Famous author C.S. Lewis once wrote in his novel The Magician’s Nephew that “What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are.” Essentially, this quote is a commentary on, in laymen’s terms, the organizational behaviour principle of perception. Perception, as defined by the ninth edition of Organizational Behaviour: Understanding and Managing Life at Work is “the process of interpreting the messages of our senses to provide order and meaning to the environment.” This is a process that is experienced in our everyday interaction with our co-workers, family, and friends and can ultimately define the relationship we share with these persons. One major example of this …show more content…
is the interaction of professors and students in the university setting. This can be seen in a student’s (the perceivers) willingness to participate in class and the quality of the work they put into the deliverables of the course.
Unfortunately, this is not just a simple process, but rather a complicated interaction between the targets, the perceiver, and is subject to a number of biases depending on how the perceiver subscribes to the attribution of certain social cues.
The major characteristic that influences a perceiver of their perception of a target is the experience that they share with the target. For example, students who generally have positive experiences when meeting a professor, such as a faculty member who is willing to stay later to provide tutorials during their own personal time, largely tend to perform better and provide a better product when completing assignments and tend to be more willing to
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answer questions in classroom settings. Despite this seeming rather simple, multiple issues can arise and lead to misperception. One such problem leading to misperception are emotions. For example, if one was to experience a significant event, such as a death of a family member, chances are that they will not be as active or clear in mind, resulting in reduced participation in class. In addition to their emotion state, the motivational state of the perceiver can dictate how differences in experiences can be present. One such example of this would be the participation of students of different disciplines in courses outside of their discipline. If these students tend to not be well motivated, they may ask questions like “Why am I taking this course when it isn’t applicable to my major?” and are more willing to prioritize work deemed “more important”. In addition to experiences, emotional state, and motivational state, the ambiguity of a target and the situation is also a major factor influencing how perception occurs. As one can see, the process by which we perceive is a major contributor to our daily lives, and can aid in understanding the differences in experiences that students have with their various professors. Not only does the basic process of perception effect the experiences people have on a day-to-day basis, there are several biases that control the way humans perceive situations.
The greatest and most common of these biases that comes to mind are primacy events. The Organizational Behaviour textbook defines the primacy effect as “the tendency for a perceiver to rely on early cues or first impressions.” Quite simply, if a person has a poor first impression, such as coming off as unreasonable or tough, it is quite difficult for a person to “shake” and effects the way in which people interact with them. This is the same in a university setting in where if a professor comes off as tough to please, or very strict, students may react in such a way that their work will never be “good enough” for a professor and why bother trying, ensuring their work is subpar quality than expected by the professor. In addition to primacy effects, the manner of which we attribute behaviour to someone’s intellect (dispositional attribution) or their environment (situational attribution) also provide biases in perception. For example, if a professor doesn’t have the proper tools to teach (i.e. the projector doesn’t work in the classroom) and their behaviour is rather poor as a result, a situational attribution is likely going to be made by the students. These biases in addition to other biases such as consistency cues, distinctiveness cues, and consensus cues lead to what is called the fundamental
attribution error, in which a person tends to overemphasise the dispositional aspects of perception as opposed to recognizing the situational aspects. In the university class room example, a professor may be seen as unorganized and non-student oriented because they failed to bring a promised handout into a classroom, when simply the printer was broken, not allowing them to fulfil their task. Quite simply, biases in the aspect in which we perceive are not merely black and white, and can aid in explain the differing experiences of student-professor relationships.
Furthermore, the authors aim to unfold the scientific logic of their analysis of the effects of hidden biases so people will be “better able to achieve the alignment,” between their behavior and intentions (Banaji and Greenwald, 2013) preface
Assumptions influence our perceptions because when assumptions are made, it is often the case that there is not enough information for the assumptions to be accurate. Dillard gives an example that relates to this in her essay when she says, “[We] see what [we] expect” (Dillard 20). When an assumption is formed about a person or situation, then things that agree with that assumption is what is looked for, so that is what will be perceived. This may create inaccurate impressions. Another problem with making assumptions is that it is assumed that there is consistency to others’ behavior and often the focus on negative things about others. When it is assumed that there is consistency to others’ behavior, it is assumed that after seeing them act one way once or twice, they will always act like that. (Beebe 77). These examples relate to another idea that Dillard talks about in her essay. Dillard says, “Peeping through my keyhole I see within the range of only about thirty percent of light that comes from the sun…” (21). This agrees with an idea that people tend to ignore information when making perceptions and only looking at a small portion of the big picture and make perceptions based off of that. An example that relates to all of these would be if someone expects a person to be rude, then whenever those two people interact, rude behavior will be all that is looked for and all that is given any thought. People often form perceptions off of assumptions and small pieces of the big picture which oftentimes makes those perceptions that a person might have
When an individual unintentionally enters a room full of an unfamiliar crowd, he or she is bound to be embarrassed, but also have an apprehensive sensation of how others in that room will distinguish them. A situation like that establishes a moment in which that person realizes that all eyes are gaping at that individual. Just when that person could consider forgetting what just happened, unfortunately judgments start circulating among the unfamiliar crowd. As most people know, judgments are based off of a person’s appearance, race, religion, or a quality that doesn’t appeal to the person analyzing them. Obviously, judging is something that takes place whether someone likes it or not, but there are certain limits to it that many cross by adding
In a real life situation one may subconsciously use perceptual choice when seeing and meeting other people, such as, “through the process of selective attention, the brain picks out the information that is important to us and discards the rest” (Folk & Remington, 1998; Kramer et al., 2000). For a better understanding of how the mind works, an experiment was done to confirm the perceptions that people create. Three subjects were chosen to prove that people are mindlessly creating judgment and generalizat...
