1. Communication
and
Identity
“The identity of one changes
with how one perceives reality”
Rich Murphy © 2010

2. “A big Indian and a little Indian are
sitting on a log. The big Indian
points to the little Indian and says,
"That Indian is my son." The little
Indian points to the big Indian and
says, "That Indian is not my father."
Both are telling the truth. How is
this possible?”

3. The Indian is his mother. Our schemas often associate Indians as males.

4. Schema:
generic
knowledge.
The concept of Schema was
developed by Jean Piaget

5. Schemata (plural) interconnected schema

6. Native
American
History Lifestyles
Behaviors Religious Movie Roles
Beliefs

7. Schemata allow us to
engage in everyday
interactions . They
enable us to perceive
the abstract world so
that we can make
logical assumptions
about how individuals
will respond to
environmental cues

8. They also lead to over-generalizations, misrepresentations, and blatant racism

9. So, what influences my
schemata?

10. Can we treat
someone as a
unique individual?

11. Unique
Individual Stereotype

12. Scale of 1-10
1. How would you rate yourself as a driver?
2. How would you rate the average driver?
Fundamental Attribution Error

13. Identity
an individual's comprehension of him or herself as a discrete, separate entity.

14. Social Scientific
Perspective
Our identity is formed in
spurts over our lifetime,
rather then being one
smooth process

15. Interpretive Perspective
Identities are negotiated, co-created,
reinforced and challenged through
communication with others.

16. Critical
Perspective
Identities are constrained
and oppressed by social
structures and institutions

17. So, What
identities do we
manage?

18. Who am I?

19. What happens
when you have
conflicting
identities?

20. What happens
when your
identity does not
match others’
schema?

21. Breaking the Schema
We never get a second chance to make a first impression

22. Time

23. Appearance

24. Non-Verbals

25. Empathy

26. We all must
manage our
identities in all
of our
interactions…

27. …yet, we must avoid
over-generalizations
and dogmatic
schemata that lead to
racism, oppression, or
incivility towards our
fellow humans.