Meaningfulness, or what is mindfulness in life

Key Concepts

Perception is usually understood as both the process itself and the totality of psychophysiological phenomena. In philosophy, perception was interpreted as a type of cognition, different from sensation and thinking. D. Leibniz described perception as a state of unclear consciousness; it gradually comes under the influence of attention (apperception), when the object is clearly and meaningfully realized. Perception in psychology is a form of sensory cognition.

Perception is a holistic reflection of objects or phenomena in conditions of their direct impact on the senses. The mental process is that objects and phenomena at a given moment in time are reflected through the senses. As a result, when a person interacts with the outside world, an image of an object or phenomenon is formed.

The image is based on sensations. But the perceived image is not a sum of sensations, but a holistic and meaningful picture. For example, noise outside the window will be perceived as a sound sensation of a certain frequency, identified from personal experience (the noise of rain, leaves, broken glass, a passing car).

Perception is closely related to human activity, so movement is an important component. There are motor processes:

• With the eyes - inspection of an object.
• Hands - feeling the object.
• Reactions that cause the head to turn towards the sound.

Apperception refers to the dependence of perception on past experience, knowledge base and personality orientation. Directions will depend on the person’s life experience and professional activities. Thus, a football player, a doctor and a businessman will perceive the ball differently depending on the direction of their professional activity.

Perception of a person by a person and mutual understanding in communication

The idea of ​​another person is closely related to the level of one’s own self-awareness. Mutual understanding between communication partners presupposes that each of them knows the psychology of the other person: his values ​​and motives of behavior, level of aspirations and character traits.

The idea of ​​another person is closely related to the level of one’s own self-awareness. Analysis of self-awareness through another person is carried out using two concepts: identification and reflection.

Identification is one of the mechanisms of cognition and understanding of another person, which most often consists of unconsciously likening oneself to a significant other. Here, a significant other is a person who is an authority for a given subject of communication and activity. This usually happens when, in real interaction situations, an individual attempts to put himself in the place of a communication partner. During identification, a certain emotional connection is established with the object.

It is necessary to distinguish between the concepts of “ identification ” and “ reference ”. If for the first concept the basis is the process of assimilation of the subject to a communication partner, i.e. assimilation to a significant other, then for the second concept (“reference”) the main thing is the subject’s dependence on other people, acting as a selective attitude towards them.

The object of reference relations can be either a group of which the subject is a member, or another group with which he relates himself without being a real participant. The function of a reference object can also be performed by an individual person, including one who does not really exist (a literary hero, a fictional ideal to follow, etc.) In both cases, the subject borrows for himself goals, values, ideas, norms and rules of behavior object of reference (group, individual.

The concept of “ identification ” is close in content to the concept of “ empathy ”.

Empathy is the understanding of another person's emotional states in the form of empathy. The mechanism of empathy is to a certain extent similar to the mechanism of identification. This similarity lies in the ability to put oneself in the place of another, to look at things from his point of view. However, this does not necessarily mean identifying with that other person (as identification does). Simply, with empathy, the partner’s line of behavior is taken into account, the subject treats him with sympathy, but interpersonal relationships with him are built based on the strategy of his line of behavior.

Reflection is the individual’s awareness of how he is perceived by his communication partner, that is, how his communication partner will understand me. During interaction, certain characteristics of each other are mutually assessed and changed.

Interpersonal perception and its effects

Causal attribution

Getting to know each other, people do not limit themselves to obtaining information through observation. They strive to find out the reasons for the behavior of communication partners and clarify their personal qualities. But since information about a person obtained as a result of observation is most often insufficient for reliable conclusions, the observer begins to attribute probabilistic causes of behavior and characterological personality traits to the communication partner. This causal interpretation of the behavior of the observed individual can significantly influence the observer himself.

More on the blog: Honesty with each other and dishonesty with the group

Thus, causal attribution is the subject’s interpretation of the interpersonal perception of the causes and motives of other people’s behavior. The word "causal" means "caused". Attribution is the attribution of characteristics to social objects that are not represented in the field of perception.

Based on a study of problems associated with causal attribution, researchers have concluded that attributional processes constitute the main content of interpersonal perception. It is significant that some people tend to fixate physical traits to a greater extent in the process of interpersonal perception (in this case, the scope of “attribution” is significantly reduced), others perceive predominantly the psychological character traits of others. In the latter case, a wide scope for attribution opens up.

