.

THE PERCEPTION

Report
Mohammed GUEDIRA
 PLAN

I – TENTATIVE DEFINITION

1. Etymology
Exercise

2. Definition of Lalande
Exercise (seen, heard, felt)

3. Polysemy

II – THEORIES OF PERCEPTION

A/ The theoretical approaches

1. Perception and classical philosophy

Exercise

2. Perception and Modern Psychology

Structuralism
Behaviorism
Gestalt

B/ The basic elements of the perception process

Perceptual illusions

III – SOCIAL PERCEPTION

The factors determining our social perception

2. Errors in social perception
Activity
Exercise

IV – PERCEPTION, MANAGEMENT AND ART

1. The effect of perception on organizational behavior

2. Art, as a way of perceiving the world (activity)

V - CRITICAL PERCEPTION: TO HAVE

MORE INTELLIGENT PERCEPTIONS
 Becoming the most powerful, thanks to a faculty that he is the only one (until now) to
to possess: reflective thought, man - by virtue of this power - has been able to develop explanations,
theories, allowing him to better understand his environment, to control it and
capture reality.
Science is a quest for this reality, an attempt at explanation. For centuries,
there are many researches, theories, currents, and even perceptions that have
I tried to address all the dimensions, biological, physiological, emotional, social, of this
to be.
Each person has, since their birth, a rich experience of perceptions, ideas,
beliefs about this world we live in.
In this work, we will first try to cover the meanings and
the meanings of perception. We will then address the question from the angle
philosophical and psychological. At this stage, it is imperative to study the basic elements of
process of perception. Then, we will focus on the factors determining the
social perception of individuals and the errors that hinder relationships with others. We
we will discuss the role of perception in management and art. We will conclude
with advice to improve our inaccurate perceptions.
 I - TENTATIVE DEFINITION

The concept of perception remains difficult to define. The word has its origin in
"per" does not mean here through but perfectly, completely,
"ception" originates from "capere" (= to take).
Perceiving traditionally designates a fully completed action that consists of
to take possession of something, in the sense of receiving, becoming aware of the outside through the
sense, of what is here and now.
However, can perception be reduced to a determined representation, a taking
complete of a thing? What remains then of the perception itself in light of the contribution of the
memory, of experiences?

For many, the word signifies the conscious knowledge we have of the world.
through our senses. It is "The act by which –said LALANDE– an individual, organizing
immediate sensations, interpreting them and completing them with images and
souvenirs, opposes an object that he spontaneously judges to be distinct from himself, real and currently

"He concluded."
Recognizing perception, in this case, does not deny the collaboration of
the imagination, memory, and culture, it's rather updating, below these
elaborations, that the one who perceives judges that the object is distinct from him and known by him, and this,

immediately.

Also, the name of perception, like that of most polysemous words,

does it apply, depending on the circumstances, sometimes to the field of taxes, sometimes to the mode of
visual representation, sometimes of the process, the result of the operation or synonymous with sensation.

The difficulty we find in defining the word emanates, as we have seen, from the
various acceptances and ideas on what perception is. There are very varied ways
to approach the study of this latter. In the following part, we will review the
different theories that have dealt with perception.
 II- THEORIES OF PERCEPTION

1- The theoretical approaches

Throughout time, theories, movements, and even sciences have questioned...
the journey of Man. Each discipline in the field of human sciences, whether it is the
psychology, sociology, economics, or anthropology has tried to provide an answer to
questions asked in seeking to determine, describe and analyze the subject of study.
Since always and from ancient times, the subject of perception has taken place among philosophers
Pre-Socratics. In their writings, there are observations on vision, touch, and taste that
to stand out either:
the fluctuations of perceptual judgment as we observe in PLATO when he
give the example of the sick person for whom the taste of wine becomes bitter.
the errors and illusions caused by the shape of certain objects, spatial distance...
The issue of this topic of perception seems the simplest and is undoubtedly a
one of the most complex aspects of psychology. Since its origins, it has fueled the
metaphysical discussions. The inevitable metaphysical debate is this: perception us
Does it provide information about the being of the outside world? For some, this is a falsehood.
problem but we cannot deny that this subject is still on the horizon of a study of
the sensation. But, beforehand, there is a question to ask: can and should we distinguish
"sensation" and "perception"?

