how does a society shape our behaviour

1. Chapter 2
Perception social thought

2. A.R
OPENING CASE:
• Class Room Discussion :
• Is Privatization good or bad from
employees’ perspective ?
• Discuss
• What is the point?
• The same thing can be viewed differently.

3. Sensation and Perception
• Sensation - the activation of
receptors in the various sense
organs.
• Perception - the method by which
the sensations experienced at any
given moment are interpreted and
organized in some meaningful
fashion.
LO 7.1 What are the distinctions between sensation and perception?

4. Perception
• Perception is the process by which
individuals organize and interpret
their sensory impression in order to
give meaning to their environment
– Robbins, (1997)
LO 7.1 What are the distinctions between sensation and perception?

5. 5–5
What Is Perception, and Why Is It
Important?
• People’s behavior is based on their perception of what
reality is, not on reality itself.
Perception
A process by which individuals
organize and interpret their
sensory impressions in order
to give meaning to their
environment.

6. Sensory Thresholds
• Sense organs:
– eyes
– ears
– nose
– skin
– taste buds
LO 7.2 What is a sensory threshold? What is sensory adaptation?

7. © 2005 Prentice Hall Inc. All
rights reserved.
5–7
Factors That
Influence
Perception
E X H I B I T 5–1

8. A.R
Factors influencing perception
• The factors in perceiver
– Experience
– Needs, motives, personality, values and attitudes.
– E.g. how do you perceive “being regular to
classes”?
– It depends upon your past experience- if past
regularity paid you better off – you perceive
regularity as good or otherwise.

9. A.R
• Factors in perceived / object
– Contrast, intensity, figure / ground/ size, motion,
repetion, novelty. Refer Gestalt psychology.
– E.g. One woman amongst 5 men is noticed first
– The larger objects are noticed, moving objects,
beeping device is noticed first.

10. A.R
Factors affecting perception
• The situational factors
• Physical, social and organiational situations
•

11. A.R
How to do we perceive ? / perceptual process
1. Environmental stimuli- external stimuli
constantly bombards our five senses of
organs.
– Feeling (skin), hearing (ear), seeing (eye), smelling
(nose) and Tasting (taste buds – tongue)
2. Selective attention : we can not give equal
attention to a all information received.
Therefore, selective attention or selective
perception. It further depends upon
– External factors : factors affecting perception (refer
it ) – factors related to object/ perceived
– Internal factors : factors related to the perceiver

12. A.R
3. Perceptual organization and interpretation
– Process by which people group environmental
stimuli into recognizable pattern
– The information acquired may be interpreted
in different ways

13. A.R
4. Behaviour and emotions.
– Based on the interpretation, the perceiver
manifests noticeable overt behaviour and
covert behaviour - emotions.

14. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5 14
What are common
perceptual distortions?
Stereotypes or prototypes.
– Combines information based on the category or
class to which a person, situation, or object
belongs.
– Individual differences are obscured.
– Strong impact at the organization stage.

15. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5 15
What are common
perceptual distortions?
Halo effects.
– Occur when one attribute of a person or situation
is used to develop an overall impression of the
individual or situation.
– Likely to occur in the organization stage.
– Important in the performance appraisal process.

16. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5 16
What are common
perceptual distortions?
 Selective perception.
– The tendency to single out those aspects of a
situation, person, or object that are consistent
with one’s needs, values, or attitudes.
– Strongest impact is at the attention stage.
– Perception checking with other persons can help
counter the adverse impact of selective
perception.

17. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5 17
What are common
perceptual distortions?
Projection.
– The assignment of one’s personal attributes to
other individuals.
– Especially likely to occur in interpretation stage.
– Projection can be controlled through a high
degree of self-awareness and empathy.

18. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5 18
What are common
perceptual distortions?
Contrast effects.
– Occur when an individual is compared to
other people on the same characteristics on
which the others rank higher or lower.
– People must be aware of the impact of
contrast effects in many work settings

19. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5 19
What are common
perceptual distortions?
Self-fulfilling prophecy.
– The tendency to create or find in another situation
or individual that which one expected to find.
– Also called the “Pygmalion effect.”
– Can have either positive or negative outcomes.
– Managers should adopt positive and optimistic
approaches to people at work.

20. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5 20
How can perceptions be managed?
Impression management.
– A person’s systematic attempt to behave in ways
that create and maintain desired impressions in
others’ eyes.
– Successful managers:
• Use impression management to enhance their own
images.
• Are sensitive to other people’s use of impression
management.

21. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5 21
How can perceptions be managed?
Distortion management.
– Managers should:
• Balance automatic and controlled information
processing at the attention and selection stage.
• Broaden their schemas at the organizing stage.
• Be attuned to attributions at the interpretation stage.

22. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5 22
What is
attribution theory?
Attribution theory aids in perceptual
interpretation by focusing on how people
attempt to:
– Understand the causes of a certain event.
– Assess responsibility for the outcomes of the
event.
– Evaluate the personal qualities of the people
involved in the event.

23. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5 23
What is
attribution theory?
Factors influencing internal and external
attributions.
– Distinctiveness — consistency of a person’s
behavior across situations.
– Consensus — likelihood of others responding in a
similar way.
– Consistency — whether an individual responds
the same way across time.

24. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5 24
What is
attribution theory?
Fundamental attribution error.
– Applies to the evaluation of someone’s else
behavior.
– Attributing success to the influence of situational
factors.
– Attributing failure to the influence of personal
factors.

25. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5 25
What is
attribution theory?
Self-serving bias.
– Applies to the evaluation of our own behavior.
– Attributing success to the influence of
personal factors.
– Attributing failure to the influence of
situational factors.

26. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5 26
Technisques for managing perception and
attribution
 Techniques for effectively managing perceptions
and attributions.
– Be self-aware.
– Seek a wide range of differing information.
– Try to see a situation as others would.
– Be aware of different kinds of schemas.
– Be aware of perceptual distortions.
– Be aware of self and impression management.
– Be aware of attribution theory implications.

27. Attribution Theory
DISCUSSION and illustration

28. Why is this baby smiling?

29. • Fritz Heider argued that there are two
general types of attributions that people
make:
–Personal attributions
–Situational attributions

30. Personal attributions
• Explanations in terms of personal
characteristics. For example:
–“The baby must be a happy baby.”
• Other examples:
–“He scored well on the exam because
he is smart.”
–“She tripped because she is clumsy.”

31. Situational attributions
• Explanations in terms of situational factors.
For example:
–“Someone must have just played with the
baby .”
• Other examples:
–“He scored well because it was an easy
test.”
–“She tripped because a squirrel ran in
front of her.”

32. The Fundamental Attributon Error
is that we overestimate the power
of the person and underestimate
the power of the situation.
.

33. Self-serving bias
• People do not make objective situational /
personal attributions for their own behavior,
though.
• They tend to attribute their successes to
dispositional factors, and their failures to
situational factors.
• For example: “I did well on the test because I am
smart,” or “I did poor on the test because I
didn’t get enough sleep.

34. How do people make attributions?
• Kelley argued that people take three factors
into account when making a personal vs.
situational attribution:
– Consistency: Is the baby always smiling?
– Distinctiveness: Are there occasions on which the
baby doesn’t smile?
– Consensus: Do all babies smile?

35. • If consistency is high, and distinctiveness / consensus
are low, then a personal attribution is more likely:
• “The baby is always smiling, never displays other
emotions (like crying), and this is not typical of babies
in general. Therefore, this baby must have a happy
disposition.”
• If consistency is high, and distinctiveness / consensus
are also high, then a situational attribution is more
likely.
• “The baby is always smiling when tickled, but displays
different emotions in other circumstances. Smiling
when tickled is typical of all babies. Therefore, this
baby is smiling because it was tickled”

36. 5–36
Attribution Theory

37. Locus of Control Attributions
© 2005 Prentice Hall Inc. All
rights reserved.
5–37
What is Locus (place) of Control?
“Extent to which an entity believes the current and
anticipated circumstances, and its response to them
(behavior), are within its control”.

38. © 2005 Prentice Hall Inc. All
rights reserved.
5–38
Common Biases and Errors
• Overconfidence Bias
– Believing too much in our own decision competencies.
• Anchoring Bias
– Fixating on early, first received information.
• Confirmation Bias
– Using only the facts that support our decision.
• Availability Bias
– Using information that is most readily at hand.
• Representative Bias
– Assessing the likelihood of an occurrence by trying to
match it with a preexisting category.