PERCEPTION

Perception

Perception can be defined as an intellectual process of receiving data from the environment, organizing it & interpreting it in to meaningful information. Perception is a way to understand things around us and define our world.

 Perception is influenced by three factors: Characteristics of perceived, Characteristics of perceiver and situation.

The flowchart of perception can be represented as follows

Stimuli: - it can be defined as changes in the environment; these changes can be detected by us through external or internal manner. Based on the nature and extent of changes we try to understand our world. These changes can be of various types like changes in physical world, changes in processes, changes in behavior, attitude and reaction of individuals etc.

Receiving:- the changes in our environment is detected by receiving data through our sensory organs like eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin and kinesthesia. We also receive data from our environment internally like the waves, the energy in the body, the emotions like enthusiasm or anger etc.

Perceptual Selection or Attention:- when there are changes in our environment, these stimuli will get selective attention due to certain external and internal factors. We tend to pay variable attention to the different stimuli some changes will be ignored completely and some might get our full attention or concentration.

External factors which influence perceptual selection

§  Nature:- it means the data is received by which sensory skills, i.e. whether the object of perception is visual, auditory, touch etc. each data set will receive variable attention by the receiver e.g. visual data will have more impact s compared to only auditory data.

§  Size:- if the size of the object is larger than the rest then it will have more attention e.g. a tall employee in the team will be noticed more prominently  compared to others.

§  Color:- color of the objects will receive attention based on their impact e.g. if we see a food item in blue color it will gain more attention, similarly blue colored office brings restful  & cold feeling, red is associated with stimulation, energy & intensity, also associated with danger.

§  Location:- the location of the object of perception will also responsible for the variable attention received e.g. the advertisement on the cover page will receive more attention as compared to others, students sitting in the first row will receive more attention of the lecturer.

§  Contrast:- thing which stands out from the rest of the back ground will receive more attention e.g. a non uniformed employee will receive attention where all other employees are in uniforms. Similarly danger signs painted in red will receive more attention as compared to other signs painted in other color.

§  Movement:- things which are in motion will receive more attention as compared to things which are stationery. A moving car in a parking lot will receive more attention then the stationery cars.

§  Repetition:- if the things are of repeating nature then it receives more attention e.g. by repetitive instruction the supervisor is able to ensure that the work is done as desired, the repetition of advertisement on television will lead to better brand awareness.

§  Novelty & Familiarity:- new thing in familiar setting & familiar thing in new setting will receive more attention e.g. a new car in your apartment’s parking or your kid in the crowd of his school will be easily recognized by you.

Internal factors that influence perceptual selection

• Needs:- Based on our needs we become selective of the data received by us e.g. person feeling hungry will only be more receptive towards things that resembles food, similarly when a customer is in need of buying a car he become more attentive to the advertisements of the car in the TV or newspaper even though these advertisement were frequent.
• Learning:- the learning is the information we had acquired through our observation & experience in life, based on our learning we acquire our attitude, behavior, with the information we have we analyze the data coming to us, so perceptual selection is also influence by our learning. E.g. a person having experienced difficult situation will express calm & composure in unfavorable situations in the organization where as a person with less learning may become frustrated.
• Interest:-  the perceptual selection will also be affected by the interest of the receiver e.g. the same situation or object can be perceived by different people with different needs differently e.g. flyover bridge in a city can be seen as the sign of growth by economist, a superior design by an architect & a piece of an art by a painter.
• Age:- selective perception is also influence by the age of the receiver because our thinking is influenced by age as well e.g. the old people will think more before taking a decision where as young people will try to take decisions in a hurry. Similarly old people have a perception about young as irresponsible whereas young believe that old people are inflexible & rigid change.

Perceptual Organization: - it is a mental process to organize the stimulus received from the environment in to some recognizable set of data or pattern, this organization of data is based on our state of mind, situation and learning. There are various principles by which we organize the data received by us.

Figure Ground Principle: - When we receive data from our environment, based on certain factors a portion of it is considered significant and considering it we try to make out something meaningful of the whole situation, the other portion is considered insignificant and not useful for making any understanding. This grouping of the total stimuli into significant and insignificant portion is known as figure ground principles. The portion of the stimuli which is considered significant is known as figure and the insignificant portion is known as ground. The perception will change dramatically depending upon the consideration that what is figure and what is ground. The definition of figure and ground depends on factors like need, motivation and interests etc.

Ambiguous Figure: - when the stimuli can be grouped in to more than one recognizable set or pattern the organization of the stimulus will depend on which recognizable set the perceiver will give acceptance to interpret. Again this selection will depend on the factors of perceiver, situation etc.

Perceptual Grouping: - it is the phenomenon to group objects, individual and events based on some factors like similarity, proximity, closure, continuity and area etc.

·         Principle of similarity: - we tend to see similar things as one group, so employees wearing similar clothing or uniforms will be perceived to be from same department or same level in hierarchy.

