Perception, perception (from lat. perceptio) -- cognitive process, forming a subjective picture of the world

This mental process, which consists in the reflection of an object or phenomenon as a whole with its direct impact on the receptor surfaces of the sense organs. Perception is one of the biological mental functions that determine the complex process of receiving and converting information received with the help of the sense organs that form a subjective holistic image of an object that affects analyzers through a set of sensations initiated by this object. As a form of sensory reflection of an object, perception includes the detection of the object as a whole, the distinction of individual features in the object, the allocation of informative content in it that is adequate to the purpose of the action, the formation of a sensory image.

Perception is much more than transmission nervous system neural impulses to specific areas of the brain. Perception also implies awareness by the subject of the very fact of stimulation and certain ideas about it, and in order for this to happen, it is first necessary to feel the “input” of sensory information, that is, to experience a sensation. In other words, perception is the process of comprehending the stimulation of sensory receptors.

Types of perception

With unintentional perception, we are not guided by a predetermined goal or task - to perceive a given object. Perception is guided by external circumstances. Intentional perception, on the contrary, is regulated from the very beginning by the task - to perceive this or that object or phenomenon, to get acquainted with it. Intentional perception can be included in any activity and carried out in the course of its implementation. But sometimes perception can act as a relatively independent activity.

Observation is active form sensory knowledge of reality. When observing as an independent purposeful reality, a verbal formulation of goals and objectives directing observation to certain objects is assumed from the very beginning.

Prolonged exercises in observation lead to the development of observation, that is, the ability to notice characteristic, but subtle, at first glance, seemingly unimportant features of objects.

So, perception is a visual-figurative reflection of objects and phenomena of reality acting at the moment on the senses in the aggregate of their various properties and parts.

Perceptual Properties

The objectivity of perception is expressed in the so-called act of objectification, that is, in the attribution of information received from the external world to this world. Objectivity, not being an innate quality, performs an orienting and regulating function in practical activities. Without the participation of movement, our perceptions would not have the quality of objectivity, that is, they would not be related to objects in the external world. Objectivity as a quality of perception plays a special role in the regulation of behavior. Usually we define objects not by their appearance, but according to their practical purpose or their main property.

Integrity

Unlike sensation, which reflects the individual properties of an object, perception gives a holistic image of it. It is formed on the basis of generalization of knowledge about the individual properties and qualities of an object, obtained in the form of various sensations. The components of sensation are so strongly interconnected that a single complex image of an object arises even when only individual properties or individual parts of the object (velvet, marble) directly affect a person. These impressions arise as a conditioned reflex due to the connection formed in life experience between visual and tactile stimuli.

Structurality

With the integrity of perception is connected and its structure. Perception to a large extent does not correspond to our instantaneous sensations and is not a simple sum of them. We perceive a generalized structure actually abstracted from these sensations, which is formed over a period of time. If a person listens to a melody, then the previously heard notes still continue to sound in his mind when a new note arrives.

The constancy of perception is the relative constancy of certain properties of objects when its conditions change. Due to the property of constancy, which consists in the ability of the perceptual system (a set of analyzers that provide a given act of perception) to compensate for these changes, we perceive the objects around us as relatively constant. To the greatest extent, constancy is observed in the visual perception of the color, size and shape of objects.

Meaningfulness of perception

Although perception arises from the direct action of a stimulus on the sense organs, perceptual images always have a certain semantic meaning. Perception in humans is closely related to thinking. To consciously perceive an object means to mentally name it, that is, to attribute it to a certain group, class, to generalize it into a word. Even when we see an unfamiliar object, we try to establish in it a resemblance to familiar ones.

Apperception

Perception depends not only on the stimulus, but also on the subject himself. It is not the eye and the ear that perceive, but a specific living person, and therefore the characteristics of a person’s personality always affect perception. The dependence of perception on the content of a person's mental life, on the characteristics of his personality, is called apperception.

Why do we perceive a person in this way? How is our relationship with people formed?

Contacting with people, we, without noticing it ourselves, evaluate each of them and draw conclusions about the person himself and his qualities. At the same time, no matter who we communicate with and whatever the duration of this contact, the process of perception of one individual by another always starts. How to understand another and, on the basis of knowledge, build exactly those relationships that are necessary with this person is one of the main questions of psychology.

Definition

The concept of social perception can be characterized as follows: it is the perception of one social unit by another. Psychology shows us the mechanisms by which we contact, build relationships, characterize and understand what to expect from a person, not only based on his personal qualities, but also assessing his social affiliation. To do this, our subconscious mind takes a system of social stereotypes - stable ideas that arise within one of the social communities - groups.

Since social perception is most often seen as communication between individuals, psychologists have singled out interpersonal perception as a special case. Interpersonal perception is conditioned by emotional manifestations and representations of interacting people.

Psychological features of interpersonal interaction are based on an emotional basis. It includes various types of phenomena, including the emotional reactions of the individual, such as affects, feelings, emotions.

Since a person is constantly in interaction with other people both in his social group and outside it, phenomena of social perception arise. According to psychologists, people from the same social group will have similar reactions to the same situation, will give the same assessment and be guided by similar criteria, since they have common perception scales and rating systems.

That is why often there are difficulties in children who move from one school to another. At first, the class into which the newcomer got, perceives him as a subject from a foreign social group, while almost all children react to him in the same way: they look closely, study. At the same time, in order to join the team, a new student will have to not only learn to be like everyone else, but, first of all, turn on the mechanism of cognition through interest in the group in which he builds communication.

Where does perception lead?

Communication as a social perception can be implemented in the form of:

1. Exchange of information.

2. Emotional exchange.

3. Development of a single information context. Based on stereotypes, interpersonal perception is formed. At the same time, the features that prevent individuals from objectively perceiving each other form the following effects of social perception.

