Peculiarities of perception of social objects

It was found that the perception of social objects has a number of specific features that qualitatively distinguish it from the perception of inanimate objects:

1. The social object (individual, group, etc.) is not passive and not indifferent in relation to the perceiving subject, as is the case with the perception of inanimate objects. By influencing the subject of perception, the perceived person seeks to transform the idea of ​​himself in a direction favorable for his goals.

2. Subject's attention social perception is focused primarily not on the moments of image generation as a result of the reflection of perceived reality, but on semantic and evaluative interpretations of the object of perception, including causal ones.

3. The perception of social objects is characterized by greater fusion of cognitive components with emotional (affective) components, greater dependence on the motivational and semantic structure of the activity of the perceiving subject. In this regard, the term “perception” acquires social psychology expanded interpretation.

Social perception as a way of interpersonal perception

In modern psychology, two main areas of study of interpersonal perception can be distinguished. The first is aimed at studying social and psychological characteristics object and subject of perception, the second is associated with the study of the mechanisms and effects of interpersonal reflection.

When analyzing these two areas, we can highlight individual, gender, age, social, and professional differences in people’s perceptions and assessments of each other. It has been established that children first learn to recognize expression by facial expressions, and subsequently, as they grow older, they become able to recognize emotions by gestures. Thus, in the course of research, it was established that pupils and students perceive their teachers primarily by appearance, and teachers, on the contrary, primarily perceive and evaluate their students by internal qualities. Similar differences in identification and evaluation occur between managers and subordinates. Also great importance in the process of perception also has a professional affiliation, for example, teachers perceive their students, primarily by speech, by the manner of conducting a conversation, choreographers, sports trainers, pay attention mainly to anatomical structure person, the nature and sequence of movements performed.

For interpersonal perception, it is characteristic that the mechanism of perception depends on the psycho-emotional and social attitudes of the subject of perception. The study of the psychological properties of the object of perception is mainly aimed at studying the influence of the properties of the object of perception in the process of its perception by the subject. During various studies It has been established that people in the process of getting to know each other, first of all, reflexively evaluate a partner based on the manner and nature of communication, while paying attention to the emotional expression of the face, ways of expressing internal feelings, manifestations of feelings, gestures and postures, appearance, features of voice and speech . Psychologists V.N. Panferov and A.A. Bodalev especially carefully studied in experimental conditions which factors make the most vivid impression during the process of people’s first acquaintance. It turned out that attention is most often paid, first of all, to the hairstyle (hairstyle can significantly change the appearance), then attention turns to the person’s eyes (eyes reflect the character of a person, and can be evil, kind, cunning, simple-minded, cold, sincere). Eyes communicate intentions and can either win or reject a person. Facial expression plays a significant role when people communicate, for example, if you smile sincerely and cordially at your new acquaintance when you first meet, then naturally he will perceive you as a friend and will be disposed towards you. The famous American psychologist Dale Cornegy argued that the first commandment of good friendly communication and mutual sympathy is a smile. Cornegy invites us to learn how to smile correctly, for which we need to perform special exercises in front of a mirror. In general, a person’s facial expression is determined by his facial expressions, which are developed differently for everyone; for some, when communicating, facial expressions are very diverse and dynamic, for others, on the contrary, facial expressions are not developed, and the person creates the impression of secrecy and unfriendlyness. In order to somehow streamline emotional manifestations, many psychologists developed scientific methods for describing psychological expressions, for example, P. Ekman proposed a technique called FAST - Facial Affect Scoring Technique.

Perception is a Latin word meaning perception, which is used to describe cognitive processes that are closely related to the display of various life situations, phenomena or objects. In the case where such perception is aimed at social spheres, the term “social perception” is used to characterize this phenomenon. Every person encounters manifestations of social perception every day. Let's look at the different psychological mechanisms social perception.

Perception, translated from Latin (perceptio), means “perception”

The concept of social perception dates back to the ancient world. Many philosophers and artists of that time made a significant contribution to the formation of this area. It should also be noted that this concept has important in the field of psychology.

Perception is one of the important functions in mental perception, which manifests itself as a process with a complex structure. Through this process, a person not only receives various information from the senses, but also transforms it. Impact on various analyzers leads to the formation of integral images in the individual’s mind. Based on the above, we can conclude that perception is characterized as one of the forms of sensory reproduction.

Perception is based on the characteristics of individual features that help generate information based on accurate sensory images.

Considered cognitive function is closely related to skills such as memory, logical thinking and concentration. This concept depends on the strength of influence of life stimuli, which are endowed with an emotional coloring. Perception consists of structures such as meaningfulness and context.

Perception is actively studied by representatives various fields, including psychologists, cyberneticists and physiologists. During differential experiments, they are used various techniques, including modeling different situations, experiments and empirical form of analysis. Understanding the mechanism of social perception is important in the field of practical psychology. It is this tool that acts as the foundation for the development of various systems affecting the sphere of human activity.

Social perception studies behaviors between individuals at different levels of development

Influence of perceptual factors

Perceptual factors are divided into two categories: external and internal influences. Among external factors Criteria such as movement, number of repetitions, contrast, size and depth of manifestation should be highlighted. Among the internal factors, experts identify the following:

1. Stimulus– motivation to achieve goals that are of high importance to the individual.
2. Setting the individual's perception- falling into certain life situations, a person builds on previous experience.
3. Experience– various life difficulties experienced influence the perception of the world around us.
4. Individual characteristics of perception– depending on the type of personality (optimism or pessimism), a person perceives the same life difficulties in a positive or unfavorable light.
5. Perception of one's own "I"- all events occurring in a person’s life are assessed based on the personal prism of perception.

