Perception
Part II Continued
Organizing Process in Perception
• Grouping is done on basis of
Similarity
Proximity
Closure
• Figure-Ground
• Perceptual Constancy
Grouping
• Similarity Stimuli which are similar are put
together.
• Example Financial and accounting people are
grouped into one category.
NOTE:
Proximity
• Who are close to each other .
Example Person belonging to a particular
organization or hailing from a certain place.
Closure
• Tendency to complete incomplete things.
Closure
• This tendency is reflected in our perception of
things which do no exist but are created in
order to complete a particular phenomenon
which otherwise seems incomplete.
• Example Perceiving one as lazy and
irresponsible without checking completely
Figure-ground
• In perceiving stimuli or phenomena, the
tendency is to keep certain phenomena in
focus and other stimuli or phenomena in the
background.
Perceptual Constancy
• Tendency to stabilize perceptions so that
contextual changes do not affect them.
• Perceptual constancy helps to put perceptions
in a particular order and to recreate this order
and to create this order each time similar
stimuli or data are received.
Interpreting
• Perceptual set
• Stereo typing
• Halo effect
• Perceptual Defense
• Projection
Perceptual set
• Previously held beliefs about objects influence
an individual’s perceptions of similar objects.
Attribution
• Attribution refers to the process by which the
individual assigns causes to the behavior he or
she conceives.
Shortcuts in judging others
• Selective Perception :
People selectively interpret what they see on the basis of their interests,
background, experience and attitudes.
• Halo Effect :
Drawing a general impressions about an individual on the basis of a single
charecteristics.
Organizational Behavior / Perception 12
• Contrast Effect :
Evaluation of a person’s characteristics that are effected by comparisons with
other people recently encountered who rank higher or lower on the same
characteristics.
• 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
persons belongs.
Organizational Behavior / Perception 13
Perceptual Defence
• Perceptual defense is used by the perceiver to
deal with conflicting messages and data.
• If the data a person receives threaten beliefs
already held, the recipent uses perceptual
defense to deal with this phenomenon.
Perceptual defense
• Denial of the information or data received
• Some modification of the data received.
• Justification for holding on to one’s own belief.
• To avoid changing or modifying own values,
attitudes, and beliefs in relation to a particular
phenomenon.
Perception
• Process of checking
• Process of reacting
Surroundings
Perceptual defense
• Projection
• People tend to interpret information and data
received from other people in the light of their
own behaviour or inclination.
Note: Perception is more frequent in cases of
negative perception, although it also occurs
with positive perception.
Contextual Factors
• The interpersonal context
• The other persons background
• Organizational context
Interpersonal context
• People can be helped to develop better
interpersonal relationships in an organization,
their perception of others as similar to
themselves will increase and as a result the
grouping of their perceptions will be more
conducive to the objectives of the
organization.
Other person’s background
• Familiar people and strangers have different
influences on an individual’s perceptions.
Organizational context
• Congenial climate in organization helps in
more favourable perceptions
Process of checking
• Asking other people about their perceptions.
For example check things with the person in
question directly
Encourage feedback from the source of the
communication itself, the perceiver may slowly
increase the accuracy of his or her perceptions.
