Culture<\/h2>\r\n
Race, gender, sexual orientation, class, ability, nationality, and age all affect the perceptions that we make. The schemata through which we interpret what we perceive are influenced by our cultural identities. As we are socialized into various cultural identities, we internalize beliefs, attitudes, and values shared by others in our cultural group. Schemata held by members of a cultural identity group have similarities, but schemata held by different cultural groups may vary greatly. Unless we are exposed to various cultural groups and learn how others perceive us and the world around them, we will likely have a narrow or na\u00efve view of the world and assume that others see things the way we do. Exposing yourself to and experiencing cultural differences in perspective doesn\u2019t mean that you have to change your schema to match another cultural group\u2019s. Instead, it may offer you a chance to better understand why and how your schemata were constructed the way they were.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_595\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"245\"] As we have learned, perception starts with information that comes in through our senses. How we perceive even basic sensory information is influenced by our culture, as is illustrated in the following list:<\/p>\r\n\r\n Aside from differences in reactions to basic information we take in through our senses, there is also cultural variation in how we perceive more complicated constructs, like marriage, politics, and privacy. In May of 2012, French citizens elected a new president. Fran\u00e7ois Hollande moved into the presidential palace with his partner of five years, Valerie Trierweiler. They are the first unmarried couple in the country\u2019s history to occupy the presidential palace.[footnote]Maa de la Baume, \u201cFirst Lady without a Portfolio (or a Ring) Seeks Her Own Path,\u201d The New York Times<\/em>, May 15, 2012, accessed June 6, 2012, http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/05\/16\/world\/europe\/frances-first-lady-valerie-trierweiler-seeks-her-own-path.html?pagewanted=all<\/a>.[\/footnote]<\/span> Even though new census statistics show that more unmarried couples are living together than ever before in the United States, many still disapprove of the practice, and it is hard to imagine a US president in a similar circumstance as France\u2019s Hollande. Other places like Saudi Arabia and the Vatican have strong cultural aversions to such a practice, which could present problems when France\u2019s first couple travels abroad.<\/p>\r\n As we\u2019ve already learned, our brain processes information by putting it into categories and looking for predictability and patterns. The previous examples have covered how we do this with sensory information and with more abstract concepts like marriage and politics, but we also do this with people. When we categorize people, we generally view them as \u201clike us\u201d or \u201cnot like us.\u201d This simple us\/them split affects subsequent interaction, including impressions and attributions. For example, we tend to view people we perceive to be like us as more trustworthy, friendly, and honest than people we perceive to be not like us.[footnote]Marilynn B. Brewer, \u201cThe Psychology of Prejudice: Ingroup Love or Outgroup Hate?\u201d Journal of Social Issues<\/em> 55, no. 3 (1999): 429\u201344.[\/footnote]<\/span> We are also more likely to use internal attribution to explain negative behavior of people we perceive to be different from us. If a person of a different race cuts another driver off in traffic, the driver is even more likely to attribute that action to the other driver\u2019s internal qualities (thinking, for example, \u201cHe or she is inconsiderate and reckless!\u201d) than they would someone of their own race. Having such inflexible categories can have negative consequences, and later we will discuss how forcing people into rigid categories leads to stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. Of course, race isn\u2019t the only marker of difference that influences our perceptions, and the problem with our rough categorization of people into \u201clike us\u201d and \u201cnot like us\u201d categories is that these differences aren\u2019t really as easy to perceive as we think. We cannot always tell whether or not someone is culturally like us through visual cues. For some cultural identities, like sexual orientation and ability, our awareness of any differences may only come when the other person discloses their identity to us.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_596\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\"] You no doubt frequently hear people talking and writing about the \u201cvast differences\u201d between men and women. Whether it\u2019s communication, athletic ability, expressing emotions, or perception, people will line up to say that women are one way and men are the other way. While it is true that gender affects our perception, the reason for this difference stems more from social norms than genetic, physical, or psychological differences between men and women. We are socialized to perceive differences between men and women, which leads us to exaggerate and amplify what differences there actually are.[footnote]Steven McCornack, Reflect and Relate: An Introduction to Interpersonal Communication<\/em> (Boston, MA: Bedford\/St Martin\u2019s, 2007), 93.[\/footnote]<\/span> We basically see the stereotypes and differences we are told to see, which helps to create a reality in which gender differences are \u201cobvious.\u201d However, numerous research studies have found that, especially in relation to multiple aspects of communication, men and women communicate much more similarly than differently. In summary, various cultural identities shape how we perceive others because beliefs, attitudes, and values of the cultural groups to which we belong are incorporated into our schema. Our personalities also present interesting perceptual advantages and challenges that we will now discuss.