IOPS 111 TEST 3 NOTES

Sensory and perceptual processes in work behaviour

1. Define sensation and perception in perceptual process

Sensation and perception involves awareness, identification, organisation and

interpretation of stimuli received by the senses (sensory info) which enables
people to make sense of and give meaning to their environments. Sensory
deprivation can isolate people in a world without colour and smell.

It excludes people who denies them self the experience of feeling many
sensations including pain, comfort and temperature.

Nature and Function of sensation and perceptual processes

The sensation process

Sensation a psychological process happens when people become aware of what

is happening inside and outside the body through incoming stimuli. Stimuli are
physical input or energy we receive and become aware of through the five
senses; mouth, nose, eyes ears and skin. Perception is a more Psychological
process and it happens when the brain and related psychological and cognitive
processes enable us to select, analyse, organise, interpret understand and give
meaning to sensations.

The processes of sensation and perception take place within a one unified
information processing system not within 2 separate systems. Stimulation of the
senses, or sensation is the first intermmidiatory stimulatory process. It is more or
less that the stultaneouly accompanied by the perpetual process of selection,
organisation and interpretation of sensory stimulation, which makes sensation
and perception a unitary process.

Through sensation there may be similar for a people, biological and psychological
differences in perception processes explain why perceptional processes are
selective and unique for each individual. Perception will be influences by each
 person’s physical, social an emotional experiences as well as the attributes of
senses and related sensations. In ideal circumstances people have accurate
perceptions, but there are many errors which have consequences such as
accidents at home, work, on the road, faulty work execution or causes
differences of options between people.

Sensation happens when senses receive raw physical energy or stimuli from the
inside of a person or from external environment, for example sound and light waves.
The physical energy is converted through process of transduction and coded as
electromagnetic impulses to the brain where impulses are interpreted by the
cerebral cortex.

Note table on p158.

Factors influencing sensation and perception

Attributes of the Perceiver

People have certain inborn or instinctive perceptual abilities of depth and shallow in
order to avoid danger while acquired behaviour in later life may have more
detriment influence. When an individual receives various types of stimuli the
perception or interpretation can be strongly or subjectively influenced by multiple
personal characteristics. In social psychology it has been verified that the criteria for
attractiveness and beauty amongst people may be quite different and subjective.
Subjective factors include cognitive, style. Motivation and emotion, needs, beliefs
preference, innate and acquired attachment behaviour, expectations values and
attitudes, prejudices, unique experiences and black cultural and ethnic contexts and
personality attributes

With regards to personal factors especially culture, people develop a perceptual set
in how they will respond to certain stimuli in particular situations. These factors
enhance subjectivity and selectivity in perception, which can be positive but can also
lead to perceptual errors and prejudice
I.e. of perceptual set is a view in which preferred things are judged to become more
accurate than those that are less favoured. In personal selection applicants may be
judged based on personal or preferred reasons of the interviewer and consequently
other high qualified candidates may be ignored. Culture will influence how stimuli
are interpreted and how related behaviours are expressed. However no evidence
exists that people in different cultures have different with regard to physical
sensation.

Attributes of Stimuli

I.e. When beautiful people are judged to be more intelligent than less attractive
people and consequently given preference in certain opportunities. In business large
companies are often perceived to be successful and wealthy and much is expected
from them, in economic and social support by society.

The role of situations in perception

Sensations and interpretation of sensations cannot take place outside a particular

context or setting like time temperature and illumination, proximity or distance
location (for example work, home or holiday and social settings. Viewing nature
early late in the day during a relaxed holiday might be different experiences from
work at those times. in social context an employee will; talk to his wife about his
manager in a very different way from how responds to him at work or at a work
party. If people are in a stressful relationship they may view scens of happiness of
other in another light. Sport supporters or participants in labour unrest marches,
swept up in excitement and aggregation of these events may express perceptions of
issues differently compared to times of calm or when alone.

Person or interpersonal perception

Personal perception social or interpersonal perception) refers to the perceptual

processes that take place during interaction and communication between people in
many situations i.e.: personal relationships, groups businesses and public speaking
mostly with the view to impression formation.
Person Perception also involves obtaining and processing information and giving
meaning to perceptions.

Person perceptions in various social interactions with an emphasis on the process of

impression management and impression formation. It entails communicating the
impressions you want to communicate. First impressions are important and formed
in aproximitly 1/10th of a second. As interactions continue new information about
people will add onto existing cognitions, however first impressions remain durable
and influential in further interactions and decisions.

The process of forming impressions of others is universal across cultures, but will
also include vey particular behaviour as determined by cultural learning. Having
relationships and feeling loved and accepted in a natural social need in people. The
manner in which relationships are formed and maintained may be strongly
influenced by acquired secure or insecure bonding or attachment behaviours, which
may have originated in childhood and progressively developed across the lifespan
impression formation happens from both sides involved in the interaction.

