PERCEPTION
Industrial Psychology Lecture
PS-TI FT UNMER Malang
PERCEPTION:
The process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting
information in order to make sense of the world
around us.
ENVIRONMENTAL STIMULI :
Feeling, Hearing, Seeing, Smelling, Tasting
Model of the Perceptual Process
ERRORS IN THE PERCEPTUAL PROCESS:
1. Stereotype in Org. Settings
It is the process of assigning traits to people based upon their
membership in a social category
generally have some inaccuracies, some overestimation or
underestimation of real differences, and some degree of accuracy.
One problem with stereotyping is that stereotyped traits do not
accurately describe every person in that social category.
2. Attribution Theory
The attribution process involves deciding whether an observed behavior or
event is largely caused by internal or external factors.
Internal attribution involves believing that an employee performs the job poorly
because he or she lacks the necessary competencies or motivation.
External attribution occurs if people believe the employee performs the job
poorly because he or she lacks sufficient resources to do the task.
ERRORS IN THE PERCEPTUAL PROCESS:
3. Self-Fulfilling Propechy
It occurs when our expectations about another person cause that person to act in a
way that is consistent with those expectations.
There are four steps in the self-fulfilling prophecy process:
Expectations formed.
Behavior toward employees.
Effects on the employee.
Employee behavior and performance.
4. Primacy Effect
It relates to the saying that “first impressions are lasting impressions.”
It is our tendency to quickly form an opinion of people based on the first
information we receive about them.
5. Recency Effect
It occurs when the most recent information dominates our perception of others.
It is stronger than the primacy effect when there is a long delay between the
time when the first impression is formed and the person is evaluated.
It is found in performance appraisals, for which supervisors must recall every
employee’s performance over the previous year.
ERRORS IN THE PERCEPTUAL PROCESS:
6. Halo Error
It occurs when our general impression of a person,
usually based on one prominent characteristic, colors
our perception of other characteristics of that person.
One trait important to the perceiver forms a general
impression.
It is most likely to occur when concrete information
about the perceived target is missing.
7. Projection Bias
It occurs when we believe other people have the same beliefs and
behaviors that we do.
It is a defense mechanism to protect our self-esteem.
IMPROVING PERCEPTION
1. Diversity Initiatives
2. Empathize with Others
3. Postpone Impression Formation
4. Compare Perceptions with Those of
Others
5. Know Yourself: Applying the Johari
Window
IMPROVING PERCEPTION
1. Diversity Initiatives
Companies have been introducing diversity initiatives
in order to have a deeply embedded set of values that
embrace workforce diversity.
The most common initiative is to actively recruit
people with diverse backgrounds.
Another initiative is to provide reasonable
accommodations in the workplace. Examples include:
Adjusting work hours, job sharing, allowing non-
traditional breaks for religious reasons, and on-site
childcare.
Diversity awareness activities that range from
celebrations of workplace diversity to focused
awareness training.
IMPROVING PERCEPTION
2. Empathize with Others
Empathy refers to a person’s ability to understand and
be sensitive to the feelings, thoughts, and situation of
others.
It helps people to become more sensitive to external
causes of another person’s performance and behavior,
thereby minimizing attribution errors.
It narrows the psychological distance between
prejudiced people and the targets of their prejudice.
IMPROVING PERCEPTION
1. Diversity Initiatives
2. Empathize with Others
3. Postpone Impression Formation
4. Compare Perceptions with Those of
Others
5. Know Yourself: Applying the Johari
Window
IMPROVING PERCEPTION
3. Postpone Impression Formation
By delaying impression formation until more
information is collected, we rely less on stereotyped
inferences to understand others.
It also enables people to engage in a developmental
learning process that forms a better understanding of
others.
4. Compare Perceptions with Those of Others
By sharing perceptions, people learn different points of
view and potentially gain a better understanding of the
situation.
IMPROVING PERCEPTION
5. Know Yourself: Applying the Johari Window
Johari Window is a popular model for understanding how co-workers
can increase their mutual understanding.
Developed by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingram.
Divides information about yourself into four windows –open, blind,
hidden, and unknown – based on whether you own values, beliefs and
experiences are know to you.
Open area includes information about you that is known to both you and others.
Blind area refers to information that is known to others but not to yourself.
Hidden area is information known to you but unknown to others.
Unknown area includes your values, beliefs, and experiences that aren’t know to
you or others.
Main objective is to increase the size of the open area so that both you
and colleagues are aware of your perceptual limitations
Cartoon Break