THE IMPORTANCE OF PERCEPTION Perception is one of the most important elements in the communication process.

As described in the first chapter, interpersonal communication involves the transmission of a message from the sender to the receiver. A critical component of this process is how these messages are interpreted by the receiver. The sender delivers the message, but the receiver may or may not interpret its meaning in the same way the sender intented. The receiver determines the meaning based on his perception of the message and of the individual sending the message. Perception of Meaning of Message People assign meaning to verbal and nonverbal messages based on their perception of the intended meaning (Fabun, 1986). In other words, the receivers perception of the words, symbols, and nonverbal elements used by the sender influences how the receiver interprets the meaning. It is not what is said, but what the receiver perceives to have been said. The following actual situation illustrates this point : A patient returned to the pharmacy complaining of side effects apparently caused by his medication. The patients records indicated he had been dispensed 30 nitroglycerin patches. Both the pharmacist and physician told him to apply one daily. The patient opened his shirt to reveal 27 nitro patches. He perceived the phrase apply one daily as an absolute, with no idea of the reality that an old one should be removed before a new one was applied. The meaning that he assigned to those words was not the same as that intended by the pharmacist. Situations like this occur frequently in pharmacy practice. Many are relatively harmless, but some can be quite serious. A young woman suffering vaginal candidiasis was given the usual 15 nystatin vaginal tablets and was told by the pharmacist to use one daily for two weeks. She returned to her physician after two weeks in severe discomfort and a complaint that those tablets taste terrible! In this example the patient perceived the tablets as being nothing more than regular oral antibiotics and assigned a wrong meaning to the word use. Preventing incorrect perceptions like those given above is often difficult because people with whom you interact may have differnt perceptions about the messages you transmit. Unfortunately, these differences may influence how they interpret messages. In general, people develop their perceptions based on their background, values, and experiences. If we have different backgrounds, values, and experiences, we may assign meanings to messages that are different than those intended by the sender. We are generally unaware of this process, and it takes skill to realize when we have different perceptions from those with whom we are trying to communicate.