·         Principle of proximity: - the phenomenon to see things in close proximity as a group e.g. the employees working in close proximity within the organization can be considered as one group, employees having lunch together in canteen can be considered a group and perceived as friends.

·         Principle of closure: - the phenomenon to perceive things as continuous even when there are gaps, the gaps is filled by us to make something meaningful out of it. E.g. read this perception cn b dfined as prcess of recving orgning and itreprting stimuls. Even though many of the alphabets were missing but we can read it into something meaningful.

·         Principle of continuity: - the phenomenon to perceive things as a continuous pattern.

·         Principle of area:- tendency to classify things as figure or ground based on the size, thing which is smaller will be considered as figure and the large will be considered as ground.

·         Principle of constancy: - it is the phenomenon to perceive certain characteristics of an object as remaining constant, even when we receive stimuli expressing contradictory information. e.g. a worker who’s reputation is of notorious and irregular worker is being nominated by supervisor for incentive as he achieved a superior performance will be considered as unjust decision taken by the supervisor, as manager perceive that worker as notorious and irregular. By using the principle of constancy we try to bring stability in our world.

·         Principle of simplification:- the phenomenon of simplifying things to understand by eliminating less salient things and concentrating only on prominent things, this is done due to limitation of time, energy and over flow of stimulus in the environment.

Interpretation

Interpretation is the process of making out some meaningful out of the situation and understanding of it. This meaning or understanding will result in to reactions or changes in our cognition or behavior. Interpretation can be influenced by a variety of factors like

·         Perceptual Set:- it is also known as mindset, our interpretation about a situation will depend on our beliefs and notions and we will try to interpret things in the light of it.

·         Attribution:- the process by which try to assign causes to the behaviors of individual or stimulus in the environment, one of the significant process of interpretation is to find out the cause. So if there is a change in behavior of an employee the manager will try to assign causes of such changes.

·         Stereotyping: - The process when we perceive a thing according to already known or perceived general categories is known as stereotyping e.g. conductors of private bus operators will always be perceived as rude, a labor will be considered as less intelligent, doctors and engineers will be considered more intelligent etc.

·         Horns & Halo effect: - the process of perceiving thing entirely on the basis of only one trait or impression about it, known as horns & halo effect, if the trait or impression is favorable then it is called halo effect and if the impression is unfavorable then it is called horns effect. e.g. a manager having good impression about a supervisor will not take a complaint seriously against him.  

·         Expectancy: - to expect the behavior or traits based on only one known trait e.g. if we know a person to be the manager we interpret him to be intelligent, good communicator and having lots of authority over others.

·         Projection:- to perceive similar traits in a person if he has one trait common between self. E.g. if a doctor come to know that a person he is talking with is also a doctor then he will converse in a way doctors usually talk and will also use jargons used by doctors perceiving him to understand it easily.

·         Perceptual context:- it is in what context we perceive a particular stimulus because the context will change our perception greatly e.g. within organization there are certain conventions being followed and a behavior within the organization will be interpreted in different manner as compared shown outside the organization.

·         Perceptual Defense: - it is the mechanism to defend the previously held belief or perception about a thing when confronted with contradictory or threatening stimuli. There can be four kinds of reactions to contradicting or threatening stimuli which can be represented as

1.    Denial: - we straight away reject the stimuli and deny that a contradictory thing is possible.

2.    Modification: - as we are not ready to accept a contradictory stimulus we make necessary modification to the facts so as to accept in line with the previously held beliefs and perceptions.

3.    Refusal to change: - we accept that the contradictory is possible but we are not accepting it which is threatening to our perceptual set.

4.    Acceptance: - people will accept and change their perception.

Attribution theory of Harold Kelly

Whenever we judge behavior of others we attribute various causes for such behaviors these causes can be internal that resides within the person like his nature, temper, motivation etc or external like the conditions to which he is being subjected to.

According to Kelly model a person make such judgments based on following cues

§  Consistency cues:- if a pattern of behavior is consistent i.e. person behaves in same fashion at different time under similar situation then behavior is considered to be caused by internal factors.

§  Consensus cues:- when a person acts differently from other people or behaves differently than expected, when the expectations are based upon the expected behaviors of other people then such behaviors is termed as the person’s true motives & these are considered to be internally generated.

§  Distinctive cues:-  distinctiveness refers to the extent to which the same person behaves in the same fashion in different situations. Distinctive behaviors are those that are relatively unique to a situation.

Attribution Error

Fundamental attribution error: - the phenomenon to underestimate the significance of external factors & overestimates the internal factors when making attributions about the behaviors about others. It is known as fundamental attribution error. E.g. if there is an accident in a plant the manager will attribute it to carelessness of staff and not a failure of machine.

Self serving bias:- the phenomenon to attribute their achievement & success caused by internal factors and attribute external factors in case of failure is known as self serving bias.