Mechanisms of perception and development of social skills. Psychological mechanisms of social perception

A fairly popular subject of psychological research are humans and animals. Depending on the complexity, it is customary to distinguish three levels of the psyche or reality: these are sensory and perception, representations, and the highest - the verbal-logical level. Let's try to understand the first one in more detail.

Sensory-perceptual processes

Perceptive is perceiving, to put it another way. Perception is knowledge and, as a result, the formation in the mind of a holistic image of an object or phenomenon of the environment. It should be said right away that the immediate ones differ from each other. Despite the fact that without separate sensations arising as a result of the action of reality on the sense organs (sensors), perception could not exist, it is not limited to them.

Feelings create the base, but perceptual is a qualitatively different process, more active and meaningful. For example, you can compare how you can just hear sounds and listen carefully, see and purposefully look, observe someone or something.

Basic properties of perception

A large theoretical work is devoted to a detailed analysis of the sensory-perceptual organization in humans, the author is the famous Soviet psychologist B. G. Ananiev. From the point of view of specialists in this field, the following characteristic features of perception can be distinguished:

Differences between perception and apperception

Along with perception, the concept of apperception, closely related to it, is singled out. The perceptual process is perception. Apperception is also the reception and processing of visual, auditory and other information. The addition of the prefix ap- to the basic concept is intended to show the complexity of perception. We do not just hear, see, taste, smell and touch - the result of this passes through an individual prism. It necessarily includes previous perceptual experience, on the basis of which a judgment is made about the subject. So we compare each image with the existing shape standards - is it a circle or a triangle, colors - green or a shade of aquamarine, etc.

Specific knowledge and skills, the current state mediate our study of the world around us and determine the differences in the perception of different people. Personal characteristics have a great influence - inclinations, interests, character, lifestyle in general, which affect, among other things, the perception of ourselves.

What is it made up of? As we found out, perceptual is a synonym for the word perceiving. You can perceive not only inanimate things, animals, the relationship is also formed in terms of “man-man”. This means that even in communication there is a perceptual side. That is, it is the perception and evaluation of other people. Perceptual communication also involves the ability to feel the interlocutor and mood, to understand his needs and desires, motives of behavior.

There are a number of factors on which interpersonal interaction can depend. Firstly, this is the fact of the superiority of the other in certain parameters, due to which he will be perceived as an authoritative person and, accordingly, have a positive image. Secondly, the external attractiveness of the partner. Beautiful people are more sympathetic. Thirdly, the relation to the observer. If your partner treats you well, then most likely it will cause the same reciprocal feelings. Each of these points can reduce the adequacy and significantly affect the impression of someone.

Introduction

Social psychology is a science that studies the mechanisms and patterns of behavior and activities of people, due to their inclusion in social groups and communities, as well as the psychological characteristics of these groups and communities.

Psychology is usually understood as the science of human behavior, and social psychology as the branch of that science dealing with human interaction. The paramount task of science is to establish general laws through systematic observation. Social psychologists develop such general laws to describe and explain human interaction.

The very combination of the words "social psychology" indicates the specific place that this discipline occupies in the system of scientific knowledge. Having arisen at the intersection of sciences - psychology and sociology, social psychology still retains its special status, which leads to the fact that each of the "parent" disciplines quite willingly includes it as an integral part. This ambiguity in the position of the scientific discipline has many different reasons. Chief among them is the objective existence of such a class of facts of social life, which in themselves can be investigated only with the help of the combined efforts of two sciences: psychology and sociology. On the one hand, any social phenomenon has its own "psychological" aspect, since social patterns are manifested only through the activities of people, and people act, being endowed with consciousness and will.

On the other hand, in situations of joint activity of people, very special types of connections arise between them, connections of communication and interaction, and their analysis is impossible outside the system of psychological knowledge.

The relevance of the topic is due to the fact that the process of perception by one person of another acts as an obligatory component of communication and can conditionally be called the perceptual side of communication.

The object of the study is the interaction of people with each other through the perceptual side of communication.

The subject of research is social perception as a socio-psychological aspect of interaction.

The aim of the work is to study the structure and mechanisms of social perception.

The concept of social perception

social perception facial expressions openness

The emergence and successful development of interpersonal communication is possible only if there is mutual understanding between its participants. The extent to which people reflect the traits and feelings of each other, perceive and understand others, and through them themselves, largely determines the process of communication, the relationship that develops between partners, and the ways in which they carry out joint activities. Thus, the process of cognition and understanding by one person of another acts as an obligatory component of communication; conditionally, it can be called the perceptual side of communication.

