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Perceptual Errors in Everyday Life

People make countless perceptual errors everyday. These errors are: 

1. Selective Perception

People selectively interprets what they see on the basis of their interest, background, experience and attitudes. Such bias can exist in the decision making field because of his/her wrong interest or attitudes and they are following the principles of “we perceive what we like to perceive.” 

We are constantly bombarded much with sensory information that it is impossible for us to pay attention for everything. Our subconscious mind scans our environment and selects what it seems easy to notice. Even then, people not see things the way they are, they also tend to see what they expect to see, as well as what they want to see. 

When we perceive situation that looks familiar to us, our past experience often cause us to see the vent in terms of what we expect. Out limits spans of attention leads us to categorize things by aspects that appear similar to what we already know, and we save time and energy in assuming that the current situation is comparable to previous experience. 

We not only tend to see what we expect, but we are also susceptible to seeing things the way we want them to be. For example, most people believe they are above average in intelligence as we are highly skilled drivers, because we want to believe flattering things about ourselves. When considering information, we have gathered, fail to support our preferences. People who are heavily committed to a given position allow the weight of their beliefs to influence how a situation is perceived. Employees who are strongly in favor of one side of a controversial work issue will actually perceive a meeting called to discuss possible options in a fundamentally different way than employees in the opposite camp. 

We are extremely willing to take the credit for our successes and we blame our failures on external circumstances beyond our control. When a sports team wins sport, it is because of hard work and talents of team members. When they lose, it is due to bad officiating, weather conditions, lack of fan support, and so on. And students who perform well on a test do so because they understand the material, are knowledgeable, or possibly because they are gifted test takers. However, those who perform poorly on the very same test accuse the professor of testing uncovered materials, offering poorly worded questions, or applying unfair grading practices. We perceive internal cause for desirable outcomes and external interference for unfavorable consequences. 

Corrective Procedures 
  • Take multiple perspectives 
  • Be aware of our expectations beforehand. 
  • Strive for objectivity. 
  • Ask how an impartial outside would view the situation. 
  • Be honest in our assessments of why we feel the way we do towards a person or event. 

2. Impression Effect/ Halo Effect 

This is the process of evaluating an individual performance based on his / her single characteristic. Such a biases is also called halo effect. The halo effect occurs when we believe a single characteristic possessed by someone is associated with a host of other desirable traits. For example, most attractive people are also believed to be smarter, warm people are rated as sociable and humorous and intelligent people are rated as better leaders. Just on the basis of individual attribute he or she will be evaluated favorably or unfavorably. This type of error has generally been seen at the time of employee selection and evaluating performance of employees in our organization. Such impression effect distorts decision making capacity of a manager by limiting evaluation of employees to a single characteristics. 

Even before knowing any of the important features, people start having impressions and judge there by. This sometimes leads to wrong decisions when initial impressions are believed to be more relevant and important in rendering a decision than later impressions. This leads to the impression effects causing judgmental biases. Such bias is based on the principle of “first impression is the last one.” 

Our first impressions are intuitive. Our always working subconscious processes have detected something about the person that triggers an emotional reaction resulting in feeling of like or dislike. A primary effect occurs when initial impressions are believed to be more relevant and important in rendering a decision than later impressions. Consistent evidence has been found to indicate that first impressions often are lasting ones, demonstrating that the sage advice mothers give their children “to be sure and make a good first impression” has merit. However, first impressions can also be misleading. Some attributes (such as attractiveness or high energy levels) often lead us to believe that people possessing such desirable qualities must have other positive dimensions as well. 

The primary effect can occur when decision makers evaluate situations as well as people. When we are exposed to opposite sides of a controversial issue, the first presentation can carry more weight than subsequent presentations. 

When evaluating resumes for potential new employees, interviewers tend to focus on one or two bits of information and make their initial impressions. When candidates are interviewed, those with favorable first impressions and stronger halo expectations are treated more pleasantly and tapped for confirming information by interviews, rather than being treated without bias. 

Corrective Procedures 
  • Take multiple perspectives 
  • Force ourselves to consider events before and after the ones that readily come to mind. 
  • Play devil’s advocate to uncover the justification for what we believe. 

3. Perceptual Defense 

People often screen out perceptual stimuli that make them uncomfortable and dissatisfying. People have certain inherent tendencies to defend their reactions against new information which would be conflicting with their existing impressions. Perceptual defense is performed by: 

a) Denying the existence or importance of conflicting information. 
b) Distorting the new information to match the old. 
c) Acknowledging the existence of new information but treating it as a non-representative exception. 

People generally build defenses against stimuli or events that are either personally or culturally unacceptable or threatening. From the view point of the organizations, perceptual defense plays an influential role in understanding superior-subordinate relationship. 

4. Stereotyping/ Categorization Effect 

Stereotyping is judging someone on the basis of one’s perception of the group to which that person belongs. It can be also called stereotyping bias or availability bias. It involves how information is stored and assessed in our minds. Representativeness occurs when we perceive information as typical or representative of the class to which we have categorized it, regression to the mean happens when we tend to ignore that fact that extreme events are likely to be more average the next they occur, and availability occurs when we are more likely to recall a memory due to its vividness or ease of retrieval from our minds and assume that the information is more typical or likely because it is easily imagined. 

Corrective Procedures 
  • Take multiple perspectives. 
  • Examine assumptions to see if categorization may have biased our though processes. 
  • Support data retrieved from memory with hard facts. 
  • Separate seemingly related items to uncover the source of their connectivity. 
  • Be aware that random events occur and that we seek patterns where none may exist. 
  • Recognize that coincidence does happen. 