The influence of psychological perception on interaction with society

Social perception in psychology is a term used to describe the process of an individual's assessment and understanding of people around him, his own personality, or social objects. Such objects consist of social societies and various groups. The term in question began to be used in psychology in the forties of the last century. This concept was first used by the American psychologist Jerome Bruner. Thanks to the work of this scientist, researchers were able to consider various problems associated with perceiving the world around us from a different angle.

Every person has inherent sociality. Throughout his life, a person builds communicative connections with the people around him. The formation of interpersonal relationships leads to the formation of separate groups that are connected by the same worldview or similar interests. Based on this, we can say that a person as an individual participates in various types relationships between people. The nature of the attitude towards society depends on the degree of personal perception and how a person evaluates the people around him. On initial stage In order to build a communicative connection, external qualities are assessed. Following appearance, the interlocutor’s behavior model is assessed, which allows the formation of a certain level of relationship.

It is on the basis of the above qualities that the image of perception of the people around us is formed. Social perception has many forms of manifestation. In most cases, this term is used to characterize personal perception. Each person perceives not only his own personality, but also the social group to which he belongs. In addition, there is a form of perception that is characteristic only of participants in such groups. It is perception, based on the framework of a social group, that is the second form of manifestation of perception. The last form of perception is group perception. Each group perceives both its own members and members of other groups.

Behavioral reactions are formed on the basis of social stereotypes, knowledge of which explains communication patterns

The function of social perception is to evaluate the activities of surrounding people. Each individual carefully analyzes the individual characteristics of the temperament of those around him, their external attractiveness, lifestyle and actions. Based on this analysis, an idea of ​​the people around you and their behavior is formed.

Mechanism of social perception

Social perception is a process on the basis of which a forecast of behavior patterns and reactions of society is made in various life conditions. The mechanisms of interpersonal perception presented below allow us to study the subtlety of this process:

1. Attraction– study of surrounding people, which is based on positive perception. Thanks to this mechanism, people gain the ability to interact closely with others, which has a positive impact on the formation of sensory relationships. A striking example of this function is the manifestation of love, sympathy and friendly feelings.
2. Identification– this mechanism is used as an intuitive study of personality based on modeling various situations. Based on his own beliefs, a person makes an analysis internal state those around you. Example: when making assumptions about the state of an interlocutor, a person tends to mentally imagine himself in his place.
3. Casual attribution– is a mechanism for creating a forecast of the behavior of others, based on the characteristics of one’s own personality. When a person is faced with a misunderstanding of the motives of the actions of others, he begins to predict the behavior pattern of other people based on his own feelings, incentives and other individual properties.
4. Reflection– a mechanism of self-knowledge based on interaction in society. This “tool” is based on the skills of presenting one’s own personality through the “eyes” of the interlocutor. As an example, imagine a dialogue between Vasya and Pasha. At least six “personalities” take part in this type of communication: Vasya’s personality, his idea of ​​his own personality, and Vasya’s idea of ​​personality through the eyes of Pasha. Exactly the same images are recreated in Pasha’s mind.
5. Stereotyping– a mechanism for creating a stable image of surrounding people and phenomena. It is important to note that such images have features depending on social factors. As an example of stereotyping, we can cite the persistent idea that most outwardly attractive people are prone to narcissism, representatives of Germany are pedantic, and employees of law enforcement agencies think straightforwardly.
6. Empathy– the ability to empathize, provide psychological support and participate in the lives of people around you. This mechanism is a key skill in the work of specialists from the fields of psychology, medicine and pedagogy.

The tools used by social perception ensure communication between individuals

The above types of knowledge of the personality of others are based not only on the physical characteristics of a person, but also on the nuances of behavior patterns. The building of close communication ties is facilitated by the participation of both partners in the conversation. Social perception depends on the stimuli, feelings and lifestyle of each participant in interpersonal relationships. An important component of this cognitive function is the subjective analysis of surrounding individuals.

The importance of first impressions

An in-depth study of social perception has made it possible to identify key factors that influence the strength of impressions about a person. According to experts, when dating, most people pay increased attention to their hair, eyes and facial expressions. Based on this, we can say that a friendly smile during acquaintance is perceived as a sign of cordiality and a positive attitude.

There are three main points that are decisive in the process of forming first impressions of a new personality. Experts include such factors as the degree of superiority, attractiveness and attitude.

1. "Superiority" it is most acutely expressed in a situation when the personality of a particular individual is superior in some way and is perceived as dominant in other areas. Against this background, there is a global change in the assessment of one’s own qualities. It is important to note that people with low self-esteem are more susceptible to the influence of “superiority of others”. This explains the fact that in critical conditions people express trust in those who were previously treated negatively.
2. "Attractiveness" which is a feature of social perception – a factor on the basis of which the degree of attractiveness of others is analyzed. Main mistake Such a perception is that, paying increased attention to external qualities, a person forgets about analyzing the psychological and social characteristics of those around him.
3. "Attitude" is based on the perception of a person, depending on the attitude towards his personality. The negative effect of such perception is based on the fact that when good attitude and separation life position, a person begins to overestimate positive traits those around you.