Social perception is one of the most complex and important concepts of social psychology. It can even be argued that it is one of the most significant contributions of social psychology to modern and promising human psychology.

Its proximity to the general psychological concept of "perception" is limited by the name, the most common everyday meanings and the fact that both are related to the mechanisms and phenomena of human perception of various phenomena. This is where the similarities end. Perception is a theoretical concept that characterizes an artificially isolated fragment of a holistic process of cognition and subjective understanding of the World by a person. Social perception is a complex, multi-component concept that tries to explain the unique phenomenon of cognition and understanding of each other by people.

The concept of social perception was first introduced by J. Bruner in 1947, when a new view of the perception of a person by a person was developed.

Social perception is a process that occurs when people relate to each other and includes the perception, study, understanding and evaluation of social objects by people: other people, themselves, groups or social communities.

The concept of “social perception” includes everything that in the general psychological approach is usually denoted by various terms and studied separately, then trying to piece together a complete picture of the human mental world:

- own process of perception of the observed behavior;

– interpretation of perceived in terms of the causes of behavior and the expected consequences;

- emotional evaluation;

- building a strategy of their own behavior.

perceptual process

The process of social perception is a complex and branched system of formation in the mind of a person of images of social objects as a result of such methods of understanding each other by people as perception, knowledge, understanding and study. The term "perception" is not the most accurate in defining the formation of the observer's idea of ​​his interlocutor, as this is a more specific process. In social psychology, such a formulation as “knowledge of another person” (A.A. Bodalev) is sometimes used as a more accurate concept to characterize the process of perceiving a person by a person.

The process includes the relationship between the subject of perception and the object of perception.

The subject of perception is an individual or a group that carries out the cognition and transformation of reality. When the subject of perception is an individual, he can perceive and cognize his own group, an outside group, another individual who is a member of either his or another group. When the group acts as the subject of perception, then the process of social perception becomes even more intricate and complex, since the group carries out knowledge of both itself and its members, and can also evaluate members of another group and the other group itself as a whole.

The specificity of a person’s knowledge of another person lies in the fact that the subject and object of perception perceive not only the physical characteristics of each other, but also behavioral, and in the process of interaction, judgments are formed about the intentions, abilities, emotions and thoughts of the interlocutor. In addition, an idea is created about the relationships that connect the subject and the object of perception. This gives even more significant meaning to the sequence of additional factors that do not play such an important role in the perception of physical objects. If the subject of perception actively participates in communication, then this means the intention of the person to establish coordinated actions with a partner, taking into account his desires, intentions, expectations and past experience. Thus, social perception depends on emotions, intentions, opinions, attitudes, preferences and prejudices.

Social perception is defined as the perception of external signs of a person, comparing them with his personal characteristics, interpretation and prediction on this basis of his actions and deeds. Thus, in social perception there is certainly an assessment of another person, and the development, depending on this assessment and the impression made by the object, of a certain attitude in the emotional and behavioral aspect. This process of cognition by one person of another, its evaluation and the formation of a certain attitude is an integral part of human communication and can be conditionally called the perceptual side of communication.

Functions of social perception

There are basic functions of social perception, namely: self-knowledge, knowledge of a communication partner, organization of joint activities based on mutual understanding and the establishment of certain emotional relationships. Mutual understanding is a social - mental phenomenon, the center of which is empathy.

Empathy is the ability to empathize, the desire to put yourself in the place of another person and accurately determine his emotional state based on actions, facial reactions, gestures.

Empathy is based on the ability to correctly imagine what is happening in the soul of another person, what he experiences, how he evaluates the world around him. It is known that empathy is the higher, the better a person is able to imagine how the same event will be perceived by different people, and to what extent he admits the right to the existence of these points of view. The personal experience of various spiritual experiences is also of great importance, because it is difficult to imagine the feeling of another, which you yourself have never experienced. Thus, in a certain sense, empathy is the ability to draw a conclusion by analogy, although such a definition does not give an exhaustive answer to the question of the nature of this phenomenon.

Conclusion

Thus, in this work, we found out that social perception is the perception, understanding and evaluation of social objects by people, primarily themselves, other people, social groups. The term was introduced by the American psychologist J. Bruner to denote the fact of social conditioning of perception, its dependence not only on the characteristics of the object, but also on the past experience of the subject, his goals, intentions, and the significance of the situation.

In the structure of social perception, the observer, the observed and the social situation of communication are distinguished; each of the structural components affects the success of the social-perceptual process.

