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?

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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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Influence Factors Stages of Perception

Response (Feeling, thinking, acting)

Organization RetrievalAttention and Selection

Schemas/Scripts

Organization Attention and Selection Organization Attention and Selection

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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SchemasCognitive 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 schemaRefers 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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InterpretationUncovering

the reasons behind the ways stimuli are grouped.

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RetrievalAttention 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 ManagementSystematic attempt to influence how others perceive us.Cultivating positive impressions can help

to advance a job or career.

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StereotypesAssigns 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 effectsOccur 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 perceptionThe 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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ProjectionThe assignment of one’s personal

attributes to other individuals.

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Contrast effectsOccur 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

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.

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AttributionProcess 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)

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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

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.

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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=b5ZljnMmrI

s(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 efficacyThe person’s belief that he or she can

perform adequately in a situation (self-confidence, competence, ability).

Key factor in self-control.

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ReinforcementThe 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.

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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 effectBehavior 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 willa.Quitb.Keep trying to impress the right

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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 reinforcementAdministering a reward each time the

desired behavior occurs.

Intermittent reinforcementRewards behavior periodically — either on

the basis of time elapsed or the number of desired behaviors exhibited.

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Negative reinforcementThe withdrawal of negative consequences

to increase the likelihood of repeating the desired behavior in a similar setting.

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PunishmentThe 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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ExtinctionThe withdrawal of the reinforcing

consequences for a given behavior.

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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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