A certain dependence of “attribution” on the attitude in the process of perceiving a person by a person has been revealed. This role of attribution is especially significant, as G. M. Andreeva notes, when forming the first impression of a stranger. This was revealed in the experiments of A. A. Bodalev. Thus, two groups of students were shown a photograph of the same person. But first the first group was told that the man in the photograph shown was a hardened criminal, and the second group was told about the same person that he was a prominent scientist.

After this, each group was asked to create a verbal portrait of this person. In the first case, the corresponding characteristics were obtained: deep-set eyes testified to hidden anger, a prominent chin - to the determination to “go to the end in a crime,” etc. Accordingly, in the second group, the same deep-set eyes spoke of deep thought, and a prominent chin — about willpower in overcoming difficulties on the path of knowledge, etc.

Such studies should answer the question about the role of the characteristics given to communication partners in the process of interpersonal perception, and the degree of influence of attitudes on these characteristics.

Halo effect (halo effect)

This is the formation of an evaluative impression of a person in conditions of a lack of time to perceive his actions and personal qualities. The halo effect manifests itself either in the form of positive evaluative bias (positive halo) or negative evaluative bias (negative halo).

So, if the first impression of a person is generally favorable, then in the future all his behavior, traits and actions begin to be reevaluated in a positive direction. In them, only positive aspects are highlighted and exaggerated, while negative ones are underestimated or not noticed. If, due to the prevailing circumstances, the general first impression of a person turns out to be negative, then even his positive qualities and actions in the future are either not noticed at all or are underestimated against the backdrop of hypertrophied attention to shortcomings.

More on the blog: Getting smarter - 10 levers of influence

Effects of novelty and primacy

to the halo effect are the effects of novelty and primacy. These effects (novelty and primacy) are manifested through the significance of a certain order of presentation of information about a person to form an idea about him.

The novelty effect occurs when, in relation to a familiar person, the most significant is the latest, i.e., newer information about him.

The primacy effect occurs when the first information is more significant in relation to a stranger.

All the effects described above can be considered as special cases or variants of the manifestation of a special process that accompanies the perception of a person by a person, called stereotyping.

Stereotyping

This is the perception and evaluation of social objects based on certain ideas (stereotypes). Stereotyping is the attribution of similar characteristics to all members of a social group without sufficient awareness of the possible differences between them.

A stereotype is a simplified, often distorted, idea of ​​a social group or individual belonging to a particular social community, characteristic of the sphere of everyday consciousness. A stereotype arises from limited past experience as a result of the desire to draw conclusions based on insufficient information. Most often, stereotypes arise regarding a person’s group affiliation.

Stereotyping is one of the most important characteristics of intergroup and interpersonal perception and is accompanied by manifestations of social attitudes, halo effects, primacy and novelty. In interpersonal perception, stereotyping performs two main functions:

1. maintaining identification;
2. justification of possible negative attitudes towards other groups.

Particularly widespread are the so-called ethnic stereotypes, when, based on limited information about individual representatives of certain ethnic groups, preconceived conclusions are drawn about the entire group. Stereotyping in the process of people getting to know each other can lead to two different consequences. On the one hand, to a certain simplification of the process of knowing another person, and then this simplification leads to the replacement of the image of a person with a cliche, for example, “all accountants are pedants,” “all teachers are edifiers.” On the other hand, this leads to prejudice if a judgment about a social object is based on limited past experience, which most often may turn out to be negative.

Author: Anatoly Vasilyevich Batarshev , Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Candidate of Psychological Sciences, honorary member of the International Academy of Psychological Sciences, full member of the International Academy of Sciences of Pedagogical Education and the Baltic Pedagogical Academy.

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Perceptual actions

When a person makes movements to recognize an object or phenomenon, this is called a perceptual action. In other words, perceptivity is a certain process of detecting an object perceived in relation to existing images in memory.

There are four levels of perceptual action:

• Object detection.
• Discrimination.
• Identification and identification.

Any sensory process begins with detection and determination, being a reaction to a stimulus. The next stage is discrimination, which forms a perceptual image of the standard; in parallel, identification processes begin. Using identification, a perceived object is compared with an image stored in memory. An object is considered identified when it is assigned to a certain class of objects.

Perceptual actions form a whole system, some of them require special development and training.

Classification of properties

Perception is the knowledge of a complex image of an object. A person forms his own model of the objective external world. At the first contact with an object, the human brain receives knowledge about it and forms an image of sensation, then on this basis an image of perception is created.

The leading properties of perception (perception) include:

• Integrity.
• Meaningfulness.
• Generality.
• Constancy.
• Objectivity.
• Selectivity.

