Running head: Informative Essay

Informative Essay Option #3

Kalliopi Anastasiou
University of Kentucky

Authors Note
Kalliopi Anastasiou, business major, University of Kentucky
This informative essay is for CIS 110: Composition and Communication at the
University of Kentucky with Dr. Jeremy D. Hickman.
Correspondence concerning this paper should be addressed to Kalliopi
Anastasiou, University of Kentucky. Email: kan229@g.uky.edu

Informative Essay

Abstract
The perception process has a large impact on our everyday lives and reflects the way we interact
with people. We, as college students, arent aware of the unconscious processing that we do
daily. The main purpose of this essay is to present information to the readers on how the way we
perceive people differently can change the way we talk or behave when communicating with
them. There are also certain stages throughout a relationship that we unknowingly experience
when getting to know someone. The book Picking Cotton supplies us with many examples of the
perception process and how we can, and should, improve it. Other resources provide us with
examples of how assumptions and stereotypes can affect self-esteem issues and change the way
we perceive not only others, but ourselves as well. Communication skills are very important in
becoming successful and they are also very important in forming relationships. Different
behaviors can completely change the relationships we could form and could also give us a new
outlook on life. Improving our perceptions potentially would guide us to better interactions with
new types of people.

Keywords: perception process, communication, relationships, interactions

Informative Essay

The perception process is how our perceptions affect our communication with people,
which happens everyday on our campus and throughout everyday life. As we go through our

normal daily life we label everyone that we see. This could be called automatic processing,
which is a fast top down subconscious approach of making sense of what we are encountering
(Verderber, 2014). Even if we do not realize it, we do this to almost every person that we see.
The opposite of this is conscious processing, which is a slow deliberative approach where we
examine and reflect about the stimuli (Verderber, 2014). This is an important process because
sometimes we forget to use it when it is necessary. Both processes, however, are influenced by
communication in many ways (Verderber, 2014). Our communication skills are very important
throughout our lives, so we need to understand how to use them correctly while encountering
new people.
Automatic processing is seen throughout everyday life whether we notice it or not. In the
book Picking Cotton, an example of automatic processing is when Jennifer Thompson chooses
Ronald Cotton as her rapist. She believes that she chose the right guy when in reality her brain
just did the automatic processing for her. This was the reason that she chose the wrong person
but was completely unaware of it. Also, since Bobby Poole was not in the first lineup, her brain
was tricked that Ronald Cotton was the rapist, since she saw him in both the pictures and the
lineup (Thompson, 2009). This could have been because of the lack of communication between
Jennifer Thompson and the other woman that was raped by Bobby

Informative Essay

Poole. We, as common readers, can relate to this because we label people just by the look of
them everyday.
However, conscious processing is also used typically everyday; but this process is more
common for us to notice than automatic processing. This occurs because we pay attention to the

things that regard our needs, interests, and expectations (Verderber, 2014). Jennifer Thompson
uses conscious processing during the second lineup. She stares at each and every single one of
the men down the line and listens carefully to the way that they say their lines (Thompson,
2009). This was an easier way for communication to get across but it was already too late. The
familiar face that Jennifer saw was Ronald Cottons because of the picture lineup that she had
seen the first time, not Bobby Pooles (Thompson, 2009). Even after conscious processing we are
still unable to communicate fully and are still able to have mishappens; just like what happened
with Jennifer and Ronald Cotton. Another story that relates to this, is the one of Mike Tyson. He
was a famous boxing champion who was also accused of rape (Lule, 1992). Stereotypes and
labeling put him in this position that he had no reason to be in. Also, because of this accusation
being published in the press, people started to look at Mike Tyson differently. They thought of
him as being sex-obsessed and uncontrollable, even though he did not deserve this title at all
(Lule, 1992). This could happen anywhere at any time. College campuses are especially a
common spot for this type of situation to occur. Even though wed like to believe