• Primacy effect. Only after getting to know a person, we form our opinion on the basis of already available information: how he looks, how he speaks, etc.
• The effect of novelty - new information appeared, and suddenly "eyes were opened". The new information seems to have crossed out the old one, or it has been thoroughly corrected. In this case, a sharp change in attitude towards a person can occur. The perceiver will suddenly see something good in him or take off his “rose-colored glasses”.
• The halo effect is the very case when no matter what they tell you about a person, you will not believe anyone and will not change your opinion about him.
• Projection effect - we attribute our own qualities to a person, artificially "improving" or "worsening" him at the expense of them.
• The effect of an average error is possible when you have not yet made a final decision about what your attitude towards a person is - in this case, you temporarily neutralize the traits and qualities of this person as much as possible.

Types of social perception:

• Self-knowledge - the individual perceives and cognizes himself.
• Individual - the perception between two personalities - in this case, they are in the process of knowing each other.
• The perception of a group by a person, while the process of perception and cognition occurs between the individual and the social group and all its members.
• Interpersonal group cognition both within each group and between its members.

Science identifies the following most important functions of social perception:

1. Self-knowledge - self-perception and self-esteem by a person of himself.

2. Knowledge of another individual.

3. Establishing contacts in the team in the implementation of joint activities.

How Perceptual Mechanisms Work

Relationships are based on the mechanisms of social perception. They are based on interest and the need to interact constantly or from time to time. These are the following communication tools.

Identification - we cognize an object by becoming like it. When you are told, "Stand in my place," it is a call for identification. Of course, this is not the only way of perception, but it is most often used in the process of communication. Identification is very close to empathy.

Attraction - to understand what this incomprehensible word means, it is enough to say: sympathy, friendship, love. These three levels of positive feelings are its components. Sympathy is more neutral, friendship, in turn, is individualized and reveals attachments. Love is the highest degree of emotionally positive attitude; acts through the mechanisms of crowding out other interests of the individual and concentrating her attention on the object of feelings.

Reflection. Try to imagine what, for example, your mother, girlfriend, neighbor thinks about you. Through reflection, you get to know yourself and the person for whom you are carrying out the process of reflection. Accordingly, the more people you communicate with, the more diverse your ideas about yourself (unless, of course, you deny the opinion of others about yourself) and about others. If you want honest and open relationships, include your partner in the number of those through whose eyes you look at yourself, make him a part of your inner world and a source of self-knowledge.

It is most interesting to consider the work of these mechanisms within the framework of the teacher-student relationship. How does pedagogical social perception work? For any teacher, it is necessary not only to emphasize their status, but also not to alienate the student.

Include Perceptual Mechanisms in Frames educational process This is the main task of the teacher. You can show children how they work without using complicated terminology. The concepts of perception and apperception are different.

If perception is a more primitive manifestation of the unconscious, an unconscious perception of internal processes and surrounding objects, then apperception is a clear, meaningful category of perception, it is associated with past spiritual experience, it is based on the knowledge and abilities of a person. That is, it is a conscious act of knowing a person, and his perception is based on worldview and experience.

And if the essence of social perception is revealed through direct and everyday communication, then apperception is rather a tool in the hands of professionals who not only study perception and mechanisms, but also control these processes. Author: Ruslana Kaplanova

Perception (lat. percipere - to perceive). The first steps in the study of the process of perception were made in Antiquity, then it was reflected in philosophy, physics, and art. A special contribution to the study of the nature of perception was made by the German philosopher and physicist Gottfried Leibniz.

His theory of "small perceptions" for the first time in history explained the difference between the conscious and unconscious state of the spirit.

Under small perceptions, the researcher understood unconscious perceptions that can be realized if they are joined by a special act - apperception. Creating his theory, Leibniz tried to answer the question of the existence of a semblance of souls in inanimate nature. His innovative ideas were further developed in the writings of philosophers, as well as in psychology - thanks to Sigmund Freud.

Modern psychology assumes the following properties of perception. Objectivity. This property of perception determines the possibility of perceiving objects as having specific (and not incoherent) images. Apperception is the general influence of the human psyche. Context - attachment to circumstances. Meaningfulness - the subject is associated with a certain class. Structurality - the object is perceived as a certain structure, abstracted from sensations.

In addition, perception acts as a necessary stage of cognition, always associated (to a greater or lesser extent) with thinking, memory and attention. Perception is actively studied by modern sciences through empirical analysis and modeling, these studies are of general scientific and applied importance.

Psychological mechanisms of social perception

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 event that such perception is aimed at 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"

What is social 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. Incentive - the motivation to achieve goals that are of high importance to the individual.
2. Setting the perception of the individual - getting into certain life situations, a person is based on previous experience.
3. Experience - various life difficulties experienced, affect the perception of the world around us.
4. Individual characteristics 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 the events taking place 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 other 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 from a different angle.

Every person is social. Throughout its 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 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 is the study of people around, which is based on 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 is 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 is 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 is the ability of emotional sympathy, providing 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" is most acutely 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, is 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 a perception is based on the fact that with a good attitude and a shared life position, a person begins to overestimate positive traits surrounding.

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.

/ Perception

Social Psychology- 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 manifest themselves only through the activity 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. 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 he developed A New Look on the perception of man by man.

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;

- building a strategy of their own behavior.

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 physical characteristics each other, but also behavioral, as well as 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 external signs of a person, comparing them with his personal characteristics, interpreting and predicting his actions and deeds on this basis. 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. It is known that empathy is higher than better man 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.

