Perception

What is perception?
“ The process by which people notice and make
sense of information from the environment”

“ The process by which individuals organize and

interpret their sensory impressions in order to give
meaning to their environment”

“ The active process of sensing reality and

organizing it into meaningful views or
understandings.”
 What is perception?
Perception is how we….

Select Organize Interpret Retrieve

….information from the organization

 Sensation & Perception
 Sensation
Basic behavior of an individual
caused by his physiological function

 Perception
Complicated interaction of selection,
organization and interpretation
Why study perception?
 Behavior – based on perception of reality,
not on reality itself

 Individual
 HR
 Marketing
 Finance
 Factors influencing Perception
Factors in the
Perceiver
Attitudes, motives, interests
Experience, expectation
Factors in the
situation
Time PERCEPTION
Work setting
Social setting

Factors in the target

Novelty, motion, sounds,
size, background, role, status
 Perceptual Process

Stimuli Selection
Observation Organization
(ext/int. factors)

Interpretation
(Perceptual errors
Attributions)

Response
(Covert/Overt)
Perceptual Selectivity
“Select only a few stimuli at a given time”
“Selective filtering of information”

 External Attention Factors

 Intensity Repetition
 Motion Novelty & Familiarity
 Contrast Size
 Internal Set Factors
 Appealing & compatible with learning,
motivation, personality

“Subliminal Perception”
Perceptual Organization

“Organizing the incoming

information into a meaningful
whole”
Principles of Perceptual Organization

1. Figure Ground
2. Perceptual Grouping
3. Perceptual Constancy
4. Perceptual Context
5. Perceptual Defense
Four Ku Klux Klansmen looking down a well
 Figure Ground
Organization of visual field into objects (figures)
that stand out from the surroundings (ground)

The characteristic organization of perception into a

figure that 'stands out' against an undifferentiated
background,

What is figural at any one moment depends on

patterns of sensory stimulation and on the
momentary interests of the perceiver.
 Perceptual Grouping
 Tendency to group several stimuli together
into a recognizable pattern

 Perceptual grouping refers to the human

visual ability to extract significant image
relations from lower-level primitive image
features without any knowledge of the image
content and group them to obtain meaningful
higher-level structure.
Perceptual Grouping
 Perceptual Grouping
CLOSURE

“Perceiving a whole where it does

not exist”

“Fill in the missing stimuli”

Perceptual Grouping
 Perceptual Grouping
CONTINUITY

“A person tends to perceive the

extension of a stimulus”

‘Thinking along existing lines’

Perceptual Grouping
 Perceptual Grouping
PROXIMITY

“A group of stimuli that are

physically close to each other are
perceived as a set of parts
belonging together”
Perceptual Grouping
 Perceptual Grouping
SIMILARITY

“The greater the similarity of the

stimuli, the more they are likely to
be perceived as a common group”
Perceptual Constancy
Perceptual Constancy
 Perceptual Constancy
The perception of elements like size,
shape, color, brightness and location of an
object remains constant & does not change
from people to people.

Learning helps in perceiving certain

patterns of cues in a similar way and leads
to perceptual constancy.
Perceptual Context
 Perceptual Context

Context provides meaning and value to

objects, events, situation and other
people.
 Perceptual Defense

“Against those stimuli which clash with their

beliefs, values or culture.”

“People attempt to avoid registering those stimulus

that conflict, threaten or are unacceptable to them”

Ways of Defense
Denial
Modification
Change in perception
Recognition but refusal to change
 Test your
Visual Perception
 Social/ Person Perception
“Making judgments about others”

Trying to develop explanations of why

people behave in a certain way.

Perceptions & judgments influenced by the

assumptions we make about that person’s
internal state.
Factors influencing Social Perception

1. Attribution
2. Halo Effect
3. Stereotyping
4. Contrast Effects
5. Projection
 Attribution
“ Assigning to a cause or source”
The way in which people explain the cause for
their own or others behavior

Behavior

Internally Externally
or
caused caused

Dispositional Situational
Factors for determining attribution

• Distinctiveness: Shows different behaviors in

different situations
• Consensus: Response is the same as others to
same situation
• Consistency: Responds in the same way over
time
Attribution
 Attribution
Errors/ Biases distorting attributions

 Fundamental attribution error

Tendency to underestimate the influence of
external factors and overestimate the influence of
internal factors while judging others
 Self Serving Bias
Attribute own success to internal factors such as
ability, effort while blaming failure on external
factors
 Halo Effect

“Drawing a general impression about

an individual on the basis of a single
characteristic”
 Stereotyping

“Generalizing characteristics on basis

of category or class to which person
belongs”
 Contrast Effects

“Reaction to one person is influenced

by other persons we have recently
encountered”
 Projection

“ Attribute one’s own characteristics to

other people”
 Impression Management

“A person’s systematic attempt to behave in

ways that create and maintain desired
impressions in others’ eyes.”

‘Self – Presentation’

.
 Impression Management

Successful managers:
 Use impression management to
enhance their own images.
 Are sensitive to other people’s use of
impression management
Components of Impression Management

 Impression Monitoring
Extent to which people are conscious of the impressions they make

 Impression Motivation
Extent to which people actively manage the impressions they make

 Impression Construction
Methods adopted by person to create specific impression that he
wants
Techniques for Impression Management

 Self Promotion

 Supplication

 Exemplification

 Intimidation

 Ingratiation
IM Strategies used by Employees

 Demotion preventative
 Excuses
 Apologies
 Disassociation
 Promotion Enhancing
 Entitlements
 Obstacle disclosure
 Association
 Flattery
 Favors