Moving on. As we have established in the previous post that diff. people has diff perception about things around them. One of the most fun way to test that, I think is through Optical Illusions which we all love to just look and try even though it confuses us most of the time.

Optical Illusion proves that our visual perception cannot always be trusted. The components of an object can distort the perception of the complete object. Our mind is the final arbiter of truth. Most optical illusions are the result of
1) incongruent design elements at opposite ends of parallel lines,
2) influence of background patterns on the overall design,
3) adjustment of our perception at the boundaries of areas of high contrast,
4) afterimages resulting from eye movements or from kinetic displays, or
5) inability to interpret the spatial structure of an object from the context provided by the picture.

Examples: (coming)


Reference:
1) Antonio Zamora, 2007, Scientific Psychic, online, retrieved 6th September 2008, from http://www.scientificpsychic.com/graphics/

2) The PlayGround, Cluedo Game Box, online, retrieved 6th September, from http://www.theplayground.co.nz/pages/list.phtml?s=42F949EE1206075380507&category=HA8739

3) Optical Illusions, Hand Print? or Lion Painting, online, retrieved 6th September 2008, from http://www.optical-illusions.in/illusions/scary-optical-illusions/

4) Optical Illusions, A Face from Hands, online, retrieved 6th September 2008, from http://www.optical-illusions.in/illusions/funny-optical-illusions/

5) Blog is Everything, Up or Down?, online, retrieved 6th September 2008, from http://www.blogiseverything.com/interesting/stunning-optical-illusion/

Perception was our topic this week.Perception to me is ones thoughts towards something or someone. Perception defined in Human Communication as noticing, interpreting and organizing data about people, events, activities and situation while in Psychology perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sensory information which pretty much means the same thing.

We always consciously or subconsciously have perception towards or about other people.
Since we have perception day in day out..You know there would be factors that would influence these perception which includes our own narratives, perceptual tendencies, situational factor, culture and ones ability and willingness to empathize. (according to syllabus)
Other factors that influences ones perception: (Some might be similar to the one stated above)

• Previous learning and experiences.
  
• Attitude and interest.
• Needs and feelings
• Current Situation.
• Socio-economics (occupation, level of education, environmental factors)
  
• Personal Differences (age, gender, race)
• Cultural Differences (customs, believes, historical perspective)

We also have perception about ourselves. The self-concept which in lay man terms means a mental image we have of ourselves, influences the our perception about ourselves. Also, self concept is also related to the self esteem we have. A bad self concept is and will be ones worst enemy which in return will lowers ones self esteem. Our self concept are influenced by reflected appraisal by significant others (people who have made an impact in your life e.g: parents, close friend, lecturer) and also by culture, language and values.

Now this is interesting, Identity/Impression Management.A person generally would have a public self and a private self. The public or open self of a person is the side/characteristic that is shown to everyone that.It who we want everyone to know us as be it whether we are faking it or not.The private or hidden self of a person is the true or real side/characteristic that isnt shown to everyone..this side is usually only known to the people close to us. Besides that there are these 2 other sides of us which is the blind self which is the side of us people can see but we ourselves don't realise (quirks) and the unknown self where neither we or others know (unconcsiouc/untapped part).

Examples of good use of identity and impression management are went about to give a presentation or going for a job interview where we try our best to show the positive characteristics.

Examples of unappropriated and disagreeable use of identity management whether its conscious and unconscious is when its use for negative purposes. One example is in the movie Mean Girls where the main character Cady (Lindsay Lohan) faked her personality to fit in the popular girls group just to help her other friends to plot a revenge on popular girls. Which we can all guess didn't turn out so well.


Now a question that have been lingering in my mind. When we say someone is being 2 face would that be considered as he/she acting in the name of identity management?


References:

what comes into my mind when i people say communication?
to me, it requires one or more person to talk with no matter what or which or how we communicate.
it could be via sms, email, phone, face to face or chat line



according to the notes and text book,
communication refers to the process of human beings responding to the symbolic behaviour of other persons.
it is a continous and ongoing process.

to my discovery in our second lecture, there are 5 types of communication

intrapersonal communication.
-one communicate internally by listening to one's voice that lives in one's head.
the comic below can be an example of intrapersonal comm.
101 things might be going through his head.
eg: am i going to die?
is this a prank?
what do they want from me?


followed by,
dyadic communication a.k.a. as interpersonal comm.
it requires two person to communicate.
it could either be verbal or non verbal comm.



small group communication,
requires 3-5 people talking. sometimes more and can reach up to 1 class of human comm.
conflicts are more likely to happen which is a good thing.



public communication
- 1 person shares knowledge to many.
it could be a conference, lecture class, school, etc etc,


lastly,
mass communication
- it sends messages to large audience
- it could be through tv, print ads
this is a one way activity(linear model)

Over the years, smart and intelligent people have devoted their time to researching and studying a subject which, every living and breathing human being and animal subject themsleves to in some form every moment of their life. This subject is COMMUNICATION(s), and there are various types of it like: Intrapersonal Communication, Dyadic Communication, Small group Communication, and Mass Communication. With this comes barriers as well like, Language Barriers, Emotional Barriers, and Cultural Barriers.