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 the generation of the image as a result of the reflection of the perceived reality, but on the 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 definition in psychology

Perception - mechanisms and patterns of social perception

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 an object, it is a core biological process of the human psyche. 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, 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 special separate system. For example, sing-along for musical ear 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 their own internal clock, which rarely coincide 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 a mental function of cognition. 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;
• empathy, 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.

Gender Features of Perception

Perceptual effects are certain features that prevent partners from adequately perceiving each other. In science they are:

• primacy, which manifests itself when meeting;
• novelty, which manifests itself when new important information appears;
• a halo, which manifests itself when the positive or negative qualities of a partner are exaggerated.

/ 18. The concept of social perception

Social perception is a figurative perception by a person of himself, other people and social phenomena of the surrounding world. The image exists at the level of feelings (sensations, perceptions, ideas) and at the level of thinking (concepts, judgments, conclusions).

The term "social perception" was first introduced by J. Bruner in 1947 and was understood as the social determination of perceptual processes.

Social perception includes interpersonal perception (perception of a person by a person), which consists of the perception of external signs of a person, their correlation with personal qualities, interpretation and prediction of future actions. As a synonym in domestic psychology, the expression “knowledge of another person” is often used, says A. A. Bodalev. The use of such an expression is justified by the inclusion in the process of perception of another of his behavioral characteristics, the formation of ideas about the intentions, abilities, attitudes of the perceived, etc.

The process of social perception includes two sides: subjective (the subject of perception is the person who perceives) and objective (the object of perception is the person who is perceived). In the course of interaction and communication, social perception becomes mutual. At the same time, mutual knowledge is aimed primarily at understanding those qualities of a partner that are most significant for the participants in communication at a given time.

Difference of social perception: social objects are not passive and indifferent in relation to the subject of perception. Social images always have semantic and evaluative characteristics. The interpretation of another person or group depends on the previous social experience of the subject, on the behavior of the object, on the system of value orientations of the perceiver, and other factors.

The subject of perception can be either an individual or a group. If an individual acts as a subject, then he can perceive:

1) another individual belonging to his group;

2) another individual belonging to a foreign group;

If the group acts as the subject of perception, then, according to G. M. Andreeva, the following is added:

1) the group's perception of its own member;

2) perception by a group of a representative of another group;

3) the group's perception of itself;

4) perception by the group as a whole of another group.

In groups, individual ideas of people about each other are framed in group personality assessments, which act in the process of communication in the form of public opinion.

Allocate the mechanisms of social perception - the ways by which people interpret, understand and evaluate another person. The most common mechanisms are the following: empathy, attraction, causal attribution, identification, social reflection.

IDENTIFICATION (Identification; Identifizierang) - a psychological process in which a person partially or completely dissimilates from himself (see assimilation). An unconscious projection by a person of himself onto something other than himself: another person, business, or location. In other words, it is the subject's unconscious identification of himself with another subject, group, process, or ideal. It is an important part of normal development. Empathy - understanding the emotional state of another person, understanding his emotions, feelings and experiences. In many psychological sources, empathy is identified with sympathy, empathy, sympathy. This is not entirely true, since it is possible to understand the emotional state of another person, but not treat him with sympathy and sympathy. Understanding well the views and related feelings of other people that he does not like, a person often acts contrary to them. A student in a lesson, annoying an unloved teacher, can perfectly understand the emotional state of the latter and use the possibilities of his empathy against the teacher. The people we call manipulators very often have well-developed empathy and use it for their own, often selfish purposes. The subject is able to understand the meaning of the experiences of another because he himself once experienced the same emotional states. However, if a person has never experienced such feelings, then it is much more difficult for him to comprehend their meaning. If an individual has never experienced affect, depression or apathy, then he most likely will not understand what another person is experiencing in this state, although he may have certain cognitive ideas about such phenomena. To comprehend the true meaning of the feelings of another, it is not enough to have cognitive representations. You also need personal experience. Therefore, empathy as the ability to understand the emotional state of another person develops in the process of life and may be more pronounced in older people. It is quite natural that among close people empathy towards each other is more developed than among people who have known each other relatively recently. People from different cultures may have little empathy for each other. At the same time, there are people who have special insight and are able to understand the experiences of another person even if he tries to hide them carefully. There are some types of professional activities that require developed empathy, for example, medical, pedagogical, theatrical activities. Almost any professional activity in the sphere of "man - man" requires the development of this mechanism of perception.