5. Project / Presentation Effect 

It is easy to judge others if they assume that they are similar to us. For instance, if we want challenge and responsibility in our job, we assume that others want the same. The tendency to attribute one’s own characteristics to other people is called as project. When managers are engaged in project, they compromise their ability to respond to individual differences. They tend to see people more homogeneous than they really are. 

Presentation effects occur when we receive information influences how we decide. We often use an initial value as a starting point to our assessments and adjust from the beginning to achieve a final decision. It is mainly caused due to limited short term information processing capacity of the human mind. In other words, the limited short-term information processing capacity of the human mind leads decisions makers to focus on the most important aspects of a situation to solve a problem. Research indicates that even outrageously extreme anchors can unknowingly sway our judgments. 

Moreover, how information is presented to us can also influence the way we use it to make decisions. The tendency for decision makers to anchor from an initial starting point can influence our judgment. 

During job interviews, it is common practice for the interviewer to ask perspective hires the salary range they anticipate for the job. Interviewees who offer an amount, especially one that is too low, may allow themselves to fall victim to anchoring. The interviewer is likely to anchor on the given figure and adjust upward or downward only slightly, narrowing the salary range under consideration. Anchoring effects suggest that during the interview process, we are better served by responding with a less concrete answer that allows the salary range to be flexible. 

When information becomes an anchor, we adjust insufficiently from that amount when making decisions. This is why persuasive arguments can sometimes be very successful if they present extreme initial views. Often, we are not even aware that an anchor value has been allowed to sway our judgment. Because of their pervasiveness, presentation effects can have a significant impact on business decisions. 

Corrective Procedures 
  • Take multiple perspectives. 
  • Attempt to consider the problem before presentation information is provided. 
  • Be prepared with enough information to minimize presentation effect. 
  • Be aware of how our presentation of the problem may bias the opinions of others. 
  • Seek out other opinions and perspectives, especially from those not too close to the problem. 
  • Consider best, worst, and most likely scenarios. 

6. Perceptual Change 

In perception, is a transaction between the individual and the outside world in order that reality may become predictable? What are the conditions under which perceptual changes occur? Is a mere rational logical or intellectual understanding of one’s own perceptual tendencies or situations enough to bring about perceptual change? The answer is, No. The prime condition for perceptual change is frustration. When faced with frustration, a person is ready to change his perception. Research in the field of opinion and attitude change, has demonstrated this fact beyond doubt. People, working in a distorted room, continued to believe that the room was square (as most rooms are) until it became impossible for them to achieve their objectives with the faulty perception. Only then they were able to see that the room was distorted. 

Another condition for perceptual change is the desire, willingness and determination to bring about such a change. As John Power said, “Perceptual change comes through awareness of one’s perceptions and perceptual framework.” This is possible only when there is willingness, desire and determination. Some other thinkers point out that, in some situations, determination may have negative effects. They advocated observation of self, processes as they occur, accompanied by purpose, analysis and interpretation. The very act of observation, they assert, breaks the influences of the past operating on perceptual processes, and frees it of all sources of possible distortions. 

7. Framing Effects

Framing effects occur when decision makers tend to avoid risk or when problems are framed as gains or losses. It involves selecting and highlighting certain aspects while excluding or minimizing others. The effects of problem framing have been found in other types of decisions as well. For example, when patients are asked to select the form of cancer treatment they prefers, how the information is presented to them influences their decisions. More lung cancer patients select surgery when they are told that they have a “68% chance of living for more than 1 year” rather than when they are told that surgery results in a “32% chance of dying by the end of the year”. 

An employee whose attendance is framed in positive terms (of example, the percentage of days present on the job) is likely to be evaluated more favorably than another employee with the exact same rate of absenteeism whose attendance is framed negatively (the percentage of days absent from the job). People have a general tendency to evaluate the same characteristic more positively when given a positive description than when given a negative description. 

Not only does the framing of our choice influence our decision processes, but the framing the outcomes of our choices has an impact on how we think as well. 

Research suggest that decision makers perceive equal situations differently depending on how they are framed. Due to our limited mental capacity, we bias our thinking when we focus on the descriptive elements used to categorize what we see. What we perceive is condensed, summarized, and recorded by the mind according to what seems to be the most important aspect of the situation. Although we might recognize at an intellectual level that a glass that is half full is the same as one that is half empty, different frames systematically distort how we react to identical situations and how we make decisions. 

Corrective Procedures 
  • Take multiple perspectives. 
  • Try to frame problems in terms of objectives we are trying to achieve. 
  • Never automatically accept a given frame – always reframe and look for distortion, 
  • Strive for neutrality. 
  • Frame the problem from the opposite perspective and attempt to justify the new viewpoint. 
  • Be aware of how our framing might influence the decisions of others. 

8. Escalation of Commitment

Given the several thousand business decisions made every day, some are bound to be unsuccessful. Rationally, it makes sense that once we recognize that we’ve made a bad decision, we should take steps to correct the situation by cutting our losses. However, often bad solutions are followed by even more ineffective decisions. Investors purchase more and more shares of a company, even though the stock price keeps on declining. 

Organizers pour large amounts of money into an operation even when it’s apparent that the event will lose money. The tendency of commitment – decisions that continue to support previously unsuccessful courses of action because too much has been invested to quit. 

