Topic 4 – Interpersonal Perception

McGrawHill
Process of Perception
 Gisele – a very productive marketing manager, enthusiastically
presents new products and innovative marketing and, only to be
told by her supervisor Dale “how much will it cost and how much
profit will it generate?” Gisele thinks Dale is an uninspired
manager while Dale believes Gisele is smart and energetic but
doesn’t know how business works.
Their relationship is challenging because of their differences in
their interpersonal perceptions.
Perception – the process of making meaning from the things we
experience in the environment.
Interpersonal perception - the process of making meaning from
people in our environment and our relationship with them.
Process of Perception
3 stages of perception process – select information, organize information and interpret information.

Selection – Attending to stimulus when senses are stimulated by environment, objects, people; You
choose a certain stimuli to attend to not all stimuli (you notice your classmate smiling at you or
another one carrying a bag or picked his car from carwash). You select the stimulus that stands
out; one that you are more exposed to frequently; how much you take note of it due to it’s
intensity.

Organization – Classify or categorize it – helps us make sense of information by revealing how

similar or different it is from other things we know about it – perceptual schema i.e. Physical
Constructs (appearance); role constructs (social or professional position); Interaction constructs
(people’s behavior – outgoing, shy, considerate or sarcastic); psychological constructs (thoughts,
feelings – worried, happy). Eg. Your views about your instructor….

Interpretation – After noticing and classifying, now figure out what it means (interpretation).
Process of assigning a meaning to information that has been selected and organized. Eg your
coworker is suddenly being nice to you – smiling at you, bring you treats and offers help…. You’ve
noticed this and classified it but what does it mean? ….will coworker now ask you for a big favor?
(your experience, knowledge will help you interpret).
What influences perceptual accuracy

 Physiological traits – everyone’s biological rhythm is different – night owl vs

early morning workers.. Feel energetic and drowsy at different times
 Culture and co-culture – cultural values and norms differ. Eg an American
meeting an Italian – the Italian may stand closer, use frequent touch gestures
… the American may interpret this as pushy, dominating behavior because in
the US…personal space is a priority. Teenager may see parent’s advice as
outdated..
 Social roles – behavior that is expected of someone in a situation. Eg. First
time recent supervisor – she might be motivated and enthusiastic while others
may perceive her as dominating.; first time new mother versus and
experienced nurse responding to her hiccupping baby…
Fundamental force in Interpersonal Perception
 Stereotyping relies on generalizations - stereotypes – generalizations about groups or categories of
people. These have powerful influence on how we perceive them.
 Process involves – identifying a group, recall some generalization, apply generalization to the person.
Eg of groups – elderly, teenagers, women, immigrants …..
 Primary effect governs first impression – Primacy effect – tendency to emphasize the first impression.
First impressions are powerful.
 Recency effect influences impressions – tendency to emphasize the most recent impressions over
earlier impressions.
 Perceptual Set - Our perceptual set limits what we perceive – our perception of reality is influenced by
our biases, expectations and desires. Our predisposition to perceive only what we want to see, expect
or perceive.
 Egocentrism narrows our perspective – egocentric people are unable to take another person’s
perspective. Lack the ability to see things through another person’s perspective. The opposite is
Altercentric.
 Positivity and negativity biases affect perception – Positivity is the tendency to focus on a person’s
positive attributes when forming perception – look through rose-colored glasses; Negativity - is the
tendency to focus on a person’s negative attributes when forming perception – common in competitive
environment when many are competing for limited opportunities.
Explaining what we perceive
Explaining through attributions -
 Attribution – explanation for an observed behavior –
 Locus – location of cause of behavior – within us or outside of us.
 Eg. Arriving late to a lunch meeting – internal attributes – rarely punctual, lost track of time
OR external attributes – traffic, caught in another meeting..
Recognizing Common Attribution Errors – self-serving bias – tendency to attribute one’s
successes to internal causes and failures to external causes. In a happy marriage – spouse’s
positive behaviors are attributed to internal causes and negative to external. (he forgot my
birthday because he got busy with extra workload OR she remembered my birthday because she
cares…)
Fundamental Attribution Errors – How did you react when someone cut you off in traffic? What
did you attribute it to? Tendency to attribute others’ poor behavior to internal causes and
successes to external causes.
Overattribution – Attribute a range of behaviors to a single trait of a person. This is a form of
mental short-cut/laziness. Eg Min is the only child so she is ……… selfish, impatient, …
Improving Perceptual Abilities
Be mindful of your perceptions –
Know yourself – our individual characteristics shape how we perceive others.
Focus on others’ traits – gender, culture etc.
Consider context – primacy effect, recency effect.

Checking your Perceptions –

Separate interpretations from facts – interpretations can be subjective
Generate alternative perceptions – to ensure you are not ignoring important clues
Engage in perception-checking behaviors – consider all contexts
Revise your perceptions as necessary – be willing to change views