VII. Extra Credit: Quiz

Take one of these quizzes and write a one-page reflection on your results referring to at least THREE concepts in the chapter (10 points).

Quiz 1. Your Self-Esteem

This quiz can help you gauge your self-esteem. For each statement, mark whether you strongly agree with the statement (SA), agree with it (A), disagree with it (DA), or strongly disagree (SD). Give yourself a 3 for each statement marked SA, 2 for A, 1 for DA, and 0 for SD, and total your score.

______ I feel that I am a person of worth, at least on an equal plane with others.

______ I have a positive attitude toward myself.

______ On the whole, I am satisfied with myself.

______ I feel that I have a number of good qualities.

______ I am able to do things as well as most other people.

Scoring: Scores of 7 and below indicate low self-esteem; scores of 8 and above represent high self-esteem

Quiz 2. Your Self-Disclosure

Think about the person you currently consider closest to you, such as your best friend, a close family member, or your romantic partner. For each phrase below, rate your self-disclosure between 0 and 4, 0 indicating no self-disclosure to your partner and 4 denoting full self-disclosure. Add your ratings to arrive at your total score.

______ 1. My personal habits

______ 2. Things I’ve done that I feel guilty about

______ 3. Things I wouldn’t do in public

______ 4. My deepest feelings

______ 5. What I like and dislike about myself

______ 6. What is important to me in life

______ 7. What makes me the person I am

______ 8. My worst fear

______ 9. Things I’ve done that I’m proud of

______ 10. My close relationships with other people

Scoring: 0–15 - low disclosure; 16–25 - moderate disclosure; 26–40 - high disclosure.

Repeat this exercise for other people in your life, such as same-sex friends, coworkers, and casual acquaintances. Examine your pattern of scores. Do you tend to be high, moderate, or low in disclosure? Does your willingness to disclose depend on the relationship? What do your scores generally tell you about how you self-disclose?

Chapter 3. Perceiving Others Theory

I. Perception as a Process

1. Jerome Bruner: Perception is defined as the process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting information from our senses.

2. Selection involves focusing attention on certain sights, sounds, tastes, touches or smells. The degree to which particular aspects attract our attention is called salience. We notice what is important: (a) stimulating, (b) fits our goals, (c) deviates from our expectations.

3. Additional selection factors (Michael’s Sound Bite 3-1): Joseph DeVito adds: We also select (a) the simplest to observe, (b) something we need; (c) something that we are used to in our culture, (d) what repeats.

DISCUSSION STARTER 1: Think of a recent interpersonal encounter. What attracted your attention most about your conversational partner’s communication? Was it the person’s stimulating behavior? Important information he or she presented? Or perhaps something that surprised you?

4. Organizing involves several processes: punctuation (organizing what you selected in a chronological sequence) (continued in Michael’s Sound Bite).

5. Additional organizing factors (Michael’s Sound Bite 3-2): Joseph DeVito adds: We also organize by (a) prototypes (features and behaviors that signify a particular role or event as our environment teaches us); (b) personal constructs (features and behaviors that signify a particular role or event that we have established in our own individual experience), (c) stereotypes (simplified and overgeneralized perceptions of groups as having similar characteristics), (d) scripts (scenarios of our behavior in particular situations).

DISCUSSION STARTER 2: Recall a conflict in which you and a friend disagreedabout “who started it.” How did you punctuate the encounter? How did your friend punctuate it? If you both punctuated differently, how did those differences contribute to the conflict? If you could revisit the situation, what might you say or do differently to resolve the dispute?

6. We interpret by relating what we see to schemata that we either have experienced or have heard about.

7. Additional interpretation factors: (Michael’s Sound Bite 3-3): Joseph DeVito adds: Speed of interpretation depends on (a) how involved we are, (b) how satisfied we are, (c) what previous experience we have, (d) what presuppositions we have about the person’s behavior, (e) what expectations we have.

Joseph DeVito adds two more processes: remembering and recall, that he considers parts of the perception process.

8. Remembering: (Michael’s Sound Bite 3-4): Joseph DeVito adds: (a) we have different memory capacities, mostly remember what is salient for us; (b) our previous memories affect what we remember; (c) memory can be short-term and long-term; (d) remembering depends on categories; (e) remembering is easier when we learn gradually; (f) we remember better through our preferred perception channel, (g) we gradually forget what we remember; (h) new information overshadows previous information in the same category; (i) some memories can be false; (j) some memories are suppressed; (k) memory can be trained.

9. Recall: (Michael’s Sound Bite 3-5): Joseph DeVito adds: (a) we recall easier what is interesting to us in the long-term; (b) what we can immediately apply in pleasant activity; (c) what supports our values, (d) that fits well with categories, (e) that left an imprint.