Perception

Introduction

It is very strange that in this dynamic world, every day we are bombarded with the countless objects,
events or persons. But, we retain few stimuli and reject others. In addition to that, the way we
understand and interpret the stimuli received differs from person to person. What is the reason of this
phenomenon? The answer is perception. Perception is a psychological factor affecting human behaviour
because perception determines the way the individual experiences the situation.

Meaning and Definition of Perception

Perception can be understood as the process through which information or stimulus is received from the
environment, then selected, organised and interpreted in order to assign some meaning to it. The
meaning is derived out of the information received from the environment so that the information can be
used for taking important decisions and actions. The process of perception can be better explained
through the definitions given below:

According to Joseph Reitz, “Perception includes all those processes by which an individual receives
information about his environment- seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling. The study of these
perceptual processes shows that their functioning is affected by three classes of variables-the objects or
events being perceived, the environment in which perception occurs and the individual doing the
perceiving.”

“Perception can be defined as a process by which individuals organise and interpret their sensory
impressions in order to give meaning to their environment.”

Therefore, in simple words, perception can be described as the process of seeing what is available to be
seen. But, this process is influenced by perceiver, the object being perceived and the situation in which
perception is being formed.

Nature and Importance of Perception

Perception is basically interpretation of the sensory data which involves understanding the stimulus
received from the environment. It is determined by physiological as well as psychological characteristics
of an individual because perception not just involves receiving the stimulus from the sensory organs-eyes,
ears, skin, nose, tongue but, it is much more than that. Perception is formed when the stimulus received
is organised in a particular fashion and then interpreted to have an idea about what is happening in the
environment. In addition to that, perception is a subjective process because different individuals may
perceive the same environment differently on the basis of what stimulus they select from the
environment, the manner they organise and interpret the information in order to understand the
situation. Importance of perception can be understood from the following points:

a) Perception is important in understanding variations in individual behaviour. As discussed above, every

individual perceives the surroundings differently and therefore, understanding the perception help us
find out why every individual behaves in a particular manner. This is one of the major reasons why one
individual finds one job interesting and satisfying while another finds the same job boring and
dissatisfying.
b) As perception strongly influences behaviour of an individual, we can very easily predict the behaviour
of an individual in the changed circumstances by understanding his perception about the present
environment.
c) Perception can also help in assessing various needs of the people, because their perception is largely
influenced by their needs.
Perceptual Process
From the definitions of perception discussed above it is very clear that perception is composed of various
sub-processes: receiving, selecting, organising, interpreting, checking and reacting to stimuli. The process
is influenced by perceiver, object and situation.

Receiving

Human body is comprised of five sensory organs viz. eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin. These sensory
organs help in sensing the environment in the form of vision, hearing, smell, touch and taste. The sensory
organs receive the stimuli form the outer environment. Anything which we notice in the environment is
stimulus e.g. noise of vehicles, smell of food, sound of rain, sense of heat or cold etc. The stimuli which
we receive serve as inputs for the process of perception.

Selecting

Many things happen in the environment simultaneously but, human mind cannot pay equal attention to
all events or things equally. Therefore, individuals filter or screen out the irrelevant things and select the
things which are relevant with their existing beliefs, values and needs. This process of selecting relevant
things from the environment for paying the attention is called perceptual selectivity. The following factors
influence the process of selecting stimuli from the environment:

External Factors: External factors influencing selection are following:

a) Size: Size always catches the attention of an individual. Generally bigger objects are more likely to
catch attention than the smaller objects. For example: A very big animal in a zoo will always catch more
attention of the visitors than the smaller one. In addition to this, a full page advertisement in a newspaper
always stands out than a small column advertisement.

b) Intensity: The stimuli with high intensity are more likely to be perceived than the stimuli with low
intensity. Very bright colours, very bright lights, loud noise, strong odour are noticed faster than light
colours, dim lights, soft sound, weak odour etc.

