Chapter 3: Perception, Attribution, and Learning Perception -the process by which people select, organize, interpret, retrieve, and

respond to information from the world around them -a way of forming impressions about oneself, other people, and daily life experiences -also serves as a screen or filter through which information passes before it has an effect on people *Through perception, people process information inputs into responses involving feelings and action. *Perception and reality are not necessarily the same thing. Factors Influencing Perception: a. Perceiver -a persons past experiences, needs or motives, personality, and values and attitudes b. Setting -the physical, social, and organizational context of the perceptual setting c. Perceived -characteristics of the perceived person, object, or even such as contrast, intensity, figure-ground separation, size, motion, and repetition or novelty Figure-ground separation -it depends on which image is perceived as the background and which as the figure Perceptual Process: Influence Factors ---- Stages of Perceptual Process ---- Response Stages of the Perceptual Process: A. Attention and Selection Selective Screening -lets in only a tiny proportion of all the information available B. Organization Schemas -are cognitive frameworks that represent organized knowledge about a given concept or stimulus developed through experience Self Schema -contains information about a persons own appearance, behavior and personality Person Schemas -refer to the way individuals sort others into categories, such as types or groups, in terms of similar perceived features Script Schema -knowledge framework that describes the appropriate sequence of events in a given situation Person-in-situations schemas -combine schemas built around persons (self and person schemas) and events (script schemas) C. Interpretation D. Retrieval Response to the Perceptual Process: A. Feelings B. Thoughts C. Actions Common Perceptual Distortions: Stereotypes -also called prototypes -types or groups of individuals who sort others into categories, in terms of similar perceived features -obscure individual differences, they can prevent managers from getting to know people as individuals and from accurately assessing their needs, preferences and abilities Halo Effect -occurs when one attribute of a person or situation is used to develop an overall impression of the individual or situation -are more likely to occur in the organizational stage of perception -are particularly important in the performance appraisal process because they can influence a managers evaluations of subordinates work performance Selective Perception -is the tendency to single out those aspects of a situation, person, or object that are consistent with ones needs, values, or attitudes -its strongest impact occurs in the attention stage of the perceptual process -was identified in a classic research study involving executives in a manufacturing company Projection -is the assignment of ones personal attributes to other individuals; it is likely to occur in the interpretation stage of perception -can be controlled through a high degree of self-awareness and empathy the ability to view the situation as others see it

-occur when an individuals characteristics are contrasted with those of others recently encountered, who rank higher or lower on the same characteristics Self-fulfilling Prophecies -the tendency to create or find in another situation or individual that which you expected to find in the first place -is sometimes referred to as the Pygmalion Effect named for a mythical Greek sculptor who created a statue of his ideal mate and then made her come to life *Impression Management -a persons systematic attempt to behave in ways that will create and maintain desired impressions in the eyes of others *Distortion Management -during the attention and selection stage, managers should be alert to balancing automatic and controlled information processing -the various kinds of schemas as well as prototypes and stereotypes are particularly important at the information organizing stage -at the interpretation stage, managers need to be especially attuned to the impact of attribution on information -at the retrieval stage, managers should be sensitive to the fallibility of memory Attribution Theory -is the attempt to understand the cause of an event, assess responsibility for outcomes of the event, and assess the personal qualities of the people involved -especially concerned with whether an individuals behavior has been internally or externally caused Internal Causes -are believed to be under an individuals control External Causes -are seen as coming from outside a person Three Factors Influencing Internal and External Determination: A. Distinctiveness -considers how consistent a persons behavior is across different situations B. Consensus -take into account how likely all those facing a similar situation are to respond in the same way C. Consistency -concerns whether an individual responds the same way across time Attribution Errors: A. Fundamental Attribution Error -the tendency to underestimate the influence of situational factors and to overestimate the influence of personal factors in evaluating someone elses behavior B. Self-serving Bias -the tendency to deny personal responsibility for performance problems but to accept personal responsibility for performance success *We tend to overemphasize other peoples internal personal factors in their behavior and to underemphasize external factors in other peoples behavior. In contrast, we tend to attribute our own success to our own internal factors and to attribute our failure to external factors. *In Korea, self-serving bias was found to be negative; In India the fundamental attribution error overemphasizes external rather than internal causes for failure; US females less likely to emphasize self-serving bias than males Learning -a relatively permanent change in behavior occurring as a result of experience Reinforcement -is the administration of a consequence as a result of behavior Classical Conditioning -is a form of learning through association that involves the manipulation of stimuli to influence behavior; studied by Ivan Pavlov Stimulus -is something that incites action and draws forth a response Conditional Stimulus -once-neutral stimulus when it affects behavior the same way as the initial stimulus Operant Conditioning -is the process of controlling behavior by manipulating or operating on its consequences; popularized by B.F. Skinner Antecedent -is the condition leading up to or cueing behavior *Classical and operant conditioning differ in two ways: control in operant conditioning is via manipulation of consequences and operant conditioning calls for examining antecedents, behavior, and consequences Law of Effect -is the observation that behavior resulting in a pleasing outcome is likely to be repeated; behavior that results in an unpleasant outcome is not likely to be repeated; E.I. Thorndike Extrinsic rewards -are positively valued work outcomes that are given to the individual by some other person Contrived rewards -planned rewards that have direct costs and budgetary implications Contrast Effects

