Past Experiences: How Perception Affects Communication

People learn a great deal from their experiences as they can change their entire outlook and attitude towards life as well as their communication with others. Perception directly effects communication and explains how the same message can be interpreted differently by people. The relationships we have with people through communication enable us to have similar perceptions of the world, however no two people can see the world in exactly the same way because of differences in their fields of experience. There are experiences that we share together such as, love, the instinct to survive, the desire for health, knowledge and happiness but each individual has events in life that make them experience these things differently. Perception is affected …show more content…
Throughout life people encounter experiences that leave them with either negative or positive impressions, which form their attitudes and opinions of what they see in the world. The way in which past experiences affect perception can be seen in family background and relationships within families. Past experiences of relationships can influence how an individual may expect to be treated in relationships later on in life. For instance, if a child predominately experiences love and protect from their family, they are most likely to expect the same outcome later on in life but if a child experiences hurt and neglect, they are going to expect more hurt later as adults because they will find it difficult to trust the behaviours and words of others people (Butler & Hope, 2007). Additionally, past experiences provide us with an understanding of the world and how it works, and also affect how information is processed. They cause us to create assumptions and generate strong biases which influence perception of similar situations later on in life and greatly affect how we communicate (Kossen, Kieran, & Lawrence, 2013). For example, if a young girl had a bad experience with her father growing up she is most likely to form the assumption that all males will treat her the same and therefore her relationships and the way she communicates with males may will be impacted negatively. Furthermore, the …show more content…
Gender role influence us greatly whether we notice it or not they affect how we see the world. Gender roles in society have emerged over time and indicate how men and women should behave. Men have traditionally been associated with masculine roles such as strength, aggression, and dominance, while on the other hand women have traditionally been associated with feminine roles such as passivity, nurturing, and subordination (Weisband & Thomas, 2015). These gender roles create expectation of what each gender can and cannot do. For example, women are expected to look after their kids and husband by doing the shopping, cleaning and cooking, while men are expected to be the head of the house and provide for the family by working hard and earning money (Muñoz Boudet, Turk, & Petesch, , 2013). Though these roles are slowly changing and being altered, they are still universally accepted especial in many countries and societies. Gender roles have generated certain stereotypes which are inaccurate judgements based on generalisation. For instance, some male exhibit traits of gentleness and emotion which are associated with females and found unacceptable for a male (Cavendish, 2010). These stereotypes can limit the communication between people as they may make incorrect assumptions that will influence the effectiveness of how they communicate and the relationship that people may have. Gender difference influence individual’s way of