c) Repetition: Repeated stimuli draw more attention than those which are not repeated. Instructions
which are repeated by a plant supervisor are retained in the memory of employees for a longer period of
time than those instructions which are conveyed only once. An advertisement which is repeated more on
a T.V channel or radio station catches attention and is remembered by the viewers than the
advertisement which shown just once a day.

d) Contrast: Principle of contrast states that stimuli which stand out against the background or objects
which contrast with their surroundings will receive more attention. An exit signboard in a movie hall, a
danger signboard on a road under construction are made with a colour scheme which contrasts with each
other like red and black, yellow and black or white and black.

e) Movement: The principle of motion states that a moving object or thing draws more attention than a
still one. A moving vehicle among the parked vehicles will catch the attention immediately.

f) Novelty and Familiarity: Novel objects or familiar objects always gain more attention of perceiver. In a
crowded trade fair, a friend or a familiar face and a new face in a family get together will be immediately
noticed.

g) Nature: It refers to whether the object is visual in nature or auditory. It is a common fact that pictures
receive better attention than words, videos attract more attention than still pictures and a rhyming
phrase attracts more attention than a phrase which is presented as a narration. Animated cartoons catch
more attention of children than comic books.

Internal Factors: Internal factors influencing the process of perception are:

a) Learning: Learning is a cognitive factor which strongly influences the process of perception. Learning
creates expectancy in the individuals and then they tend to perceive what they want to perceive.

b) Needs: Needs also play a significant role in the process of perceptual selectivity. A thirsty person will
always be sensitive towards the sources of water and a hungry person will always tend to see eating
points everywhere. A person who has high need for affiliation will always join the group of his friends in
the leisure time and the person with high need for achievement will tend to work hard even in the leisure
time to accomplish his goals.

c) Age: The people of different age group always hold different perceptions about the environment. For
example: older senior executives always feel that young executives are not competitive enough to take
important decisions of the organisations and on the other hand young staff always complaint that older
staff members are resistant to change and tend to follow conventional methods of working in the
organisation. These differences in the perceptions of old and young employees are due to difference in
their age.

d) Interest: Perception is also influenced by the interest of the person though unconsciously. A fashion
designer will notice so many details in an outfit which is hanged on a statue of a shop in just a casual look,
but a routine visitor will not be able to observe the same details in the same outfit even if he looks at it
ten times more.

Organising

After receiving and selecting the stimuli from the environment, the data received must be organised in a
particular fashion so that we can extract some meaning out of it. This aspect of organising the
information into a meaningful whole is called perceptual organisation. Perceptual organisation is
completely a cognitive process and is based on the following principles:

a) Figure and Ground: This principle is considered as the basic form of organising the perceptual set. This
principle simply states that the object or event or person which is being perceived stands out from its
background.

b) Perceptual grouping: Grouping is defined as the tendency to group the stimuli into some meaningful
patterns. Grouping includes similarity, proximity, closure and continuity.

Similarity: The principle of similarity states that objects of similar shape or colour or size tend to be
grouped together. In an organisation all white collared employees are seen as one group.

Proximity: The principle of proximity states that individuals tend to perceive the objects placed together
as one group. The employees who are working in the same department are perceived as one group
because of geographical proximity.

Closure: The principle of closure states the tendency to perceive the object as a whole even when some
parts of it are missing. Individual’s perceptual process will fill the gaps that are unfilled from the sensory
input. The following figure demonstrates the principle of closure. The object given below will be
perceived as a circle even if some parts are missing. In an organisation also a sincere, hardworking and
honest worker will be perceived as a good performer by the managers even if he behaves in a
contradictory manner sometimes.