We are sometimes forced to make a decision as a result of a previous decision. For example, you personally hired to a new employee and you believed she would be an excellent performer in your department. However, initial indications are that she isn’t going to live up to your expectations, and in fact, she even seems to be having a detrimental effect on her colleagues. Should you terminate her? Perhaps she just needs time to adjust, and after all, you invested a lot of time and money in her selection and training. After more time passes, it still seems as though she isn’t working out, but now you even more invested in more in the hope of success and improvement in her. Should you fire her, or wait and see if things improve? 

What if you’ve invested a significant amount of money in a project that has spent its budgeted amount but has yet to prove successful? You are faced with two choices, either accept the loss and end the project or invest more capital into the project in the hope of turning things around. How would you decide? On a more personal level, anyone who has been put on hold while on the telephone, faces escalating commitment. 

Decision makers willingly escalate their commitment to unsuccessful decisions for a number of reasons. 
  • First, failure to support our own previous action openly acknowledges that the initial decision was a mistake, forcing us to “lose face” and reducing our political credibility. We seek self-justification and desire to look good to ourselves and others by proving that we are indeed rational and competent at resolving problems, therefore, we decide to continue even though all indications are that we should stop. 
  • Second, as mentioned under framing effects the way we frame a problem, influences our subsequent decision. The obvious loss of discontinuing a previous course of action biases us to prefer to “take the gamble” in the hopes of gains that may be realized if only we preserve long enough. 
  • Third, decision makers often believe that persistence is necessary and desirable to whether the storm get back on course. After all, traditional wisdom insists that “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again,” and the future may still prove that our initial decision was correct. 
  • Fourth, as the amount of responsibility felt by the decision maker for the original decisions rises, the likelihood of escalating commitment increases. When we feel personally responsible for making the first decision, negative feedback about what we did biases us by limiting our objectivity and changing how we view and evaluate alternatives. So, if you are the one who decided to hire a new employee, you are not only less likely to fire her, but you are also more likely to distort your perceptions of her work performance and abilities in her favor. 
Corrective Procedures 
  • Take multiple perspectives. 
  • Consider arguments from others, especially from those who were not involved in the initial decision. 
  • Be aware of why we are committing ourselves to a further course of action. 
  • Anticipate a possible withdrawal beforehand and factor the cost or retreat into our thinking. 
  • Explicitly share responsibility with others. 
  • Set limits in advance and stick to them. Select others who were not involved with the initial decision to make the new decision.
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Application of Perception Theories in Organizations

Organization is a place where different types of individuals work together for achieving common as well as individuals goals. In the process of working together they need to understand each other. Such understanding of others depends on one’s perception. Perception plays a vital role in organizations particularly in the field of recruitment, selection, appraisal, promotion and so on. 

People’s perceptions and attributions influence how they behave in their organization. Perception describes the way people filter, organize and interpret sensory information. Attribution explains how people act, determining how people react to the actions of others as well. Accurate perception allows employees to interpret what they see and hear in the workplace effectively to make decisions, complete tasks and act in ethical manner. Faculty perceptions lead to problems in the organization, such as stereotyping, that lead people to erroneously make assumptions. 

Perception is a concept of psychology. The subject of organizational behavior applies the concept to explain various events and behavior that occur in formal organizations. What are those applications? 

Often the main aspects of perception in an organization is how an individual views others, as this can be a major point in how that person will behave within the business. It is also an aspect of how an individual is motivated within an organization. If they preserve people in a certain way then they may believe they are disliked, not listened to or ignored by this person and therefore their motivation to do anything will be far smaller. This is why in organizations, there needs to be sure that employees will in the organization fit before being hired and then when they are hired their first perceptions of others need to be good. 

To achieve first impression good companies will often introduce new employees and current employees in ways which show off key skills and highlight the importance of these people to the team. So positive perceptions are built instead of negatives. The perceptual process is how organizations cope with the aforementioned. 

Attribution Theory


Attribution theory has been proposed to develop explanations of the ways in which we judge people differently, depending on what meaning we attribute to a given behavior. Basically, the theory suggests that when we observe an individual’s behavior, we attempt to determine whether it was internally or externally caused. That determination, however, depends largely on three factors. 

1. Distinctiveness 

Distinctiveness refers to whether an individual displays different behaviors in different situations. Is the employee who arrived late today also the source of complaints by co-workers? What we want to know is, if this behavior is unusual or not. If it is unusual, the observer is likely to give the behavior an external attribution. If this action is not unusual, it will probably be judged as internal. 

2. Consensus 

If everyone, who is faced with a similar situation, responds in the same way, we can say the behavior shows consensus. Our late employee’s behavior would meet this criterion if all employees who took the same route to work were also late. From an attribution perspective if consensus is high, we would be expected to give an external attribution to the employee’s late coming, where as if other employees who took the same route made it into work on time, our conclusion as to causation would be internal. 

3. Consistency

Finally, an observer looks for consistency in a person’s actions. Does the person respond the same way over time? Coming ten minutes late for work is not perceived in the same way for the employee for whom it is a unusual case (he hasn’t been late for several months), as for the employee for whom it is part of routine pattern (he is regularly late two or three times a week). The more consistent the behavior, the more the observer is inclined to attribute it to internal causes. 

Attribution theory tell us that if an employee performs at about the same level on other related tasks as he does on his current task (low distinctiveness), if other employees frequently perform differently better or worse-than employee does on that current task (low consensus) and if employees’ performance on this current task is consistent over time (high consistency), their manager or anyone else who is judging their work is likely to hold them primarily responsible for their task performance. 