Growing up in a very accepting and forward home, I always found myself to be free of most bias. Having been the target of some racial prejudice in the past, I always told myself that I would make sure nobody else had to feel the same way. While this may be a great way to think, it really only covers the fact that you will not have any explicit bias. What I have realized during the course of this class is that implicit bias often has a much stronger effect on us than we might think, and even the most conscious people can be affected.
According to Robert Jervis, for an actor to determine how he will act, he has to predict how other will act and how their actions will affect their values. The actor will develop an image and the intentions of others (Jervis 1968). He believes that misperception can rule over the mind of an actor, while ignoring accurate information. He develops fourteen hypotheses, seven on misperception and seven about perception Yes, I agree with Jervis’s hypotheses. Misperception of an actor of others causes others to misperceive as well.
Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards, authors of Anti-Bias Education: for Young Children and Ourselves, provide a great example of an internal bias that results in unfair judgments. “One example is if you were raised to believe that being prompt is a sign of responsibility, and your family always had a car, then it might be hard for you to comprehend the experience of low-income families who chronically drop their children off late due to unreliable buses (pg. 21).” It is little anecdotes like those that make you evaluate your pure un-bias tendencies against certain social identities.
influenced in several ways, for example; whether the student likes his or her teacher, whether their best
The social psychology phenomenon that I have chosen is the spotlight effect. The spotlight effect is the belief that others are paying more attention to one's appearance and behavior than they really are (Myers, 2013). This phenomenon occurs more in adolescence and in situations such as public speaking or if a person has a change in appearance (i.e. a blemish or a “bad” haircut). The spotlight effect particularly interests me because I have experienced this phenomenon and I have seen many of my friends and family members experience it as well. I feel that it is fascinating that people feel that others are paying more attention to them than they actually are and that we see ourselves as center stage (Myers, 2013).
According to Gibson’s 1989 book organization and management, perception is a cognitive process that is used by individuals to interpret and understand the world around it. Gibson also explained that perception is the process of how individuals give meaning to their environment or surroundings. Meaning that each individual would give a meaning or interpretation of a stimulus differently to others even though the object in question is the same. Most of the time the way a person view the situation is often more important than the situation itself, It can be concluded that the definition of perception is a process of sensing, the stimulus received by an individual through the sensory organs and then interpreted so that the person can understand and know about the stimulus the individual has received. The process of interpreting the stimulus is usually influenced by the person’s experience and individual’s learning process.
The way that each individual interprets, retrieves, and responds to the information in the world that surrounds you is known as perception. It is a personal way of creating opinions about others and ourselves in everyday life and being able to recognize it under various conditions. Each person’s perceptions are used as a kind of filter that every piece of information has to pass through before it determines the effect that it has or will have on the person from the stimulus. It is convincing to believe that we create multiple perceptions about different situations and objects each day. Perceptions reflect our opinions in many ways. The quality of a person’s perceptions is very important and can affect the response that is given through different situations. Perception is often deceived as reality. “Through perception, people process information inputs into responses involving feelings and action.” (Schermerhorn, et al.; p. 3). Perception can be influenced by a person’s personality, values, or experiences which, in turn, can play little role in reality. People make sense of the world that they perceive because the visual system makes practical explanations of the information that the eyes pick up.
Social perception is 1.“the cognitive process that helps us form impressions of those around us and subconscious attitudes towards other people based their defining characteristics which help to comprehend a situation and gauge our behaviour accordingly. Social perception can be the mental progression of picking up clues and signals from others that help us form an early stage of what they may be like. Our brains may rely on stereotypes or previous similar experiences to build a picture of what to expect from any given social encounter”
...der, it is vitally important to recognize the power of first impressions and understand how they carry through the longevity of a relationship. A team member's first impression of me will have long-terms effects. Conversely, while first impressions are a powerful tool, situational first impressions must be acknowledged. Like John, varying situations will result in varying behaviors from people. John the Extrovert and John the Introvert were likely the same John. The situation was the powerful variable in our first impression of John.
We make inferences about the actions of people that we do not make about inanimate objects. People have beliefs, motives, or intentions. Attribution theory suggests that when we observe an individual's behavior, we attempt to determine whether it was internally or externally caused. That determination depends largely on three factors:
Cognitive psychology on the categorization process highlights the explanation for why stereotyping occurs. According to Michigan State University, "People like to, want to, need to categorize the world, both the social and physical world, into preferably neat little groups." [slide 3] This means that people stereotype not because they a rude, but because it is a natural need. By applying all of the group information to all of its members, categorization eventually saves processing time. Stereotyping also satisfies the need to understand and predict the social world. A stereotype contains a general glance at what someone is going to do. By applying a stereotype to a person, a guess can be made on what that person is like. This can lead to either the befriending or dismissing of an individual. As a society that has a constant need to belong, stereotyping can make one feel better about himself. Grouping oneself into a stereotype can make one feel like a part of a whole, a necessary example of a group. Ingroup favorability bias is brought on by this concept. No matter how good or bad someone 's ideas are, there will always be someone who shares them. This extends to always thinking that the idea you hold true is better than someone else 's, which is the definition of ingroup favorability