What are the factors influencing perception?
What are common perceptual distortions?
What is social learning theory?
What is the link between attribution and
perception?
What is involved in learning by reinforcement?
Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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Perception
 The process by which
people select,
organize, interpret,
retrieve, and respond
to information from
the world around
them.
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What do you see?
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Environmental
Stimuli
Perceptual Selection
* External factors
* Internal factors
Interpretation
* Perceptual errors
* Attributions
Observation
* Taste
* Hearing
* Touch
* Smell
* Sight
Perceptual
Organization
* Perceptual grouping
Response
* Covert
* Overt
Influence
Factors
Stages of Perception
Attention
Attention
Attentionand
and
and
Selection
Selection
Selection
Organization
Organization
Interpretation
Interpretation
Response
(Feeling,
thinking, acting)
Retrieval
Schemas/Scripts
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Attention and selection
 Selective screening
 Lets in only a tiny portion all the information that is
available
 Two types of selective screening
 Controlled processing
 Screening without perceiver’s conscious
awareness
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
Size

Intensity

Contrast

Motion

Repetition

Novelty and familiarity
Chapter 3: Understanding Perceptions and Attributions
9
 Personality
 Learning
Perceptual set
 Motivation
Pollyanna principle
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 External factors
Characteristics of the person being perceived
Situation in which the perception takes place
 Internal factor
Characteristics of the perceiver
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Schemas
 Cognitive frameworks that represent
organized knowledge about a given
concept or stimulus developed through
experience.
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Self schema
 Contains information about a person’s own
appearance, behavior, and personality.
Person schema
 Refers to the way individuals sort others into
categories in terms of similar perceived
features.
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Script schema
 a knowledge framework
that describes the
appropriate sequence
of events in a given
situation.
Person-in-situation schema
 combines schemas built
around persons and
events.
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You have just been told that your job has
been ‘down-sized’. This has never
happened to you before. Now what?
 1) Take cues from your environment.
 2) Pay attention to salient cues.
 3) Create a new mental category (laid off).
 4) Consider how others have responded.
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Interpretation
 Uncovering
the reasons
behind the
ways stimuli
are grouped.
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Retrieval
 Attention and selection, organization, and
interpretation are part of memory.
 Information stored in memory must be
retrieved in order to be used.
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Impression Management
Systematic attempt to influence how
others perceive us.
 Cultivating positive impressions can help to
advance a job or career.
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Stereotypes
 Assigns attributes to an individual that are
commonly associated with a group.
 Individual differences are obscured.
 Strong impact at the organization stage.
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Halo effects
 Occur when one attribute of a person or
situation is used to develop an overall
impression of the individual or situation.
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Selective perception
 The tendency to single out for attention
those aspects of a situation, person, or
object that are consistent with one’s needs,
values, or attitudes.
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Projection
 The assignment of one’s personal attributes
to other individuals.
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Contrast effects
 Occur when an individual’s characteristics
are contrasted with those of others recently
encountered, who rank higher or lower on
the same characteristics.
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Self-fulfilling prophecy
 The tendency to
create or find in
another situation or
individual that which
one expected to find.
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SELF
FULFILLING
PROPHESY
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Think about the self-fulfilling prophecy. Which of
the following would not be a good idea?
a. Instill confidence in your staff.
b. Identify errors in employee’s performance and
refer to them often.
c. Treat all new employees as if they are star
performers.
d. Set high performance goals.
Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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Attribution
 Process of creating explanations for events.
Can be classified as internal or external:
 Internal factors – Personal characteristics that cause behavior
(e.g., , lack of knowledge, ability, effort, motivation, attitude)
 External factors – Environmental characteristics that cause
behavior (e.g., task difficulty, good/bad luck, not enough training,
situational factors like technical malfunctions, weather, health)
Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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Consistency
Does person usually
behave this way in
this situation?
Distinctiveness
External Attribution
(to person’s situation)
Yes
Does person behave
differently in different
situations?
Consensus
Do others behave
similarly in this
situation?
No
Internal Attribution
(to person’s disposition)
Definition: The ways in which people come to understand the
causes of their own and others’ behaviors
Most often an unconscious process (i.e., people are not
normally aware of making attributions)
People are constantly attributing the behavior of themselves and
others to either internal (i.e., personal) or external (i.e.,
situational) causes.
Antecedents-factors internal
to the perceiver
•Information
•Beliefs
•Motivation
•Perceived external
Attributions made by the perceiver or internal causes
of behavior
Consequences for the perceiver
•Behavior
•Feelings
•Expectations
 Manager’s
behavior toward
strong performers:
Subordinate
participation in
decision making
Mistakes viewed as
learning
opportunities
Subordinates given
challenging tasks
 Manager’s
behavior toward
weak performers:
Supervisor closely
monitors behavior of
subordinate
Mistakes are
highlighted to
subordinates
Subordinates given
routine tasks
Distinctiveness
 Consistency of a person’s behavior across
situations.
Consensus
 Likelihood of others responding in a similar way.
Consistency
 Whether an individual responds the same way
across time.
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 External Attribution
* High consensus
* High distinctiveness
* Low consistency
 Internal Attribution
* Low consensus
* Low distinctiveness
* High consistency
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Fundamental attribution error
 “Your poor performance is caused by you!”
 In general, we tend to blame the person first,
not the situation.
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Self-serving bias
 Tendency to take more personal
responsibility for success than failure.
 I got an “A” because I studied.
 I got a “D” because the exam was too hard.
Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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
Do not overlook the external causes of others’
behaviors. (Identify and confront your
stereotypes, your biases, your preconceived
notions.)