Integrity refers to the knowledge of information or an object as a whole, despite the absence of essential details. An object is reflected in the totality of all its properties. Let's say a house without a roof, windows, pipes will still be recognized as a house, only unfinished or destroyed.

Meaningfulness is an understanding of what exactly is perceived and its relationship with knowledge and past experience. Even in unfamiliar objects, similarities with familiar objects are detected. A person who is far from technology will create a connection between the structure he sees with light bulbs and wires, assuming that it is a scientific device.

Generalization is a concept when individual objects are classified as homogeneous according to certain characteristics.

Constancy of perception is the constancy of the perceived shape, size and color of an object, regardless of significant changes in conditions. For example, a bird in flight, in a cage, or in a tree is perceived the same way - as a bird. The same applies to color perception. Red will always remain so in any light. Thanks to constancy, a person recognizes objects under any conditions.

Objectivity is a meaningful, integral image when not only the color, shape or size is perceived, but the functions, properties, and purpose of the object. For example, a spoon has not only color and shape, but also a purpose - a cutlery. The meaning put into the image is important.

Selectivity - an object is distinguished from others based on personal experience. Based on the described characteristics, perception has properties that determine its productivity:

• Volume is the number of objects perceived simultaneously.
• Speed ​​is the time spent on perceptual actions (detection, recognition, discrimination).
• Accuracy is the correspondence of the image to the characteristics and task assigned to the person.
• Completeness—level of compliance.
• Reliability is the duration of perception with the required accuracy, adequate acceptance of an object at a given time and condition.

By analyzing the indicators, one can judge a person’s perceptual abilities.

Types of perception

Perception refers to sensations and can be classified in different ways. The division is carried out according to the characteristics of the object. These include the perception of speech, objects, music or a person by a person; in the latter version, this is social perception in psychology.

Perception is distinguished by modality - visual, gustatory, tactile, auditory, olfactory. The duration of the perceptual process is divided into simultaneous - one-time and successive - unfolded in time.

According to the form of existence of matter, the perception of time, motion and space is divided. These are particularly complex forms of perception.

A person’s perception is also divided according to personality type (visual, kinesthetic, auditory). In short, visual reception of information is inherent in people with a visual type of perception, auditory in auditory people, and tactile is related to kinesthetic.

Ways to interpret personality by appearance

Finished works on a similar topic

Course work Perception of man by man 490 ₽ Abstract Perception of man by man 260 ₽ Test work Perception of man by man 240 ₽

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A person interprets another person primarily based on appearance. Experimentally, it was possible to establish four main ways of interpreting a person by appearance:

• Analytical, namely elements of appearance are associated with a person’s character. For example, tightly compressed lips are a sign of severity, wide eyes are a sign of frankness, and so on.
• Emotional, that is, emotional qualities. They are attributed to a person based on external attractiveness.
• Individual-associative. A person is prescribed the quality of another person who is externally similar to him and with whom the analyzer has previously met.
• Socially associative. A person is prescribed by the quality of the group of people to whom he externally belongs. For example, goths are attributed the qualities of toughness, swagger, communists - talkativeness, grumpiness, and so on.

The analysis of the listed qualities occurs during direct communication between people. Initially, attention is paid to appearance, especially facial features. Further, in the course of communication, a general idea of ​​character, intellectual and emotional abilities, and temperament is formed, which are very often associated with a person’s professional qualities and his type of activity. Peculiarities of perception can vary not only based on the nature of people’s temperament, but based on age.

Figure 1. Human perception of the environment. Author24 - online exchange of student work

Space, time and motion

The interaction and combination of different sensations gives the ability to perceive certain forms of existing matter of time, space and movement. Space is almost always perceived by humans. This includes assessing the presence and position of one's own body. As well as visual reading - direction, distance, shape, depth and volume.

The distance of objects and the location of light and shade are of great importance. The olfactory, auditory, vestibular and other sensory systems are involved in the perception of space.

The perception of time is a very subjective concept, but some patterns are noted. All phenomena in life occur in time. The law of present and past tense is that the more the present is filled with events, the shorter it seems. The waiting periods feel very long.

In memories, the opposite picture is present - an eventful period of time is perceived as longer. Estimation of time is very individual. The assessment is influenced by the nature of the activity, structure and motivation. High interest speeds up the time interval, while low interest slows it down. The personality structure, motives, emotions and age of a person also influence here.

Movement is a reflection of the variability of the location of an object in space; the direction and speed of movement are also taken into account.

