In this essay I will be covering the concept of perception. Within the study of perception I will be explaining the process of perception, social errors in perception and methods to use to mend these errors. Perception is an everyday occurrence to you and every person around you. To perceive something is to understand it or how you may absorb it. This will then gradually lead you to make decisions based on your reading of your surroundings. “A process in which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment” (Robbins and Judge, 2009). An example of perception influencing a person’s behaviour would be in the workplace. You may not know it but sometimes people will make decisions or choices in the workplace based on their observation and understanding of their environment. The process of perception can be swayed by various surrounding issues which were stated by (Robbins & Judge, 2009) such as “attitudes, personality, motives, interests, past experiences and expectations”.
A significant and essential aspect of perception is sensation. These are the sensory organs that play a key role in how a person reacts to behaviour and how it influences them to make decisions. The organs that receive all this information and help you make choices are nose, eyes, skin, tongue and ears. If we weren’t capable of reading our environment the world as we know it would be whole lot different. As this is the way people respond and behave towards each other it’s very significant that we have the capability to do this. Essentially without it the world we live in today would be empty and insignificant (Kehoe, 2008).
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The Process of Perception:
The process of perception can be identified through various features and phases. The first stage of this process is information, stimuli, people and events in the environment. To develop your understanding of the process of perception you need to recognise the key elements involved and then examine each stage to get a more clear and knowledgeable understanding of perception. The concept of perception is a process which you need to recognise that internal and external environments have numerous more characteristics to it that are very complex to try and understand at any single instance. Some work environments have many of these aspects. As we all know different people will have mixed reactions to the same thing it is significant to note that what you may observe and take in might not be the case with another individual. (Morley et al, 2004). For example the class was shown a picture during a lecture to which many people had a different perception of. The picture was of an individual but the way in which you observed it you could either see an old woman, young girl or both in the same individual. This showed me how people can absorb different information even when looking at the same thing.
The next key element of this process is how we identify certain factors and how we block out others that are irrelevant or have no significance. To be capable of controlling this enables us to operate efficiently. Everyone has a system which gives us the ability to separate behavioural factors that are important and factors that serve no purpose to us. Every person has a system that normally works in a sufficient manner but only to a certain extent as it can occasionally block out information that would be of great assistance to us in certain circumstances (Morley et al, 2004).
Selecting and focusing is a key stage in the process of perception. At this stage people are focusing on looking for indications and ultimately determine which ones to select and which one to block out from these readings. This tends to happen most frequently in work environments where trouble exists or with some people a sense of achievement is enough to influence them when reading signs and establishing what to select ( Morley et al, 2004).
Organising information is a major element in perception. Instead of getting mixed up with all sorts of relevant and irrelevant information perceived, we have a system which gives us the skill to categorise important data that is related to a certain objective to us and fulfil this object with appropriate information we have perceived. These systems have become to be known as Schemas and scripts. The amount of data and information we observe on a daily basis is at large so these 2 systems help us to handle and categorise such information (Morley et al, 2004).
Advancement in perception was build up in the late 1950’s by Fritz Heider and his attribution theory. This attribution theory helps us make logic of a person’s behaviour and events and helps us find solutions to certain actions. This theory has given many theorists the capability of explaining another person’s behaviour or their own behaviour simply by observing it. A study from Kelley (1967) observed and analyzed people’s behaviour and came to a conclusion that there are 3 methods to inspect a person’s behaviour and these have become recognised as consistency, consensus and distinctiveness. Consistency helps define a person’s activities by examining whether the person follows the same route or whether it changes over time. The level of consensus is developed by putting people in similar circumstances and monitoring whether the individual acts the same as other people or opt to act differently. Levels of Distinctiveness will become clear when you successfully examine the variations of a person’s actions when they apply themselves to diverse situations. With progression this will develop positive or negative factors of a person’s behaviour and whether these arose from an internal environment or external (Morley et al, 2004).
The final stage of the process of perception is Responding, Reacting and Coping as stated by authors such as (Morley et al, 2004). These relate to the ways in which people act in response and deal with their behavioural situations whether it’s in the workplace or outside it (McFarlane, 2010).
Main sources of Errors in Social Perception and Solutions:
Observing and judging other people and their behaviour can be sometimes tricky so it’s important to avoid some of the many slip-up’s that occur when gathering information. Stereotyping is a major issue when perceiving others. I think it’s fair to say were all guilty of stereotyping at some stage of our lives. For example I would imagine that stereotyping is a regular occurrence for managers when conducting interviews and being in certain situations. The interview process can be sometimes very slow and have a lot of people applying for it. In my opinion, in these circumstances, I think short listing is done occasionally by passing judgement on people from the way they have perceived them. There are many ways in which stereotyping is placed upon people such as gender, race, religious beliefs etc. Passing false judgement on other people can be avoided though if the information being collected is accurate (Kehoe, 2008).
Sometimes people can be stereotyped based on their first impressions and this is a major issue in perception. Appearance has always been the main factor for this. People can’t control what height, weight or their style of clothing but are still judged on this. For example arriving at an interview, dressed appropriately will most likely enhance your chances if the next person who walks in is dressed unsuitably. To avoid this error, people need to block out their first impressions on a person and judge people on all their characteristics rather than 1 aspect of it which is sometimes hard to achieve. It’s up to everyone to understand the methods of making first impressions and how to attain a good standard in this (Kehoe, 2008).
The Halo Effect and the Horns Effect are key errors that are frequently occurring internally and externally in our environment. Sometimes people can see a positive attribute in someone and the problem is that this positive element can encourage them to overlook their view of every element of the person. Instead they focus on this positive feature and expand it to every other part of the person and this is called the halo effect. This can have terrible consequences as it tends to pay no attention to negative elements of the person. For example an employee in an organisation is a hard worker but he has a recurrent lateness pattern developing. If their superior turns a blind eye to this because they know he is a good worker then in due time this will affect overall performance and behaviour of the employee. (Kehoe, 2008)
The Horns Effect is quite the opposite. This occurs when a person tends to notice a negative feature of a person and develop this negative aspect into every part of the person. This can have a damaging effect on the person as they’ve been judged and categorised in an unreasonable way. Both of these errors can be avoided and overcome if people understand the 3rd and 4th stage of the perception process. They need to focus on the person and then categorise the person. This way they’ll be examining all detail of the person rather than a minor or major aspect to the person. (Kehoe, 2008)
Projection can sometimes damage a person’s characteristics. This is when someone behaves in such a manner and they reflect this behaviour on to another person. Commonly this is a negative prediction but occasionally positive projection can occur. (MacFarlane, 2010)
Other errors can occur through verbal and non – verbal communication. Verbal communication doesn’t necessary mean that people will be listening to exactly what you are saying, instead judging you on the way you talk. Non -verbal communications shows that people will have a tendency to judge others on their physical approach such as body language. This can be avoided if people focus and don’t rush to judgement. (Kehoe, 2008)