A- Perception and classical philosophy

Classical philosophers make a distinction between sensation and perception. For
For its followers, 'sensation' is a phenomenon more 'elementary' than perception.
sensation purely and simply gives qualities. One cannot define the
quality that is like a "sensitive" elementary. Salty, sweet, bitter, red, hot, cold, etc.
Here are as many 'qualities' that are sensations beneath the very words that express them.
they generalize and conceptualize.
Perception, according to classical psychology, is different from sensation.
to the extent that the latter is a present quality. Defining perception is to give to

this quality has a meaning.

 a- According to the intellectualist point of view
It is not useless to know before approaching the question from an intellectualist angle.
the important principles of this movement.
Intellectualism: philosophical doctrine; it establishes the necessity of the
preeminence of intelligence over feelings and will. Its followers do not approach any
research if beforehand any notion is devoid of rational evidence. Reason is the
principle, not only of all science but also of morality and even religion. In this
optics, knowing the material world is reducing it to mathematical elements.
Perception, according to intellectualists, involves a special act of
intelligence and contact with an 'objective' reality. The comparison that will do better
understanding the intellectualist spirit is this: imagine that your hand is in a glove
as the thickness is important, and imagine that you are trying to grasp and recognize, by the
only way with this hand, an external object, you will have sensations, but you do not
will be able to determine if they are due to the object or to the material that makes up the glove; you
you can say however that there is something. And if you take off the glove, you will be able to know with
more truth about what the object is.
From this experience arises the undeniable result, which is that the senses are as many
causes of error; through them there is however a positive act of knowledge that encounters
a reality. But one must strip away all sensations to grasp through intelligence alone the
true or real nature of the object. So perception equals sensations and a contact between a
intellectual act and an external reality.

b- According to the viewpoint of pragmatists

Doctrine that takes practical value as the criterion of truth. For pragmatism, it is
True is what succeeds, and there is no absolute truth.
According to the doctrine that BERGSON adheres to, there is indeed a difference between
sensation and perception. Bergson calls sensation 'pure perception'. It is a
certain awareness of our sensitivity to the moving and complex reality that surrounds us. This
pure perception is in things, it is of the world and not of consciousness. At this
pure perception, consciousness adds the memories it selects and that allows
Action. In this sense, to perceive would be to remember.
So perception = pure perception + memory.
 To move on to the second chapter, it must be concluded that among the intellectualists or for
Pragmatists distinguish sensation from perception. Sensations are the material of this
perception and it is judgment and memory that give them shape.

B- perception and modern psychology

Before addressing this question, it should be noted that psychology throughout the
The 19th century encountered enormous difficulties in establishing itself as an autonomous science.

scientific discoveries at that time - physics, physiology - led to addressing the

problems of sensation, movement from a new perspective. Scientific psychology
could then be born on new foundations.
. Gustav Théodor FECHNER
In 1860, a new discipline was founded by FECHNER halfway between the
philosophy and physics, that of psychology. By dividing the physical world into two
parties: the internal or physiological bodily world and the external bodily world or
Physique, this doctor aimed to measure the phenomena that result from
impressions exerted by the physical world on the sensory organs and which he calls the
sensations.
. Wilhelm WUNDT (1832 – 1920)
Founder of a new science: experimental psychology, WUNDT defines the
perception as the combination of two or more pure sensations combined by the
association mechanisms that allow for the construction of representation systems of
outside world.
. Edward Bradford TITCHENER (1867 – 1927)
The English structuralist distinguishes three classes of elementary processes:
The sensation, an element of perception, has at least 4 attributes:
*qualité (bleu, froid…)*intensité (forte ou faible)*clarté *durée
The image, a characteristic element of the idea, is different from the
sensation due to the inferiority of its intensity and duration.
Affection, an element of emotion, has only two qualities:
pleasure, displeasure.