Forming impressions through cognitive schemata

The impressions that people form and communicate to each other entail social
cognitions knowledge which includes information hypotheses and assumptions.
These are used to make personal, interpersonal and other representations about
people. Sources for cognitions can be based on appearance, actions, verbal and non
verbal behaviour as well as how people behave in a particular situation. Cognitions
usually lead people to mentally categorising people for i.e. being rich or an
entrepreneur, obnoxious or kind.

Cogitations consist of schemata or meanings related to certain beliefs and

expectations about people. Schemata are mental images people form about how
they think other people will or should act in their roles. This may include the ways in
which attributes of personal business and professional image and include the ways
in which people evaluate others.
Schemata will include first or early impressions referred to as primary effect,
though as interactions continue people may add new information to the existing
schemata. People tend to view certain attributes in people as central characteristics
and will not easily change their opinions about such attributes, while other aspects in
people may be considered as peripheral attributes and not as important.

Beliefs with regards to less important attributes may be more easily chimed formed
schemata are powerful tools, which mainly remain consistent but can influence
further info and impressions

Schemata represent people implicit or internal personal personality theories

about the and how other people’s personalities and behaviour. These assumptions
are mostly speculative, untested and biased and will lead to labelling and logical
error judging people. In this way people will be categorised in various types of
schemas: social climbers, materialists, individual or feminists, ambitious, aggressive,
power hungry or influential.

I an expert CEO at work to be well dressed, wise, well informed and an exemplary
model for other employees. If in reality a CEO or marginal professional does not
emulate these behaviours and match this image, then people’s schemas are
challenged.

The consequences of incorrect impressions will force people to change their criteria
take action such as resigning at work or leaving a relationship.

Event schemas may prescribe how people should behave and react in certain
situations, i.e. behaviour at church or during a formal executive meeting. People
have been described as cognitive misers, which means indicates an unwillingness
to attain more information about people for the schemata of people even if they
know it to be false or inaccurate. People can also apply a form of exchange or
equity, that is will make less positive judgements if they decide a person or a group
will have no rewards or advantages for them. This is in comparison to a more
systematic and mindful judgements of people who they think will be beneficial to
them, or at least be equal partners in a relationship.
Cogitative impressions and related judgements might sometimes be in accurate
because of many factors, basis and fallacies that occur in person perception.

Perceptual distortions in person perception

The primary effect is the tendency for first impressions or early information to be
considered more important than information that is received later in forming
schemata about other people. During interpersonal perception, i.e. in a selection
interview, one tends to focus on attributes that are immediately apparent. These
could include someone who is talkative, well groomed, or a certain gender. Even a
beautiful voice on a telephone may create snap judgements, thinking the person
is friendly young and beautiful. First impressions may hinder one from paying close
attention to information acquired later about a person. A by product of the primary
effect is what is known as the self-fulfilling prophecy, which means that people
make act the way they are expected to act. This is related to the idea of
confirmation bias, which is the tendency of people to behave towards each other in
a way that will confirm their mutual expectations of each.

Physical appearance and other attraction determinants

Studies show that people’s personalities are often influenced by their appearances,
especially physical attractiveness. One tends to quickly ascribe desirable personality
characteristics to people who are good looking and perceive them as more sociable,
friendly, poised, warm and well adjusted, than those who are less attractive. This fits
the stenotype that what is beautiful is good.

Similarity and proximity may also encourage attraction between people. It

may happen in a meeting, interview or other interaction people become aware of
their similarities i.e. appearance, values, interests and business activities which may
influence cognitions and decisions about each other

Stereotypes are also forms of schemata, or established beliefs that people

belonging to the same group or social affiliation have certain characteristics.
Sterotyping may be a normal cognitive process, but it also can be a deliberate
shortcut to save people the time and required effort to understand people
individually.

Stereotypes are difficult to change even if valid info and facts are available.
Stereotypes are often broad, speculative generalisations that ignore diversity groups
and often lead to inaccurate perceptions of and inappropriate actions toward people.

Stereotypes may involve any personal attribute the most common stereotypes
however are those based on gender, ethnicity, race and occupational groups.
Traditional gender stereotypes may assume that woman are emotional submissive,
illogical and passive whereas men are believed to be unemotional, dominant, logical
and aggressive. Occupational stereotyping may encourage the perception that
lawyers are manipulative, accountants are conforming, IT specialist is nerdy, artists
are moody and unionist is aggressive and defiant.

