Today's Psychology
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Today's Psychology
Flora, Carlin. (2005). "Mirror Mirror: Seeing Yourself As Others See You." Psychology Today, Volume 38, No.3, May/June, pp. 54-59.
Social acceptance and how other's perceive one's personality play an ever growing role in psychological interdependence. Our ability to interpret how other's see us enable us to form authentic connections to others as well as satisfying our need for acceptance. Psychologist have come up with a term that correctly identifies this behavior as "metaperceptions", which is defined as the idea of how other's form ideas about us and our need to understand why.
The most common two traits others judge us tentatively on, fall into the categories of the visible and the invisible. There is evidence that people tend to notice others who are more aggressive, physically attractive, and charming. These types would be classified as "the visible." The general population seem to rate these individuals higher socially than those in the "invisible" category. The invisible person tends to be more anxious in public settings which leads to lower social acceptability. Social anxiety also causes people to come off negatively as well. Many "invisible" people tend to be shy, which sometimes causes others to view them as self-centered. Since the socially shy become anxious very quickly, they tend to forget to ask others questions about themselves which causes them to be seen as rude and self-centered.
The feedback produced from others perceptions create a person who will either accept or reject this information. Those who can handle feedback learn to regulate their emotions which ultimately create a better impression of themselves as opposed to those who reject feedback. When one rejects feedback, they tend to behave or act out in ways which prevent feedback from even taking place.
An equal balance of feeling good about one's self and knowing how you are perceived is the key factor to a healthy appreciation of your self. Worrying too much about what...
- Submitted by: pumpkin9
- Date Submitted: 10/02/2005 09:23 PM
- Category: Psychology
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