. The behaviorist movement

The behaviorist movement finds its origins in positivist and scientistic philosophy.
the 19th century and early 20th century American philosophy. He grants a
primary importance to observed behavior and the environment. It is Watson (United States-
 Unis) who, in 1913, created behaviorism as a method of observing the modification of
behavior of an organism based on changes in the environment. The study diagram
Behavioral psychology is built around stimulus and response.
The behaviorist movement regarded the human psyche as a black box.
psychologists of the time believed that the psyche should not be subjected to any
clean investigation: only stimuli coming from the environment should be considered
external and the responses obtained by a subject. According to behaviorists, behavior is
the result of a learning that must be observed but not sought to be understood or
interpret.
The great names that have marked this movement are Watson, Tolman, Lashley, Hull; and
for the second generation, Piéron, Sherrington and Von Helmholtz.
. The Gestalt school: a German psychology of form

The Gestalt school emerged in Germany around the same time as the
behaviorist movement. This term denotes in German, the structure or the form. Having a
much more complex meaning, this word has been preserved in both French and English
or in Japanese.

The verb 'Gestalten' means 'to shape, to give a meaningful structure.'

Let's take a symphony as an example: it is something other than a succession of notes.
If I listen to a melody, it is not the notes one by one as they are written on the
paper, that I hear, but it’s "the air", the melody as Gestalt that I grasp1So, 'the
Gestalt is a structured, complete form that makes sense to us.
when we observe an object for the first time, we capture the whole and not the
components. The details may appear later, our minds grasp the forms the
simpler.

The development of the Gestalt movement is generally associated with these three.
Marx WERTHEIMER (1880-1943); Kurt KOFFKA (1886-1941) and Wolfgang
KOHLER (1887-1967). Indeed, these authors articulated the main laws on which
the whole psychology of Gestalt is based on: the law of good form, and segregation
figure-background.

Oh the law of good shape.

1: Roger MUCCHIELLI, Philosophy of Knowledge, Bordas p. 69

 According to the supporters of this theory, the perceived shape tends by nature to be 'the '

best possible[2]the simplest and most significant. Thus, the objects that present themselves
sight or hearing can give rise to perceptions of different forms, one of these
perceptions is generally favored and is preferably established over any other. Hence follows
the most important principle is that of wholeness. Indeed, the various elements of a
objects are perceived simultaneously and organize themselves to form a whole. For example,
a group of stars is perceived as "constellation"[3]The human mind often grasps the
the predominant form that is the most significant, in its meaning.

The figure-ground segregation.

It is the primary structure of our perception. Every form presents itself to us.
detaching on a background. Depending on our concentration, we can grasp either the foreground or
the second.

By observing this image, some may grasp the detached black part against a background.
white, that is to say, the two faces taken from the side.

On the other hand, the first plane or the perceived shape would be for others the image of the vase,

that is to say the white part detached on a black background.

The Gestalt theory has greatly contributed to the understanding of phenomena of

perception. It has also distinguished itself from other theories. On one hand, by the idea
that "the whole is not the sum of its parts," unlike the Cartesian thinkers. On the other hand,
according to gestalt, there are not two modes: sensation then perception, but only one, and it
One should use either word interchangeably.5

2- The basic elements of the perception process

2: R. MUCCHIELLI, the same, p. 71

3: ibidem, p. 69.
 Perception is a primary mechanism by which human beings come to
to know their universe. It is also a process of translation: the stimuli
sensations are converted into impressions of reality4
Consciously or unconsciously, the individual categorizes and organizes their sensations of
in order to give it meaning. It identifies, selects, classifies, and judges the information perceived by
the senses.
The table below summarizes the basic elements of the perception process
from the initial observation to the interpretation of that observation.
Of course, the stimuli we receive from the environment go through the
five senses: taste, smell, hearing, sight, and touch. However, we give
selectively our attention to certain aspects of the environment and we ignore them
others according to our psychological and physiological state. For example, a mother who listens to her

baby crying, smells something burning in the kitchen and looks at her child who is on the
before falling, go select and fairly quickly, the stimulation that is the most
important.
This selection process involves both external and internal factors through
to which people filter sensory stimuli in order to determine those that
will receive the most attention.
External factors are characteristics that determine whether the stimuli
will be perceived or ignored.
Among the external factors, we can mention:
The dimension: the dimension of the perceived object has a rather significant impact on
our perception. In the sense that an object is larger or smaller compared to the objects that
Surrounding it captures attention more quickly.
The intensity: the more intense the stimulus caused by the object is, the more likely it is.
to be perceived.
Even the language used by a boss in a note addressed to an employee can
illustrate the principle of intensity. A note that says: 'please, kindly come to my office when
you will be able to" will not evoke the feeling of urgency like reading a note that says:
Come to my office immediately.5
The contrast: we tend to adapt and get used to
common stimulations from our environment. Unexpected or unusual stimuli attract
more of our attention. Thus, a worker who works in a highly mechanized factory

