John Stewart Perception

Cost 1610
Thought Paper #1

“People make sense out of the world through their perceptual experience, and experience is affected by culture, membership in various social groups, and in fact, by every relationship a person has.” In this sentence, John Stewart summarized the importance of perception in a person’s life. In this essay, I will attempt to convey the importance of perception in a person’s life. After explaining the concept I will connect the textbook definitions to some real life experiences to help better understand perception. The textbook describes perception using a metaphor for breathing. This metaphor explains that inhaling is the receiving part of communication. It is imperative to life and it is happening constantly.
“To infer is to conclude, judge, or go beyond evidence. So in the perception process, inferring means going beyond sensory cues to your own interpretations.” To form these interpretations, people call on their different view of the world. People value different cues more than others based on such things as their cultural backgrounds or their gender. The book uses the example of head-nodding among males and females. While males view head-nodding as a way of agreeing, females view head-nodding as a way of signaling that they are listening. Males and females have different perceptions of the physical cue of head nodding and therefore infer different things from the same
I myself have been a part of many group projects and learned a lot from them. The perceptive process is ever present in these situations. The metaphor of breathing as it relates to communication is a key concept present in a group project. There is constant interaction, with group members constantly meeting up in person to talk to face, exchanging emails and text messages to set up meeting times, and sharing ideas for how to go about the project in person. I was part of a group project for a class last semester. The event required a high level of communication, as the project was set to turn into a campus-wide event. Inhaling was a key concept during the in-class discussions. While there was constant discussion going on and different signals flying around the room, I sat there “inhaling” everything going on around me, taking in the experience and understanding it as well as a bit of “exhaling” when I shared my own ideas and insights. Another concept present in this group project was the idea of perception as a interpretive process. Selecting began immediately as the discussion opened. Different members gave presentations in front of the class about their ideas. These people gave off physical and verbal cues and I had to select which cues where going to get my attention during the meeting. I found that as the research from the text had shown, the people with the loudest voice