Here is a very short and maybe, a boring story i should add, as an example showwing communications playing a part in John's life.......

• It's 7.30 in the morning on a monday and John wakes up saying "shit i'm late"(intrapersonal communication).
• On the way to work, in the car he swears and curses all the other drivers and cars for causing this traffic jam.( intrapersonal communication).
• At the office theres an important meeting about to start where he is going to present to his clients the new product he wants to sell to them (small group communication) which he successfully does. This, making his boss praising him for his effort after the meeting.(dyadic communication).
• At his cubicle he boasts to his work mates on how he managed to come out of the meeting with a smile on his face (small group communication). But because John is an American who is currently working in India, it makes conversation hard with the people he works with. (language barrier).

At home

• John faces yet another challenge, his indian girlfriend of 2 years has just told him that she is pregnant with his baby in a thick indian accent, which he finds hard to understand thus asking her to repeat what she said.(language barrier, dyadic communication)
• This is not going good for John, both his and her parents are against them living together let alone get married the reason being, he's a christian and she's hindi.(cultural barriers)
• Now both John and his girlfriend are pondering over this issue and how to solve it like its a physics question.(intrapersonal communication)

That night after dinner and a few shots of alcohol in the livng room....

• He turns on the television and watches the news (mass communication), while countless thoughts are running through his mind(intrapersonal communication), at which point he decides to go to sleep hoping tomorrow will be a better day for him.

-jia wei-

"Communication is the process of humans responding to symbolic behavior."
(So say the syllabus)

That's the first thing I learned in my Human Communication lecture. When I think about the word 'Communication' the first thing that comes to my mind is people speaking and listening but now I know it's definitely more than that.

Human Communication is also knows as Anthroposemiotics.
Short history on human communication: Human communication dated back as early as there were signs of life. The earliest way of human communication that was known is by speech which was believed to be about 200,000 years ago then symbols were developed about 30,000 years ago, and writing about 7,000.

There are 5 types of Human Communication.
Intrapersonal Communication which is when one communicate with their own self. Apparently it's important and we do it everyday whether you want to admit it or not.
Interpersonal/Dyadic Communicationis when communication is done with another person.This we definitely do everyday, unless like one is in solitary confinement or something.
Small group Communication is communication between a group of people (usually 3-5) or depending on situation.
Public Communication is the type of communication where one individual speaks to many individuals and will occasionally get feedbacks.
Mass Communication is where an individual or a group communicates with a huge number of people (whole country or world) through the use of mass media. Now this is something I wish to study more about and get a career in the field later on.

Communication satisfy the basic human needs including physical needs, social needs, identity needs and practical needs. With that it is also stated that communication can and does satisfy other needs too (e.g: religous needs) which may vary depending in the 'organization' one lives in.

Now an eye opener for me, while talking on this particular subject Mr.Murali brought up and example. In the movie I AM LEGEND there was a scene where Will smith started talking to mannequins. Now without actually thinking much about the theory in Human Communication, what would you think? Before i was 'enlighten' with the theory that the particular communication was to keep him sane thus, satisfying the physical human needs, I actually thought he was just playing around being funny hence putting some sense humor into the movie. Well at least now I know. Though even after knowing this, I personally don't think I would watch a movie and consciously relate a scene in a movie with the theories I learn in Human Communication, unless it randomly struck me or I rethink about it.

Now, different culture and human communication . It is said that people in different culture can and will interpret a form of communication differently be it a word or an action and that may be a positive or negative thing.

And i just have to bring this up, it's one of the most hilarious and creative way of giving an example to the theory relating different culture and communication, Clement said and mind you i might have rephrase this: "In different culture, cranberry pies can taste differently. Some might have pork in it too!"
Hahaha! Okay okay. It was funnier when he said it but boy was it hilarious then!

Reference:
1)Robert L. Heath & Jennings Bryant, Year 2000, Human Communication Theory and Research, 2nd Edition, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
2)The History of Communication,online, retrieved on 1st September 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_communication
3) BaltimoreAtHome, I Am Legend Poster, online, retrieved 1 September 2008, from http://baltimoreathome.com/dct/54/id/6127/mid/2407/I-Am-Legend.aspx