<\/p>\r\n\r\n I occasionally have potential employers of students I have taught or supervised call me to do \u201cemployment verifications\u201d during which they ask general questions about the applicant. While they may ask a few questions about intellectual ability or academic performance, they typically ask questions that try to create a personality profile of the applicant. They basically want to know what kind of leader, coworker, and person he or she is. This is a smart move on their part, because our personalities greatly influence how we see ourselves in the world and how we perceive and interact with others.<\/p>\r\n Personality<\/a><\/span><\/strong> refers to a person\u2019s general way of thinking, feeling, and behaving based on underlying motivations and impulses.[footnote]Steven McCornack, Reflect and Relate: An Introduction to Interpersonal Communication<\/em> (Boston, MA: Bedford\/St Martin\u2019s, 2007), 95.[\/footnote]<\/span> These underlying motivations and impulses form our personality traits. Personality traits are \u201cunderlying,\u201d but they are fairly enduring once a person reaches adulthood. That is not to say that people\u2019s personalities do not change, but major changes in personality are not common unless they result from some form of trauma. Although personality scholars believe there are thousands of personalities, they all comprise some combination of the same few traits. Much research has been done on personality traits, and the \u201cBig Five\u201d that are most commonly discussed are extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness.[footnote]Robert R. McCrea, \u201cTrait Psychology and Culture,\u201d Journal of Personality<\/em> 69, no. 6 (2001): 825.[\/footnote]<\/span>\u00a0These five traits appear to be representative of personalities across cultures, and you can read more about what each of these traits entails below. If you are interested in how you rank in terms of personality traits, there are many online tests you can take. A Big Five test can be taken at the following website: http:\/\/www.outofservice.com\/bigfive<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n The Big Five Personality Traits<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n Scholarship related to personality serves many purposes, and some of them tie directly to perception. Corporations and television studios spend millions of dollars on developing personality profiles and personality testing. Corporations can make hiring and promotion decisions based on personality test results, which can save them money and time if they can weed out those who don\u2019t \u201cfit\u201d the position before they get in the door and drain resources. Television studios make casting decisions based on personality profiles because they know that certain personalities evoke strong and specific reactions from viewers. The reality television show Survivor<\/em> has done more than one season where they bring back \u201cHeroes and Villains,\u201d which already indicates that the returning cast members made strong impressions on the show\u2019s producers and audience members. Think about the reality television stars that you love to root for, want to see lose, and can\u2019t stand to look at or look away from. Shows likeCelebrity Rehab<\/em> intentionally cast fading stars who already have strong personalities and emotional and addiction issues in order to create the kind of human train wrecks that attract millions of viewers. So why does this work?<\/p>\r\n It is likely that you have more in common with that reality TV star than you care to admit. We tend to focus on personality traits in others that we feel are important to our own personality. What we like in ourselves, we like in others, and what we dislike in ourselves, we dislike in others.[footnote]Steven McCornack,Reflect and Relate: An Introduction to Interpersonal Communication<\/em> (Boston, MA: Bedford\/St Martin\u2019s, 2007), 95.[\/footnote]<\/span> If you admire a person\u2019s loyalty, then loyalty is probably a trait that you think you possess as well. If you work hard to be positive and motivated and suppress negative and unproductive urges within yourself, you will likely think harshly about those negative traits in someone else. After all, if you can suppress your negativity, why can\u2019t they do the same? This way of thinking isn\u2019t always accurate or logical, but it is common.<\/p>\r\n The concept of assumed similarity<\/a><\/span><\/strong> refers to our tendency to perceive others as similar to us. When we don\u2019t have enough information about a person to know their key personality traits, we fill in the gaps\u2014usually assuming they possess traits similar to those we see in ourselves. We also tend to assume that people have similar attitudes, or likes and dislikes, as us. If you set your friend up with a man you think she\u2019ll really like only to find out there was no chemistry when they met, you may be surprised to realize your friend doesn\u2019t have the same taste in men as you. Even though we may assume more trait and taste similarity between our significant others and ourselves than there actually is, research generally finds that while people do interpersonally group based on many characteristics including race, class, and intelligence, the findings don\u2019t show that people with similar personalities group together.[footnote]Andrew Beer and David Watson, \u201cPersonality Judgement at Zero Acquiantance: Agreement, Assumed Similarity, and Implicit Simplicity,\u201d Journal of Personality Assessment<\/em> 90, no. 3 (2008): 252.