Reflection - in social psychology, reflection is understood as an imitation of another person's reasoning. More often, reflection is understood as reflection on YOUR mental actions or mental states. attraction - a special form of perception and cognition of another person, based on the formation of a stable positive feeling towards him. Thanks to positive feelings of sympathy, affection, friendship, love, etc. between people there are certain relationships that allow you to know each other more deeply. In the figurative expression of the representative humanistic psychology A. Maslow, such feelings make it possible to see a person “under the sign of eternity”, i.e. see and understand the best and most worthy that it has. Attraction as a mechanism of social perception is usually considered in three aspects: the process of forming the attractiveness of another person; the result of this process; relationship quality. The result of this mechanism is a special kind of social attitude towards another person, in which the emotional component predominates. Attraction can exist only at the level of individual-selective interpersonal relationships characterized by the mutual attachment of their subjects. There are probably various reasons why we treat some people with more sympathy than others. Emotional attachment can arise on the basis of common views, interests, value orientations, or as a selective attitude to a person’s special appearance, behavior, character traits, etc. It is curious that such relationships allow you to better understand the other person. With a certain degree of conventionality, we can say that the more we like a person, the more we know him and better understand his actions (unless, of course, we are talking about pathological forms of attachment). Attraction is also significant in business relationships. Therefore, most business psychologists recommend that interpersonal communication professionals express the most positive attitude towards clients, even if they do not really like them. Externally expressed benevolence has reverse action- the attitude can really change to a positive one. Thus, the specialist forms in himself an additional mechanism of social perception, which makes it possible to obtain more information about a person. However, it should be remembered that the excessive and artificial expression of joy does not so much form an attraction as it destroys people's trust. A friendly attitude cannot always be expressed through a smile, especially if it looks fake and too stable. So, a TV presenter who smiles for an hour and a half is unlikely to attract the sympathy of viewers. ^ Mechanism of causal attribution associated with attributing causes of behavior to a person. Each person has his own assumptions about why the perceived individual behaves in a certain way. When attributing certain causes of behavior to another, the observer does this either on the basis of the similarity of his behavior with some familiar face or image of a person, or on the basis of an analysis of his own motives assumed in such a situation. Here the principle of analogy, similarity with the already familiar or the same operates. It is curious that causal attribution can “work” even when the analogy is drawn with a person that does not exist and has never really existed, but is present in the observer’s ideas, for example, with in an artistic way(the image of a character from a book or movie). Each person has a huge number of ideas about other people and images, which were formed not only as a result of meetings with specific people, but also under the influence of various artistic sources. On a subconscious level, these images occupy "equal positions" with the images of people who really exist or really existed. The mechanism of causal attribution is associated with some aspects of the self-perception of the individual who perceives and evaluates the other. So, if the subject attributed to another negative traits and the reasons for their manifestation, then he will most likely evaluate himself by contrast as a carrier of positive traits. Sometimes people with low self-esteem show excessive criticality towards others, thereby creating a kind of negative subjectively perceived social background, against which, as they think, they look quite decent. In fact, these are only subjective sensations that arise as a psychological defense mechanism. At the level of social stratification, such intergroup relations as the choice of an outgroup and the strategy of social creativity, of course, are accompanied by the action of causal attribution. T. Shibutani spoke about the measure of criticality and goodwill, which it is advisable to observe in relation to others. After all, every person has positive and negative traits, as well as features of behavior due to its ambivalence as an individual, personality and subject of activity. In addition, the same qualities are evaluated differently in different situations. The attribution of the causes of behavior can take place taking into account the externality and internality of both the one who attributes and the one to whom they attribute. If the observer is predominantly external, then the causes of the behavior of the individual whom he perceives will be seen by him in external circumstances. If it is internal, then the interpretation of the behavior of others will be associated with internal, individual and personal reasons. Knowing in what respects an individual is an external and in what respects an internal, one can also determine some features of his interpretation of the causes of the behavior of other people. The perception of a person also depends on his ability to put himself in the place of another, to identify himself with him. In this case, the process of cognition of the other will go more successfully (if there are substantial grounds for the corresponding identification). The process and result of such an identification is called identification. Identification as a socio-psychological phenomenon is considered modern science very often and in such different contexts that it is necessary to specifically mention the features of this phenomenon as a mechanism of social perception. In this aspect, identification is similar to empathy, however, empathy can be considered as an emotional identification of the subject of observation, which is possible on the basis of past or present experience of such experiences. As far as identification is concerned, here intellectual identification takes place to a greater extent, the results of which are the more successful, the more accurately the observer has determined the intellectual level of the one whom he perceives. Professional activity of some specialists is associated with the need for identification, such as the work of an investigator or a teacher, which has been repeatedly described in legal and educational psychology. Identification error with an incorrect assessment of the intellectual level of another person can lead to negative professional results. So, a teacher who overestimates or underestimates the intellectual level of his students will not be able to correctly assess the relationship between the real and potential abilities of students in the learning process. It should be noted that the word "identification" in psychology means a number of phenomena that are not identical to each other: the process of comparing objects based on essential features(in cognitive psychology), the unconscious process of identifying close people and the mechanism of psychological defense (in psychoanalytic concepts), one of the mechanisms of socialization, etc. In a broad sense, identification as a mechanism of social perception, combined with empathy, is a process of understanding, seeing another, comprehending personal meanings activities of another, carried out by direct identification or attempts to put oneself in the place of another. Perceiving and interpreting the surrounding world and other people, a person also perceives and interprets himself, his own actions and motives. The process and result of a person's self-perception in a social context is called social reflection. As a mechanism of social perception, social reflection means understanding by the subject of his own individual characteristics and how they manifest themselves in outward behavior; awareness of how it is perceived by other people. It should not be thought that people are able to perceive themselves more adequately than those around them. So, in a situation where there is an opportunity to look at oneself from the outside - in a photograph or a film, many remain very dissatisfied with the impression made in their own way. This is because people have a somewhat distorted image of themselves. Distorted ideas even concern the appearance of the perceiving person, not to mention the social manifestations of the internal state.

Perception

The process of perception by one person of another is mandatory integral part communication and is what is called perception. The perceptual side of communication explains the perception and understanding of another person and oneself, the establishment of mutual understanding and interaction on this basis. In perception, an important role is given to the installation in communication. Often the formation of the first impression of a stranger depends on the characteristic given to him. And then in it, depending on the installation, some will find positive features, others are negative. In perception, it is possible perception errors, the reasons for which may be:

♦ halo effect- information received about a person before direct communication with him, forms a biased idea about him even before his perception;

♦ “novelty” effect- upon perception stranger often the primary information about him (the so-called first impression) seems to be the most significant;

♦ stereotype effect- arises due to insufficient information about a person and exists in the form of a certain stable image.

In the process of perception, not just the perception of each other takes place, but a whole range of feelings is born, emotional relationships arise, the formation mechanism of which is studied by attraction.

