The perceptual side of communication implies that it must necessarily have mutual understanding between the participants. It is about the awareness of the attitudes, motives and goals of your partner, as well as their adoption and separation. Only in this case, the perception of one person by another appears and we can talk about the presence of interpersonal understanding.
The perceptual side of communication has the following functions:
- forms the content of interpersonal perception;
- promotes mutual understanding;
- provides the influence of communication partners on each other.
All this is possible thanks to the "work" of specific mechanisms. These include the following.
- Firstly, attraction, empathy and identification, which contribute to the knowledge and understanding of each other by people.
- Secondly, reflection, which helps the knowledge of oneself in communication.
- Thirdly, causal attribution, which will help predict behavior in the process of communication of each partner.
The perceptual side of communication must necessarily include the work of all these mechanisms. Let us dwell in more detail on their characteristics.
Identification is a mechanism of cognition by each other by people when an opinion about the internal state of another person will be based on an attempt to put oneself in the partner's place.
Empathy implies the presence of emotional empathy with him.
Attraction or attraction is a form of cognition of the interlocutor, which is based on the formation of a positive sustainable feeling for him.
The perceptual side of communication will depend largely on how well developed these mechanisms are to help understand another person. In addition, reflection and causal attribution are necessary.
Reflection is a mechanism by which self-knowledge in communication takes place. It is based on the ability to represent how it is perceived by your partner.
Causal attribution involves the interpretation of the actions and feelings of another person, when there is an intention to find out the reasons for his behavior.
When the perceptual side of communication was studied by scientists, interesting patterns were highlighted:
- the reason for success by people is always attributed to themselves, but failure to circumstances or other people;
- a person who is negative about his interlocutor will always be characterized by the latter more negatively;
- communication partner is usually perceived through the prism of “first impression” and its mistakes.
We will dwell on the latter regularity in more detail.
Usually, when evaluating a stranger by fifty percent, the opinion will be correct, and the remaining fifty - wrong. This is due to three factors that were highlighted when the perceptual side of communication was studied . Human psychology says that, regardless of experience, gender and age, they will always be affected by:
- The error of superiority. A person who surpasses us in any parameters, we will always evaluate as more intelligent and talented. Otherwise, vice versa.
- Error attitude to us. A person who treats us kindly and respectfully will always be credited with positive character traits.
- The mistake of attractiveness. A person who we like externally, or by individual qualities, will be perceived quite differently. Even non-existent personality traits will be attributed to him.
So, summarizing what has been said: the perceptual side of communication is its necessary component. It should include:
- self-knowledge in the process of communication;
- understanding and cognition of the interlocutor;
- predicting the behavior of your partner.