PERCEPTION

PERCEPTION 
 The process by which people select, organize,
interpret, retrieve, and respond to information.
 Perceptions differ from person to person.

 Each individual differently. perceives the same

situation
 It is a process by which individuals organize and
interpret their sensory impressions in order to give
meaning to their environment.

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NATURE OF PERCEPTION

1. Perception is the process by which an

individual gives meaning to the
environment.
2. It is a cognitive and psychological process.
3. People’s action, emotions, thoughts and
feelings are triggered by their perceptions.
4. Since perception refers to the acquisition of
specific knowledge about objects or events
at any particular moment, it occurs
whenever stimuli activate the sense organs
FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE
PERCEPTION

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External Factors in Perceptual Selectivity
 Size

 Intensity

 Repetition

 Novelty and Familiarity

 Contrast

 Motion
Internal Factors in Perceptual Selectivity
 Self-Concept

 Beliefs

 Expectations

 Inner Needs

 Response Disposition – A person’s tendency to perceive

familiar stimuli rather than unfamiliar ones. Disposition (
a person’s inherent qualities of mind and character)
 Response Salience-Familiarity of Stimulus situations.
Salience ( most noticeable)
 Perceptual Defence- Denying the existence or
importance of conflicting information.
 PERCEPTUAL ORGANIZATION
 The Law of Proximity: Stimulus elements that are closed together
tend to be perceived as a group

 The Law of Similarity: Similar stimuli tend to be grouped. Similar

features of various stimuli irrespective of nearness.
 The Law of Closure: Stimuli tend to be grouped into complete figures

 The Law of Good Continuation: Stimuli tend to be grouped as to

minimize change or discontinuity

 The Law of Simplicity: Ambiguous stimuli tend to be resolved in

favor of the simplest Figure.

 The Law of Figure Ground Principle: The tendency to keep certain

phenomenon in focus and other phenomenon in background.
ATTRIBUTION THEORY
 Attribution theory suggests that when we
observe an individual’s behavior, we attempt to
determine whether it was internally or externally
caused.
 Internally caused – those that are believed to
be under the personal control of the individual.
 Externally caused – resulting from outside
causes. 6-8
 ATTRIBUTION THEORY
 Factors influencing internal and external
causation :
Distinctiveness:
Distinctiveness:shows
showsdifferent
differentbehaviors
behaviorsin
indifferent
different
situations.
situations.
Consensus:
Consensus:response
responseisisthe
thesame
sameas
asothers
othersto
tosame
same
situation.
situation.
Consistency:
Consistency:responds
respondsin
inthe
thesame
sameway
wayover
overtime.
time.

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 ERRORS AND BIASES IN
ATTRIBUTIONS

 Fundamental attribution error

We have a tendency to underestimate the
influence of external factors and overestimate
the influence of internal or personal factors when
making judgments about the behavior of others.

 Self-serving bias
 The tendency for individuals to attribute their own successes to
internal factors while putting the blame for failures on external
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factors.
OTHER PERCEPTUAL ERRORS
 False-consensus effect (similar-to me effect)
 Overestimate the extent to which others have
beliefs and characteristics similar to our own
 Primacy effect
 First impressions
 Recency effect

Most recent information dominates perceptions

COMMONLY USED SHORTCUTS
IN JUDGING OTHERS
 Selective perception
 The tendency to selectively interpret what one sees on the
basis of one’s interests, background, experience, and
attitudes.
 Since we can’t observe everything going on around us, we
engage in selective perception.

Projection
 The tendency to attribute one’s own characteristics to other
people
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COMMONLY USED SHORTCUTS
IN JUDGING OTHERS
• Halo effect
 The halo effect occurs when we draw a general impression on
the basis of a single characteristic.

 Contrast effects
 We do not evaluate a person in isolation.
 Our reaction to one person is influenced by
other persons we have recently encountered.

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COMMONLY USED SHORTCUTS
IN JUDGING OTHERS
 Stereotyping
 Judging someone on the basis of our
perception of the group to which he or she
belongs.
 We have to monitor ourselves to make sure we’re not
unfairly applying a stereotype in our evaluations and
decisions.

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APPLICATION OF SHORTCUTS
IN ORGANIZATIONS
 Employment Interview
 Evidence indicates that interviewers make perceptual
judgments that are often inaccurate.

 Interviewers generally draw early

impressions that become very quickly
entrenched.
 Studies indicate that most interviewers’
decisions change very little after the first 6-
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four or five minutes of the interview.
STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE PERCEPTION
 Awareness of perceptual biases
 Knowing perceptual biases exist – e.g. diversity awareness training
 Become more mindful of our thoughts and actions

 Improving self-awareness
 Become more aware of our beliefs, values, and attitudes
 Better understand biases in our own decisions and behavior
 Applying Johari Window

 Meaningful interaction
 Contact hypothesis – the more we interact with someone, the less
prejudiced or perceptually biased we will be
Johari Window

 The Johari Window model was devised by

American psychologists Joseph Luft and Harry
Ingham in 1955
 The Johari Window model is a simple and useful
tool for illustrating and improving self-awareness,
and mutual understanding between individuals
within a group.
 The Johari Window model can also be used to
assess and improve a group's relationship with
other groups.
KNOW YOURSELF
(JOHARI WINDOW)
JOHARI WINDOW FOUR QUADRANTS

1. WHAT IS KNOWN BY THE PERSON ABOUT HIM/HERSELF

AND IS ALSO KNOWN BY OTHERS - OPEN AREA, OPEN
SELF, FREE AREA, FREE SELF, OR 'THE ARENA‘.

2.WHAT IS UNKNOWN BY THE PERSON ABOUT

HIM/HERSELF BUT WHICH OTHERS KNOW - BLIND AREA,
BLIND SELF, OR 'BLINDSPOT‘.

3. WHAT THE PERSON KNOWS ABOUT HIM/HERSELF THAT

OTHERS DO NOT KNOW - HIDDEN AREA, HIDDEN SELF,

4. AVOIDED AREA, AVOIDED SELF OR 'FACADE‘.

WHAT IS UNKNOWN BY THE PERSON ABOUT HIM/HERSELF
AND IS ALSO UNKNOWN BY OTHERS - UNKNOWN AREA OR
UNKNOWN SELF.
FREE ACTIVITY'. THIS IS THE INFORMATION ABOUT THE
PERSON - BEHAVIOUR, ATTITUDE, FEELINGS, EMOTION,
KNOWLEDGE, EXPERIENCE, SKILLS, VIEWS, ETC KNOWN
BY THE PERSON ('THE SELF') AND KNOWN BY THE GROUP
('OTHERS').

JOHARI QUADRANT 2 - WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT A

PERSON BY OTHERS IN THE GROUP, BUT IS UNKNOWN BY
THE PERSON HIM/HERSELF.

JOHARI QUADRANT 3 • WHAT IS KNOWN TO OURSELVES

BUT KEPT HIDDEN FROM, AND THEREFORE UNKNOWN
TO OTHERS.

JOHARI QUADRANT 4 -IT CONTAINS INFORMATION,

FEELINGS, TALENT ABILITIES, APTITUDES, EXPERIENCES
ETC, THAT ARE UNKNOWN TO THE PERSON HIM/HERSELF
AND UNKNOWN TO OTHERS IN THE GROUP.
 Answer the following questions
 Decribe attribution theory
 Briefly describe factors influencing perception
 Describe Johari window