The primacy effect in social perception manifests itself upon first acquaintance

Methodology for the development of perceptual perception

According to the famous psychologist Dale Carnegie, a simple smile is enough to evoke sympathy from others. That is why, if you want to build a strong communication connection with others, you should learn how to smile correctly. Today there are many psychological techniques for the development of facial gestures that help enhance the transmission of experienced emotions. Managing your own facial expressions allows you not only to improve the quality of social perception, but also to gain the opportunity to better understand others.

One of the most effective methods for developing social perception skills is the Ekman practice. The basis of this method is to concentrate attention on three zones human face. These areas include the forehead, chin and nose. It is these zones that best reflect emotional states such as feelings of anger, fear, disgust or sadness.

The ability to analyze facial gestures allows you to decipher the feelings that the interlocutor experiences. This practice has become widespread in the field of psychology, thanks to which a specialist has the opportunity to build a communicative relationship with persons with mental disorders.

Perception is a complex mechanism of human mental perception. The quality of operation of this system depends on many different external and internal factors. Such factors include age, experience and individual personality traits.

People act and feel not in accordance with actual facts, but in accordance with their ideas about these facts. Everyone has their own specific image of the world and the people around them, and the person behaves as if these images, and not the objects they represent, are the truth.

Some images in almost all normal individuals follow the same pattern. A person imagines a Mother as virtuous and affectionate, a Father as stern but fair, own body- strong and undamaged. If there is reason to think otherwise, then the very thought of this is deeply hateful to a person. He prefers to feel as before, in accordance with these universal figurative templates and regardless of their relationship to reality...

Changing your image is not easy, and the pain of this process is one of the reasons why it is avoided in every possible way. When a loved one dies, it takes considerable effort to adjust one's view of the world to the changed situation. This effort, called mourning, is very debilitating and leads to fatigue and weight loss. People in a state of grief often get up in the morning more tired than they go to bed in the evening, and feel as if they had worked hard all night. They really do a lot of hard work overnight, changing their mental images...

E. Berne."Introduction to Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis for the Uninitiated"

The essence of social perception

Mechanisms of social perception

· Personal image as a perceived and transmitted image. Effects of perception

· Features of the formation of social attitudes

The concept of social perception is largely determined by the concept of image, since essence of social perception consists in a person’s figurative perception of himself, other people and social phenomena the surrounding world. The image as the result and form of reflection of objects and phenomena of the material world in the human mind is the most important key condition for perception. In terms of content, the image is objective to the extent that it adequately reflects reality. The image exists at the level of feelings (sensation, perception, idea) and at the level of thinking (concept, judgment, inference).

In most sources perception is interpreted as the process and result of a person’s perception of the phenomena of the surrounding world and himself. Perception is associated with the conscious identification of a particular phenomenon and the interpretation of its meaning through various transformations of sensory information. Social perception - people’s perception, understanding and assessment of social objects: other people, themselves, groups, social communities, etc. (Psychology: Dictionary / Under the general editorship of A.V. Petrovsky, M.G. Yaroshevsky. - M., 1990). Social perception includes interpersonal perception, self-perception and intergroup perception. In a narrower sense, social perception is considered as interpersonal perception: the process of perception external signs person, correlating them with his personal characteristics, interpretation and prediction on this basis of his actions. The social perceptual process has two sides: subjective (the subject of perception is the person who perceives) and objective (the object of perception is the person who is perceived). In interaction and communication, social perception is mutual. People perceive, interpret and evaluate each other, and the correctness of this assessment is not always obvious.

The processes of social perception differ significantly from the perception of non-social objects. This difference is that social facilities are not passive and indifferent in relation to the subject of perception. In addition, social images always have semantic and evaluative interpretations. In a sense, perception is interpretation. But the interpretation of another person or group always depends on the previous social experience of the perceiver, on the behavior of the object of perception in this moment, from the system of value orientations of the perceiver and from many factors of both subjective and objective order.

Highlight mechanisms of social perception- the ways in which people interpret, understand and evaluate another person. The most common mechanisms are the following: empathy, attraction, causal attribution, identification, social reflection.

Empathy - comprehension of the emotional state of another person, understanding his emotions, feelings and experiences. In many psychological sources, empathy is identified with sympathy, empathy, and sympathy. This is not entirely true, since one can understand emotional condition another person, but not treat him with sympathy and sympathy. Well understanding the views and associated feelings of other people that he does not like, a person often acts contrary to them. A student in class, annoying an unloved teacher, can perfectly understand the latter’s emotional state and use the power of his empathy against the teacher. People we call manipulators very often have well-developed empathy and use it for their own, often selfish, purposes.

The subject is able to understand the meaning of the experiences of another because he himself once experienced the same emotional states. However, if a person has never experienced such feelings, then it is much more difficult for him to comprehend their meaning. If an individual has never experienced affect, depression or apathy, then he most likely will not understand what another person is experiencing in this state, although he may have certain cognitive ideas about such phenomena. To comprehend the true meaning of another's feelings, it is not enough to have cognitive representations. Necessary and personal experience. Therefore, empathy as the ability to understand the emotional state of another person develops throughout life and may be more pronounced in older people. It is quite natural that close people have more developed empathy towards each other than people who have known each other relatively recently. People belonging to different cultures, may have little empathy towards each other. At the same time, there are people who have special insight and are able to understand the experiences of another person even if he tries to carefully hide them. There are some types of professional activities that require developed empathy, for example, medical practice, teaching, and theater. Almost any professional activity in the “person-to-person” sphere requires the development of this perception mechanism.