Among the most important, from the point of view of success, characteristics of the observer stand out: age, profession, state of self-esteem and the content of the "I-image", socially perceptual skills and abilities.

In accordance with the social situation of communication, for the implementation of social perception by the observer, various mechanisms of social cognition can be used.

Social psychologists have established that the perception of social objects is qualitatively different from the perception of the material world. This happens because, firstly, the social object is not passive and indifferent in relation to the perceiving subject. Influencing the subject of perception, the perceived person strives to transform the idea of ​​himself in a direction favorable for his goals.

Secondly, the attention of the subject of social perception is primarily focused not on the moments of generating an image as a result of reflecting the perceived reality, but on semantic and evaluative interpretations of the perceived object, including causal ones. Thirdly, the perception of social subjects is characterized by a greater fusion of cognitive components with emotional (affective) components, greater dependence on the motivational-semantic structure of the perceiving subject's activity.

We found out that the area of ​​research related to the elucidation of the mechanisms of formation of various emotional relationships to a perceived person is the study of attraction. And attraction as a mechanism of social perception is considered in three aspects: the process of forming the attractiveness of another person, the result of this process, the quality of relationships. And the result of this mechanism is a special kind of social attitude towards another person, in which the emotional component predominates.

Perception is a kind of reflection of things and situations of reality. Here the age of the perceiving individual plays an important role. Perception helps to form a holistic image of the subject. In psychology, this phenomenon allows you to find out how a person sees the situation and what conclusions he draws from communication with the outside world.

What is perception?

Perception is a cognitive function that helps in shaping an individual's perception of the world. Perception is a reflection of a phenomenon or object, it is a core biological process. Such a function is acquired through the sense organs involved in the formation of a personalized holistic image of an object. It affects the analyzers through a whole series of sensations caused by perception.

Perception is a popular subject of psychological research. In simple words, such a reflection of reality means understanding, cognition, the formation in the mind of a holistic image of some phenomenon. Perception cannot exist without separate sensations, but it is an essentially different process. For example, you can just hear sounds, or listen carefully, you can just see or purposefully look, observe.

Types of perception

Depending on the organs of perception, perception is:

1. visual. The movement of a person's eyes is spasmodic, this is how a person processes the information received. But when it stops, the process of visual perception begins. This type of perception is influenced by a previously developed stereotype. For example, if a person is accustomed to skimming through the text all the time with his eyes, it will be difficult for him in the future to learn how to work through the material in depth. He may not notice large paragraphs of text, and then, when questioned, answer that they were not in the book at all.
2. tactile. This function is responsible for the regulation, control and correction of the working movements of the hands. This type of perception is based on tactile, temperature and kinetic sensations. But the organ of perception in this case is the hand, which, with the help of feeling, helps to recognize the individual features of the object.
3. Auditory. In human auditory perception, an important place is occupied by phonemic and rhythmic-melodic systems. The human ear, unlike the animal, is much more complex, richer and more mobile. Such an understanding actively involves the motor component, but such a component is singled out as a separate separate system. For example, singing with a voice for musical hearing and pronunciation for speech hearing.

In addition to the above types of perception, there are two more, in which information is reflected not through the senses, but through understanding:

1. Spaces, distances, distances, directions of objects located from us and from each other.
2. Time is the duration, speed and sequence of events. Each person has his own internal clock, which rarely coincides with the daily rhythm. And so that a person can perceive this rhythm, he uses additional external signs and analyzers.

Law of Perception

Perception is a sensory representation of an object or phenomenon. Communication as perception is a mechanism for its beginning, since any process of communication begins with the perception of people by each other. And the process of perception, according to the laws of social perception, is built in the form of a judgment about the object. The well-known psychologist N.N. Lange developed a special law of perception, according to which perception is a quick change from a certain generalized perception of an object to a more concrete one.

Perception in philosophy

Perception in philosophy is a sensual understanding, a reflection of things in the mind through the senses. This concept has several categories:

1. Internal perception by which a person is aware of where his limbs are, whether he is sitting or standing, whether he is depressed, hungry or tired.
2. External perception, for which sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste are used.
3. Mixed perception, which is manifested through emotion or whim.

What is perception in psychology?

