5.

Recommendation and Conclusion

In conclusion, perception was important in interpersonal communication because

it influenced a persons communication choices. The messages he or she sent and listened
to would depend on how the person perceived the world, on how the person sized up the
specific situation, on what the person thought of the people with whom he or she
interacted. There were six perceptual processes: implicit personal theory, self-fulfilling
prophecy, perceptual accentuation, primacy-recency, consistency, and attribution. In this
assignment, attribution theory was applied in the chosen movie, Harry Potter and the
Order of Pheonix.
To increase accuracy in interpersonal perception, Remus John Lupin should
analyze his perceptions. He should recognise his own role in perception and avoid
making early conclusions. Lupin should observe Fudge first and formulate a hypothesis
to test against additional information and evidence before he concluded that the
behaviour was internally caused. He should delay formulating conclusions until he had a
chance to process a wide variety of cues. Hence, Lupin had to make friend with Fudge
first to explore Fudge personality. Then, he had to ask the friends or relatives of Fudge
the reason of trying to bring down the reputation of Harry Potter and Dumbledore. If
most of the cues or pieces of information he obtained pointed to the same conclusion, the
more likely his conclusion would be correct. However, he had to be especially alert to
contradictory cues which refuted his initial hypothesis. This was because it was easy to
perceive cues that confirm his hypothesis but more difficult to acknowledge contradictory
information.

Lupin should check his perceptions to reduce uncertainty and to make his
perception more accurate. This was to further explore the thoughts and feelings of Fudge,
the Minister of Magic. With this simple technique, he lessened his chance of
misinterpreting Fudges feelings. However, Lupin should avoid mind reading the
thoughts and feelings of Fudge just from observing his behaviour. He had to seek
confirmation from another person like Fudges close friend or his relative.
Lupin should also reduce his uncertainty to enable him to achieve greater
accuracy in perceptions. They were a few strategies which can help Lupin to reduce
uncertainty. One of them was to interact with the individual. Lupin could do this by
asking Fudge a few questions like Do you really think that Harry and Albus Dumbledore
are disloyal to the Ministry of Magic?
Last but not least, Lupin had to increase his cultural sensitivity. Recognizing and
being sensitive to cultural differences would help increase his accuracy in perception.
Lupin should understand that not all the wizards had the same culture. Fudge could be
someone whose culture was very different from Dumbledores culture. To Dumbledore,
forming an army of wizards was solely for the purpose of protecting the wizardry world
from the attack of Voldermort. To Fudge, he might feel that Dumbledore was
disrespectful to him as Dumbledore did not ask his permission before had the army
formed. Thus, to improve Lupins accuracy in interpersonal perception, he should be
culturally sensitive to understand the nonverbal messages of people from other cultures.