Interpersonal Communication- A Mindful Approach to Relationships, 2020a

In this section, we have discussed the three stages of perception: attending, organizing, and interpreting.
Each of these stages can occur out of sequence. For example, if your parent/guardian had a bad
experience at a car dealership based on their interpretation (such as “They overcharged me for the car
and they added all these hidden fees.”), then it can influence their future selection (looking for credible
and highly rated car dealerships, and then your parent/guardian can organize the information (car dealers
are just trying to make money, the assumption is that they think most customers don’t know a lot about
cars). Perception is a continuous process, and it is very hard to determine the start and finish of any
perceptual differences.
Key Takeaways
Perception involves attending, organizing, and interpreting.
Perception impacts communication.
Attending, organizing, and interpreting have specific definitions, and each is
impacted by multiple variables.
Exercises
Take a walk to a place you usually go to on campus or in your neighborhood.
Before taking your walk, mentally list everything that you will see on your walk. As
you walk, notice everything on your path. What new things do you notice now that
you are deliberately “attending” to your environment?
What affects your perception? Think about where you come from and your selfconcept.
How do these two factors impact how you see the world?
Look back at a previous text or email that you got from a friend. After reading it,
do you have a different interpretation of it now compared to when you first got it?
Why? Think about how interpretation can impact communication if you didn’t
know this person. How does it differ?
2.4 Models of Interpersonal Communication
Learning
Outcomes
of interpersonal communication.
models of interpersonal communication.
models of interpersonal communication.
In the world of communication, we have several different models to help us understand what
communication is and how it works. A model is a simplified representation of a system (often graphic)
that highlights the crucial components and connections of concepts, which are used to help people
understand an aspect of the real-world. For our purposes, the models have all been created to help us
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Interpersonal Communication