In short, it can be stated that the studies on attribution theory have generated the following conclusions: 

  1. When we are explaining our own behavior, we tend to over-estimate the importance of the situation and under estimate our own personality characteristics. 
  2. When we observe someone else behavior, we tend to over-estimate the influence of personality traits and under-estimate situational influences. 
  3. In evaluating the performance of employees, poor performance is generally attributed to internal personal factors, especially when the consequences are serious. 
  4. Employees tend to attribute their success to internal factors and their failures to external causes. 
  5. In casual situations, as we observe the successes and failure of others, we tend to attribute their successes to personality traits such as effort and ability and their failures to external factors such as the difficulty of the task. 

Attribution Errors


Attribution theory states that we have a tendency to explain someone’s behavior by attributing a cause to their behavior. In our effort to try to understand the behavior of others, we either explain their behavior is terms of their personality and disposition (internal), or we explain their behavior in terms of the situation (external). You might, for example, explain your professor’s harsh words about class performance as being the result of his angry personality type, or you might attribute it to his disappointment with the overall class performance. If you attribute his harsh words to an angry personality type, then you have made the fundamental attribution error. 

1. Fundamental Attribution Error 

The fundamental attribution error is our tendency to explain someone’s behavior based on internal factors, such as personality or disposition, and to underestimate the influence that external factors, such as situational influences, have on another person’s behavior. We might, for example, explain the fact that someone is unemployed on his or her character, and blame him or her for his or her plight, when in fact he or she was recently laid off due to a sluggish economy. Of course, there are times when we are correct about our assumptions, but the fundamental attribution error is our tendency to explain the behavior of others based on character or disposition. This is particularly true when the behavior is negative. 

2. Self-serving Bias 

A self-serving bias is nay cognitive or perceptual process that is distorted by the need to maintain and enhance self-esteem. When individuals reject the validity of negative feedback and focus on their strengths and achievements but overlook their faults and failures, or take more responsibility for their group’s work than they give to other members, they are protecting the ego from threat and injury. These cognitive and perceptual tendencies perpetuate illusions and error, but they also serve the self’s need for esteem. For example, a student who attributes earning a good grade in an exam to their own intelligence and preparation but attributes earning a poor grade to the teacher’s poor teaching ability or unfair test questions is exhibiting the self-serving bias. Studies have shown that similar attributions are made in various situations, such as the workplace, interpersonal relationships, sports and consumer decisions. 

Both motivational processes (i.e. self-enhancement, self-presentation) and cognitive processes (i.e. locus of control, self-esteem) influence the self-serving bias. There are both cross-cultural (i.e. individualistic and collectivistic culture differences) and special clinical population (i.e. depression) considerations within the bias. Much of the research on the self-serving bias has used participant self-reports of attribution based on experimental manipulation of task outcomes or in naturalistic situations. Some more modern research, however, has shifted focus to physiological manipulations, such as emotional inducement and neural activation, in an attempt to better understand the biological mechanisms that contribute to the self-serving bias.
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Principles of Perceptual Selection

There are different principles about perceptual selection. The basic principles of perceptual selection are as follows:
Principles of Perceptual Selection
1. Principles of Size 

Size is a characteristic which may affect the perceptual selectivity by affecting the attraction of the perceiver. Generally, bigger is the size of perceived stimulus, higher is the probability that it attracts the attention of the perceiver and he may select it. Usually, letter of higher sizes in newspapers or books are first selected for reading. 

2. Principles of Intensity 

The intensity principle of attention states that the more intense the external stimulus is, the more likely it is to be perceived. A loud sound, strong odor, or bright light are noticed more as compared to a soft sound, weak odor, or dim light. For example, based on the intensity principle, commercials on televisions are slightly louder than the regular programmes. 

3. Principles of Repetition 

The repetition principles states that a repeated stimulus is more attention-getting than a single one. Repetition increases people’s sensitivity or alertness to the stimulus. Advertisers use this principle by repeating advertisement of the same product to attract people’s attention. In the organizational context, repeated instruction, even for the routine work, is based on this principle. 

4. Principles of Novelty and Familiarity 

Novelty and familiarity principle states that either a novel or a familiar external situation can serve as attention getter. New objects or events in a familiar setting, or familiar objects or events in new setting draw better attention. For example, in job rotation, when worker’s jobs are changed from time, they become more attentive to their new jobs as compared to the previous ones. Similarly, communication in familiar jargons attracts more attention. 

5. Principles of Contrast 

The contrast principle states that external stimuli which stand against the background, or which are not what people are expecting, receive more attention. Letter of bold types, persons dressed differently than other; buildings of different colors in the same locality, etc. get more attention. Contrast is a kind of uniqueness which can be used for attention getting. 

6. Principles of Motion 

Motion principle states that a moving object draws more attention as compared to a stationary object. For example, workers may pay more attention to the materials moving by them on a conveyor belt as compared to the maintenance needs of a machine lying next to them. Advertisers use this principle in their advertising by designing signs which incorporate moving parts, for example, commercials on televisions (moving ones) get more attention than print media.
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Specific Application of Perception in Organizations

