Perceptual side of communication: psychological content

The perceptual side of communication implies that there must necessarily be mutual understanding between the participants. It is about understanding the attitudes, motives and goals of your partner, as well as their acceptance and separation. Only in this case there is a perception of one person by another and it is possible to speak about the presence of interpersonal understanding.

The perceptual side of communication has the following functions:

• Forms the content of interpersonal perception;
• Promotes mutual understanding;
• The influence of partners on communication on each other.

All this is possible thanks to the "work" of specific mechanisms. They include the following.

• First, attraction, empathy and identification, which contribute to the knowledge and understanding of each other by people.
• Secondly, reflection, which helps to know yourself in communication.
• Thirdly, causal attribution, which will help to predict the behavior in the process of communication of each partner.

The perceptual side of communication should necessarily include the work of all these mechanisms. Let us dwell in more detail on their characteristics.

Identification is the mechanism of knowing each other by people, when the opinion about the inner state of another person will be built on the basis of trying to put yourself in the place of a partner.

Empathy implies the presence of emotional empathy for him.

Attraction or attraction is a form of knowing the interlocutor, which is based on the formation of a positive and sustainable feeling for him.

The perceptual side of communication will depend largely on how well these mechanisms are developed to help understand another person. In addition, reflection and causal attribution are necessary.

Reflection is a mechanism by which self-knowledge in communication takes place. It is based on the ability to represent how it is perceived by its partner.

Causal attribution implies the interpretation of the actions and feelings of another person, when there is an intention to find out the reasons for his behavior.

When the perceptual side of communication was studied by scientists, interesting patterns were identified:

• The cause of success is always attributed to people, but to failures - to circumstances or other people;
• A person who negatively treats his interlocutor will always be characterized more negatively by the latter;
• The partner in communication is usually perceived through the prism of the "first impression" and his mistakes.

We shall dwell on the last regularity in more detail.

Usually when you evaluate an unfamiliar person for fifty percent, the opinion will be correct, and the rest fifty will be wrong. This is due to three factors, which were highlighted when the perceptual side of communication was studied . The psychology of man says that, regardless of experience, gender and age, it will always be influenced by:

• Error of superiority. The person who surpasses us by any parameters, we will always evaluate, as more intelligent and talented. Otherwise, on the contrary.
• An error of attitude towards us. A person who treats us kindly and respectfully will always have positive character traits.
• Error attractiveness. A person who we like externally, or according to individual qualities, will be perceived quite differently. He will be credited with even non-existent qualities of personality.

So, generalizing what has been said: the perceptual side of communication is its necessary component. It should include:

• Self-knowledge in the process of communication;
• Understanding and knowledge of the interlocutor;
• Predicting the behavior of your partner.