Perception

Perception

What is perception? “ The process by which people notice and make sense of information from the environment” “ The process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment” “ The active process of sensing reality and organizing it into meaningful views or understandings.”

What is perception? Perception is how we….

Select

Organize

Interpret

Retrieve

….information from the organization

Sensation & Perception  Sensation

Basic behavior of an individual caused by his physiological function  Perception

Complicated interaction of selection, organization and interpretation

Why study perception?  Behavior – based on perception of reality,

not on reality itself  Individual  HR  Marketing  Finance

Factors influencing Perception Factors in the Perceiver Factors in the situation Time Work setting Social setting

Attitudes, motives, interests Experience, expectation

PERCEPTION

Factors in the target Novelty, motion, sounds, size, background, role, status

Perceptual Process Stimuli

Observation

Selection (ext/int. factors)

Organization

Interpretation (Perceptual errors Attributions)

Response (Covert/Overt)

Perceptual Selectivity “Select only a few stimuli at a given time” “Selective filtering of information”

 External Attention Factors   

Intensity Motion Contrast

Repetition Novelty & Familiarity Size

 Internal Set Factors 

Appealing & compatible with learning, motivation, personality

“Subliminal Perception”

Perceptual Organization “Organizing the incoming information into a meaningful whole”

Principles of Perceptual Organization 1. Figure Ground 2. Perceptual Grouping 3. Perceptual Constancy 4. Perceptual Context 5. Perceptual Defense

Four Ku Klux Klansmen looking down a well

Figure Ground Organization of visual field into objects (figures) that stand out from the surroundings (ground) The characteristic organization of perception into a figure that 'stands out' against an undifferentiated background, What is figural at any one moment depends on patterns of sensory stimulation and on the momentary interests of the perceiver.

Perceptual Grouping  Tendency to group several stimuli together

into a recognizable pattern  Perceptual grouping refers to the human

visual ability to extract significant image relations from lower-level primitive image features without any knowledge of the image content and group them to obtain meaningful higher-level structure.

Perceptual Grouping

Perceptual Grouping CLOSURE “Perceiving a whole where it does not exist” “Fill in the missing stimuli”

Perceptual Grouping

Perceptual Grouping CONTINUITY “A person tends to perceive the extension of a stimulus” ‘Thinking along existing lines’

Perceptual Grouping

Perceptual Grouping PROXIMITY “A group of stimuli that are physically close to each other are perceived as a set of parts belonging together”

Perceptual Grouping

Perceptual Grouping SIMILARITY “The greater the similarity of the stimuli, the more they are likely to be perceived as a common group”

Perceptual Constancy

Perceptual Constancy

Perceptual Constancy The perception of elements like size, shape, color, brightness and location of an object remains constant & does not change from people to people. Learning helps in perceiving certain patterns of cues in a similar way and leads to perceptual constancy.

Perceptual Context

Perceptual Context Context provides meaning and value to objects, events, situation and other people.

Perceptual Defense “Against those stimuli which clash with their beliefs, values or culture.” “People attempt to avoid registering those stimulus that conflict, threaten or are unacceptable to them” Ways of Defense Denial Modification Change in perception Recognition but refusal to change

Test your Visual Perception

Social/ Person Perception “Making judgments about others” Trying to develop explanations of why people behave in a certain way. Perceptions & judgments influenced by the assumptions we make about that person’s internal state.

Factors influencing Social Perception 1. Attribution 2. Halo Effect 3. Stereotyping 4. Contrast Effects 5. Projection

Attribution “ Assigning to a cause or source” The way in which people explain the cause for their own or others behavior Behavior Internally caused Dispositional

or

Externally caused Situational

Factors for determining attribution • Distinctiveness: Shows different behaviors in different situations • Consensus: Response is the same as others to same situation • Consistency: Responds in the same way over time

Attribution

Attribution Errors/ Biases distorting attributions  Fundamental attribution error Tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal factors while judging others  Self Serving Bias Attribute own success to internal factors such as ability, effort while blaming failure on external factors

Halo Effect

“Drawing a general impression about an individual on the basis of a single characteristic”

Stereotyping

“Generalizing characteristics on basis of category or class to which person belongs”

Contrast Effects

“Reaction to one person is influenced by other persons we have recently encountered”

Projection

“ Attribute one’s own characteristics to other people”

Impression Management “A person’s systematic attempt to behave in ways that create and maintain desired impressions in others’ eyes.” ‘Self – Presentation’ .

Impression Management Successful managers: 

Use impression management to enhance their own images.



Are sensitive to other people’s use of impression management

Components of Impression Management

 Impression Monitoring Extent to which people are conscious of the impressions they make

 Impression Motivation Extent to which people actively manage the impressions they make

 Impression Construction Methods adopted by person to create specific impression that he wants

Techniques for Impression Management  Self Promotion  Supplication  Exemplification  Intimidation  Ingratiation

IM Strategies used by Employees  Demotion preventative   

Excuses Apologies Disassociation

 Promotion Enhancing     

Entitlements Obstacle disclosure Association Flattery Favors