Attraction is the appearance, when a person is perceived by a person, of the attractiveness of one of them for another. There are a few ways you can use to create an attraction:

reception "proper name"

when communicating, more often refer to a partner by name and patronymic, since such an appeal serves as an indicator of attention and unconsciously evokes positive emotions;

reception "mirror of the soul"

a friendly facial expression, a smile when communicating signal friendly relations and good intentions;

reception "golden words"

do not skimp during communication on compliments, praise, which any person needs;

patient listener technique

be able to listen with interest and patiently to your interlocutor, to let him speak;

reception "preliminary information"

when communicating, use knowledge about your interlocutor (character, temperament, hobbies, marital status, etc.).

perceptual processes. Concept, properties of perception

Perception is a reflection of objects and phenomena, integral situations of the objective world in the totality of their properties and parts with their direct impact on the senses.

Perception is based on sensations, but perception is not reduced to the sum of sensations.

Without sensation, perception is impossible. However, in addition to sensations, perception includes past human experience in the form of ideas and knowledge.

Depending on which analyzer plays the predominant role in perception, there are visual, auditory, tactile, kinesthetic, olfactory and gustatory perception. Unlike sensations, images of perception usually arise as a result of the work of several analyzers. TO complex species perceptions include, for example, perception of space and perception of time. Perceiving space, that is, the distance of objects from us and from each other, shape and size, a person is based both on visual sensations and on auditory, skin and motor sensations.

In the perception of time, in addition to auditory and visual sensations, motor and internal, organic sensations play an important role.

By the strength of the sound of thunder, we determine the distance separating us from the approaching thunderstorm, with the help of touch, with our eyes closed, we can determine the shape of an object. In people with normal vision, auditory and tactile sensations play a similar role in the perception of space. But these sensations are of primary importance for persons deprived of sight.

Under the perception of time is understood the process of reflecting the duration and sequence of events occurring in the objective world. Only very short time intervals lend themselves to direct perception. When we are talking about longer periods of time, it is more correct to speak not of perception, but of the idea of ​​time.

The surrounding reality is perceived not by certain sense organs, but by a person of a certain gender and age, with his own interests, views, personality orientation, life experience, etc. The eye, ear, hand and other sense organs only provide the process of perception, which depends on mental characteristics personality.

Patterns of perception

The main patterns of perception:

installation dependence, subjectivity,

The process of perception is not limited to isolating a certain group of sensations and combining them into a holistic image; it also involves the recognition of the image, its comparison with traces of memory, comprehension and understanding (especially when symbolic objects, signs, text, etc. are perceived).

All this requires the involvement of past experience, in connection with which it is customary to talk about a special property of consciousness - apperception, i.e. the dependence of a clear perception of any content on past impressions and accumulated knowledge. Thanks to such a connection between current and past impressions, it is possible to assimilate new sensory information, to include new images of perception in the system of human experience. Therefore, a clear and conscious perception of the surrounding world is impossible without the participation of memory and thinking.

Perception is associated with categorization, the mental process of assigning a single object or event to a certain class. In other words, any object is perceived not as a singularity and immediate given, but as a representative of a generalized class of phenomena. Moreover, the specific features of this class are automatically transferred to the perceived object. The relationship of perception with categorization indicates the mediation of perceptual processes by the social experience of the individual and cultural factors.

A characteristic feature of human perception is that its images are synthesized using speech. (verbal mediation), based on the semantic structures of natural language. Due to the verbal (verbal) designation, it becomes possible to abstract and generalize the particular properties of objects.

In the studies of a number of prominent experimental psychologists (originally G. Müller, T. Schumann, L. Lange, later - D.N. Uznadze and his followers), it was noted that perception largely depends on the attitude, defined as an integral state of the subject, not fully realized by him and at the same time suggesting “a peculiar tendency to certain contents of consciousness” or a preliminary readiness to perceive, feel and react to something in a certain way under the influence of past experience and motivational factors.

At the same time, its subjectivity should be attributed to the main patterns of perception: people perceive the same information differently, subjectively, i.e. depending on their interests, knowledge, needs, abilities, goals of activity and other subjective factors. The dependence of perception on the content of a person's mental life and on the characteristics of his personality is also associated with the fundamental concept of apperception.

According to the postulates of Gestalt psychology, perception is based on the principle of isomorphism, i.e. structural similarity of the formed perceptual image to the perceived object.

Laws of perception (according to M. Wertheimer).

Similarity effect. - Figures similar in some elements (color, size, shape, etc., are combined and grouped in perception).

Proximity effect. - Closely spaced pieces usually come together.

Factor" common destiny". - Shapes can be combined general character changes observed in them.

The "Good Continuation" Factor. - From two intersecting or tangent lines, choose lines with less curvature.

Closure factor. - Closed figures are perceived better.

Grouping factor without a trace. - Several figures try to group in such a way that there is not a single single figure left.

The concept of perception

Definition 1

Perception is a cognitive process of direct active display by a person of various phenomena, objects, events, situations.

If this cognition is directed to social objects, then the phenomenon is called social perception. The mechanisms of social perception can be observed daily in our daily lives.

Mention of perception met already in the ancient world. A huge contribution to the development of this concept was made by philosophers, physiologists, artists, physicists. But the most great importance This concept is given by psychology.

Perception is an important mental function of cognition, which manifests itself as a complex process of transformation and receipt of sensory information. Through perception, the individual forms an integral image of the object that affects the analyzers. Thus, perception is a peculiar form of sensory display.

Characteristics and properties of perception

This phenomenon has the following main characteristics:

• identification of individual signs;
• correct absorption of information;
• formation of an accurate sensory image.

perception is associated with logical thinking, attention and memory. It depends on the motivation of a person and has an emotional coloring of a certain type.

The main properties of perception:

• structure,
• apperception,
• objectivity,
• context,
• meaningfulness.

Perception factors

Perceptual factors are of two types:

• internal,
• external.