People often see the same phenomenon differently both within the organizational context and outside the organization. For example, in relation to a strike, a manager may perceive the immediate cause of the strike as trivial, while the workers may see it as very serious. Similarly, when there is any accident in the factory, the supervisor may treat it as the carelessness of workers while the workers may treat it as the high-handedness of management and lack of adequate provisions of security measures. A manager is mainly concerned with the achievement of organizational objectives through specified behavior of its members. And the behavior of the people is invariably affected by perception. The behavior of people gets affected by the facts which they consider important even though factually that may be incorrect or non-existent. The organizational world has begun to realize the importance of perception so that managers are trained to understand human perception as much as possible. The understanding of perception is the key to understand and control behavior. The major areas where the special attention is required in regard to perceptual accuracy and management and behavioral application of perception of utmost importance, are followings:

a) Employment Interview

A major input to find who is hired and who is rejected in any organization is the employment interview. It’s fair to say that few people are hired without an interview. But the evidence indicates that interviewers make perceptual judgments that are often inaccurate. In addition, agreement among interviewers is often poor, that is different interviewers see different things in the same candidate and thus arrive at different conclusions about the applicant. Interviewers generally draw early impressions that become very quickly entranced. If negative information is exposed early in the interview, it tends to be more heavily weighted than if that same information comes out later. Studies indicate that most interviewers’ decisions change very little after the first four or five minutes of their interview. As a result, information elicited early in the interview carries greater weight than does information later eluted “Good applicant” is probably characterized more by the absence of unfavorable characteristics than by the presence of favorable characteristics.

b) Selection of Employees

It is one of the areas, where managers need to be very careful. Normally, employees are selected on the basis of selection tests, interviews and reviews of the applicant’s background. There are various cases, where information is vague and managers are subject to many of the perceptual problems where they make the selection decisions. Managers sometimes get swayed away by Halo effect and stereo-typing. There can be times when manager’s emotional state is not fit for justifying his role as a selective authority. He might make a mountain out of molehill when not in a good mood.

c) Performance Appraisal

Every organization has some system of performance appraisal. It is generally done by superiors and sometimes by people at different levels as in 360 degree performance appraisal. Many a time, it has been found that superiors or others get carried by Halo effect or their personal biases. They have liking or favor for some people and dislike for others. These factors act as hindrance to objective performances appraisal. And sometimes these factors weight so much in favor of or against some employees that the real purpose of performance appraisal gets defeated.

d) Delegation of Authority

In organizational set up delegating authority to do various task is the way of life. But, a manager decision whether to delegate or whom to delegate is many time affected by his perception of employees. Various perceptual errors make him delegate someone who is not the best available choice in the organizations for that job. And this phenomenon has a very discouraging effect on the person who has been overlooked and his perception regarding delegating authority changes towards unreality.

e) Interpersonal Working Relationship

Organizations are intended to bring about integrated behavior. Therefore, managers in the organization need to know whether or not members share similar or at least compatible perceptions. If they do not, the problems of the organization becomes greater and requires efforts to make perceptions more compatible. Mis-perceptions usually lead to strained relations and may even result in open conflict among people.

f) Employee Effort

In many organizations, the level of an employee’s effort is given high importance just as teacher frequently consider how hard you try in a course as well as you perform in examinations. So often do managers. An assessment of an individual’s effort is a subjective judgment susceptible to perceptual distortions and bias.

g) Employee Loyalty

Another important judgment that managers make about employees is whether or not they are loyal to the organization. Despite the general decline in employees, especially those in the managerial ranks, openly disparage the firm. Furthermore, in some organization, if the word gets around that an employee is looking at other employment opportunities outside the firm, that employee may be labeled as disloyal and he may be cut off from all future advancement opportunities. The issue is not whether organizations are right in demanding loyalty. The issue is that many do, and that assessment of an employee’s loyalty by one decision maker may be seen as excessive conformity by another. An employee who questions a top management decision may be seen as disloyal by some, yet caring and concerned by others.
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Factors Affecting Perception: Internal, External and Symbolic Factors

Perception refers to the ways in which a person experiences the world. Perception is the process by which people organize, interpret and experiences the ideas. This process of perception helps us to manage noises, sights, smells, tastes received from the environment and give a meaning to them. Perception is a process that includes both a selection and organizing mechanism. Perceptions vary from person to person. Different people perceive different thing about the same situation differently. But more than that we assign different meanings to what we perceive and the meanings might change one’s perspective or simply make things mean something else.

Following factors influence the perceptual mechanism or the process of perception.
Factors Affecting Perception

1. External Factors 
These factors include the characteristics of perceived object. These are: 

a) Intensity 

The intensity states that more intense the situations, the more likely it is to be perceived. For example, loud noises will be noticed more than a soft sound. Similarly, high intensity increases the chances of selection. If sentences are underlined it gets more attention than in normal case. 

The greater the intensity of stimulus, the more likely it will be notices. An intense stimulus has more power to push itself to our selection than does the weak stimulus. 

b) Size 

Size plays an important role in perception. The bigger the size of the perceived object, higher is the probability that it is perceived. Size always attracts the attention of the individuals. For example, we see hundreds and thousands of people on the road, but we always remember the ones who are usually tall. In other words, size establishes dominance and over-rides other things and thereby enhances perceptual selection. The bigger the size of perceived stimulus, higher is the probability that it is perceived. 

c) Frequency 

A repeated external object/stimulus gets more attention than a single one does. Repetition increases our sensitivity to the object. A situation that is repeated has a chance of catching our attention. For example, we remember the advertisement that is repeated again and again. In other simple words, a repeated external stimulus gets more attention than a single one. A stimulus that is repeated has a chance of catching our attention. Repetition increases our sensitivity and alertness to the stimulus. Thus, greater the frequency with which a sensory stimulus is presented, the greater the chances we select it for attention. Repetition is one of the most frequently used techniques in advertising and is the most common way of receiving our attention. Repetition aids in increasing the awareness of the stimulus. 