[\/footnote]<\/span><\/p>\r\n In summary, personality affects our perception, and we all tend to be amateur personality scholars given the amount of effort we put into assuming and evaluating others\u2019 personality traits. This bank of knowledge we accumulate based on previous interactions with people is used to help us predict how interactions will unfold and help us manage our interpersonal relationships. When we size up a person based on their personality, we are auditioning or interviewing them in a way to see if we think there is compatibility. We use these implicit personality theories<\/a><\/span><\/strong> to generalize a person\u2019s overall personality from the traits we can perceive. The theories are \u201cimplicit\u201d because they are not of academic but of experience-based origin, and the information we use to theorize about people\u2019s personalities isn\u2019t explicitly known or observed but implied. In other words, we use previous experience to guess other people\u2019s personality traits. We then assume more about a person based on the personality traits we assign to them.<\/p>\r\n This process of assuming has its advantages and drawbacks. In terms of advantages, the use of implicit personality theories offers us a perceptual shortcut that can be useful when we first meet someone. Our assessment of their traits and subsequent assumptions about who they are as a person makes us feel like we \u201cknow the person,\u201d which reduces uncertainty and facilitates further interaction. In terms of drawbacks, our experience-based assumptions aren\u2019t always correct, but they are still persuasive and enduring. As we have already learned, first impressions carry a lot of weight in terms of how they influence further interaction. Positive and negative impressions formed early can also lead to a halo effect or a horn effect, which we discussed earlier. Personality-based impressions can also connect to impressions based on physical and environmental cues to make them even stronger. For example, perceiving another person as attractive can create a halo effect that then leads you to look for behavioral cues that you can then tie to positive personality traits. You may notice that the attractive person also says \u201cplease\u201d and \u201cthank you,\u201d which increases his or her likeability. You may notice that the person has clean and fashionable shoes, which leads you to believe he or she is professional and competent but also trendy and hip. Now you have an overall positive impression of this person that will affect your subsequent behaviors.[footnote]Andrew Beer and David Watson, \u201cPersonality Judgement at Zero Acquiantance: Agreement, Assumed Similarity, and Implicit Simplicity,\u201d Journal of Personality Assessment<\/em> 90, no. 3 (2008): 252.[\/footnote]<\/span> But how accurate were your impressions? If on your way home you realize you just bought a car from this person, who happened to be a car salesperson, that was $7,000 over your price range, you might have second thoughts about how good a person he or she actually is.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>","rendered":" Our cultural identities and our personalities affect our perceptions. Sometimes we are conscious of the effects and sometimes we are not. In either case, we have a tendency to favor others who exhibit cultural or personality traits that match up with our own. This tendency is so strong that is often leads us to assume that people we like are more similar to us than they actually are. Knowing more about how these forces influence our perceptions can help us become more aware of and competent in regards to the impressions we form of others.<\/p>\n Race, gender, sexual orientation, class, ability, nationality, and age all affect the perceptions that we make. The schemata through which we interpret what we perceive are influenced by our cultural identities. As we are socialized into various cultural identities, we internalize beliefs, attitudes, and values shared by others in our cultural group. Schemata held by members of a cultural identity group have similarities, but schemata held by different cultural groups may vary greatly. Unless we are exposed to various cultural groups and learn how others perceive us and the world around them, we will likely have a narrow or na\u00efve view of the world and assume that others see things the way we do. Exposing yourself to and experiencing cultural differences in perspective doesn\u2019t mean that you have to change your schema to match another cultural group\u2019s. Instead, it may offer you a chance to better understand why and how your schemata were constructed the way they were.<\/p>\n How we interpret basic sensory information, like smells, varies by culture. In some cultures, natural body odor isn\u2019t considered an offensive smell like it generally is in the United States.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n As we have learned, perception starts with information that comes in through our senses. How we perceive even basic sensory information is influenced by our culture, as is illustrated in the following list:<\/p>\n Aside from differences in reactions to basic information we take in through our senses, there is also cultural variation in how we perceive more complicated constructs, like marriage, politics, and privacy. In May of 2012, French citizens elected a new president. Fran\u00e7ois Hollande moved into the presidential palace with his partner of five years, Valerie Trierweiler. They are the first unmarried couple in the country\u2019s history to occupy the presidential palace.[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Even though new census statistics show that more unmarried couples are living together than ever before in the United States, many still disapprove of the practice, and it is hard to imagine a US president in a similar circumstance as France\u2019s Hollande. Other places like Saudi Arabia and the Vatican have strong cultural aversions to such a practice, which could present problems when France\u2019s first couple travels abroad.