What are the factors influencing perception?

What are common perceptual distortions?

What is social learning theory?

What is the link between attribution and

perception?

What is involved in learning by reinforcement?

4-2Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Perception

The process by

which people select,

organize, interpret,

retrieve, and

respond to

information from the

world around them.

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What do you see?

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Influence Factors

Stages of PerceptionResponse

(Feeling, thinking, acting)

Organization RetrievalAttention and Selection

Schemas/Scripts

Organization Attention and Selection

Organization Attention and Selection

Attention and selection

Selective screening

Lets in only a tiny portion all the information that

is available

Two types of selective screening

Controlled processing

Screening without perceiver’s conscious

awareness

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Schemas

Cognitive frameworks that represent

organized knowledge about a given

concept or stimulus developed through

experience.

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Self schema

Contains information about a person’s own

appearance, behavior, and personality.

Person schema

Refers to the way individuals sort others

into categories in terms of similar

perceived features.

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Script schema a knowledge framework

that describes the

appropriate sequence of

events in a given

situation.

Person-in-situation

schema combines schemas built

around persons and

events.

4-10Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

You have just been told that your job has

been ‘down-sized’. This has never

happened to you before. Now what?

1) Take cues from your environment.

2) Pay attention to salient cues.

3) Create a new mental category (laid off).

4) Consider how others have responded.

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Interpretatio

n

Uncovering

the reasons

behind the

ways stimuli

are grouped.

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Retrieval

Attention and selection, organization, and

interpretation are part of memory.

Information stored in memory must be

retrieved in order to be used.

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Impression Management

Systematic attempt to influence how

others perceive us.

Cultivating positive impressions can help

to advance a job or career.

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Stereotypes

Assigns attributes to an individual that are

commonly associated with a group.

Individual differences are obscured.

Strong impact at the organization stage.

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Halo effects

Occur when one attribute of a person or

situation is used to develop an overall

impression of the individual or situation.

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Selective perception

The tendency to single out for attention

those aspects of a situation, person, or

object that are consistent with one’s

needs, values, or attitudes.

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Projection

The assignment of one’s personal

attributes to other individuals.

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Contrast effects

Occur when an individual’s characteristics

are contrasted with those of others

recently encountered, who rank higher or

lower on the same characteristics.

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Self-fulfilling

prophecy

The tendency to

create or find in

another situation or

individual that which

one expected to find.

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Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 4-21

SELF FULFILLING PROPHESY

Think about the self-fulfilling prophecy. Which

of the following would not be a good idea?

a. Instill confidence in your staff.

b. Identify errors in employee’s performance

and refer to them often.

c. Treat all new employees as if they are star

performers.

d. Set high performance goals.

4-22Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Attribution

Process of creating explanations for events.

Can be classified as internal or external: Internal factors – Personal characteristics that cause behavior (e.g., ,

lack of knowledge, ability, effort, motivation, attitude)

External factors – Environmental characteristics that cause behavior

(e.g., task difficulty, good/bad luck, not enough training, situational

factors like technical malfunctions, weather, health)

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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.

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External Attribution* High consensus* High distinctiveness* Low consistency

Internal Attribution* Low consensus* Low distinctiveness* High consistency

Fundamental attribution error

“Your poor performance is caused by you!”

In general, we tend to blame the person

first, not the situation.

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Self-serving bias

Tendency to take more personal

responsibility for success than failure.

I got an “A” because I studied.

I got a “D” because the exam was too hard.

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Do not overlook the external causes of others’ behaviors. (Identify and confront your stereotypes, your biases, your preconceived notions.)

Evaluate people based on objective factors.

Do not rush to judgment http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5ZljnMmrI

s(5.13 sec)

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Cultural differences in attributions :

Individualistic cultures - managers more likely to

attribute employee poor performance to internal

causes.

Negative attributes – blame team-mates for

subordinates for performance problems.

Collectivist cultures – overemphasize self-serving

bias; managers blame themselves for group’s

failure.

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Social learning theory

Describes how learning occurs through

interactions among people, behavior, and

environment.

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Self efficacy

The person’s belief that he or she can

perform adequately in a situation (self-

confidence, competence, ability).

Key factor in self-control.

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Reinforcement

The administration of a consequence as a

result of a behavior.

Appropriate use of reinforcement used can

alter the direction, level and persistence of

a behavior.

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Classical conditioning

A form of learning through association that

involves the manipulation of stimuli to

influence behavior.

Stimulus

Something that elicits some kind of a

response.

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Operant conditioning

The process of controlling behavior by

manipulating, or “operating” on, its

consequences.

Considered ‘learning by reinforcement’.

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Law of effect

Behavior that results in a pleasant

outcome is likely to be repeated while

behavior that results in an unpleasant

outcome is not likely to be repeated.

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You work really hard at your job, and

are not rewarded. The “law of

effect” would suggest that you will

a.Quit

b.Keep trying to impress the right

people4-38Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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Organizational behavior

modification

(OB Mod)

The systematic reinforcement of desirable

work behavior and the non-reinforcement

or punishment of unwanted work behavior.

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Positive reinforcement

Increases the frequency of a behavior

through the contingent presentation of a

desirable consequence.

Law of contingent reinforcement - only the

correctly exhibited behavior is rewarded.

Law of immediate reinforcement – reward

must be provided as soon as possible after the

behavior.

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Shaping

Creation of a new behavior by the positive

reinforcement of successive

approximations to the desired behavior.

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Continuous reinforcement

Administering a reward each time the

desired behavior occurs.

Intermittent reinforcement

Rewards behavior periodically — either on

the basis of time elapsed or the number of

desired behaviors exhibited.

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Negative reinforcement

The withdrawal of negative consequences

to increase the likelihood of repeating the

desired behavior in a similar setting.

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Punishment

The administration of negative

consequences, or the withdrawal of

positive consequences, to reduce the

likelihood of repeating the behavior in

similar settings.

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Extinction

The withdrawal of the reinforcing

consequences for a given behavior.

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Behavior modification techniques, when

utilized positively in organizations, can

be very powerful and effective in

encouraging desired performance.

Because of their potential power, they may

lend themselves to inappropriate or even

unethical uses.

4-49Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.