Attraction - a special form of perception and cognition of another person, based on the formation of a stable positive feeling towards him. Through positive feelings of sympathy, affection, friendship, love, etc. Certain relationships arise between people that allow them to know each other more deeply. According to the figurative expression of the representative of humanistic psychology A. Maslow, such feelings allow you to see a person “under the sign of eternity,” i.e. see and understand the best and most worthy that is in him. Attraction as a mechanism of social perception is usually considered in three aspects: the process of forming the attractiveness of another person; result this process; quality of relationships. The result of this mechanism is special kind social attitude towards another person, in which the emotional component predominates.

Attraction can only exist at the level of individual selective interpersonal relationships, characterized by the mutual attachment of their subjects. There are probably various reasons why we tend to like some people more than others. Emotional attachment can arise on the basis of common views, interests, value orientations, or as a selective attitude towards a person’s special appearance, behavior, character traits, etc. The interesting thing is that such relationships allow you to better understand the other person. With a certain degree of convention, we can say that the more we like a person, the more we know him and the better we understand his actions (unless, of course, we are talking about pathological forms of attachment).

Attraction is also significant in business relations. Therefore, most psychologists working in business recommend that professionals involved in interpersonal communications, express to clients the most positive attitude even if they don't really like them. Externally expressed goodwill has the opposite effect - the attitude can actually change to positive. Thus, the specialist develops an additional mechanism of social perception, which allows him to obtain more information about a person. However, it should be remembered that excessive and artificial expression of joy does not so much create attraction as destroy people’s trust. A friendly attitude cannot always be expressed through a smile, especially if it looks fake and too stable. Thus, a television presenter smiling for an hour and a half is unlikely to attract the sympathy of viewers.

The mechanism of causal attribution associated with attributing reasons for behavior to a person. Each person has their own assumptions about why the perceived individual behaves in a certain way. Attributing to another certain reasons for behavior, the observer does this either on the basis of the similarity of his behavior with some familiar person or known image of a person, or on the basis of an analysis of his own motives assumed in similar situation. The principle of analogy, similarity with something already familiar or the same applies here. It is curious that causal attribution can “work” even when the analogy is made with a non-existent person who has never really existed, but exists in the observer’s imagination, for example with artistically(in the image of a hero from a book or movie). Each person has a huge number of ideas about other people and images, which were formed not only as a result of meetings with specific people, but also under the influence of various artistic sources. On a subconscious level, these images occupy “equal positions” with the images of people who actually exist or actually existed.

The mechanism of causal attribution is associated with certain aspects of the self-perception of an individual who perceives and evaluates another. So, if the subject attributed to another negative traits and the reasons for their manifestation, then he will most likely evaluate himself by contrast as a bearer of positive traits. Sometimes people with low self-esteem show excessive criticality towards others, thereby creating a certain negative subjectively perceived social background, against which, as it seems to them, they look quite decent. In fact, these are only subjective sensations that arise as a psychological defense mechanism. At the level of social stratification, such intergroup relations as the choice of an outgroup and the strategy of social creativity are, of course, accompanied by the action of causal attribution. T. Shibutani spoke about the degree of criticality and goodwill that it is advisable to observe in relation to others. After all, every person has positive and negative traits, as well as behavioral characteristics due to his ambivalence as an individual, personality and subject of activity. In addition, the same qualities are assessed differently in different situations.

Attribution of causes of behavior can occur taking into account the externality and internality of both the one who attributes and the one to whom it is attributed. If the observer is predominantly external, then the reasons for the behavior of the individual whom he perceives will appear to him in external circumstances. If it is internal, then the interpretation of the behavior of others will be associated with internal, individual and personal reasons. Knowing in what respects an individual is external and in which he is internal, it is possible to determine some features of his interpretation of the reasons for the behavior of other people.

A person’s perception also depends on his ability to put himself in the place of another, to identify himself with him. In this case, the process of cognition of the other will go more successfully (if there are significant grounds for appropriate identification). The process and result of such identification is called identification. Identification how a socio-psychological phenomenon is considered modern science very often and in such different contexts that it is necessary to specifically stipulate the features of this phenomenon as a mechanism of social perception. In this aspect, identification is similar to empathy, but empathy can be considered as an emotional identification of the subject of observation, which is possible on the basis of past or present experience of similar experiences. As for identification, here there is a greater degree of intellectual identification, the results of which are the more successful the more accurately the observer has determined the intellectual level of the one he perceives. In one of E. Poe's stories main character, a certain Dupin, in a conversation with his friend, analyzes the train of thought of a little boy whom he had been observing for some time. The conversation is precisely about one person’s understanding of another on the basis of the mechanism of intellectual identification.

“... I know an eight-year-old boy whose ability to guess correctly in the game of odd and even won him the admiration of everyone. This is a very simple game: one of the players holds several pebbles in his fist and asks the other whether he is holding an even number or an odd number. If the second player guesses correctly, then he wins the pebble, but if he guesses incorrectly, then he loses the pebble. The boy I mentioned beat all his school friends. Of course, he based his guesses on some principles, and these latter consisted only in the fact that he carefully watched his opponent and correctly assessed the degree of his cunning. For example, his obviously stupid opponent raises his fist and asks: “Even or odd?” Our student answers “odd” and loses. However, in the next attempt he wins, because he says to himself: “This fool took an even number of pebbles last time and, of course, thinks that he will cheat very well if he now takes an odd number. So I will say “odd” again!” He says “odd.” !" and wins. With a slightly smarter opponent, he would reason like this: “This boy noticed that I just said “odd,” and now he will first want to change even number pebbles into an odd number, but he immediately realizes that this is too simple and leaves their number the same. So I'll say "even!" He says "even!" and wins. This is the logical reasoning of a little boy whom his comrades dubbed "lucky." But, in essence, what is it? Just,” I answered, “the ability to completely identify one’s intellect with the intellect of the enemy.”