4 "Interpersonal Communication Methods" Chapter 1. p. 67

5: Hellriegel, Slocum, Woodman 'Management of Organizations' p. 70.

 comes to no longer hear the noise of the machines. However, if they stop, he will perceive
immediately the silence.
Mobility: a mobile factor is more likely to be perceived than a fixed factor.
In general, individuals are more sensitive to moving objects than to those that are stationary.
immovable.
For example, a speaker who moves while talking maintains interest better than another.
who sits quietly and reads his text.6
Repetition: a stimulus attracts more attention if it is repeated. This is the principle.
on which marketing directors rely to try to capture the attention of their
potential clients. To be more effective, a repeated advertisement several times is
always used when launching a new product.
Novelty - familiarity: a new stimulus in a familiar environment attracts
easily the attention. This phenomenon is at the basis of the task rotation system established
in many companies.
In the same way, a familiar stimulus in a new environment is much more
perceptible. An American visiting China for the first time will be attracted by an advertisement
of Coca Cola.
Alongside these external factors, there are also internal factors that are
also important. By internal factor, we mean any factor inherent to the personality of
The individual. The most important remain culture, motivation, and feelings.
Culture: the apprehension of reality is a phenomenon closely related to
the individual's culture, their habits, their living environment, their language.7Thus, the belonging of a

An individual in a given culture affects their perception and cultural differences.

are accompanied by perceptual differences.
Motivation: It has a very strong influence on perception. At a certain
thus, the individual perceives what they want, and their current needs guide their perceptual choices. If
Someone who is hungry will more easily perceive restaurants than bookstores.
Feelings: our feelings and emotions can play a significant role
important in the way we perceive the outside world. Generally, the information that
evoking negative feelings or that is upsetting is perceived less easily than that which is
emotionally neutral.

6: Nicole Coté "the person in the world of work" Gaetan Morin publisher p. 82

7: Nicole Coté 'the person in the workplace' p. 85

 After the selection, comes the stage of organizing perception. This is the
process by which subjects group environmental stimuli to arrange them into
identifiable and meaningful structures.8
Once the selection has taken place, it is the organization that takes over. The individual
organize sensory stimulations through a number of means, and the most
important are:
Continuity: Continuity is the tendency to perceive objects as
permanent structures. However, it can also present negative aspects. For example, the
Managers lacking flexibility may insist that their employees comply.
scrupulously the established habits. They may refuse to tolerate any activity guided by the
chance, even if it helps to solve problems, as it disrupts their need for
continuity.9
The closure of the contour: It is the tendency to complete a shape so that it
is perceived as a finished object. The individual perceives an object in its entirety even if a
only part of this object is visible.
Proximity: A group of objects can be perceived as connected due to
their proximity to each other.
Often, people who work in the same department are perceived as a
unity because of their physical proximity. For example, if four people from the third floor
leave their job, even for four different reasons, the personnel department can
perceiving these departures as a symptom of an existing problem on the third floor. 10

The resemblance: According to this principle, the more similar the objects are, the greater it is.

the tendency to perceive them as a common group.

These principles constitute the various means used by each person to
make sense of one's environment.
The way we interpret what we perceive varies considerably.
Each person selects and organizes sensory stimuli differently, which leads to
undoubtedly to different interpretations and reactions. According to William JAMES:
If part of what we perceive comes through our senses from the perceived object, another part
always comes from our mind." From there we can say that perception is a process
strongly subjective.