Related stereotyping are types of relationships which can be perceived between so

called in groups and out groups. These relationships are based on
stereotyping and biased schemata that may exist. Bias between groups or
(intergroup bias) occurs when a group of persons observe actions of one or more
members of another social group and then attributes such actions to characteristics
of that out group. Members of an in-group mostly favour their group over others A
related aspect is the out group homogeneity effect, which states that out group
members are not only seen as being different from in-groups but are seen to be
similar to each other without individuality.

Halo effect

A Halo effect applies when people form a central or general impression about others
mostly based on a single feature. I.e. in a selection interview, the interviewers may
form an impression about applicants based on a single attribute, such as
attractiveness or education level. Thus applicants for a managerial position may be
considered competent simply because they speak well or they are very friendly, but
their actual management experience and skills are not considered. Usually people
are favoured or overestimated if halo errors are based on positive attributes. By
contrast a person may be underrated if the judgement is based on negative
attributes.

Contrast effect

Contrast effect occurs when perceptions are based on social comparisons with other
people, especially when such interactions took place quite recently. This may explain
to a degree why old relationships are terminated after new acquaintances are made,
especially if new acquaintances are perceived to have better qualities in certain
respects. The contrast effect may apply in promotion situation in which the last
candidate may obtain very favourable ratings when preceded by mediocre
applicants, rather than by strong applicants.

Projection

Projection or tendency of people to attribute to their own thoughts feelings and

motives to other people, may alleviate anxiety for some time, but may also distort
perceptions about others because people are not perceived as they are. When
projections happen in perception the perceptual experience will be in accurate
because the interpretations actually involve the perceiver and not the perceived
person. However this may also be valuable because such projected perceptions
reveal something about the perceiver’s inner feelings towards the perceived person.
I.e. stimuli in psychological test known as projective tests are unstructured or
ambiguous and give no cues for answers, but require responses to pictures and
other stimuli. These techniques actually asses the perceivers own perceptions inner
thoughts and feelings and are mostly unconsciously motivated.

A person may project such thoughts and feelings through the stimuli onto something
or someone else, without the perkier being aware of it. In therapy for example a
person may be made aware and conscious of the origins and meanings of his or her
projective responses, which may then be seen as irrational or unrealistic and
possibly a defence mechanism against anxiety and fear.

Internal personal and external factors in attributes

People may attribute behaviour and events to either external or situational causes or
circumstances or to internal personal factors. An example of an internal attribution is
when a student acknowledges that he failed an examination owing to his lack of
motivation and effort. External attribution is when a student who fails an exam
attributes the failure of the lack of support from his parents or lectures. Kelly asserts
that people should use 3 sources of information to decide the nature of behaviour in
order to make an attribution or causing a factor, distinctiveness consistency and
consensus. By analysing a request from your manager to speak to you in his office
after work at 16:00 THE FOLLOWING CONCEPTS BECOME CLEAR:

 Distinctiveness: is the extent to which the manager behaves in the same

manner in other situations or towards other employees. If distinctiveness is
low, then you may think that your manager has his or her own personal
reasons to see you. If they are seldom do this you may conclude that it is
about you and you may wonder what will happen
 Consistency: is the extent to which a person acts the same way at different
times and in different situations. If the manager often asks you or other
employees to see him, you may believe that the discourse will be of standard
nature. However, if the manager’s request is inconsistent you may think the
discourse will focus on you.
 Consensus: is the extent to which the manager believes like other managers
if the manager is the only one with this request, then you may think that the
discourse will focus on you and not external matters and you may question
the manager’s motives.
 Note the table on p178

ATRRIBUTION IN PERCEPTION AND PERCEPTUAL ERRORS

Attributions can be accurate but it may also be perceptual distortions and refer
to explanations and interferences which people make about the causes of events,
their own and others behaviour. Judging an inanimate object is a mechanical
action and more objective because physical phenomena have specific
characteristics. When it comes to human behaviour, however it is more
subjective and people want to usually explanations. They may guess and
speculate or theorise and make interferences, but they want to allocate a cause
why people behave in certain ways. Events that people become aware of
especially unusual or unexpected events, and those that have personal
consequences for them, give them the opportunity to judge and consider causes
of these events and behaviours. In other words this attributes of an event of an
event or person cause the behaviour in people and related impressions.

According to attribution theory, the various types of attribution utilise certain

information and ay have errors and basis which can also be influenced by socio
cultural factors.

The attributions people make may have errors and biases, which relate to faulty
or incorrect judgements of which causes may be internal to the person or
external to other factors in the environment or situation. Most attribution errors
ignore internal (personal) factors if the behaviour is applicable to the situation.
However, internal personal factors will be highlighted when the behaviour is the
opposite of what is the anticipated in the given situation. The main attribution
errors and biases are fundamental attribution error, the defensive attribution bias
and just world hypothesis. Each of them includes other attribution errors or
biases i.e. the self serving bias, the actor observer effect and blaming the victim.
People have a traditional style in that they will use the same casual
explanations in a variety of events. All the attributions errors may include
attributes related to either personal or situational factors or both of these
contributing factors.