That's it, said Dupin. - And when I asked the boy how he achieves such complete identification, ensuring his constant success, he answered the following: “When I want to find out how smart, or stupid, or angry this boy is, or what he is thinking about now, I I try to give my face exactly the same expression that I see in his face, and then I wait to find out what thoughts or feelings arise in me in accordance with this expression... " (According to E.. Stories. - M., 1980. P. 334). As we can see, this passage illustrates the action of the mechanisms of identification and empathy in a boy’s knowledge of his peer in order to win the game. The identification mechanism in this case clearly prevails over empathy, which also takes place here.

The professional activities of some specialists are associated with the need for identification, such as the work of an investigator or teacher, which has been repeatedly described in legal and educational psychology. Identification error when incorrectly assessing the intellectual level of another person can lead to negative professional results. Thus, a teacher who overestimates or underestimates the intellectual level of his students will not be able to correctly assess the connection between the students’ real and potential abilities during the learning process.

It should be noted that the word “identification” in psychology means whole line phenomena that are not identical to each other: the process of comparing objects based on essential features(in cognitive psychology), the unconscious process of identifying close people and the mechanism of psychological defense (in psychoanalytic concepts), one of the mechanisms of socialization, etc. IN in a broad sense identification as a mechanism of social perception, combined with empathy, is a process of understanding, seeing another, comprehending the personal meanings of another’s activities, carried out through direct identification or an attempt to put oneself in the place of another.

Perceiving and Interpreting the world and other people, a person also perceives and interprets himself, his own actions and motivations. The process and result of a person’s self-perception in a social context is called social reflection. As a mechanism of social perception, social reflection means the subject’s understanding of his own individual characteristics and how they manifest themselves in external behavior; awareness of how he is perceived by other people. One should not think that people are able to perceive themselves more adequately than those around them. Thus, in a situation where there is an opportunity to look at oneself from the outside - in a photograph or film, many remain very dissatisfied with the impression made in my own way. This happens because people have a somewhat distorted self-image. Distorted ideas even concern the appearance of the perceiver, not to mention the social manifestations of the internal state.

Interacting with others, each person sees a large number of people's reactions to him. These reactions are mixed. And yet the features specific person predetermine certain features of how others react to him. In general, everyone has an idea of ​​how the people around him generally treat him, on the basis of which part of the image of the “social self” is formed. The subject may be quite clearly aware of exactly which of his characteristics and personal manifestations are most attractive or repulsive to people. He can also use this knowledge in certain purposes, adjusting or changing your image in the eyes of other people. The perceived and transmitted image of a person is usually called image.

So, personality image - it is her perceived and transmitted image. The image arises when the observer receives relatively stable impression of another person, his observed behavior, appearance, statements, etc. The image has two sides: subjective, i.e. the transmitted image of the person who is perceived, whose image is created, and objective, i.e. perceived by the observer. The transmitted and perceived images may not coincide. In addition, the transmitted image does not always reflect the essence of the individual. There is a so-called image credibility gap when there is the above-mentioned discrepancy. The image can be accepted or not accepted, causing a corresponding positive or negative attitude towards oneself. The main conditions for the accepted image are identified: orientation towards socially approved forms of behavior that correspond to social control, and orientation towards the middle class (as the most numerous) according to social stratification. In other words, a person in his self-manifestation must be approved by the majority, without being only a typical representative of this majority, but trying to surpass it by some criterion. If a person does something that is condemned by the demands of the majority, then even with a positive attitude from others, his image will not be accepted. If a person’s image is not perceived by others or has negative characteristics from their point of view, then the following conclusions can be drawn regarding his social self-manifestation: either he neglects generally accepted customs, or he asserts his own I, disregarding social norms. It is no coincidence that figures for whom public popularity is important have so-called image makers - specialists who deal with the problems of formation and development of a popular image.

There are three levels of the perceived image: biological, psychological, social. The biological level involves the perception of gender, age, health, physical characteristics, constitution, and temperament. Psychological level involves the analysis of such factors as character, will, intelligence, emotional state, etc. Social includes rumors, gossip, some information that has become known about this person from various social sources.

Of course, in the process of perception, distortions of the perceived image are possible, which are caused not only by the subjectivity of interpretation, but also by some socio-psychological effects of perception. From this point of view, distortions are objective in nature and require certain efforts of the perceiver’s personality to overcome them. The most significant information about a person is the first and last (primacy effect And recency effect). At the same time, if we know a person for a long time, then the most significant will be the latest information about him. If a person is unfamiliar to us or we know him very poorly, then the first information received is the most significant. In addition, it is of great importance Effect positive or negative halo. Usually this effect occurs in relation to a person about whom a general evaluative idea is formed due to a lack of information. Let's say a teacher who came to this class for the first time, but heard very commendable reviews from other teachers about N.'s academic successes and knows that N. is an excellent student, will be predisposed to treat this student accordingly. Especially if N. is active in the first lesson. In the future, even when N. is not quite ready for the lesson, the teacher can be very loyal to her educational activities. The same can happen with students who have a negative image from teachers.