8: "Management of Organizations" p. 74

9: "Management of Organizations" p. 75

10: 'Management of Organizations' p. 76

 The process of perception

Environmental stimuli

Sensation

Taste View
Smell Touch
Hearing

Perceptual selection

External factors Internal factors

Dimension Culture
Intensity Motivation
Contrast Sentiments
- Mobility
Repetition
New feature
Familiarity

Organization of perception

Continuity
Closure of the contour
Proximity
Resemblance
 Interpretation

Subjectivity of perception
Intervention of internal and external factors

Giving meaning to the world around us is an operation that requires as

we explained it, a job of selection, organization, and interpretation. The
the perception of an object differs from one person to another because experience is individual,
personal therefore subjective.
The way people perceive themselves is undeniably important since it
is the basis of any relationship, of any judgment.
In the second part, we focus on the factors that influence the
social perception and which often leads to erroneous perceptions.

III - Social perception

Social perception or the perception of others is at the heart of relationships.

social. It is precisely the means by which people form impressions and
can come to understand each other.
This is how we can define social perception as "a process of
which we attribute certain characteristics or traits to people 11

Our social perception is influenced by a number of factors. The most

important are: the characteristics of the target, the characteristics of the perceiver, the influence
of context and attribution.

The factors determining our social perception

11: "Management of Organizations" p. 78

 The characteristics of the target
The perceived person plays a very important role in social perception. One
perceiving someone else, we gather various clues about this person: their
age, height, beauty..., and certain characteristics lead the perceiver to adopt a
particular behavior.

1. Physical appearance
Physical beauty is one of the most studied characteristics. Indeed, the
Physically attractive men and women are generally judged more positively.
that less attractive people. 12

There is also another aspect of physical appearance that can influence our
perceptions or our impressions and which resides in deficiency or disability.
Indeed, disability could represent a label just as striking as gender.
or the ethnicity, or even more. In the face of a disabled person, the deficiency is certainly
the most directly accessible information, to the point that behind this label, there is a risk of
erasing all other categorical memberships.
A person with a disability is first perceived as disabled before being
identified as a man or a woman, a black or a white. Some even speak of the
disability as a third gender and illustrates their statements with the example of restrooms
public places that display areas reserved for men, others for women and still
others to the disabled.

2. Clothing.
Our social perception is also influenced by the clothing of the
perceived person. Thus, a person who wears a black jacket, who has shaved hair, who has
a scar on the cheeks and who is dressed in a dirty and slightly torn jeans will activate
certainly in the perceiver a structure or a pattern on a category of people,
be the aggressors in society. The prominent characteristics of the target (the clues that
will dictate the behavior to follow.
However, it should be noted that the impact of different clothing can vary.
considerably depending on culture and years. In general, individuals who demonstrate a
dress code in line with their group's expectations leads to better production
impressions that those who deviate from this principle.13

12: R.J. Vallerand "The Foundations of Social Psychology" Gaeten Morin Publisher p. 228

13: "The Foundations of Social Psychology" p. 229.

 The clothing of a person can also have consequences on the level
professional. In 1985, DRAKE and COX demonstrated that when female candidates for a position
the director presented herself at the interview dressed in a masculine manner (colored suit
dark), they were assigned much more masculine traits: athletic, sincere,
competitive... On the other hand, women wearing provocative clothing were perceived
like less sincere, less kind, less caring women. 14

3. Hearsay
Hearsay is secondhand information or information that we
come from others. We are constantly forming impressions of people through
the information that reached us through our friends, our surroundings, or even the media.
For example, we often have very strong opinions, sometimes very clear ones.
a professor of one of our friends, without having ever met this person.

Despite the pitfalls it presents, we usually formulate hypotheses.

about what others are based on their physical characteristics or brief reports that
we had with them.
The information about the target has probably been the subject of the greatest
number of studies. However, the perceiver also has a role to play in social perception.

The characteristics of the perceiver

It is possible that the perceived information is influenced by a number of
factors characterizing the perceiving. Firstly, it is the influence of mood and then of the
motivation of the perceiver.

