Essay On Communication And Perception

Communication and Perception In psychology, perception is understood as the process by which a person acquires information from his surroundings or environment and his ability to understand it (Stanford University, 2006). Perception makes use of the senses to experience things but it is the interpretation that really defines a person’s perception. In other words, perception is how people make sense of the things they see, feel and heard. For instance, the common adage that says, ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder,’ holds true because people have different perceptions when it comes to what is beautiful and what is not. Perception is the basic element of human consciousness and it is an essential element on how people communicate with

Most often, it is thought of as a strong feeling or reaction. However, scholars believe that emotion is not only a state of feeling but rather a “complex chain of loosely connected events that begins with a stimulus and includes feelings, psychological changes, impulses to action and specific, goal-oriented behavior” (Plutchik, 2001). Scholars believe that human emotions are deeply rooted in their biology as a result of man’s evolution. Just like animals, humans feel a surge of basic emotion that occurs naturally such as fear, anger, anxiety, love and many others. It should be noted though that these intense feelings occur due to some stimulus that is either internal or external to the person. A man, for instance, who sees himself, about to be attacked, would feel surprised at first then would either feel anger or fear afterwards. This feeling will determine how he would react to such situation; whether he will fight or whether he would flee. In communication, a person’s emotion also determines the nature of his interaction with others. When a person is upset, it would either show in his or her physical reaction as well as in her use of verbal