Perception and Communication

WE DONT SEE THINGS AS THEY ARE, WE SEE THINGS AS WE ARE.

Perception
I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but, I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.

Perception Defined
The process by which we become aware of objects and events in the external world. The process of making sense of the world around us. Many people ignore the fact that all of us are different and that these differences equip us to view the world from our very own vantage points. Usually we spend more energy defending our own position than understanding others.

Where does the triangle begin?

PERCEPTION
The process by which an individual selects, organizes, and interprets stimuli into a meaningful and coherent picture of the world.

Perception
The study of perception is concerned with identifying the process through which we interpret and organize sensory information to produce our conscious experience of objects and object relationship. Perception is the process of receiving information about and making sense of the world around us. It involves deciding which information to notice, how to categorize this information and how to interpret it within the framework of existing knowledge. A process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment.

Definition
Perception includes all those processes by which an individual receives information about his environment- seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling. --joseph Reitz

Perception

You can see a white vase as figure against a black background, or two black faces in profile on a white background

What do you see?

Now what do you see?

AMBIGUOUS FIGURES
CAN BE SEEN IN DIFFERENT WAYS TO MAKE DIFFERENT IMAGES. BEST KNOWN AMBIGUOUS FIGURE IS OLD WOMAN/YOUNG WOMAN, BY E. G. BORING

 Mller-Lyer Illusion The two lines above are the same length, but the diagonals extending outward from both ends of the lower line make it look longer than the upper line

MEANING
Perceptions differ from person to person. Each individual perceives the same situation differently. Group perceptions can influence ones perception. Individuals organise and interpret things based on their past experiences and the important values they consider important. Employees tend to behave and act on certain things on the basis of their perception.

NATURE OF PERCEPTION
Perception is the process by which an individual gives meaning to the environment. It is a cognitive and psychological process. The manner in which a person perceives the environment affects his behaviour. There can be no behaviour without perception and perception lies at the base of every human action. Peoples action, emotions, thoughts and feelings are triggered by their perceptions of their surroundings. Perception is psychological process and manner in which a person perceives the environment affects his behavior. It is a subjective process, hence it may not match reality. It is an intellectual process by which a person selects, organizes and interprets from environment. Perception is a unique interpretation of the situation, not an exact recording of the situation. Perception is more complex and much broader than sensation.

 Since perception refers to the acquisition of specific knowledge about objects or events at any particular moment, it occurs whenever stimuli activate the sense organs. Though perception has been defined in a variety of ways, it basically refers to the manner in which a person experiences the world. Perception is an almost automatic process and works in much the same way within each individual, yet typically yields different perceptions. A stimulus that is not perceived has no effect on behaviour. Perception is a process that operates constantly between us and reality. Since perception is subjective process, different people may perceive the same environment differently. So perception is like beauty, that lies in the eyes of the beholder.

IMPORTANCE OF PERCEPTION
Perception plays a very important role in shaping the personality of an individual. Perception is central in interpreting the world around us. Perception affects the outcome of our behaviour because we act on the basis of what we see. Managers should be able to distinguish between a perceived world and the reality. An understanding of perception is important to understand and control the human behaviour .

The importance of perception in managerial behaviour are : i) Attitude formation: Perceiving events and people is critical in attitude formation. Perception creates a basis for our attitudes, opinions, feelings, beliefs and values. ii) Relationship base : the managers relationship with others are based on perceptions of their basic natures and motivations. Managers identify the perceptual structures and implicit personality of employees before making work relations. iii) Effective communication :Any message must be received and interpreted before the communication attempt is complete. Communication remains ineffective if it does not accomplish what the source intends. iv) Employment interview :Interviewers make perceptual judgments, draw impressions and arrive at conclusions about the applicants. Thus perception is a major input in their decision.

v) Performance evaluation :An employees performance appraisal is very much dependent on the perceptual outlook. The evaluator forms a general impression of an employees work. Thus, the perception process significantly influences the appraisal outcome. vi) Employee effort : In many organisations, assessment of an employees effort is a subjective judgment which is susceptible to perceptual distortions and bias. vii)Employees loyalty :When evaluating an employees loyalty, a manager is involved with persons perception. This is an important judgment that managers make about employees. viii)Organisational goals :The interpretation and accomplishment of organisational goals again depend on the philosophies and ideologies of those who are expected to pursue them. ix) Workers rights : The interpretation of workers rights and responsibilities is also dependent on the ideological motives and beliefs of managers. x) Employees unions :Perception plays a vital role in creating a better understanding of unions by management and vice-versa.

Stage 1: Selection
Life is a process of selecting information/data We are confronted with millions of pieces of stimuli each day (1,500
advertisements alone)

Factors That Influence Our Selection

A. Interest (College Basketball, Movies, Music) B. Need (lectures, traffic lights, buying 1st car) C. Aesthetics (noise, movement, color)
What advertisers, marketers, & designers do

Bad Elmo

D. Biology (sensation seeking, ADHD, circadian rhythms)

Sesame St. Syndrome

Educators competing with the mediaand losing

Stage 2: Organization
To eliminate the chaos of life (entropy) and help make sense of the world, we simplify and reduce our world We put our selected data in cognitive folders
Also called: Schematas or Cognitive Frameworks

Three Principles of Organization:

A) Binary Opposition (all things in pairs)
male/female, short/tall, white/black, good/bad

B) Already formed social categories

101 students, sorority sisters, UK basketball players, Italians

C) We also organize by similarities

Halloween Labs

size (big buildings), color (things that are purple), space (things from Hawaii), smell (things that make us hungry), function (computer, phone, TV, DVD, VCR, CD player, pager, palm)

How many Fs?

A Duck . . . Or a Rabbit?

Stage 3 Interpretation/Comprehension
Next, we have to Evaluate the data in our folders
Larger files (more complete and accurate) Smaller files (simplistic and underdeveloped)

Our Comfort Zone:

Not Comfortable with New or Small Folders We like our old, Big Folders (Basketball) and avoid our small, underdeveloped folders (Sra Lanka) College Forces Us To Make New Folders

Researchers now think that this is the reason for racism and prejudice Wonder Woman
All that we know about Italians we have learned from Mafia Movies, Dr. DeSantis, and the Olive Garden.

Young, or old?

Young, or old?

Native American . . . Or Eskimo?

Which line is longer? A B

Perfect Circle?

Count the black dots . . .

Ladder up or down?

Which way is water flowing?

Stage 4 Retention and Memory

We Dont Retain All We Select!
Photographic Memory & Hypnosis (still
not perfect)

Factors That Influence Longterm Memory

A) Recency of Time (today vs. 10
years from now)

B) Frequency of Use (628-2254,

names, TV channels)

C) Importance (test information, PIN

number, anniversary)

D) Emotional Connection
wedding)

(1st

kiss,,

A boy & his dog

E) Weirdness/Uniqueness (sumo
wrestlers, 500 lbs. Dancer, Tool Videos)