Continuity: Principle of continuity assumes that an individual tend to perceive continuous lines or
pattern. People tend to perceive the obvious ways of performing the tasks and fail to think creatively.
Continuity leads to inflexibility and non-creative thinking on the part of employees.

c) Perceptual Constancy: The principle of constancy states the tendency to perceive certain
characteristics of an object as remaining constant, despite of the variations in the stimuli. This principle
provides a sense of stability in this dynamic world. There are several aspects of constancy:

Shape Constancy: When an object appears to maintain it shape despite of marked changes.
 Size Constancy: When we tend to see the object unchanged in the size even if it moves farther away
from us. A player who is standing on the other side of the football ground will not perceive football
smaller as compared to when he looks at the same football from a closer location.

Colour constancy: familiar objects tend to be perceived of the same colour even if they are exposed to
some changed conditions. The owner of a red car will see his car as red in the bright sunlight as well as in
the dim twilight.

d) Perceptual defence: This principle states that individuals tend to build a defence against the stimuli
which are conflicting, threatening or unacceptable. Defence may assume the four possible forms: (a)
outright denial, (b) modification of data received, (c) change in the perception but refusal to change and
(d) change in the perception itself.

Interpreting

Perceptual interpretation is the essential part of the perceptual process. After the selection and
organisation of the information, perceiver interprets the information in order to assign meaning to it.
Actually perception is said to be formed only when the information is interpreted. Several factors
contribute in the interpretation of the information. Most common of them are discussed as follows:

a) Perceptual set: Previously held beliefs or experiences about an object influence the individual’s
perception about similar objects. This phenomenon is called perceptual set. For example, an old manager
may have developed a general belief that young executives tend to be frequently absent from the job and
they are not committed to the organisations. This previously held belief will always influence his
perception whenever he will meet a new young worker.

b) Stereotyping: Stereotyping is the tendency of judging someone on the basis of the group to which he
belongs. An individual’s perception about one person will always be influenced by his experiences with
the other members of the group to which that person belongs. Some common examples of stereotyping
are: Americans are materialistic, Japanese are nationalistic, workers are anti-management etc.

c) Halo Effect: It is the tendency of perceiving others on the basis of a single trait which may be good or
bad, favourable or unfavourable. Sometimes, we judge the person on the basis of one first impression.
For example, a person who is just kind may also be perceived as good, able, helpful etc. and the person
who is rude may also be perceived as awful, aggressive, unkind, harmful etc. Halo effect is a common
error committed by the managers while evaluating their subordinates.

d) Projection: Projection is the tendency of assigning own attributes to the others. It is easy to judge
others if we assume that they are like us. It refers to projecting own feelings, abilities, motives and
tendencies into judgement of others. A manager who himself is punctual assumes that all staff members
of his office are punctual.

e) Implicit personality theory: When we make judgement about others, our perception is influenced by
the belief that certain human traits are associated with others. For example, honesty is associated with
hard working.

f) Selective perception: As discussed in the starting of the process that, individuals have the tendency to
select certain objects from the environment which they find relevant to their existing beliefs and values.
This is because, human mind cannot assimilate everything which it observes and hence, we select certain
stimuli and screen out the other. But we don’t choose the stimuli randomly; we choose them according to
our interests and experiences. Therefore, selective perception offers the risk of drawing inaccurate
picture of the ambiguous situation.

g) Attribution: Attribution refers to the process of assigning causes to the behaviour. People are
interested not only in observing the behaviour but also in determining its causes. Their evaluations of and
reactions to other’s behaviour may be heavily influenced by their perception that the others are
responsible for their behaviour. When we observe an individual’s behaviour, we attempt to determine
whether it is internally caused or externally caused. Internally caused behaviours are those which we
believe that they are under the control of the individual and externally caused behaviours are those
which are believed to be beyond the control of the individual. The determination that whether the
behaviour is internally caused or externally caused depends upon three factors viz. distinctiveness,
consensus and consistency.

Distinctiveness refers to whether the individual displays different behaviour in different situations. If the
individual usually behave differently in different situations, his behaviour is externally caused. But if he
behaves in the similar manner in the different situations his behaviour is internally caused.