Natural rewards -rewards that have no cost other than the managers personal time and efforts OB Mod -Organizational Behavior Modification; is the systematic reinforcement of desirable work behavior and the non-reinforcement or punishment of unwanted work behavior Positive Reinforcement -is the administration of positive consequences that tend to increase the likelihood of repeating the behavior in similar settings; B.F. Skinner Recognition -is both a reward and a potential positive reinforce only if a persons performance later improves Law of Contingent Reinforcement -is the view that for a reward to have maximum reinforcing value, it must be delivered only if the desired behavior is exhibited Law of Immediate Reinforcement -states that the more immediate the delivery of a reward after the occurrence of a desirable behavior, the greater the reinforcing effect on behavior Shaping -is the creation of a new behavior by the positive reinforcement of successive approximations to the desired behavior Continuous Reinforcement -is a reinforcement schedule that administers a reward each time a desired behavior occurs Intermittent Reinforcement -is a reinforcement schedule that rewards behavior only periodically *Continuous reinforcement elicits a desired behavior more quickly than does intermittent reinforcement Variable schedules -typically result in more consistent patterns of desired behavior than do fixed reinforcement Fixed-interval schedules -provide rewards at the first appearance of a behavior after a given time has elapsed Fixed-ratio schedules -result in a reward each time a certain number of the behaviors have occurred Variable-interval schedule -rewards behavior at random times Variable-ratio schedule -rewards behavior after a random number of occurrences Negative Reinforcement -avoidance; is the withdrawal of negative consequences, which tends to increase the likelihood of repeating the behavior in a similar setting Punishment -is intended not to encourage positive behavior but to discourage negative behavior; is the administration of negative consequences that tend to reduce the likelihood of repeating the behavior in similar settings Extinction -is the withdrawal of the reinforcing consequences for a given behavior *Both positive and negative reinforcement are used to strengthen the desirable behavior of improving work quality when it occurs. *Punishment is used to weaken the undesirable behavior of high error rates and involves either administering negative consequences or withdrawing positive consequences. *Extinction is used deliberately to weaken the undesirable behavior of high error rates when it occurs and is used inadvertently to weaken the desirable behavior if low error rates. Social Learning Theory -an extension of reinforcement and operant conditioning -emphasizes the existence of observational learning and the importance of perception and attribution Social Learning -is achieved through the reciprocal interactions among people, behavior, and environment Modeling -vicarious learning to acquire behavior by observing and imitating others Self Efficacy -is the persons belief that he or she can perform adequately in a situation

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