How Does Perception Affect Our Relationships

While each person has a different idea of what the world around them looks like, each person uses perception to identify their specific world. Biases, psychological makeup, interests, and needs shape our perceptions and mold into who we are. Our perception determines our abilities for sympathy and empathy and is a subcategory of what makes us who we are. Without perception, we would not have sympathy or empathy, which would drastically hinder our relationships.
Perception consists of selection, organization, interpretation, and negotiation. Selection lets us choose what impressions that we will pay attention to, such as the louder of the two noises or the brighter of the two lights. Organization helps us decide what to interpret, for example, …show more content…
Without either of those things, we would not be able to relate to the other person and would not be able to show that we do or do not care about the conversation. Because of this, perception largely influences our everyday relationships. In fact, sympathy and empathy may be the most important aspects of perception because they have the biggest influences on our conversations. With empathy, we try to feel how the other person feels, happy or sad, so that we can relate to the other person and understand them better. Empathy also often times shows that we care about the conversation because it proves to the other person that we are attempting to feel what they feel. My relationship with my mother largely relies on empathy, when she is upset or happy, the way that she knows I care is when I attempt to understand her. However, my father and my relationships does not rely on empathy as much, he is often not looking for empathy, he merely wants to me to understand what he is saying. My relationship with my father relies more on sympathy than empathy. My mother wants me to feel exactly how she feels while my father wants me to relate with him but does not want me to feel what he