INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES: PERCEPTION

Salbiah Abd Rahman

THE ORGANIZATIONS ENVIRONMENT

Interpersonal Influence and Group Behavior
Group

The Individual Skills & Abilities Perception Personality Attitudes Values

Organizational Processes
Leadership Communications Decision

behavior and work teams Intergroup conflict and negotiations Organizational power and politics Communication

making Reward System Job Design

INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE ORGANIZATION

Individual Behavior

First law of human behavior:

People are different. What one person considers a golden opportunity another considers a threat.

Definition:A process by which individuals organize and interpret sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment

Perception

Perception is the process by which individuals make sense of their world. Individuals organize and interpret information from their environments using perceptual filters

personality, psychology, experience, preferences, beliefs-based differences

Objective vs. perceived realities

Perception

People perceive the world uniquely Differences in perceptions can cause problems

Communication Conflict Motivation Judgment Decision Making

Object Perception

Proximity things close together are seen as belonging together.

Object Perception
Figure-Ground:
The figure and the background switch

Social Perception
How we gather information about the social world--about peoples behavior, moods, motives, and traits Similar to object perception, but People are more dynamic than objects Were trying to figure out intentions, motives, and causes of behavior

Attribution
Why did they do that?

internal causes
traits skills abilities

external causes

situational constraints

4 attributions for the cause of performance

Stable Internal External

Unstable

How do we determine cause? (Kelley)

Consensus - how do others behave

Consistency - this person on other occasions

Distinctiveness - this person in other situations

Errors/Biases in Social Perception

Selective perception

notice stimuli which are salient due to our interests, background, experiences tendency to fill in the gaps when information is missing Assume what we dont know is consistent with what we do know

Closure

Errors/Biases in Social Perception

Halo Effects

Contrast Stereotyping

Impression on one dimension affects impression of unrelated dimension

Primacy/Recency effects

A person has beliefs about a class of stimulus objects and generalizes those beliefs to encounters with members of that class of objects. Disproportionately high weight is given to the first/last information obtained about a stimulus

First Impressions

Influences what subsequent information we notice and how it is interpreted Fill-in information consistent with first impression Anchoring

Failure to adjust for subsequent information Seek out information & perceive stimuli in ways that confirm expectations Discount contradictory information

Confirmation Bias

Self fulfilling prophecy (2-way) Recencyavailability bias

Errors/Biases in Social Perception

Actor-observer difference (aka the fundamental attribution error)

Actors attribute their behavior to external causes Observer attribute actors behavior to internal cause

Errors/Biases in Social Perception

Self-serving bias

attribute successes to ourselves - internal attribute failures to the environment external

Performance appraisal and errors in social perception

Supervisor:

Subordinate:

Perception Implications

Guard against specific biases

Stereotypes

Be aware that stereotyping can occur with very little information, remain open to new information Recognize that stereotypes rarely apply to a specific individual

Fundamental attribution error? Primacy/recency? Halo? Confirmation?

Perception Implications