d) Order 

The order in which the objects or stimuli are presented is an important factor in influencing selective attention. Sometimes, the first piece of information among many pieces received, receives the most attention, thus making the other pieces of information less significant. Sometimes, the most important piece is left to the end in order to heighten the curiosity and perceptive attention. For example, a writer of communication may intentionally build up to a major point by proceeding through several similar and less important points. 

e) Repetition 

A repeated message is more likely to be perceived than a single message. Work instructions that are repeated tend to be received better. Marketing managers and advertisers use this principle in order to get the customer’s attention. Morgan and King stated that “a stimulus that is repeated has a better chance of catching us during one of the periods when our attention to a task is waning. In addition, repetition increases our sensitivity or alertness to the stimulus.” 

f) Novelty and Familiarity 

The principle states that either the familiar or the novel factor can get attention easily. New objects in a familiar setting or familiar objects in a new setting will draw attention. People quickly notice an elephant walking along a city street. Similarly, among a group of people walking towards us, we are most likely to perceive the face of friend in the crowd. People with unusual clothing will be attention getters. 

g) Movement 

People pay more attention to moving things than that of the stationary ones. For example, people are more attracted by flying aeroplanes than a stationary one in the airport. In other words, moving objects are more likely to be perceived than stationery objects. Movement increases our awareness of the object before we become aware of the stationary surroundings. A flashing neon sign is more easily noticed. A moving car among parked cars gets our attention faster. 

h) Status 

Perception is always influenced by the status of perceiver. People of higher status tend to have more positive perception. Similarly, people with high status can influence the perception of others more than the people of low status. High status people can export more influence on perception of employees than low status people. 

i) Contrast 

Persons or objects of contrasting nature generally receive more attention and thereby influence one’s perception. Stimuli that contrast with the surrounding environment are more likely to be selected for attention than the stimuli that blend in. a contrasting effect can be caused by color / size or any other factor that is unusual. The contrast principle states that external stimuli that stand out against the background or which are not what are expected will receive better attention. The contrast effect also explains why a male person stands out in a crowd of females. For example, in a crowd of men, a woman is more attracted and vice versa. 

2. Internal Factors 
These factors are related to the characteristics of the perceiver. These factors include: 

a) Needs and Desires 

An individual’s perception about something or somebody is influenced by his needs and desires at a particular time. Similarly, perception varies depending on variation in desires and needs. Perception of a frustrated individual is totally different from a satisfied person. It is believed that socially oriented people pay attention to interpersonal factors in connection with their perception. Similarly, the needs and motives of the people play a vital role in perception. Perception of a frustrated person would be entirely different from that of a happy going person. People at different levels of needs and desires perceive the same thing differently. Power seekers more likely notice power related stimuli. Socially oriented people pay attention to interpersonal stimuli. People are likely to notice stimuli relevant to current active motives and major personality characteristics. 

b) Experience 

Experience and knowledge have a constant influence on perception. Successful and positive experiences express one’s perception ability and failure and negative experiences affects one’s self-confidence. In other words, experience and knowledge have a constant bearing on perception. Successful experiences enhance and boost the perceptive ability and lead to accuracy in perception of a person whereas failure erodes self-confidence. 

c) Learning 

Learning is an important factor in developing perceptual sets. A perceptual set is basically what a person expects from the stimuli on the basis of his learning and experience relative to same or similar stimuli. This is also known as cognitive awareness by which the mind organizes information and forms images and compares them with previous exposures to similar stimuli. 

d) Personality 

Personality is another important factor that has a profound influence on perceived behavior. What is perceived in a given situation depends much on one’s personality type. Personality is one area where individual differences are significant. Optimistic people always perceive things favorable but pessimistic people always perceive things unfavorable. Individuals having a sense of security perceive others as warm, self-accepted by others. Research on the effects of individual personality on perception reveals many truths. These are: 
  • Persons who accept themselves and have faith in their individuality perceive things favorably. 
  • Thoughtful individuals do not expose by expressing extreme judgments of others. 
  • Secure individuals tends to perceive others as warm, not cold. 

3. Symbolic Factors 

Another important factor influencing perception is symbolic factor. As regards to emotional or motivational factors, a condition of motivated tensions in the individual increases the sensitivity to those stimuli which are relevant for the satisfaction of his motives and determines the manner in which the individual perceives the ambiguous objects. The hungry individuals tend not only to select objects which will pacify their hunger but also interpret available objects in terms of their own tension.

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Perceptual Process, a sequence starts with stimuli

The perceptual process is a sequence of steps that starts with the stimuli that happen in our surroundings and leads through nerve transmission through peripheral and central nerves and the brain and results to our perception of what is going on. It also includes our resulting action to the original stimulus. So, the perceptual process involved when we go outside a room on a rainy day is that the stimulus from the environment – the fat that it is raining and cold and we are getting we – is recognized by our senses. Our eyes, ears, cold receptors and touch receptors all send signals to the brain, which works out that it is raining. The perceptual process consists of following components.

Perceptual Process

1. Environmental Stimuli

Perception initiates with the presence of the stimulus situation. In other words, the first stage in the process of perception is the presence of a stimulus or situation which confronts the human being. This confrontation may be with the immediate sensual stimulation or with the total physical and socio-cultural environment. Strictly speaking, the presence of a stimulus is not the start of perception process; however it cannot start in the absence of it.