Perception in psychology is knowledge. With the help of such perception, a person can mentally form an integral image of an object. In other words, such a reflection of reality is a unique sensory display, which is formed by:

• motivation;
• installations;
• experience;
• personal characteristics of the perceiver;
• knowledge of the world through the prism of understanding one's own "I".

social perception

Social perception is a holistic understanding of social objects. It studies the manners of behavior between people with different levels of development. In order to be able to know and understand another person, there are certain mechanisms of social perception, they are presented:

• identification, when a person begins to behave in a way that, according to his opinion, his interlocutor could behave;
• when a person copies the emotional mood of the interlocutor;
• attraction, which manifests itself in the form of love or friendship;
• reflection, when a person begins to see himself through the eyes of the interlocutor;
• stereotyping, when a person perceives his interlocutor as part of any social group, community;
• causal attribution, when a person is endowed with certain qualities in accordance with his actions.

Perception is a Latin word meaning perception, which is used to describe cognitive processes that are closely related to the display of various life situations, phenomena or objects. In the case when such perception is directed to social spheres, the term “social perception” is used to characterize this phenomenon. Each person daily faces manifestations of social perception. Let's take a look at the various psychological mechanisms of social perception.

Perception, translated from Latin (perceptio), means "perception"

The concept of social perception originates from the time of the ancient world. Many philosophers and artists of that time made a significant contribution to the formation of this sphere. It should also be noted that this concept is important in the field of psychology.

Perception is one of the important functions in mental perception, which manifests itself in the form of a process that has a complex structure. Thanks to this process, a person not only receives various information from the senses, but also transforms it. The impact on various analyzers leads to the formation of integral images in the mind of the individual. Based on the foregoing, we can conclude that perception is characterized as one of the forms of sensory reproduction.

Perception is based on the characteristics of individual features that help form information based on accurate sensory images.

The cognitive function under consideration is closely interconnected with skills such as memory, logical thinking and concentration. This concept depends on the strength of the influence of vital stimuli, which are endowed with an emotional color. Perception consists of structures such as meaningfulness and contextuality.

Perception is actively studied by representatives of various fields, including psychologists, cyberneticists and physiologists. During differential experiments, various techniques are used, including simulation of different situations, experiments and an empirical form of analysis. Understanding the mechanism of social perception is important in the field of practical psychology. It is this tool that acts as a foundation in the development of various systems affecting the sphere of human activity.

Social perception studies the manners of behavior between individuals with different levels of development

Influence of perceptual factors

Perceptual factors are divided into two categories: external and internal influences. Among external factors, criteria such as movement, number of repetitions, contrast, size and depth of manifestation should be distinguished. Among the internal factors, experts distinguish the following:

1. Stimulus- motivation to achieve goals that are of high importance for the individual.
2. Setting the individual's perception- getting into certain life situations, a person is based on previously gained experience.
3. An experience- various experienced life difficulties affect the perception of the world around.
4. Individual features of perception- depending on the type of personality (optimism or pessimism), a person perceives the same life difficulties in a positive or unfavorable light.
5. Perception of one's own "I"- all occurring events in a person's life are evaluated on the basis of a personal prism of perception.

The influence of psychological perception on interaction with society

Social perception in psychology is a term used to describe the process by which an individual evaluates and understands surrounding people, his own personality, or social objects. Such objects consist of social societies and various groups. The term under consideration began to be used in psychology in the forties of the last century. For the first time this concept was used by the American psychologist Jerome Bruner. Thanks to the work of this scientist, researchers were able to consider various problems associated with the perception of the world around us from a different angle.

Every person is social. Throughout his life path, a person builds communicative ties with other people. The formation of interpersonal relationships leads to the formation of separate groups that are connected by one worldview or similar interests. Based on this, we can say that a person as a person participates in various types of relationships between people. The nature of the relationship to society depends on the degree of personal perception and how a person evaluates the surrounding people. At the initial stage of building a communicative connection, external qualities are evaluated. Following the appearance, the interlocutor's behavior model is evaluated, which allows forming a certain level of relations.

It is on the basis of the above qualities that the image of the perception of people around is compiled. Social perception has many forms of manifestation. In most cases, this term is used to characterize personal perception. Each person perceives not only his own personality, but also the social group to which he belongs. In addition, there is a form of perception that is characteristic only for members of such groups. It is perception based on the framework of a social group that is the second form of manifestation of perception. The last form of perception is group perception. Each group perceives both its own members and members of other groups.

Behavioral reactions are formed on the basis of social stereotypes, the knowledge of which explains communication models

The function of social perception is to evaluate the activities of people around. Each individual subjects to a thorough analysis the individual characteristics of the temperament of others, their external attractiveness, lifestyle and actions. Based on this analysis, an idea is formed about the surrounding people and their behavior.

