Perception is a process where we find meaning in our observed environment. Let us look at perception in the context of communication. How we perceive people directly affects how we react to them. This impacts on our social functioning and positioning. A drug treatment center can teach the valuable skill of being able to interact with other people in a productive manner.

There are several factors that influence how we perceive the people around us:

1) Contextual factors

The social context influences which cultural norms apply to interactions. Certain behaviour is only appropriate in certain circumstances. Depending on the situation we are in we perceive other peoples behaviour differently. A drug addict has often been excluded from polite social gatherings and may need to learn the skills required to handle such situations gracefully.

Spatial positioning is a subtle influencing factor. The decision to sit squarely facing somebody, or slightly to the side may denote aggression or cooperation. Many business people place their visitors chairs at a level just slightly below their own. This places a very subtle psychological disadvantage on the visitor.

2) Physiological factors

Of course if a person has a sensory deficiency (e.g.: deaf, blind) this will impact on the way they perceive other people.

A very attractive person is generally viewed more favourably. This in turn leads to the attractive person expecting positive reactions from people he meets. Of course this boosts confidence and promotes a cooperative attitude. A confident and friendly person is treated better making this a self-fulfilling prophecy. The attractiveness of a person may have cultural limitations but a friendly and open attitude will remain effective in multi-cultural settings.

3) Psychological factors

Attraction: If you are attracted to somebody you are more likely to perceive them favourably.

Past experiences and resemblence: This is tied up to the previous two points. Our previous experiences with people we consider similar is remembered and used as a reference point when meeting new people.

Open and closed minds: Some people have a very rigid concept of reality that they protect rigourously. Such people filter out anything that disconfirms their understanding of reality. Even if you consider yourself to be open-minded you may still be filtering out disconfirming information! If you are talking to somebody your perceptual filters will influence how you understand that person.

Role relations: If somebody is in authority then you expect them to play a certain role. You automatically associate that person with attributes related to that role and won't neccessarily investigate their individual traits as a person.

Saliency: We are limited to the amount of information we can process. The brain is able to filter out information that it considers irrelevant and focus on the details that it considers to be salient (important). So instead of processing the entire huge amount of information it has available about a person the brain may focus on a few salient details. For example: you may believe that a beard is a salient feature on men. You will associate certain traits and characteristics with a beard. Having noticed a beard on a man you will automatically make assumptions about him. Behaviour that is unexpected is usually given saliency. For example: If you start singing in a shopping mall people are more likely to notice you.

Social values: Each society places different values on certain behaviours. Some behaviour may be seen as rude and distasteful. As products of our society we adopt certain values and attitudes about what we find acceptable. This influences how we perceive other people.

Application to a drug rehab treatment program

It seems to be a common experience for addicts to feel socially isolated and somehow unacceptable. For many addicts the act of obtaining and using their drug of choice is illegal which implies that it is not condoned by society. A lot of addicts engage in socially unacceptable behaviour such as theft or prostitution in order to obtain their substance. Drug abuse definitely leads to a sense of living on the outskirts of society.

Addiction recovery implies a full return to health in all spheres of life and being restored to healthy social functioning is an important part of the job of a rehab center. Many of the support mechanisms that an addict builds while in a rehab require that he/she be able to "reach out" and ask for help.

The community milieu is a microcosm of the wider social environment. Clients of a drug addiction treatment center learn to cope with this social environment so that when they rejoin society they are better equipped.