The influence of the perceiver's mood

We can observe that when we are in a good mood, we think about
positive things. These thoughts encourage us to see the world around us in a more
positive, influencing even the perceptions we have of the people around us.
We can also mention the case of optimistic individuals, who only notice the
favorable aspects of things.
Why do these people make positive judgments about others?
14: "The foundations of social psychology" p. 229
 An element of response from the work of MATLIN and STANG (1978) is called
"Pollyanna Principle." This 15principle is not very well known in French, as studies of
bases were made in English.
Pollyanna is a novel by Eléanor PORTER, published in 1913, later adapted by Walt Disney.
in a 1960 film, then in a series of Japanese animated cartoons.
It is the story of an orphan girl who faces misfortunes, but who persists in
to see only the good side of things and to make the people around her better.
Subsequently, this principle has become a psychological mechanism that encourages everyone

normal person prefers the positive or favorable aspects of things and favors the beautiful
and the pleasant in all areas of existence.
This principle also suggests that people feel better if they are surrounded by
good things and consequently, tend to express favorable assessments about
others.

2. Objectives and motivations of the perceiving

The process used to perceive a target can also be modified by nature.

the objectives aimed at by the perceiver. Thus, the process used when we perceive a
a person for the first time would not be the same as when we meet
regularly the same person.
Similarly, our perception of him will change, and during interactions
repeated, we will be more inclined to study his gestures in depth.
The objectives pursued by the perceiver will determine the nature of the interactions.
between the target and the perceiver and, possibly, the resulting perception of the target. By
for example, the processes by which you perceive another student in your course and the
the perceptions that will result will probably be different if: 16

You perceive this person simply because they have caught your attention.
2) You must choose whether or not to pass your course notes to this person, or
You must decide to agree to work with her. 17

The influence of context

15: "The Foundations of Social Psychology" p. 249

16: 'The Foundations of Social Psychology' p. 207

17: 'The Foundations of Social Psychology' p. 207

 Context plays a major role in social perceptions. It generally relates to
all the characteristics of the situation that are not directly related to the perceiver or to the
target. It encompasses several elements including the social nature of the situation and the place.
geographical area in which the action takes place.
It is important to note that the context sometimes triggers the activation of certain
structures that lead to sometimes immediate perceptions. For example, you read the
You read in the newspaper that a knife attack occurred on the bus. If you
Take the bus a few hours later, there is a good chance you will be attentive.
to the movements of the people you will encounter.
So, we can say that the context represents this backdrop that allows for
perceiving to make sense of what he observes.

The role of attribution

Attribution is an inference aimed at explaining why an event occurred.
place.
Indeed, an innate attitude in humans is to attribute to an event a
specific cause: "If this happens to him, it’s for that!". The explanation given becomes the
perceived cause of an event or behavior and corresponds to an attribution.
We will particularly focus on the work of Fritz HEIDER (1896-
1988), psychosociologist of Austrian origin whose work subject can be summarized
as follows:
How does man perceive and analyze his environment?
How does he explain the phenomena that surround him?
Fritz HEIDER noted that people have a deep motivation to understand.
their environment and in doing so, to ask themselves several questions related to the causes of
events and behaviors of others. 18

According to the same author, the process of attribution is crucial in perception.

social because it allows the recipient to forge a coherent and organized conception of the
target person, and consequently, the environment becomes explainable, predictable, even
controllable.
In general, the favorable conditions for issuing allocations are numbered
three19

18: "The Foundations of Social Psychology" p. 269

19: "The Foundations of Social Psychology" p. 271

 First, uncertainty can lead us to seek information and to better
to understand a situation or behavior.
Then, unexpected events like seeing a person bare-legged
walking in the street in the middle of winter can lead the perceiver to wonder and to search
the cause of such behavior.
Failure or success situations represent the latest factors leading to the
production of attributions. Often, people favor internal causes to explain
their success: 'I am strong, I have worked hard ...'. On the other hand, in case of failure, they claim that
it was not their fault, and they attribute such a result to external causes.
In the perception of others, the opposite process is noticeable. People tend to
to attribute external causes to explain the success of others and to attribute causes
internal in case of failure.
It is wise to point out that our attributions are not always correct and
objectives. These differ, and the same situation can give rise to explanations and
different attributions depending on individuals and circumstances. Since each of us
has its own way of perceiving its social environment, there is a good chance that each
make attributions based on one's previous experiences, culture, and motivation.
In general, social perception being a highly subjective process, the
perceptual differences are just normal things. But sometimes perception can
lead to real errors in judgment.

