Topic: Perception

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Topic Perception
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Perception

• The process by which we interpret and organize
  our sensory inputs

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Perception

• People perceive the world uniquely
• What they notice, how they interpret it
• Whats salient (vivid, unique, novel)
• Past experience
• Expectations
• Differences in perceptions can cause problems
• Communication
• Conflict
• Motivation

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Perception

• Perception of the physical world
• Social Perception

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Object Perception
Proximity things close together are seen as
belonging together.
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Object Perception
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Object Perception
Closure filling in the gaps to see a complete
object.
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Object Perception
Figure-Ground Do you focus on the dark
section (profiles) or the white section
(vase)? The figure and the background switch
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Social Perception

• How we gather information about the social
  world--about peoples behavior, moods, motives,
  and traits
• Similar to object perception, but
• People are more dynamic than objects
• Were trying to figure out intentions, motives,
  and causes of behavior

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Social Perception

• 3 Aspects of Social Perception
• attribution
• impression formation
• errors in social perception

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Attribution

• Why did they do that?
• internal causes
• traits
• skills
• abilities
• external causes
• situational constraints

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How do we determine cause? (Kelley)

• Consensus - how do others behave
• Consistency - this person on other occasions
• Distinctiveness - this person in other situations

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Attribution and Performance Appraisal
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Attribution and Performance Appraisal

• 2 dimensions for performance attributions
• Internality
• internal (person)
• external (environment)
• Stability
• Stable
• unstable

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4 attributions for the cause of performance
Stable
Unstable
Internal
External
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Impression Formation

• What factors influence your impression of some
  one?

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Impression Formation

• Some information gets more weight than others
• Stability
• Primacy
• Credible source
• Negative information
• Unusual behavior

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First Impressions

• Influences what subsequent information we notice
  and it is interpreted
• Search for confirmatory information
• Fill-in information consistent with first
  impression

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Errors in Social Perception
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Errors in social perception

• Halo effect
• Impression on one dimension affects impression of
  unrelated dimension
• Most apparent when
• Traits affected are unclear from behavior
• Traits not frequently encountered
• Traits have moral implications

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Errors in social perception

• Actor-observer difference (aka the fundamental
  attribution error)
• Actors attribute their behavior to external
  causes
• Observer attribute actors behavior to internal
  cause

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Errors in social perception

• Self-serving bias
• Take credit for success
• Avoid blame for failure

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Performance appraisal and errors in social
perception

• Supervisor
• Subordinates success attributed to external
  factors
• Subordinates failure attributed to internal
  factors
• Subordinate
• Subordinates success attributed to internal
  factors
• Subordinates failure attributed to external
  factors

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Remember

• People perceive the world uniquely
• Actor/observer differences
• Past experience
• Expectations
• Differences in perceptions can cause problems
• Communication
• Conflict
• Motivation