<\/p>\n As we\u2019ve already learned, our brain processes information by putting it into categories and looking for predictability and patterns. The previous examples have covered how we do this with sensory information and with more abstract concepts like marriage and politics, but we also do this with people. When we categorize people, we generally view them as \u201clike us\u201d or \u201cnot like us.\u201d This simple us\/them split affects subsequent interaction, including impressions and attributions. For example, we tend to view people we perceive to be like us as more trustworthy, friendly, and honest than people we perceive to be not like us.[2]<\/sup><\/a><\/span> We are also more likely to use internal attribution to explain negative behavior of people we perceive to be different from us. If a person of a different race cuts another driver off in traffic, the driver is even more likely to attribute that action to the other driver\u2019s internal qualities (thinking, for example, \u201cHe or she is inconsiderate and reckless!\u201d) than they would someone of their own race. Having such inflexible categories can have negative consequences, and later we will discuss how forcing people into rigid categories leads to stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. Of course, race isn\u2019t the only marker of difference that influences our perceptions, and the problem with our rough categorization of people into \u201clike us\u201d and \u201cnot like us\u201d categories is that these differences aren\u2019t really as easy to perceive as we think. We cannot always tell whether or not someone is culturally like us through visual cues. For some cultural identities, like sexual orientation and ability, our awareness of any differences may only come when the other person discloses their identity to us.<\/p>\n Although gender stereotypes are perpetuated in the media and internalized by many people, men and women actually communicate much more similarly than differently.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n You no doubt frequently hear people talking and writing about the \u201cvast differences\u201d between men and women. Whether it\u2019s communication, athletic ability, expressing emotions, or perception, people will line up to say that women are one way and men are the other way. While it is true that gender affects our perception, the reason for this difference stems more from social norms than genetic, physical, or psychological differences between men and women. We are socialized to perceive differences between men and women, which leads us to exaggerate and amplify what differences there actually are.[3]<\/sup><\/a><\/span> We basically see the stereotypes and differences we are told to see, which helps to create a reality in which gender differences are \u201cobvious.\u201d However, numerous research studies have found that, especially in relation to multiple aspects of communication, men and women communicate much more similarly than differently. In summary, various cultural identities shape how we perceive others because beliefs, attitudes, and values of the cultural groups to which we belong are incorporated into our schema. Our personalities also present interesting perceptual advantages and challenges that we will now discuss.<\/p>\n I occasionally have potential employers of students I have taught or supervised call me to do \u201cemployment verifications\u201d during which they ask general questions about the applicant. While they may ask a few questions about intellectual ability or academic performance, they typically ask questions that try to create a personality profile of the applicant. They basically want to know what kind of leader, coworker, and person he or she is. This is a smart move on their part, because our personalities greatly influence how we see ourselves in the world and how we perceive and interact with others.<\/p>\n Personality<\/a><\/span><\/strong> refers to a person\u2019s general way of thinking, feeling, and behaving based on underlying motivations and impulses.[4]<\/sup><\/a><\/span> These underlying motivations and impulses form our personality traits. Personality traits are \u201cunderlying,\u201d but they are fairly enduring once a person reaches adulthood. That is not to say that people\u2019s personalities do not change, but major changes in personality are not common unless they result from some form of trauma. Although personality scholars believe there are thousands of personalities, they all comprise some combination of the same few traits. Much research has been done on personality traits, and the \u201cBig Five\u201d that are most commonly discussed are extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness.[5]<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\u00a0These five traits appear to be representative of personalities across cultures, and you can read more about what each of these traits entails below. If you are interested in how you rank in terms of personality traits, there are many online tests you can take. A Big Five test can be taken at the following website: http:\/\/www.outofservice.com\/bigfive<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Big Five Personality Traits<\/strong><\/p>\n Scholarship related to personality serves many purposes, and some of them tie directly to perception. Corporations and television studios spend millions of dollars on developing personality profiles and personality testing. Corporations can make hiring and promotion decisions based on personality test results, which can save them money and time if they can weed out those who don\u2019t \u201cfit\u201d the position before they get in the door and drain resources. Television studios make casting decisions based on personality profiles because they know that certain personalities evoke strong and specific reactions from viewers. The reality television show Survivor<\/em> has done more than one season where they bring back \u201cHeroes and Villains,\u201d which already indicates that the returning cast members made strong impressions on the show\u2019s producers and audience members. Think about the reality television stars that you love to root for, want to see lose, and can\u2019t stand to look at or look away from. Shows likeCelebrity Rehab<\/em> intentionally cast fading stars who already have strong personalities and emotional and addiction issues in order to create the kind of human train wrecks that attract millions of viewers. So why does this work?