Consensus is when everyone behaves in a same way whenever they face the similar situation. If there is
a consensus in everyone’s behaviour, it means the behaviour is externally caused otherwise it is internally
caused.

Consistency in a person’s action refers to when an individual behaves in a same way over a period of
time. If the behaviour of a person is consistent, it is internally caused otherwise it is externally caused.

Take a look at an example, if a manager believes that faulty performance of his subordinate is due to
external factors such as faulty equipment or electricity crisis, his perception of his subordinate’s
performance will be different than if he attributes the faulty performance to subordinate’s own ignorance
and negligence. The most interesting finding from the attribution theory of perception is that the errors
or biases distort perception. There are two possible errors in attribution:

Fundamental attribution error: When we judge behaviour of others, we tend to underestimate the
influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal factors.

Self serving bias: When we make judgements about own behaviour, we tend to attribute our success to
internal factors such as skills and abilities and putting blame of failures on external factors such as faulty
equipment, material shortage etc.

Checking

After the information is received, organised and interpreted, the perceiver checks whether his
interpretation of the information is right or wrong.

Reacting

Reacting is the last stage of the perceptual process. The process ends up when perceiver is indulged into
some action in relation to the perception. The action of perception is also called perceptual output. The
outcome of the perceptual process is attitude, opinion, beliefs and feelings of perceiver regarding the
perceived object or event or person. The action will be based on whether the perception is favourable or
unfavourable. If perception is positive, action will be favourable but, if the perception is negative, action
will be unfavourable.

Factors Influencing Perception

The definitions of perception clearly stated that perception is influenced by the factors of perceiver,
perceived and the situational factors. These factors are briefly explained as below:

a) Characteristics of perceiver: An individual’s past experiences, needs, habits, personality, values and
attitudes influence the perceptual process. For example, if a manager holds negative beliefs and attitudes
towards employee union, he will dislike and express his resentment for even a routine visit of union
official in the plant.

b) Characteristics of perceived: Physical attributes, appearance and behaviour of the target also
influence how they are being perceived. Physical attributes such as age, gender, height and weight affects
the way the person is being perceived. Perceivers tend to notice physical appearance characteristics that
contrast with the norm, that are intense, or that are new or unusual. Physical attractiveness often catches
the attention quickly. Interviewers rate attractive candidates more favourably and attractive candidates
are awarded higher starting salaries.

c) Characteristics of the situation: The physical, social and organisational settings of the situation also
influence the process of perception. For example, a conversation with the boss held in the reception area
of a dance club will be perceived differently than the conversation held in the office with the door closed.

Perception and Organisational behaviour

In the above discussion, several examples of relevance of perception in an organisational setting have
been discussed. Perception is actually a cognitive process through which an individual uniquely interpret
the situation based on his needs, experiences and interest. Perception is the judgement about the reality
not exact recording of reality. It reveals the picture of the world which may or may not different from the
reality. Recognising the difference between perception and reality is very important in an organisational
context. Let us understand the applications of perception in organisational behaviour more briefly
through following points:

Perception in employment interview: In an employment interview, selection or rejection of the

candidate depends upon the interviewer’s perception about behaviour of the candidate. Sometimes, a
rejected applicant may deserve the selection but is rejected because he is wrongly perceived by the
interviewer. The real fact is that the interviewers usually make judgement about the candidates on the
basis of early impressions and form inaccurate perceptions.

Performance appraisal: It is another area where perception plays a very significant role. Performance
evaluation of employees depends upon the perception of the evaluator about the employees. Some jobs
involve the performance which can be measured in quantifiable terms such as job of salesman,
production worker etc. Evaluation of such jobs can be done in objective terms and hence do not provide
the managers with greater discretion. On the other hand, some jobs involve the performance which
cannot be measured in quantifiable terms. Evaluation of such jobs is done in subjective terms and
subjective measures of performance provide relatively wider scope for managers to use their own
discretion. Therefore, appraisal of such jobs is largely influenced by perception of the evaluator about
who is good or who is bad.