Evaluate people based on objective factors.

Do not rush to judgment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5ZljnMmrIs

(5.13 sec)
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Cultural differences in attributions :
 Individualistic cultures - managers more likely to
attribute employee poor performance to internal
causes.
 Negative attributes – blame team-mates for
subordinates for performance problems.
 Collectivist cultures – overemphasize self-serving
bias; managers blame themselves for group’s failure.
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Social learning theory
 Describes how learning occurs through
interactions among people, behavior, and
environment.
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Self efficacy
 The person’s belief that he or she can
perform adequately in a situation (selfconfidence, competence, ability).
 Key factor in self-control.
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Reinforcement
 The administration of a consequence as a
result of a behavior.
 Appropriate use of reinforcement used can
alter the direction, level and persistence of a
behavior.
Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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Classical conditioning
 A form of learning through association that
involves the manipulation of stimuli to
influence behavior.
Stimulus
 Something that elicits some kind of a
response.
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Operant conditioning
 The process of controlling behavior by
manipulating, or “operating” on, its
consequences.
 Considered ‘learning by reinforcement’.
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Law of effect
 Behavior that results in a pleasant outcome is
likely to be repeated while behavior that
results in an unpleasant outcome is not likely
to be repeated.
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You work really hard at your job, and
are not rewarded. The “law of
effect” would suggest that you will
a. Quit
b. Keep trying to impress the right people
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Organizational behavior modification
(OB Mod)
 The systematic reinforcement of desirable
work behavior and the non-reinforcement or
punishment of unwanted work behavior.
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Positive reinforcement
 Increases the frequency of a behavior
through the contingent presentation of a
desirable consequence.
 Law of contingent reinforcement - only the
correctly exhibited behavior is rewarded.
 Law of immediate reinforcement – reward must be
provided as soon as possible after the behavior.
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Shaping
 Creation of a new behavior by the positive
reinforcement of successive approximations
to the desired behavior.
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Continuous reinforcement
 Administering a reward each time the
desired behavior occurs.
Intermittent reinforcement
 Rewards behavior periodically — either on
the basis of time elapsed or the number of
desired behaviors exhibited.
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Negative reinforcement
 The withdrawal of negative consequences
to increase the likelihood of repeating the
desired behavior in a similar setting.
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Punishment
 The administration of negative
consequences, or the withdrawal of positive
consequences, to reduce the likelihood of
repeating the behavior in similar settings.
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Extinction
 The withdrawal of the reinforcing
consequences for a given behavior.
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Team Leader
Antecedent
Team Member
Response
Team Leader
Behavior
Type of
Reinforcement
Strategy
“Do good
work”
High work
quality
Praise and
rewards
Positive
Reinforcement
“Do good
work”
Low work
quality
Criticism and
reprimand
Punishment
“Do good
work”
High work
quality
No criticism; no
reprimand
Negative
Reinforcement
“Do good
work”
High error rate
Takes away
break time
Punishment
“Do good
work”
Low work
quality
No praise; no
rewards
Extinction
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Behavior modification techniques, when
utilized positively in organizations, can be
very powerful and effective in
encouraging desired performance.
 Because of their potential power, they may
lend themselves to inappropriate or even
unethical uses.
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