2- Errors in social perception

As it has been said, perception is a subjective process. Each person has their
a proper way to see and apprehend one's social environment. That being said, it is normal that
these perceptual differences lead to divergences in points of view. However, these
divergences can lead to errors in judgment. The main errors in the
social perception includes: stereotypes, the halo effect, projections.

The stereotypes

The stereotype is a set of beliefs and ideas that provide a simplified image.
the characteristics of a group. It is a process by which we catalog individuals
according to the predominant traits of their group, while not being interested in the characteristics
individual.
 Stereotypes are at the root of several judgment errors in perception.
social. The fact that there is consensus around them obviously makes it difficult for their
elimination. Although not justified, stereotypes are unfortunately well established in the
collective consciousness of groups.

Stereotypes can also have consequences in the professional realm. A

A large number of people believe that women are too emotional to hold positions of
direction.20 Likewise. In human resource management, stereotypes can also be
manifest in the processes of selection, recruitment, and promotion. Age, race and
religion also leads to certain forms of stereotypes: "all Muslims are ...
terrorists

Also, in the field of education, there are many factors, the

prejudices and stereotypes that lead teachers to show low expectations for
a student
1) The economic and social status
2) Race/ethnic belonging.
3) The type of school, the location where the school is situated.

4) Appearance: the way students dress can influence expectations of

teachers.
5) The language used: if the student does not speak or speaks poorly French, the teacher will have some a

prior to its subject.

The lack of organization on the part of the student.
7) Eagerness: immaturity or lack of experience can be mistaken for
learning abilities, leading to low expectations from the teacher.
8) The halo effect: some teachers generalize a characteristic that a student may have.
the learner and draw unfounded conclusions about the student's abilities or their
behavior.
The place where the student sits.
Negative comments about the students.
The placement of the student in a group classified as low may lead to
negative representations.

The halo effect

20: Nicole Côté. Perception in "the human dimension of organizations" Gaeten Morin publisher. P. 114.
 The halo effect consists of forming a general opinion about a person based on a
only characteristic. The perceiver may thus believe that a punctual person is also
honest, active or even generous, while these different character traits are not
not necessarily linked to punctuality or performance.

The projections

Projection is a phenomenon that consists of denying one's own character traits, one’s
feelings and anxieties by attributing them to the other. This process is very common among the
individuals who experience negative feelings towards themselves,
21
and who refuse to admit it
themselves.

Thus, shy people can easily detect this trait in others more.
What do other people do to him.

The Pygmalion Effect

Pygmalion was a legendary king of Cyprus from Greek mythology. Being

sculptor, he carved from the stone the statue of a superb woman and ended up falling for her
lovers. He then asked Aphrodite (the goddess of beauty and love) to bring life to
the statue, what she did. Then, he married his own sculpture that had become a woman.
Sociologists were the first to take an interest in this phenomenon, that is to say that in
Believing that something is true can make it real. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
or a realistic prediction.

Human nature being social by essence, individuals live only in a

group, interacting with other members and will not be able to do without what others think
others of them. This relationship, vital for Humans, is made from perceptions
mutually built by them, weave in groups and often let emerge
errors attributed to individuals.
What about the impact of perceptions in the organizational world? Can we
escape from this universe that imprisons our freedom to see and feel things?
We will attempt, in the following part, to provide answers to these questions.

21 Nicole Côté. The perception in "the human dimension of organizations" Gaeten Morin publisher, p. 107.
IV- PERCEPTION, MANAGEMENT AND ART

The effect of perception on organizational behavior

Perception in the field of work is of great importance as soon as
The perception of the situation in an organization becomes the basis for individuals' behaviors.
Most of the time, they are not aware of the impact of perceptions on
the relationships and consequently on work performance. Productivity, absenteeism are
among other things, reactions related to employees' perceptions on one hand of the relationship between
people and, on the other hand, the satisfaction with the conditions of the organization.

Productivity
Being productive at work is not perceived the same way by everyone. It depends
of the individual's perception of their situation within the organization. Some may
being influenced by issues like salary, working conditions, the nature of the work... but
For others, job satisfaction generates productivity and performance only if they
they perceive that the effort made is appreciated by others.
Absenteeism
As with productivity, absenteeism is the result of a perceptual judgment.
Many individuals prefer not to contribute to the promotion of work and believe that
not being present is better than changing the environment they are in. Dissatisfaction with
work, the lack of opportunities for promotions, the disdain for the nature of
his task... will lead the person to be aggressive with others, indifferent to productivity.
 Art, as a way of perceiving the world
In what way can we say that the artist's gaze on the world differs from that of others?
usual about things?