<\/p>\n It is likely that you have more in common with that reality TV star than you care to admit. We tend to focus on personality traits in others that we feel are important to our own personality. What we like in ourselves, we like in others, and what we dislike in ourselves, we dislike in others.[6]<\/sup><\/a><\/span> If you admire a person\u2019s loyalty, then loyalty is probably a trait that you think you possess as well. If you work hard to be positive and motivated and suppress negative and unproductive urges within yourself, you will likely think harshly about those negative traits in someone else. After all, if you can suppress your negativity, why can\u2019t they do the same? This way of thinking isn\u2019t always accurate or logical, but it is common.<\/p>\n The concept of assumed similarity<\/a><\/span><\/strong> refers to our tendency to perceive others as similar to us. When we don\u2019t have enough information about a person to know their key personality traits, we fill in the gaps\u2014usually assuming they possess traits similar to those we see in ourselves. We also tend to assume that people have similar attitudes, or likes and dislikes, as us. If you set your friend up with a man you think she\u2019ll really like only to find out there was no chemistry when they met, you may be surprised to realize your friend doesn\u2019t have the same taste in men as you. Even though we may assume more trait and taste similarity between our significant others and ourselves than there actually is, research generally finds that while people do interpersonally group based on many characteristics including race, class, and intelligence, the findings don\u2019t show that people with similar personalities group together.[7]<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n In summary, personality affects our perception, and we all tend to be amateur personality scholars given the amount of effort we put into assuming and evaluating others\u2019 personality traits. This bank of knowledge we accumulate based on previous interactions with people is used to help us predict how interactions will unfold and help us manage our interpersonal relationships. When we size up a person based on their personality, we are auditioning or interviewing them in a way to see if we think there is compatibility. We use these implicit personality theories<\/a><\/span><\/strong> to generalize a person\u2019s overall personality from the traits we can perceive. The theories are \u201cimplicit\u201d because they are not of academic but of experience-based origin, and the information we use to theorize about people\u2019s personalities isn\u2019t explicitly known or observed but implied. In other words, we use previous experience to guess other people\u2019s personality traits. We then assume more about a person based on the personality traits we assign to them.<\/p>\n This process of assuming has its advantages and drawbacks. In terms of advantages, the use of implicit personality theories offers us a perceptual shortcut that can be useful when we first meet someone. Our assessment of their traits and subsequent assumptions about who they are as a person makes us feel like we \u201cknow the person,\u201d which reduces uncertainty and facilitates further interaction. In terms of drawbacks, our experience-based assumptions aren\u2019t always correct, but they are still persuasive and enduring. As we have already learned, first impressions carry a lot of weight in terms of how they influence further interaction. Positive and negative impressions formed early can also lead to a halo effect or a horn effect, which we discussed earlier. Personality-based impressions can also connect to impressions based on physical and environmental cues to make them even stronger. For example, perceiving another person as attractive can create a halo effect that then leads you to look for behavioral cues that you can then tie to positive personality traits. You may notice that the attractive person also says \u201cplease\u201d and \u201cthank you,\u201d which increases his or her likeability. You may notice that the person has clean and fashionable shoes, which leads you to believe he or she is professional and competent but also trendy and hip. Now you have an overall positive impression of this person that will affect your subsequent behaviors.[8]<\/sup><\/a><\/span> But how accurate were your impressions? If on your way home you realize you just bought a car from this person, who happened to be a car salesperson, that was $7,000 over your price range, you might have second thoughts about how good a person he or she actually is.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t ![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/zelixcst110v2\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/123\/2015\/11\/157108086_059c97a28e_z.jpg\")
<\/a> How we interpret basic sensory information, like smells, varies by culture. In some cultures, natural body odor isn\u2019t considered an offensive smell like it generally is in the United States.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n\t
<\/a> Although gender stereotypes are perpetuated in the media and internalized by many people, men and women actually communicate much more similarly than differently.[\/caption]\r\nPersonality<\/h2>\r\n
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Culture<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n\n
<\/a><\/p>\nPersonality<\/h2>\n
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Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t