2. Sensations

Sensation is the second step of perception process. It may be described as the response of a physical sensory organ. The physical senses are vision, hearing, touch, smell and taste. These sense are bombarded by stimuli continuously, both internal and external to human body and reactions to these sense take place because of these. In other words, sensation is the immediate and direct response of the sensory organs to stimuli. Human sensitivity refers to the experience of sensation. Sensitivity to stimuli varies with the quality of an individual’s sensory receptors (e.g. eye sight or hearing) and the amount of intensity of the stimuli to which he is exposed. For example, a blind person may have more highly developed sense of hearing than the average sighted person and may be able to hear sounds that the average person cannot. These examples show that sensation deals with a elementary behavior that is determined by physiological functioning.

3. Attention

Although we are capable of sensing many environmental stimuli, we attend to only a very small portion of them and ignore the rest. Numerous following factors influence the attention process.
  • Size: The larger the size of a physical object, the more likely it is to be perceived.
  • Intensity: The greater the intensity of a stimulus, the more likely it is to be noticed. A loud noise, such as shouting, is more likely to get attention than a quiet-voice.
  • Frequency: The greater the frequency with which a stimulus is presented, the greater the chances we will attend to it. This principle of repetition is used extensively in advertising to attract the attention of buyers.
  • Contrast: Stimuli which contrast with the surrounding environment are more likely to be selected for attention than stimuli which blend with the environment. The contrast can be created by color, size or any other factor that distinguishes on stimulus from others.
  • Motion: Since movement tends to be perceived than a stationery object, an animated sign, for example, attracts more attention than a fixed bill board.
  • Change: Objects are more likely to be noticed if they display some form of change. An object with lights blinking on and off, such as a Christmas tree or sign, attracts more attention than one without blinking lights.
  • Novelty: A stimulus that is new and unique will often be perceived more readily than stimuli that have been observed on a regular basis. Advertisers use the impact of novelty by creating original packaging or advertising messages.
4. Perception

Perception is the last step of its process. The process of perceptions involves organizing and interpreting the sensations we attend to visual images, sounds, orders and other sensations which do not simply enter our consciousness as pure, unpolluted sensations. Perception is an important mediating cognitive process through which persons make interpretation of the stimulus or situation they are faced with. As we attend to them, we consciously try to organize or categorize the information into a meaningful perception that will somehow make sense to use.

Although we would like to think of ourselves as open-minded unbiased, and non-judgmental in our perceptions, the situation make it impossible, we are forced to draw quick inferences based upon very sparse information.

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Meaning of Motives, Behavior and Needs

Meaning of Motives and Behavior

Motives are the caused behavior. A motive is what prompts to act in a certain way or at least develop a propensity for specific behavior. A person’s choice of one course of action over others depends on his or her motive. Individuals in organizations have different motives and they change over time. There is positive relationship between motives of an individual and behavior of an individual. In business organization, the work is done by the workers. According to the need theory, all normal human behavior and his course of future action, both are caused by a person’s need structure. So, management can influence the behavior of individual in the organization by recognizing and influencing their needs. The management can create a suitable environment in the organization conductive to the fulfillment of individual needs within the overall structure. 

In other words, motivation causes goal-directed behavior. Need is the base for motivation which is a kind of mental feeling in an individual that he needs something. This lack of something creates tension in the mind of the individual. Since the tension is not an ideal state of mind, the individual tries to overcome this by engaging himself in and behavior through which he satisfies his needs. This goal-directed behavior is presented in the following figure.

Motives, Behavior and Needs

Causes of Motivation and Behavior
Goal directed behavior leads to goal-fulfillment and the individual successes in fulfilling his needs and thereby overcoming his tension in the favorable environment.

Meaning of Needs


Needs are internal feelings of individuals and sometimes, even they themselves may not be quite aware about the needs and the priority on these. Thus understanding of human needs and providing means for their satisfaction becomes difficult. Needs are the initial factors for the motivation. Needs are deficiencies that is energized us or trigger our behaviors to satisfy them.

There are two popular models explained by different authors. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and McClelland ERG theory of needs.

There are many needs which an individual may have and there are various ways in which these may be classified. The basic objective behind classification of needs into different categories is to find out similarity and dissimilarity in various needs to that incentives are grouped to satisfy the needs falling under one category or the other. From this point of view, a meaningful classification of needs is based on the sources through which individual, or these may develop over the period of time through learning. Since, these two types of needs emerge from two different sources, these may be satisfied by different types of incentives. Besides, there are certain needs which are neither purely biological nor these are completely learned but fall in between the two. Therefore, a separate category has to be provided for these. Thus, needs may be grouped into three categories.

1. Primary Needs

Primary needs are also known as physiological, biological, basic or unlearned needs. However, the term primary is more comprehensive as compared to other terms. Primary needs are animal drives which are essential for survival. These needs are common to all human beings, though their intensity may differ, some of the needs are food, sex, sleep, air to breathe, satisfactory temperature etc. these needs arise out of the basic physiology of life and are important to survival and preservation of species. These needs are also conditioned by social practices. According to the concept of economic man, these are the only wants of a human being and he attempts to satisfy them only. But researches in human behavior show that psychological needs are equally rather more important for human beings.

2. Secondary Needs

As contrast to the primary needs, secondary needs are not natural but are learned by the individual through his experience and interaction. Therefore, these are also called learned or derived needs. Emergence of these needs depends on learning. This is the reason why we find differences among need pattern of a child and a matured individual. There may be different types of secondary needs like need for power, achievement, status, affiliation etc.