External factors include:

• intensity,
• size,
• novelty,
• contrast,
• repeatability,
• movement,
• recognition.

Internal perceptual factors include:

• motivation, which lies in the fact that a person sees what he considers important or what he badly needs;
• installations of personal perception, when an individual expects to see what he saw earlier in a similar situation;
• experience that enables a person to perceive what his past experience has taught him;
• characterological features of the personality.

Interaction with society through perception

Widely used in psychology is the concept of a variety of our perception - social perception.

Definition 2

Social perception is a person's understanding and evaluation of himself, other people, other social objects.

This term was introduced in 1947 by psychologist D. Bruner. The introduction of this concept into psychology allowed scientists to take a different look at the problems and tasks of human perception. Man is a social being and is the subject of a large number of different relationships. The positive or negative attitude of an individual towards other people depends on the perception and evaluation of communication partners.

Social perception manifests itself in several forms:

• human perception;
• perception by group members;
• group perception.

Mechanisms of social perception

Perception has certain features of the functioning of its mechanisms. There are the following mechanisms of social perception:

• stereotyping, which is the formation of a persistent image or idea of ​​​​people and phenomena characteristic of all representatives of one social group;
• identification, expressed in the intuitive identification and cognition of a person or group in a communication situation, in which there is a comparison or comparison of the internal states of partners;
• empathy, which implies emotional empathy for others, the ability to understand other people by providing them with emotional support and getting used to their experiences;
• reflection, that is, self-knowledge through interaction with other people;
• attraction - knowledge of other people, based on a positive persistent feeling;
• causal attribution, which is the process of predicting the feelings and actions of people around.

The specificity of interpersonal cognition lies in the fact that it takes into account how various physical features as well as behavioral features. Therefore, social perception is highly dependent on the emotions, motives, opinions, attitudes, prejudices of both partners. In social perception, there is also a subjective assessment of another person.

Perception is a complex mechanism of psychological interaction between an individual and an object perceived by him. This interaction occurs under the influence of a large number of factors.

Report

social perception. empathy

1. Social perception

.1 The concept of perception

perception social personality empathy

In psychology, the concept of perception (perception) or perception means a mental process during which the analysis and comprehension of information received through the senses about the world takes place.

Perception is a reflection by a person of an object or phenomenon as a whole with its direct impact on the senses. Perception is a collection of sensations. However, this process is much more than just the sum of sensations acquired when interacting with an object. Perceiving a certain volume, a person knows that this is exactly this object, that this object has characteristic features. A perceived object is invariably associated with a certain word. For example, the French psychologist P. Janet says that "perceiving a chair means seeing an object in which you can sit down." “To perceive a house,” says the scientist Weizsacker, “is not to see an image that has “entered” the eye, but, on the contrary, to recognize an object that can be entered.”

1.2 Modern understanding of perception

Most often, perception is considered as a biological phenomenon. Its structures are considered ahistorical. This is the usual view of perception in psychological research. Classical theories of perception - rationalist and empiricist - consider perception as an ahistorical universal phenomenon, i.e. as a natural ability of a person, realized through the same perceptual system for all individuals. The most philosophical theories of perception (with some exceptions) are based on models of perception proposed by 17th century psychology, which relied on the philosophical works of Descartes and Locke. This is the anomalous case when modern philosophical theories of perception are generated by anomalous philosophy, outdated views on the nature of the phenomenon being studied. That is modern philosophy perception in many ways bears the traces of a model of perception created back in the 17th century and long outdated.

1.3 The concept of social perception

Social perception (from Latin perceptio - perception and socialis - public) - people's perception, understanding and evaluation of social objects (other people, themselves, groups, social communities, etc.). The term social perception was introduced by the American psychologist J. Bruner (1947) to denote the fact of social conditioning of perception, its dependence not only on the characteristics of the stimulus-object, but also on the past experience of the subject, his goals, intentions, the significance of the situation, etc. Later, social perception began to be understood as a holistic perception by the subject not only of objects of the material world, but of the so-called social objects (other people, groups, classes, nationalities, etc.), social situations, etc.

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 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.

.4 Features of the perception of social objects

It was found that the perception of social objects has a number of specific features that qualitatively distinguish it from the perception of inanimate objects:

The social object (individual, group, etc.) is not passive and indifferent in relation to the perceiving subject, as is the case with the perception of inanimate objects. Influencing the subject of perception, the perceived person seeks to transform the idea of ​​himself in a direction favorable for his goals.

The attention of the subject of social perception is primarily focused not on the moments of the generation of the image as a result of the reflection of the perceived reality, but on the semantic and evaluative interpretations of the object of perception, including causal ones.

The perception of social objects is characterized by greater fusion of cognitive components with emotional (affective) components, greater dependence on the motivational-semantic structure of the perceiving subject's activity. In this regard, the term "perception" acquires an expanded interpretation in social psychology.

1.5 Social perception as a way of interpersonal perception

In modern psychology, there are two main areas of study of interpersonal perception. The first is aimed at studying the social and psychological characteristics of the object and subject of perception, the second is associated with the study of the mechanisms and effects of interpersonal reflection.

When analyzing these two areas, we can identify individual, gender, age, social, professional differences in the perception and assessment of each other by people. It has been established that children first learn to recognize expression by facial expressions, and later, as they grow up, recognition of emotions by gestures becomes available to them. So in the course of research it was found that pupils and students perceive their teachers, primarily in appearance, and teachers, on the contrary, primarily perceive and evaluate their students by their inner qualities. Similar differences in identification and evaluation occur between supervisors and subordinates. Professional affiliation is also of great importance in the process of perception, for example, teachers perceive their wards, primarily by speech in the manner of conducting a conversation, choreographers, sports coaches, pay attention mainly to the anatomical structure of a person, the nature and sequence of movements performed.

