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What you see IS what you get

2008 Oracle Corporation Proprietary and Confidential

My hero, who dare to be like him ?

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The Perception Process

Selection
Organization
Interpretation
Negotiation

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SELECTION
Were exposed to more input than we can possibly

manage.
Several factors cause us to notice some things and ignore
others:
Intense: Something that is louder, larger, or brighter
stands out
Contrast: unchanging people or things become less
noticeable
Motives: ex. hungry, youll become aware of any
restaurants, markets

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ORGANIZATION

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Complete the following ?

1. Women driving is ___________________
2. Men temper is ___________________
3. African customers are ___________________

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STEREOTYPING
Organizing scheme to classify people, we use that

scheme to make generalizations and predictions about

members of the groups who fit the categories we use.
Once we buy into stereotypes, we often seek out isolated

behaviors that support our inaccurate beliefs.

Give yourself a chance to treat people as individuals

instead of assuming that they possess the same

characteristics.

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INTERPRETATION
Several factors cause us to interpret an event in one way

or another:
Degree of involvement with the other person.
Personal experience. no smiling
Relational satisfaction. happy or sad

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NEGOTIATION
Perception isnt just a solitary activity: people influence

one anothers perceptions and try to achieve a shared

perspective.
View interpersonal communication as an exchange of

stories.
Shared narratives provide the best chance for smooth

communication. Ex.: DBA made a mistake

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Nice Quote
Should we conclude that happy couples have a poor grip

on reality? Perhaps they do, but is the reality of ones

marriage better known by outside onlookers than by the
players themselves? The conclusion is evident. One key
to a long happy marriage is to tell yourself and others that
you have one and then to behave as though you do!

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Influences on Perception
PHYSIOLOGICAL INFLUENCES
CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
SOCIAL ROLES

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PHYSIOLOGICAL INFLUENCES
THE SENSES (Smell, Vision, Listen)
AGE
HEALTH AND FATIGUE
HUNGER
BIOLOGICAL CYCLES (Night , Morning)

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CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
Too often we think of the world in terms of a pyramid of

civilized (us) on the top and primitive groups on the

bottom.
Failure to recognize these differences can lead to

unfortunate and unnecessary misunderstandings.

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SOCIAL ROLES
GENDER ROLES: ex. new decoration
OCCUPATIONAL ROLES: ex. walk in garden
RELATIONAL ROLES: ex. Take your kid to a football

game after you used to go alone

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Common Perception Mistakes

WE JUDGE OURSELVES MORE CHARITABLY THAN

OTHERS. Ex. Serving ct.

WE CLING TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS. Ex. Interview -

Problems known people.

WE ASSUME THAT OTHERS ARE SIMILAR TO US. Ex

lost temper
WE ARE INFLUENCED BY THE OBVIOUS. Ex first lash

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VERIFYING and EMPATHY

Verifying Serious problems can arise when people treat

interpretations as if they were matters of fact.

Empathy is the ability to re-create another persons

perspective, to experience the world from the others point

of view.

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ELEMENTS OF PERCEPTION CHECKING

1. A description of the behavior you noticed

2. At least two possible interpretations of the behavior
3. A request for clarification about how to interpret the

behavior
When you stomped out of the room and slammed the

door, (behavior) I wasnt sure whether you were mad at

me (first interpretation) or just in a hurry. (second
interpretation) How did you feel? (request for
clarification)

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Pillow Method

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