Mechanism of social perception

Social perception is a process on the basis of which the prediction of the model of behavior and reaction of the society in various life conditions is carried out. The mechanisms of interpersonal perception presented below allow us to study the subtlety of this process:

1. attraction- the study of people around, which is based on a positive perception. Thanks to this mechanism, people gain the ability to interact closely with others, which has a positive effect on the formation of sensory relationships. A striking example of this function is the manifestation of love, sympathy and friendly feelings.
2. Identification- this mechanism is used as an intuitive study of personality based on modeling various situations. Based on his own beliefs, a person analyzes the internal state of others. Example: when making assumptions about the state of the interlocutor, it is common for a person to mentally imagine himself in his place.
3. Casual attribution- is a mechanism for creating a forecast of the behavior of others, based on the characteristics of one's own personality. When a person is faced with a lack of understanding of the motives of the actions of others, he begins to predict the behavior of other people, based on his own feelings, incentives and other individual properties.
4. Reflection- a mechanism of self-knowledge, based on interaction in society. This "tool" is based on the skills of presenting one's own personality, through the "eyes" of the interlocutor. As an example, one should imagine the dialogue between Vasya and Pasha. At least six "personalities" take part in this type of communication: Vasya's personality, his idea of ​​his own personality, and Vasya's representation of Vasya's personality through Pasha's eyes. Exactly the same images are recreated in Pasha's mind.
5. Stereotyping- a mechanism for creating a stable image of surrounding people and phenomena. It is important to note that such images have features depending on social factors. As an example of stereotyping, we can cite the persistent idea that most externally attractive people are prone to narcissism, Germans are pedantic, and law enforcement officers think straight.
6. empathy- the ability of emotional empathy, the provision of psychological support and participation in the lives of others. This mechanism is a key skill in the work of specialists from the field of psychology, medicine and pedagogy.

The tools used by social perception ensure communication between individuals

The above types of knowledge of the personality of others are based not only on the physical characteristics of a person, but also on the nuances of a behavior model. The building of close communicative ties is facilitated by the participation in the conversation of both partners. Social perception depends on the stimuli, feelings and lifestyle of each of the participants in interpersonal relationships. An important component of this cognitive function is the subjective analysis of surrounding individuals.

The importance of first impressions

An in-depth study of social perception made it possible to identify the key factors that influence the strength of impressions about a person. According to experts, during an acquaintance, most people pay increased attention to hair, eyes and facial expressions. Based on this, we can say that a friendly smile during an acquaintance is perceived as a sign of cordiality and a positive attitude.

There are three main points that are decisive in the process of forming the first impressions of a new person. Such factors include the degree of superiority, attractiveness and attitude.

1. "Superiority" most sharply expressed in the situation when the personality of a particular individual is superior in some way, is perceived as dominant in other areas as well. Against this background, there is a global change in the assessment of one's own qualities. It is important to note that people with low self-esteem are more susceptible to the influence of “the superiority of others”. This explains the fact that in critical conditions people express confidence in those who were previously treated negatively.
2. "attractiveness" which is a feature of social perception - a factor on the basis of which the degree of attractiveness of others is analyzed. The main mistake of such a perception is that paying increased attention to external qualities, a person forgets about the analysis of the psychological and social characteristics of those around him.
3. "Attitude" is based on the perception of a person, depending on the attitude towards his personality. The negative effect of such perception is based on the fact that with a good attitude and a shared life position, a person begins to overestimate the positive qualities of others.

The effect of primacy in social perception is manifested at the first acquaintance

Methodology for the development of perceptual perception

According to the famous psychologist Dale Carnegie, a simple smile is enough to arouse sympathy among others. That is why, if you want to build a strong communicative connection with others, you should learn the right smile. To date, there are many psychological techniques for the development of facial gestures that help enhance the transmission of experienced emotions. Managing your own facial expressions allows you not only to improve the quality of social perception, but also to get the opportunity to better understand others.

One of the most effective methods for developing social perception skills is Ekman's practice. The basis of this method is the concentration of attention on three areas of the human face. These areas include the forehead, chin and nose. It is these zones that best display such emotional states as feelings of anger, fear, disgust or sadness.

The ability to analyze facial gestures allows you to decipher the feelings experienced by the interlocutor. This practice has become widespread in the field of psychology, thanks to which the specialist gets the opportunity to build a communicative relationship with people with mental disorders.

Perception is a complex mechanism of human mental perception. The quality of this system depends on many different external and internal factors. These factors include features of age, experience and individual personality traits.