Chapter 3 - Perception of Others

 Perception of Others

We perceive the world every day as a way to make sense of everything, and what we perceive is not always accurate, it is just our explanation of the information we are given. Perception is defined in Reflect & Relate as, "the process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting information for our senses. 

When perceiving others, I commonly believe that their actions or communication is caused by situational factor rather than personality. My father is a main factor to why I have this mentality. He constantly reminds me not to write off someone as one thing when factors could be involved to why that individual is communicating in such a way. He often tells me that I might not have all the information to assume. I think this is why, in my daily life, I give people the benefit of the doubt when communicating, but this can also have a negative effect. Giving people the benefit of the doubt too much can lead to you making escuses for them, there has to be a middle. 

This seems to happen the most at my workplace. A lot of property owners come through who have anger or irritated expressions, who give no response when I give a "Hello, how are you?" Instead of me writing them off as a hateful or rude person (internal attributions), I perceive and assume that they are having a bad day. I do this because I see these people almost every day, so they're not always going to be happy. I also have seen when these people are at their happiest, so I know the former isn't the case. That is why because of this, I believe my job is another factor to how I perceive others. But there are also cases where I do this, and the individual ends up being a hateful or rude person, when it becomes a common theme of negative body language and communication, so I'm not saying my form of perception is correct or wrong, it's just me.