A.S. Makarenko, being the head of a colony for juvenile delinquents in the 1920s, deliberately did not read the personal files of the children coming to him and did not introduce these files to the teachers of the colony. His calculation is clear: he did not want to form negative attitudes among educators, since, by creating expectations, they enter into social control and contribute to the provocation of very specific behavior in pupils. It should be noted that A.S. Makarenko was one of the most successful social educators in the world, who, in the harsh conditions of the economic crisis and totalitarian political regime created a unique educational system capable of providing conditions for the development and self-development of colonists.

Speaking about various distortions of perception, it is impossible to ignore one of the most common - stereotypes. In a broad sense, a stereotype is an excessive generalization of a phenomenon that turns into a stable belief and influences a person’s system of relationships, modes of behavior, thought processes, judgments, etc. The process of forming stereotypes is called stereotyping. Stereotyping carries not only negative phenomena. It is necessary for any person, since it includes a certain simplification of the image in template social situations and when interacting with familiar people. Stereotypes determine habits and, thus, enter into social control, predetermining human behavior in certain cases. Stereotypes help us make decisions in a typical, repeating situation and thus save mental energy, reducing reaction time and speeding up the cognition process. At the same time, stereotypical behavior prevents the adoption of new decisions. The ability to overcome interfering stereotypes is an important condition for social adaptation.

As a result of stereotyping, social setting - predisposition, a person's readiness to perceive something in a certain way and act in one way or another. Features of the formation of social attitudes are associated with the fact that they have some stability and carry the functions of facilitation, algorithmization, cognition, as well as an instrumental function (introducing the individual to the system of norms and values ​​of a given social environment). An attitude can help to perceive the image of another person more correctly, acting on the principle “ magnifying glass"when attracted, and can also block normal perception, obeying the principle of a “distorting mirror.” In any case, the attitude is a kind of filter of trust or distrust in relation to incoming information. One of the leading domestic researchers of social attitudes is D.N. Uznadze believed that the attitude underlies electoral activity person, and therefore is an indicator of possible directions of activity. Knowing a person's social attitudes, one can predict his actions. Changes in attitudes depend on the novelty of information, the individual characteristics of the subject, the order in which information is received and the system of attitudes that the subject already has.

Since the attitude determines the selective directions of an individual’s behavior, it regulates activity at three hierarchical levels: semantic, target and operational.

On semantic At the installation level, they are of the most general nature and determine the relationship of the individual to objects that have personal significance for the individual. Target Attitudes are usually associated with specific actions and a person’s desire to complete the work he has begun. They determine the relatively stable nature of the activity. If the action is interrupted, then the motivational tension still remains, providing the person with the appropriate readiness to continue it. The effect of unfinished action was discovered by K. Levin and more thoroughly studied in the research of his student B.V. Zeigarnik (Zeigarnik effect). On operational level, the installation determines decision-making in specific situation. It promotes the perception and interpretation of circumstances, primarily on the basis of the past experience of the subject’s behavior in a similar situation and the corresponding prediction of the possibilities of adequate and effective behavior.

J. Godefroy identified three main stages in the formation of social attitudes in a person in the process of socialization. The first stage covers the period of childhood up to 12 years. The attitudes that develop during this period correspond to the parental models. From 12 to 20 years of age, attitudes take on a more specific form. At this stage, the formation of attitudes is associated with the assimilation of social roles. The third stage covers a period from 20 to 30 years and is characterized by the crystallization of social attitudes, the formation on their basis of a system of beliefs, which is a very stable mental new formation. By the age of 30, attitudes are characterized by significant stability and fixity. It is extremely difficult to change them.

In the process of perceiving and interpreting another person, stereotypes and attitudes do not always arise, but in standard and repeated situations they are constant companions of social perception.

Questions on the topic

What is the specificity of social perception as opposed to simply

th perception"

What role does image play in social perception?

What mechanisms of social perception are the most common from your point of view? Which of them are most important for a teacher in his pedagogical activity when interacting with students?

Why is causal attribution often called the most insidious mechanism of social perception?

What are the similarities and differences between empathy and identification as mechanisms of social perception?

Is a person’s perception of himself always a social reflection?

What changes can happen to a person’s social attitudes after 30 years of age? (See chapter " Social development person.")

Tasks for independent work

Based on an analysis of the content of E. Bern's idea given in the epigraph to the chapter, explain how social perception is determined by the feelings of the perceiving person? Think about how this relates to social control?

Independently formulate three definitions of social perception depending on its type. (Cm. Social perception in "Basic Concepts"

Provide examples that illustrate the gap between a person's perceived and communicated image (the “credibility gap”). Analyze the reasons for the breakup.

Using the definition social settings in the Course Concepts section, analyze the components and functions of a social attitude.

Literature

Baranova B.A. Personal image as a socio-psychological phenomenon // Master. - 1994. - No. 2.

Bityanova M. R. Social Psychology. - M., 1994.

Bodalev A.A. Perception and understanding of man by man. - M., 1993.

Bodalev A.A. Personality and communication. - M., 1995.

Godefroy^J. What is psychology. - M., 1992. -T. 2.

Dyachenko M.I. , Kandybovich L. A. Psychology: Dictionary-reference book. Minsk, 1998.

Dyachkova E.K. Imageology for a leader. - Novosibirsk, 1998.

Kelly G. The process of causal attribution // Modern foreign social psychology: Texts. - M., 1984.

Krol L. N., Mikhailova L. A. Man - orchestra: microstructure of communication M., 1993.

