The Power of Perceptional Awareness Effective communication skills can help us bridge our innate differences.

But, we can only share perceptions in so far as we are able to hear and understand the other persons perspective. When we communicate we share our perception of the world, It true, The three ways of observing a situation.. Your way, my way and of course the real way. Some reason for the differences in the perceptual process include: 1. 2. 3. 4. Physiological factors Psychological factors Position in space Past experience

Physiological factors include what we are able to perceive; i.e. what capacity we posses with out senses of sight, touch, hearing, taste and smell. You might try wearing someone else's eye glasses just long enough to experience how different that persons worked must appear to him or her. Compound that difference by butting cotton in your ears to reduce your ability to hear or wear gloves to reduce sensitivity of your touch. You might notice how different the world appears if you wear a 25 pound weight belt around all day. It is difficult to imagine that the world we experience is not the same world that every other person experiences.

Psychological factors encompass what we need to perceive and, therefore m do. We all differ in immediate needs, desires , interests and motives. Thus , we tend to pay attention to on or especially those things which interest us. The continual barrages of external stimuli necessitates that we attend to limited aspects of our environment; however, we make choices not randomly but with our psychological drives as a primary motive. For example, two friends are riding together in a car. If one is looking for entertainment or a good time, he is more likely to see the theaters and bars; the other, who happens to be tired after a long day at work, may fail to see any of those. The less energetic of the two may, in fact, tend to focus on relations-oriented stimuli. Most of us are so good at paying attention only to what interest us that we even distort external events and things to make them fit what we want to perceive. The need for beauty , for example can be strong enough that someone can find it in rubble. An intense need for security may cause someone to sense trouble where it does not exist. An unsatisfied need for love or friendship might cause others to recognize a reciprocal desire in another person where it may not merit this perception. Position in space of a person certainly adjust what can be seen. We are limited in what we perceive by angle, height and location in time and space. How different a parade must appear to a small child who is perched on her dads' shoulders compared to a little boy who is standing on the ground. Past experience is our last stop in this sequence of P's People tend to perceive according to what they've learned to perceive. Call it expectation or even anticipation, but regardless of terminology, it is the knew jerk of familiarity. Our familiarity with something helps us to accept, it as well as recognize it. Our past experiences accompany us in each perception we have. Cue Sensitivity The P's of Perception are four in number; the cues are innumerable. Cue sensitivity is still another way of understanding the selectivity of percolation. The cues are external to oneself out there in the world of stimuli; the sensitivity is internal and quite individualized. The sensitivity or lack of it on the par of the individual is not uniform or equivalent by any stretch of the imagination. The following list indicates some reasons why we might overlook some of the cues that exist.
Familiarity, We often ignore what we take for granted. The A's and the s's on this page were probably not even seen by you, yea they are indeed pointed. A gates passed through daily is not there consciously, A frequently hear sound disappears, but only in your perception. A spouse;s repeated question is simply not heard. Such cues may not seem important until demand or change forces recognition- bringing with it a degree of consequence, too often negative in nature. Complacency. Our very contentment can serve to disarm us and render lessened degrees of sensitivity. A relaxed state of body and mind/or mind can diminish our awareness. Trained states of relaxed awareness such as meditation can overcome this; however, on a daily scale of activity we become numb as our needs are satisfied. Lack of experience or knowledge. If something is not familiar at all , a signal for danger for

example , no capacity for sensitivity is yet developed for ones own protection. A child soon learns the hazard of hot stove. Any noise, smell or sight is not an understood cue for the untried perceiver, New ideas or values could be include here also. Problem Paralysis. The person who experiencing problem overload or sensory overkill and is burdened from within is likely to miss that which is outside. There is simply no room for one more thing.. Singularity. Thoughts or concerns which are near-obsessive tend to override other stimuli. The task-oriented, Type A personalty attempting to succeed in a given assignment may block not only distractions but also helpful cues cues as well. Many generals have, indeed , won the battle but lost the war. Having examined cue s