Perception

We cannot always choose our circumstances, but we can choose our attitude towards those circumstances.
- Victor Frankl

*How you experience things is to a great extent determined by how you choose to see your experiences.
*Your ability to communicate effectively and build bridges to others is largely dependent on your perception of others and yourself.

Choose to see and focus on the positive!

*Perception: the process of sensing, organizing, and interpreting the many stimuli that shower our senses every moment we are alive.
*Selective Perception: the process of choosing which stimuli, from the hundreds of thousands, you will focus your attention on at any given moment.

Three Stages of Perception

• Sensing - Intaking stimuli and choosing what to focus on
• Organizing - How you make sense of stimuli & give them meaning
• Interpreting - Subjective assigning meaning to what stimuli means personal

Ways We Organize Stimuli

• Proximity 
• Closure  
• Similarity
• Stereotyping
• Contrast

Ways We Interpret Things

• Relational history
• Expectations
• Self Knowledge

Factors that influence perception

• Position in space
• Physical differences
• Past experience
• Expectations

How To Increase the Accuracy of Your Perception

• Be aware of your limitations
• Perception checking is the most effective tool for increasing the 
•        accuracy of your perceptions
• Distinguishing observation from inference

How Self Concept Is Formed

• Self Concept: The stable set of perceptions you hold for yourself
• Reflected Appraisal: Shaped by those significant to us
• Social Comparison: How we measure ourselves against others
• Personal Construction: How we form it through observation, 
•        interpretation, and experiences

How you choose to interpret what you see or sense

Choose to see the best in others