Informative Essay

that this couldnt happen to us, there are actually high percentages of it happening. Not only
could we somehow be sexually assaulted but we could also be the one that is accused of rape,
even if we are completely innocent.
Interpersonal relationships form from having communication between people that is
engaging and is usually in a series of stages. We communicate differently based on the level of
intimacy we feel toward our partner (Verderber, 2014). This also relates to how people
communicate with the opposite gender. Gender is logically understood in the aspects of social

communication and also because of the divisions of males and females resulting from power
relationships (Nare, 2014). Just like automatic processing, we dont realize what we are doing
and how we are acting because it is an unconscious thing that we do. People then begin to relate
social change with gender because of the economic change and also the economic emancipation
of women (Nare, 2014). Most people bring gender into mind when choosing what they say or the
way they act. This means that we take different steps when going through the stages of a
relationship. Our relationships move amongst these stages based on the information we share
with our partners and by the interpretation of such things by them (Verderber, 2014). There
have been ten stages identified by three phases which are: coming together, relational
maintenance, and coming apart (Verderber, 2014). Depending on how we first label a person
correlates with how fast we move through the stages of a relationship.
Even though many of us like to believe that we and even the people around us treat
everyone and every student the same, this obviously is a false statement. Researches found out

Informative Essay

that relabeling, is a new way of improving our own perception processes. This is a process
whereby school staff socialize students, who have been viewed historically as not college
material, to see themselves as college-bound professionals (Achinstein, 2015). The process of
labeling is not fair to students because they have not done anything to be viewed or perceived
differently than any other student. Implicit personality theory is our tendency to assume that two
or more personality characteristics go together (Verderber, 2014). The theory explains why we
place labels on people just by looking at them. We make assumptions about people just because
they acquire a specific trait. There is a study that shows how Latino/a students are associated

differently regarding academic and professional success; so the process of relabeling helps
change the ideas and thoughts the people first have (Achinstein, 2015). These types of situations
could have been happening throughout our high school and also is definitely happening
throughout our college, but we have not even noticed. Also, this was a part of what had happened
in Picking Cotton. Ronald Cotton was chosen to be in the lineup because of his race and
unfortunately just happened to be the one chosen by Jennifer Thompson; which was what led to
his eleven years in prison (Thompson, 2014). Both the situations where the Latino/a students
were viewed as needing more guidance and the situation with Ronald Cotton are related to the
perception process. However, after Jennifer had found out that Ronald Cotton was not actually
the one who raped her, she decided to meet with him. This resulted in Jennifer being impacted

Informative Essay

by Ronald and the way he views life (Thompson, 2014). Ronalds outlook was a much better
approach than most peoples outlook on life. Jennifer Thompson was the purpose for his eleven
years in prison and instead of assuming that she was a terrible person, he forgave her and
accepted her apology (Thompson, 2014). Labeling and judging leads to self-esteem issues and
also affects the way people communicate. When people are labeled as being something negative
they start to believe that the label is true and that the stereotype they are classified as is also true.
Jennifer lacked communication and interpersonal connection but had a reality check once she
went through the stages of a relationship with Ronald Cotton. You could say that Jennifer
relabeled, him once she finally got to know him. We all define ourselves on our own personal
self-worthiness based on the self-concepts that we know (Verderber, 2014). If we attempt to
improve our perceptions by understanding that our thoughts on a person will change over time,

seeking more information, questioning the accuracy of our perceptions, and also using conscious
processing just like Jennifer did after getting to know Ronald, then we will live with a more
positive lifestyle (Verderber, 2014). Based off of negative experiences and negative labels that
people have witnessed, their accuracy of their own self-perception could be completely incorrect,
which is an example of incongruence (Verderber, 2014). We can eliminate incongruence and
negative situations by improving our own self-perception and also our perceptions of other
people.
In conclusion, we use attributions in our daily lives when interacting with people
(Verderber, 2014). There are reasons behind the way we act towards specific people, depending

Informative Essay

on our relationship with them, the way they look, and also our assumptions. Removing
stereotypes and meeting people with an open mind is the ideal way that everyone should be
treated. The problem is that we cant control our automatic processing and the way we perceive
people. This is why we need to try to relabel and improve our perceptions of others.

Informative Essay

References
Verderber, K. S., Verderber, R.F., & Shellnow, D. D (2014) Communicate! (14th ed.).
Boston, MA: Cengage. ISBN-13: 978-08400-3816-7.
Thompson-Cannino, J., Cotton, R., & Torneo, E. (2009). Picking Cotton: Our memoir of
injustice and redemption. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Lule, J. (1992). The Rape of Mike Tyson: Race, the Press and Symbolic Types Critical Studies
in Mass Communication
Achinstein, B., Curry, M. W., & Ogawa, R. T. (2015) (Re)labeling Social Status: Promises and
Tensions in Developing a College-Going Culture for Latina/o Youth in an Urban High

School American Journal of Education

Nare, L., Akhtar, P. (2014) Gendered mobilities and social changeAn introduction to the
Special Issue on Gender, Mobility and Social Change Women's Studies International Forum