Uznadze D. N. Experimental foundations of attitude theory - Tbilisi 1966.

Social perception is one of the basic and most important aspects of social life; our attempts to understand others are an integral part of our Everyday life and take many different forms. Two of them are the most important. First, we try to understand the feelings, moods and emotions of other people - how they feel at the moment. We often obtain such information thanks to nonverbal cues, which include facial expression, eye contact, posture and body movements. Secondly, we are also trying to understand the deeper reasons for the behavior of other people - why they behave this way and not otherwise, we strive to understand their motives, intentions and characteristics.

The tradition of research on social perception is one of the most stable traditions in social psychology. Within its framework, practically the entire range of problems was defined, which later began to be developed in the new field of psychology. The problems of social perception were especially actively developed in the 70s, although the problem existed almost from the very first years of the separation of social psychology into an independent field of knowledge, but not necessarily under this name. The term “social perception” (“social perception”) was proposed by J. Bruner within the framework of the “New Look” he developed. Soon, in social psychology, this term acquired a different meaning: it began to denote the perception of social objects, and their range was strictly limited. Social objects were called: another person, social group, wider social community.

The process of social perception is a complex and branched system of formation in the human mind of images of public objects as a result of such methods of people’s comprehension of each other as perception, cognition, understanding and study. The term "perception" is not the most accurate in defining the formation of an observer's idea of ​​his interlocutor, since this is a more specific process. In social psychology, such a formulation as “cognition of another person” is sometimes used as a more precise concept to characterize the process of human perception by a person.

The specificity of a person’s cognition of another person lies in the fact that the subject and object of perception perceive not only physical characteristics each other, but also behavioral, and also in the process of interaction, judgments are formed about the intentions, abilities, emotions and thoughts of the interlocutor. In addition, an idea is created of the relationships that connect the subject and object of perception. Social perception depends on emotions, intentions, opinions, attitudes, preferences and prejudices. In social perception there is certainly an assessment of another person, and the development, depending on this assessment and the impression made by the object, of a certain attitude in the emotional and behavioral aspects. This process of one person knowing another, evaluating him and forming a certain attitude is an integral part of human communication and can be conditionally called the perceptual side of communication.

There are basic functions of social perception, namely: knowledge of oneself, knowledge of a communication partner, organization joint activities based on mutual understanding and the establishment of certain emotional relationships. The process of social perception involves the relationship between the subject of perception and the object of perception.

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The processes of social perception differ significantly from the perception of non-social objects. This difference also lies in the fact that social objects are not passive and indifferent to the subject of perception. In addition, social images always have semantic and evaluative interpretations. In a certain sense, perception is interpretation. But the interpretation of another person or group always depends on the previous social experience of the perceiver, on the behavior of the object of perception at the moment, on the system of value orientations of the perceiver and on many factors of both subjective and objective order..

The mechanisms of social perception are the ways in which people interpret, understand and evaluate another person. The most common mechanisms are the following: empathy, attraction, causal attribution, identification, social reflection.

1. Empathy- understanding the emotional state of another person, understanding his emotions, feelings and experiences. In many psychological sources, empathy is identified with sympathy, empathy, and sympathy. This is not entirely true, since you can understand the emotional state of another person, but not treat him with sympathy and empathy. Well understanding the views and associated feelings of other people that he does not like, a person often acts contrary to them. A student in class, annoying an unloved teacher, can perfectly understand the latter’s emotional state and use the power of his empathy against the teacher. People we call manipulators very often have well-developed empathy and use it for their own, often selfish, purposes.

Women are believed to be more empathic than men. This is most clearly manifested in their tendency to more demonstratively express outwardly their understanding of others and empathy. Empathy can be learned. The experience of men who work with people - psychotherapists, psychologists, etc. - shows that, as a result of training and practice, they achieve a high ability to empathize and express it. Anyone can achieve this with desire and practice.

The ability to “read” facial expressions, gestures, postures, glances, handshakes, and gait of the perceived person can be of great help in teaching empathic understanding. You should pay attention to the words he uses that reflect feelings: “unpleasant,” “insidious,” “unexpected,” etc. It is necessary to imagine as clearly as possible what we ourselves would feel in the speaker’s place in such situations.

To comprehend the true meaning of another's feelings, it is not enough to have cognitive representations. Personal experience is also necessary. That's why empathy as the ability to understand the emotional state of another person develops throughout life and may be more pronounced in older people. It is quite natural that close people have more developed empathy towards each other than people who have known each other relatively recently. People from different cultures may have little empathy for each other. At the same time, there are people who have special insight and are able to understand the experiences of another person even if he tries to carefully hide them. There are some types of professional activities that require developed empathy, for example, medical practice, teaching, and theater. Almost any professional activity in the “person-to-person” sphere requires the development of this perception mechanism.

2. The mechanism of causal attribution associated with attributing reasons for behavior to a person. Each person has their own assumptions about why the perceived individual behaves in a certain way. Attributing certain reasons for behavior to another, the observer does this either on the basis of the similarity of his behavior with some familiar person or known image of a person, or on the basis of an analysis of his own motives assumed in a similar situation. The principle of analogy, similarity with something already familiar or the same applies here.

The mechanism of causal attribution is associated with certain aspects of the self-perception of an individual who perceives and evaluates another. Thus, if a subject has attributed negative traits and the reasons for their manifestation to another, then he will most likely evaluate himself by contrast as a bearer of positive traits. Sometimes people with low self-esteem show excessive criticality towards others, thereby creating a certain negative subjectively perceived social background, against which, as it seems to them, they look quite decent.