Fundamental attribution error

The fundamental attribution error is the tendency in people to overestimate

internal or personality factors, such as a person’s traits or attitudes and to under
estimate the situational factors in explaining behaviour even if people were
required to behave in a certain way.
When companies need to downsize in order to stay in business and continue to
employ some staff, the management of such companies is often accused of being
selfish insensitive and short sighted although economic situation neccesited job
losses. Over or underestimation of attribution factors can be minimised if people
were to consider the whole context of behaviour before making judgments.

Te actor observer effect related to the fundamental attribution error refers to the
tendency of people to relate the behaviour of other people (observer) to personal
or internal factors but their own behaviour actor to situational or external causes
the latter form a projection. To consider people’s behaviour when caught for
traffic trespasses such as speeding people may assert that the road allows them
to speed, the speed signs are not clear, or the traffic officials are judged to be
unfair or were not visible. If others were caught speeding, it was clear that they
were driving too fast and being reckless.

Defensive attribution bias

Defensive attribution bias happens when people try to present themselves in

appositive or good way to impress others or to feel good about them.

The self serving bias is an example of self defensive attribution and happens
when people attribute all they personal successes to their own good and personal
characteristics while blaming any mistakes and failures on external situational
factors outside their personal control

Just world hypothesis refers to attribution errors which include a style of

blaming the victim and is related to defensive attribution. It refers to the
tendency of people in difficult situations to blame others- mostly the person who
experienced the problem without considering possible contributing situational
factors. A person that lost his job in a difficult employment situation may hear
that he was to blame or had it coming. The rationale that people uphold is that
bad events will not happen to them because it is just world, good things happen
to good people and bad thing to bad people. There are many explanations for all
these attribution errors, but mostly they relate to peoples need to have a good
image, be successful and defend themselves against negative perceptions, a fear
of losing and being in a threatening situation.

The value of impression management.

Impression formation through the medium of perceptions forms part of

interpersonal and social human behaviour with the aim of creating the best
possible personal, professional or business image. Impression management is
used in many everyday situations and practices as well as in the workplace,
specifically to start maintain and expand and sustain businesses and invite
investments. Creating and maintaining a positive image to look good is a natural
tendency in many people. Similarly influencing employee and consumer
perceptions to create favourable attitudes is especially applied in business with
regard to managing organisational climate and culture and to establish and
enhance business. In this regard impressions manage meant is used in marketing
and in advertising strategies, education, learning approaches, politics, and
motivation and in maintaining and changing attitudes and values. Although
impression management is applicable in personal or self management, it is
important for management and organisational image building because it is aimed
at reflecting the most positive perceptions and attitude and avoiding attribution
error biases both in and outside the work place.

With regards to attributing false impressions, honesty and transparency bare

important criteria in impression formation and management, because like in
personal relationships, consumers of business products and services will
eventually become aware of incongruent and false representations of their
image.

According to Weiten, Dunn & Hammer key themes in person perception are:

 Efficiency (obtain sufficient information not to make snap judgements);

 Selectivity (note what behaviour you demonstrate, because people see
what they want to see)
 Consistency (initial and subsequent information must be congruent)
According to Gardner (2002), impressions can be managed and promoted by
organisation in a number of ways, as listed below.

Method to enhance impression.

Self-enhancing behaviours

 Improving physical appearance- how employees appear and behave

appearance of workplaces
 Emphasise positive aspects for self-promotion – avoid bragging and negative
emphases in speaking and publication and other forms of communication.
 Avoid indicating own faults- refer to past problems as challenges
 Name-dropping and networking- indicate market associations with highly
regarded people and organisations.

Enhancing other people and organisations

 Be involved with other people and organisations by doing them favours,

providing sponsorship and be likeable
 Make others feel good- use compliments honestly, demonstrate exemplary
behaviour
 Be open and honest with relevant information and in annual reports
 Compete, but do not discredit other people and organisations
 Become acquainted with people- show genuine attention, interest and
understanding their needs.

How organisations manage impressions with regard to their corporate image

and business is implied in some of the tactics indicated in the box.

Corporate image is the impression or image that management wants people

to have of an organisation and often includes mission and vision statements.

Many people use organisational images or impressions to evaluate

organisation as possible employers of choice.
In South Africa organisations that participate in socio-economic upliftement
programmes will demonstrate their social responsibility, which in turn will
present a positive business image.

A similar good impression will be created if an organisation is rated and

known as both a successful business and an employer of choice.

A problem for organisation in terms of their business objectives exists if

employee and societal perceptions are different from what management
wishes people’s perceptions to be.