Bergson gives a response in what he calls the broadening of perception:

Indeed, for centuries, there have been men whose role is precisely to see and to
make us see what we do not naturally perceive. They are the artists. 22

Bergson, art serves to show us "things that did not explicitly strike our senses and
our conscience.
Painting is an art in which perceptual differences are largely expressed. The
Shapes and colors in the same table are perceived differently by the perceivers.
Besides, the artist is always curious to know the perceptions of others.
For him, a painting is a whole story, a whole experience, emotions that he projects through it.
this way of freeing oneself.
The artist perceives to perceive. When he looks at something, he sees it for itself and not
not for him, he perceives for pleasure. And as Bergson rightly says, it is because the artist
is "detached from reality", or "less adherent to life" than its perception is more
largest and deepest in the world.
The way each person perceives themselves, others, work... presents a
particular interest in human behavior because this leads to the type of relationship that
the individual maintains with the world around him. Being aware of his own perceptions of
the exterior helps to evaluate its actions, promote its reports and realize its
mistakes to avoid later.
In the last part of this work, we will try to give some advice in order to
that our perceptions be more insightful.

22: "Thought and the moving" Bergson, p. 149-150

V- THE CRITICAL PERCEPTION: TO HAVE
PERCEPTIONS PLUS PERSPICACIOUS

Making a mistake in the interpretation of a fact or behavior is just a matter

normal. Indeed, the subjectivity of perception can lead us to certain mistakes, which
By being aware of it, we can already readjust our course and redirect our
perception.

The first step is to know oneself. It is important to question oneself about

me, and to pay attention to the different aspects of our personality. It is therefore essential to
better understand oneself, in order to better understand the other.

Establish relationships, communicate, recognize differences and similarities

also constitutes the basis for a more objective perception. The interference between
perceiving and the target can only facilitate understanding, and helps to avoid any
perception based on stereotypes or prejudices.

Moreover, accepting the diversity of people leads to respect for differences.

Cultural. Engaging with others requires the person not to make assumptions.
but to formulate hypotheses or ideas about others and then verify them by
more information or evidence.
 At the end of this work, it should be noted that our main concern is to raise awareness among
people aware that no reality is therefore objective. The relationship we maintain
with the world makes our judgments subjective, our perceptions biased, and our behaviors
conditioned.

Since perception is the psychological process by which individuals

select, organize and interpret the facts, the experience thus takes on an aspect
personal or even subjective.

We explained earlier that the way people perceive themselves is

particularly important because from this the relationship between them and the nature of their is drawn out

behavior. Often, the process of perception can lead to errors in judgment and
it alters the relationship between individuals. The subject is of great importance when the
Perception errors affect behavior within organizations. The perception of
his work, his relationships with others and his situation has enormous implications on
employee performance, efficiency, and productivity.
CONCEPTS AND KEYWORDS

Perception

Sensation

Social perception

Halo effect

Learning

Prejudices

Perceptual errors

Perceptual illusions

Attribution

Process of perception

Attribution

Gestalt
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

C. BONNET et al., Cognitive Psychology, Grand Amphi Collection

Hellriegel, Slocun, Woodman, Management of Organizations, New Horizons, 1996.

Jean-Pierre GRUÈRE & Patrice STEAM, Facilitating Group Communication; Edition

of organizations, 2002.

Jean-Pierre GRUÈRE, Interpersonal Communication in 48 Notes; Edition of

organizations, 1995.

Joseph A. DEVITO, The Foundations of Human Communication, Gaëten Edition

Morin, 1993.

Nicole CÔTÉ, "Perception" in The Human Dimension of Organizations; Edition

Gaëten Morin, 1994.

Nicole CÔTÉ, "Perception" in The Person in the Work World.

R.J. Vallerand, "Social perceptions and cognitions" in The Foundations of
social psychology, Gaëtan Morin publisher, 1993.