There are perceptions:

• according to the form of movement - circular, arc-shaped, straight, etc.;
• vibration amplitude - small, medium and large;
• direction - right, left, up, down;
• by duration - short, long;
• by acceleration and speed - fast, slow, smooth or intermittent;
• by the nature of the movement - flexion, rotation, extension.

The illusion of reality

The illusion of perception occurs when reality is reflected distortedly, while the effect is sustainable. Illusions can occur in many people under the influence of physical, physiological and psychological reasons.

The breaking of a spoon in a glass of tea is classified as a physical illusion, and the splitting of the image when pressing sideways on the eyeball is considered a physiological illusion. A psychological illusion occurs when identical lines are overestimated up or down when their lengths are objectively equal.

Another example considers overvaluing the top parts of the figure. When dividing a vertical line in half, a person often makes the mistake of setting the middle much higher than the real one.

Perception disorders

1) Illusions are an erroneous perception of real objects and phenomena. They can be auditory, visual, olfactory, etc.

Under certain conditions, they occur in most people and can be caused by physical (perception of a spoon in a glass of tea that appears broken), physiological (split images of objects if you press on the side of the eyeball at the moment of perception) and psychological reasons (overestimation of vertical lines compared to horizontal ones) .

Illusions of perception

a) Ebbinghaus illusion

This is an optical illusion of perception regarding size. Two objects of the same size can look different. If one object is placed among smaller objects, it will appear larger than if the same object is placed among larger objects.

b) Ponzo illusion

This is an optical illusion of perception. Mario Ponzo suggested that the human brain determines the size of an object by its background. He drew two identical segments against the background of two converging lines, like a railway track stretching into the distance. As a result, horizontal lines are perceived differently.

c) Aristotle's illusion

This is an illusion of touch. A small object (pencil) is placed between (under) crossed fingers (it’s easier to use the middle and index fingers) so that it touches one finger on the inside and the other finger on the outside. When you move your fingers (and hand) over an object (back and forth), after a while you get the impression that your fingers are touching 2 objects.

d) Zellner illusion

An optical illusion in which parallel lines intersected by a series of short diagonal lines appear to diverge.

e) Müller-Lyer illusion

An optical illusion that occurs when observing segments framed by arrows. The segment framed by the “points” seems shorter than the segment framed by the “tail” arrows.

f) Poggendorff illusion

An optical illusion where the red line is a continuation of the black line, rather than the blue one.

Hallucinations

2) Hallucinations are erroneous perceptions in the absence of an object.

Hallucinations occur with alcohol abuse (delirium delirium), drugs, psychostimulants (LSD, cocaine, etc.), medications (for example, antidepressants), mental illness (schizophrenia, epilepsy), organic brain lesions, cataracts (Charles hallucinations). Bonnet).

Eidetism as a type of hallucination

Eidetism, or, more simply, photographic memory is a special nature of memory, mainly for visual impressions, which allows one to retain and reproduce an extremely vivid image of a previously perceived object or phenomenon. This image may include rich images from other modalities of perception (hearing, taste, etc.).

Eidetic images differ from ordinary ones in that a person seems to continue to perceive the object in its absence. The physiological basis of eidetic images is the residual excitation of the analyzer.

Eidetism means that a person will retain the details of an image in memory after the cessation of perception. In one form or another, eidetism is inherent in every person, especially in childhood and adolescence, but it is rare in its brightest manifestations. Children most often have photographic memory; it is rare in adults. It is impossible to develop photographic memory in its original form, but with the help of exercises you can improve visual memory, memorization of information, and its reproduction.

I advise you to read the book by Alexander Romanovich Luria, which is called “A Little Book about Big Memory.” Despite its very small volume, which is aptly noted in the title, it is very interestingly written. The book touches on issues of memory, synesthesia, and eidotechnics.

Some classifications of hallucinations include eidetism as a subspecies. This is due to the fact that people with eidetism perceive objects in their absence, which is also a component of hallucinations. From this perspective, a definition of photographic memory might look like this:

Eidetism is a perceptual disorder in which a trace of just ended excitation in some analyzer remains in the form of a clear and vivid image.

At the end of the lecture, I recommend studying two videos on topics related to sensations and perception.

January 19, 2021

Hello, dear readers of the KtoNaNovenkogo.ru blog. Today I want to talk about a very interesting thing - a person’s perception of the world around him and other people.

Let's take a look at this process from a psychological point of view to understand its essence. We will find out what properties it has, what types it is divided into, what errors sometimes arise and how a person perceives another person. I hope it will be interesting.