For interpersonal perception, it is characteristic that the mechanism of perception depends on the psycho-emotional and social attitudes of the subject of perception. The study of the psychological properties of the object of perception is mainly aimed at studying the influence of the properties of the object of perception in the process of perception by the subject. In the course of various studies, it has been established that people in the process of getting to know each other, first of all, reflexively evaluate their partner in terms of the manner and nature of communication, while paying attention to the emotional expression of the face, ways of expressing inner feelings, manifestation of feelings, gestures and postures, appearance, features of voice and speech. Psychologists V.N. Panferov and A.A. Bodalev especially carefully studied in experimental conditions what factors make the most vivid impression in the process of first meeting people. It turned out that most often attention is paid, first of all, to the hairstyle (the hairstyle can significantly change the appearance), then the attention goes to the eyes of a person (the eyes reflect the character of a person, and can be evil, kind, cunning, simple-hearted, cold, sincere). Eyes communicate intentions, and can both please and reject a person. Facial expression plays a significant role in communicating with people, for example, if at the first meeting you sincerely and cordially smile at your new acquaintance, then naturally he will perceive you as a friend and will be disposed towards you. The famous American psychologist Dale Cornegy, argued that the first commandment of good friendship and mutual sympathy is a smile. Kornegi suggests that we learn how to smile correctly, for which we need to perform special exercises in front of a mirror. In general, the facial expression of a person is determined by his facial expressions, which are developed differently for everyone, for some, when communicating, facial expressions are very diverse and dynamic, for others, on the contrary, facial expressions are not developed, and the person creates the impression of secrecy and unfriendlyness. In order to somehow streamline emotional manifestations, many psychologists developed scientific methods for describing psychological expressions, for example, P. Ekman proposed a technique called FAST - Facial Affect Scoring Technique.

.6 Socio-perceptual personality type

In modern psychology, specialists in the study of the process of interpersonal perception pay more and more attention to the personal characteristics of the subject of perception, especially the motives that affect the attribution process. In particular, the range of sources from which a person receives data on the causes that he is able to attribute to the behavior of another person has been significantly expanded. Previously, only personal experience obtained in the previous processes of perception, and now the mechanism of object identification is added to the experience, in the course of perception by the subject.

The social-perceptual style of a person is a stable individual system of techniques and methods for perceiving and evaluating the personal qualities of a communication partner. In the course of constant interaction with other people, as a result of these interactions, each person forms his own, personal social-perceptual standard, which is the result of the correlation of individual interpersonal ideas, personal assessments and outcomes of interaction with the prevailing social stereotypes. Thus, it can be argued that the social-perceptual style in terms of content is the result of the interpretation of social stereotypes in the process of daily communication and interaction with other people, and in technological terms it is the implementation of the established social-perceptual standard, in any specific actions of perception and evaluation of a communication partner.

The main sources for creating a socio-perceptual standard are two types of information:

general information (knowledge about the external and internal stable features of other people, this knowledge is accumulated and stored for a long time, and then used to develop a common approach to assessing people and their actions);

operational and regulatory information (formed in the process of interaction with a specific circle of people, at the moment and for solving a specific problem).

With the receipt of more information about a particular person, group, type and category of people, the importance of using operational and regulatory information decreases, and general information becomes more important, richer and more stable.

Also, a social-perceptual standard is formed, and in the process of a person knowing himself and his personal characteristics, self-knowledge is an indispensable condition for attributive actions in relation to other people. At the same time, according to the psychologist L.A. Petrovskaya, the main sources of self-perception are:

) Perception of oneself through comparison (identification, recognition) of oneself with other people. When considered in terms of such specific situations of communication between individuals, the process of relating oneself to other personalities makes it possible to use another person as a kind of model of oneself, thus creating a convenient basis for analysis and observation.

) Perception of oneself, through the analysis of the perception of oneself by other people. The essential significance of such a source of development of self-image was pointed out by L.S. Vygotsky: “A person becomes for himself what he is in himself, through what he presents to others.” In other words, we can say that the essence of the discussed source of self-perception lies in the reliance on interpersonal feedback.

) Perception of oneself, based on the results of one's own activity.

) Perception of oneself, through observation of one's own, internal, psychological state. The selection of this source as an object of psychological research has, as is well known, long history associated with the introspective psychological paradigm.

) Direct perception of oneself, according to one's own appearance.

2. Features of social perception

.1 Structure of social perception

When studying the structure of social perception, some algorithms, mechanisms of interpersonal perception are distinguished, which make it possible to facilitate the process of perception and evaluation of people, and also act as a guide from the external perception of a person to the evaluation of his internal qualities. These mechanisms of social perception include:

) reflection - the process of knowing oneself when communicating with another individual;

) identification, empathy, attraction, stereotyping - mechanisms of mutual recognition of opponents in the process of communication;

) causal attribution - the process of predicting changes in the partner's behavior.

To understand the very process of social perception, it is necessary to consider all the nuances of the functioning of its mechanisms.

2.2 Mechanisms of social perception

There are the following social - perceptual mechanisms, that is, the ways in which people understand, interpret and evaluate other people:

) Perception of the external appearance and behavioral reactions of the object

) Perception of the internal appearance of an object, that is, a set of its socio-psychological characteristics. This is done through the mechanisms of empathy, reflection, attribution, identification and stereotyping.

Cognition of other people also depends on the level of development of a person’s idea of ​​himself (I am a concept), about a communication partner (You are a concept) and about the group to which the individual belongs or thinks that he belongs (We are a concept). Knowing oneself through another is possible through comparison of oneself with another individual or through reflection.

