What is Perception?

The process of interpreting the

messages of our senses to provide order
and meaning to the environment
Depends on

Target

Situation

Attributes of a target, relationship of target to others,

etc.
Social or work setting, actions of others, etc.

Perceiver

Attitudes, experiences, personalities, etc.

What do you see?

2

Perceptual Process Model

3

Feeling

Hearing

Seeing

Smelling

Selective Attention
Organization and
Interpretation
Emotions and
Behavior

Tasting

Bruners Model of the

Perceptual Process

Factors That Influence Perception

Characteristics of the Perceiver
Values and attitudes
Motives
Interests
Experience
Expectations

Perceptual context
Time
Work setting
Social setting

Perception

Characteristics of the Target

Structural beauty
Novelty and Familiarity
Motion and Change
Repetition
Intensity
Sounds
Size
Contrast and Background

Perceptual organization
6

When we are given a cluster of

sensations, we organize them into a
gestalt or a whole

The whole is greater than the sum of

the parts.

We take in sensory information and infer

a perception that makes sense to us
based on our past experiences.

Attribution Theory
10

When individuals observe behaviour,

they try to guess if it is internally or
externally caused

e.g., if a colleague does not do his share of

the work, do you assume
Its

because he is lazy, selfish, incompetent

(internal attribution)
Its because his boss asked him to do some
other work (external attribution)

Attribution Theory
11

Biases in Attribution
12

Fundamental attribution error

When judging other peoples SUCCESS
we:
Inflate the role of external factors
Underestimate the role of internal
factors
When judging other peoples FAILURES
we:
Inflate the role of internal factors
Underestimate the role of external

Perceptual Errors
13

Primacy effect: First impressions

Recency: Most recent info dominates

perceptions

e.g., start of the interview, first meet

someone

e.g., big error a week before performance

review

Halo Effect

Possession of one excellent characteristic

makes others think that other excellent
characteristics are possessed

Perceptual Errors
14

Contrast Effect

When an evaluation is affected by a

comparison to the evaluation that preceded it
e.g., Give a presentation after an excellent or
poor one

Projection

When you assume that other people are similar

to you
e.g., You assume that your housemates will
clean their dishes right away because thats
what you always do

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Cycle

15

Employees
behavior matches
expectations

Expectations
affect supervisors
behavior

Supervisors
behavior affects
employee

The Stereotyping Process

16

Develop categories
and assign traits

Scientists are
absent-minded

Our instructor
is a scientist
Assign categorys traits
to the person

Our instructor is
absent-minded