2: Social Perception

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In looking at the basics of communication theory, we know humans live in a stimulus-thought-response world. We do not experience the world directly. We sense and then think about external experiences. Our senses are stimulated by things we see, hear, touch, taste, or smell, and then our brains sort through our accumulated store of knowledge to determine what it is. As a result, our perception of what we have seen/heard/touched/tasted/smelled is our interpretation of events. We respond to the interpretation of the events, not to the stimuli directly. Understanding this process of abstraction, of converting reality into thought, aids us in managing communication more effectively.

2.1: Introduction to Social Perception
2.2: The Perception Process
The perception process has three stages: sensory stimulation and selection, organization, and interpretation. Although we are rarely conscious of going through these stages distinctly, they nonetheless determine how we develop images of the world around us.
2.3: Perception of Self