Reflection

Reflection (from late Latin. reflexio - reversal) - the appeal of a person to his own state or his knowledge. This is one of the varieties of acts of human consciousness, namely, an act of consciousness directed at its knowledge. At the same time, the degree of depth of reflection, introspection depends on the degree of education of the subject, the development of moral feeling and the level of self-control.

Reflection is a mechanism of social perception that allows a person, during communication, to know himself, based on self-assessment of his behavior. That is, in the process of communication, a person imagines himself in the place of the interlocutor and thus, as it were, evaluates himself from the outside, and thus has the opportunity to correct his behavior. This mechanism helps not only to understand the interlocutor, but also allows you to assume how much the interlocutor understands you. Thus, reflection is a kind of process of mirror reflections of each other, or, by definition, I.S. Kona: - “deep, consistent mutual reflection, the content of which is the reproduction of the inner world of the interaction partner, and in this inner world, in turn, is reflected inner world first explorer. The study of the process of reflection in psychology has been going on for quite a long time, back in late XIX century, J. Holmes drew attention to the mechanism of reflection and described it on the example of the dyadic communication of certain John and Henry. J. Holmes, describing an example of communication, argued that in reality at least six people are given in this situation: John, what he really is; John as he sees himself; John as Henry sees him. Accordingly, the same "positions" on the part of Henry. Subsequently, T. Newcomb and C. Cooley complicated the situation to eight persons, adding more: John, as he sees his image in the mind of Henry, and, accordingly, also for Henry. Developing this idea, one can assume as many such mutual reflections as one likes, but these are just one reflections from others, and vice versa. Therefore, for experimental studies, it suffices to confine ourselves to fixing the two steps of this process. Some psychological research has attempted to analyze the reflexive structures of the united group. Then the very scheme of emerging reflections refers not only to dyadic interaction, but to the general activity of the group and the interpersonal relations mediated by it.

Identification

Identification (from late Latin identifico - to identify) is a process of intuitive identification, comparison by the subject of himself with another person (group of people), in the process of interpersonal perception. The term "identification" is a way of recognizing an object of perception, in the process of assimilation to it. This, of course, is not the only way of perception, but in real situations of communication and interaction, people often use this technique when, in the process of communication, an assumption about the internal psychological state of a partner is based on an attempt to put oneself in his place. There are many results of experimental studies of identification - as a mechanism of social perception, based on which, the relationship between identification and another phenomenon that is similar in content - empathy has been revealed.

empathy

Empathy is a way of understanding another person, based not on the real perception of the problems of another person, but on the desire for emotional support for the object of perception. Empathy is an affective "understanding" based on the feelings and emotions of the subject of perception. The process of empathy is in general similar to the mechanism of identification, in both cases there is the ability to put oneself in the place of another, to look at problems from his point of view. It is known that empathy is the higher, the more a person is able to imagine the same situation, from the point of view of different people and, consequently, to understand the behavior of each of these people. A number of empathic abilities include: the ability to emotionally respond to the experiences of another, the ability to recognize the emotional state of another and mentally transfer oneself into the thoughts, feelings and actions of another.

attraction

Attraction (from Latin attrahere - to attract, draw) is considered as a special form of perception of one person by another, based on a stable positive attitude towards a person. In the process of attraction, people not only understand each other, but form certain emotional relationships with each other. On the basis of various emotional assessments, a diverse range of feelings is formed: from rejection, a feeling of disgust, to a particular person, to sympathy, and even love for him. The field of study of the mechanisms of formation of various emotional feelings towards a perceived person is called "attraction research". Attraction also appears to be a mechanism for the formation of sympathy between people in the process of communication.

Sympathy (from the Greek Sympatheia - attraction, internal disposition) is a stable, positive, emotional attitude of a person towards other people or groups of people, manifested in goodwill, friendliness, attention, admiration. Sympathy encourages people to a simplified mutual understanding, to the desire to know the interlocutor in the process of communication. Love, the highest degree of emotionally positive attitude, affecting the subject of perception, love displaces all other interests of the subject, and the attitude towards the object of perception is brought to the fore, the object becomes the center of attention of the subject. Studies of the mechanism of attraction have not yet given an exhaustive answer to the question of the nature of the occurrence of attraction, and the stability of interpersonal relationships built on love and friendship.

Stereotyping

Stereotyping is the construction of an image based on an already existing, stable idea, for example, about members of a certain social group. Stereotyping has two distinct consequences. On the one hand, it simplifies the process of building the image of another person, reduces the time required for this. On the other hand, when this mechanism is turned on, a shift may occur in the direction of any assessment of the perceived person, and then this gives rise to prejudice or, on the contrary, an overestimation of the real properties of the object of perception.

Stereotypes are specific. They influence decision-making often contrary to logic. Depending on the nature of the attitude (positive or negative), stereotypes suggest some arguments and displace others that are opposite to the first. Stereotypes are: positive, negative and neutral (stereotypes of "fame, but indifference").

3. 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 socio-psychological phenomenon, the center of which is empathy.

The process of social perception 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.

Social perception is engaged in the study of the content and procedural components of the communication process. In the first case, attributions (attributions) of various characteristics to the subject and object of perception are studied. In the second, the analysis of the mechanisms and effects of perception (the halo effect, primacy, projection, and others) is carried out.

In general, the process of social perception is a complex mechanism for the interaction of social objects in an interpersonal context and is influenced by many factors and characteristics, such as age characteristics, perception effects, past experience and personality traits.

4. Individual typological features of social perception

The study of the perceptual activity of a person is connected, first of all, with the study of the problem of the functioning of brain structures. The study of typological features is of general methodological importance. Socio-psychological tasks include the study of the role of cognitive typological characteristics, since success social behavior, interpersonal interaction and learning is largely determined by the perceptual activity of the individual.

List of used literature

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