me rude, too cautious, and adamant, while I am astute, orderly, and neat.
To deal with the wrong impression already created, I allowed myself to change my self-perception and beliefs. My mind was already filled with personal ideas, and there was no room to acquire novel ones. Thus, learning new things required preempting of the old self by leaving the over- controlling attitude, and strong attachments to outcomes and results. A person has to develop a good understanding of themselves to build capacity of understanding the thoughts and feelings of others. In addition, getting to discover oneself requires a person to let go of ego. Lastly, the most important communication skill is putting oneself in another’s person’s shoes to understand different people in society.
Reference
Giananti, A. (2020). I know how I know: Perception, self-awareness, and self-knowledge. Synthese, 1-21. Web.