3. Social perception includes reflection . As a mechanism of social perception, social reflection means the subject’s understanding of his own individual characteristics and how they manifest themselves in external behavior; awareness of how he is perceived by other people. One should not think that people are able to perceive themselves more adequately than those around them. Thus, in a situation where there is an opportunity to look at oneself from the outside - in a photograph or film, many remain very dissatisfied with the impression made by their own image. This happens because people have a somewhat distorted self-image. Distorted ideas even concern the appearance of the perceiver, not to mention the social manifestations of the internal state.

It is possible to optimize the process of reflective understanding of another person through effective listening techniques:

Clarification - turning to the speaker for clarification (“Explain again...”);

Paraphrasing - repeating the interlocutor’s thoughts in your own words (“In other words, you think that...”);

Summarizing - summing up the main thoughts of the partner (“If I summarize what you said...”);

Reflections of feelings - the desire to reflect in your own words the feelings of the speaker (“It seems to me that you feel...”).

It is always desirable to understand your partner, but it is not always useful to say it out loud. If we let's understand the person deeper than he wanted, and let's say it directly, the result may turn out to be the opposite - the person will “close down”. Sometimes understanding and remaining silent is more valuable than “getting into your soul” with your “understanding.”

4. Social perception is accompanied attraction (attraction) - a special form of knowing another person, which is based on the formation of a stable positive feeling towards him. A communication partner is understood better if the perceiver experiences sympathy, affection, a friendly or intimate-personal relationship with him.

Emotional attachment can arise on the basis of common views, interests, value orientations, or as a selective attitude towards a person’s special appearance, behavior, character traits, etc. The interesting thing is that such relationships allow you to better understand the other person. With a certain degree of convention, we can say that the more we like a person, the more we know him and the better we understand his actions (unless, of course, we are talking about pathological forms of attachment).

Attraction is also significant in business relationships. Therefore, most psychologists working in business, recommend that interpersonal communication professionals express the most positive attitude towards clients even if they do not actually like them.

However, it should be remembered that Excessive and artificial expression of joy does not so much create attraction as destroy people's trust. A friendly attitude cannot always be expressed through a smile, especially if it looks fake and too stable. Thus, a television presenter smiling for an hour and a half is unlikely to attract the sympathy of viewers.

5. A person’s perception also depends on his ability to put himself in the place of another, to identify himself with him. In this case, the process of cognition of the other will go more successfully (if there are significant grounds for appropriate identification). The process and result of such identification is called identification. Identification as a socio-psychological phenomenon is considered by modern science very often and in such different contexts that it is necessary to specifically stipulate the features of this phenomenon as a mechanism of social perception. In this aspect, identification is similar to empathy, but empathy can be considered as an emotional identification of the subject of observation, which is possible on the basis of past or present experience of similar experiences. As for identification, what happens here to a greater extent is intellectual identification, the results of which are more successful the more accurately the observer has determined the intellectual level of the one he perceives. In one of E. Poe's stories, the main character, a certain Dupin, in a conversation with his friend, analyzes the course of reasoning of a little boy whom he had been observing for some time. The conversation is precisely about one person’s understanding of another on the basis of the mechanism of intellectual identification.

“...I know an eight-year-old boy whose ability to guess correctly in the game of odd and even won him the admiration of everyone. This is a very simple game: one of the players holds several pebbles in his fist and asks the other whether he is holding an even number or an odd number. If the second player guesses correctly, then he wins the pebble, but if he guesses incorrectly, then he loses the pebble. The boy I mentioned beat all his school friends. Of course, he based his guesses on some principles, and these latter consisted only in the fact that he carefully watched his opponent and correctly assessed the degree of his cunning. For example, his obviously stupid opponent raises his fist and asks: “Even or odd?” Our student answers “odd” and loses. However, in the next attempt he wins, because he says to himself: “This fool took an even number of pebbles last time and, of course, thinks that he will cheat very well if he now takes an odd number. So I will say “odd” again!” He says “odd.” !" and wins. With a slightly smarter opponent, he would have reasoned like this: “This boy noticed that I just said “odd,” and now he will first want to change the even number of pebbles to an odd one, but he will immediately realize that this is too simple, and will leave their number the same. So I'll say "even!" He says "even!" and wins. This is the logical reasoning of a little boy whom his comrades dubbed "lucky." But, in essence, what is it? Just,” I answered, “the ability to completely identify one’s intellect with the intellect of the enemy.”

That's it, said Dupin. - And when I asked the boy how he achieves such complete identification, ensuring his constant success, he answered the following: “When I want to find out how smart, or stupid, or angry this boy is, or what he is thinking about now, I try to give my face exactly the same expression that I see in his face, and then I wait to find out what thoughts or feelings arise in me in accordance with this expression..." (According to E. Stories. - M., 1980 . -P. 334). As we can see, this passage illustrates the action of the mechanisms of identification and empathy in a boy’s knowledge of his peer in order to win the game. The identification mechanism in this case clearly prevails over empathy, which also takes place here.

The professional activities of some specialists are associated with the need for identification, such as the work of an investigator or teacher, which has been repeatedly described in legal and educational psychology. Misidentification when misjudging the intellectual level of another person can lead to negative professional results. Thus, a teacher who overestimates or underestimates the intellectual level of his students will not be able to correctly assess the connection between the students’ real and potential abilities during the learning process.