3. General Needs

Though a separate classification for general needs is not always given, such a category seems necessary because there are a number of needs which lie in the grey area between the primary and secondary classifications. To be included in this category, a need must not be learned but at the same time, it is not completely physiological. In fact, there are certain such needs like needs for competence, curiosity, manipulation, affection etc.
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Meaning of Sensation, Emotion and Cognitive Dissonance

Meaning of Sensation

Sensation can be defined as individual capacity to sense the world. Each and every motivated individual senses the world, interprets it, responds to it and reacts to the results of his own responses. Every individual has capacity to sense cold and hot, pressure etc. But how he/she senses these things or in which way he senses these things affect his behavior. As for example, if an individual senses too cold, his behavior is wants of warmth cloths. Similarly inside the organization, now the employee senses the environment and mould the behavior of the employee. Sensation has three factors to work. They are:
  • Stimulus 
  • Receptor 
  • Nervous system 
Stimulus are the inputs that are sensed and received by the receptor organ and transmitted to the nervous system for further processing to draw out the meaningful result.

Sensation may be described as the response of a physical sensory organ. The physical senses are vision, hearing, touch, smell and taste. These senses are bombarded by stimuli continuously, both internal and external to human body and reactions particular sense organ take place because of these. In other words, sensation is the immediate and direct response of the sensory organs to stimuli. Human sensitivity refers to the experience of sensation. Sensitivity to stimuli varies with the quality of an individual’s sensory receptors (e.g., eye sight or hearing) and the amount of intensity of the stimuli to which he is exposed. For example, a blind person may have a more highly developed sense of hearing than the average sighted person and may be able to hear sounds that the average person cannot. These examples show that sensation deals very elementary behavior that is determine by physiological functioning. Sometimes, confusion arises between sensation and perception as both are the cognitive processes and both are beads of the same string. Sensation involves detecting the presence of a stimulus whereas perception involves understanding what the stimulus means. For example, when we see something, the visual stimulus is the light energy reflected from the external world and the eye becomes the sensor. The visual image of the external thing becomes perception when it is interpreted in the visual cortex of the brain. Thus, visual perception refers to interpreting the image of the external world projected on the retina of the eye and constructing a model of the three dimensional world. Sensation itself depends on energy change or differentiation of input. Regardless of the strength of the sensory input, provides little or no sensation at all.

The distinction between sensation and perception may be made as follows:
  1. The person is comparatively inactive in sensation whereas he becomes more active in perception because he tries to know the meaning of sensation in this process.
  2. Sensation is a simple mental process whereas perception is comparatively a complex mental phenomenon. Perception is a complex process because it is affected by a number of variables.
  3. Sensation may be considered as a part of perception because the former is the first stage of the latter. The first experience of stimulation is sensation. Only our organs and nerves are active in sensation but all our body becomes active in perception.
  4. By sensation, the person just becomes cautious of the quality of stimulus; he just becomes aware of the stimulus like color, form, shape, smell, and meaning of the stimulus. By perception, he derives meaning of these.

Meaning of Emotion


Emotions are intense feelings that are directed at someone or something. They are object specific. In other words, emotions are reactions to an object. It is a neural impulse that moves an organism to action. Emotions have three components:

1. Cognitive Component

Cognitive component includes the conscious experience of emotions, and the way we ‘label’ our emotions.

2. Physiological Component

Physiological component includes emotional arousal. Different emotions have different arousal. For example, fear, anger and sadness increase heart rate, anger raises blood pressure etc.

3. Expressive Component

Expression component includes body language (gaze, gestures, posture and walk) and para-language (intonation, fakes smile versus genuine smile, etc.)

There are four related terms (affect, emotion, feeling and mood) that need to be differentiated from each other. ‘affect’ is a generic term that covers a broad range of feeling that people experience. It covers emotions, feelings and moods. Emotions are intense feelings that are directed to someone or something. In other words, emotions are specific and intense, and are a reaction to a particular event. Feelings are personal and biographical factors that arouses from any event or from any object. Finally moods are feelings that tend to be less intense that emotions and that lack a contextual stimulus. In other words, moods are diffused and unfocused. It is useful to understand the concept of primary and secondary emotions.

1. Primary Emotions

Primary emotions are those that we feel first, as a first response to a situation. Thus, if we are threatened, we may feel fear. When we hear of a death, we may feel sad. They are our instinctive responses. Typical primary emotions include fear, anger, sadness, and happiness (although these can also be felt as secondary emotions). The problem sometimes with primary emotions is that they disappear as fast as they appear.

2. Secondary Emotions

Secondary emotions appear after primary emotions. They may be caused directly by them for example, where the fear of a threat turns to anger that fuels the body for a fight reaction. They may also come from more complex chains of thought. The secondary emotions give a picture of the person’s mental processing of the primary emotion.

Meaning of Cognitive Dissonance


Cognitive dissonance is the state experienced by individuals when they discover inconsistency between two attitudes they hold or between their attitudes and their behavior. Here, dissonance means an inconsistency. It occurs most often in situations where an individual must choose between two incompatible beliefs or actions. In other words, cognitive dissonance refers to any incompatibility that an individual might perceive between two or more of his/her attitudes or between his/her behavior and attitudes. The greatest dissonance is created when the two alternatives are equally attractive.

The concept or theory of cognitive dissonance was first developed by Leon Festinger in 1957. According to this theory, individuals tend seek consistency among their cognition (i.e. opinions, knowledge and beliefs). When there is an inconsistency between attitudes or behaviors, something must change to eliminate the dissonance. There are three ways to eliminate dissonance.
  1. Change the dissonant beliefs so that they are no longer inconsistent.
  2. Reduce the importance of dissonant beliefs.
  3. Add more consonant beliefs that outweigh the dissonant beliefs.
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