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Perception and Attribution Session 4. Figure-Ground Illustration. Field-ground differentiation The tendency to distinguish and focus on a stimulus that is classified as figure as opposed to background. What is Perception? Is it same as reality or different? If yes, how?.
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Perception and Attribution Session 4
Figure-Ground Illustration Field-ground differentiation • The tendency to distinguish and focus on a stimulus that is classified as figure as opposed to background.
What is Perception? Is it same as reality or different? If yes, how?
What Is Perception, and Why Is It Important? Perception A process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment. • People’s behavior is based on their perception of what reality is, not on reality itself. • The world as it is perceived is the world that is behaviorally important. Social Perception is a process of interpreting information about another person.
Person Perception: Making Judgments About Others Kelley’s Attribution Theory When individuals observe behavior, they attempt to determine whether it is internally or externally caused.
Attribution Theory explains how individuals pinpoint the causes of their own behavior or that of others
Internal and External Attributions Internal Attributions: Attributing events to something within the individual’s control. External Attributions: Attributing events to something outside the individual’s control.
Informational Cues 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.
Customer has complained about an employee There are no complaints about other employees (low consensus) An employee has received similar complaints in a past job (low distinctiveness) Complaints have been coming in steadily (high consistency) Internal attribution (An employee’s behavior stems mainly from internal causes)
An employee has performed poorly on collections He/She performs poorly only on this task (high distinctiveness) Other employee s are performing poorly on collections (high consensus) Most of the time an employee handles collections well (low consistency) External Attribution (An employee’s behavior stems mainly from external causes)
Attribution Biases Fundamental Attribution Error – Underestimating the influence of external factors and overestimating the influence of internal /personal factors. Self – Serving Bias – Attributing own success to internal factors and putting blame for failure on external factors. Cultural Aspect
Shortcuts/Barriers to Social Perception Selective Perception Halo Effect Contrast Effect Projection Stereotyping Self fulfilling prophecy Impression Management
Frequently Used Shortcuts in Judging Others Selective Perception People selectively interpret what they see on the basis of their interests, background, experience, and attitudes.
Frequently Used Shortcuts in Judging Others Halo Effect Drawing a general impression about an individual on the basis of a single characteristic Contrast Effects Evaluation of a person’s characteristics that are affected by comparisons with other people recently encountered who rank higher or lower on the same characteristics.
Frequently Used Shortcuts in Judging Others Projection Attributing one’s own characteristics to other people. Stereotyping Judging someone on the basis of one’s perception of the group to which that person belongs.
What’s in a Name? Researchers at MIT and the University of Chicago mailed 5000 résumés to potential employers, using “white-sounding” and “black-sounding” names Callback rates on identical résumés were substantially higher for white-sounding names than for black-sounding names Conclusion: stereotypes and false attributions can lead to discrimination in hiring.
Self – fulfilling Prophecy – (Pygmalion Effect) The situation in which our expectations about people affect our interaction with them in such a way that our expectations are fulfilled.
Impression Management The process by which individuals try to control the impression others have of them • Name dropping • Appearance • Self-description • Flattery • Favors • Agreement with opinion
Specific Applications in Organizations • Employment Interview • Perceptual biases of raters affect the accuracy of interviewers’ judgments of applicants. • Performance Expectations • Self-fulfilling prophecy (pygmalion effect): The lower or higher performance of employees reflects preconceived leader expectations about employee capabilities. • Ethnic Profiling • A form of stereotyping in which a group of individuals is singled out—typically on the basis of race or ethnicity—for intensive inquiry, scrutinizing, or investigation.
Specific Applications in Organizations (cont’d) • Performance Evaluations • Appraisals are often the subjective (judgmental) perceptions of appraisers of another employee’s job performance. • Employee Effort • Assessment of individual effort is a subjective judgment subject to perceptual distortion and bias.
Synesthesia: Unusual Perception Synesthesia is a rare perceptual condition in which one sensory perception triggers another—for example, music evokes colors or smells. How quickly can you spot the 2’s in the picture to the right? The task is effortless for “synesthetes,” who perceive the 2’s as a different color from the 5’s.
