Perception

Perception.

Our actions are influenced by how we perceive ourselves and  how we perceive our social and physical environment. We each perceive the world around us in different ways and we need to understand why. It is our perception of reality which shapes and directs our behavior.

Perception is a dynamic, psychological process. It is responsible for attending to, organizing and interpreting sensory data. We attach meanings, interpretations, values, and aims to our actions.

We process and interpret the incoming sense impressions picked up from the world around us. We do it:

·         In the light of our past experiences,

·         in terms of our current interests and needs,

·         in terms of our knowledge, expectations, beliefs, and motives.

The following diagram  depicts perceptual process.

 We constantly pick up signals from the world around us, either purposely or by pressure from others. We normally do not pay attention to all the signals. It is almost impossible for anyone to select hundred percent of the incoming signals. Most of the time, we select a particular data from the signals and reject others. Interestingly, it happens almost without our knowledge.   

Certain signals have ability to grab our attention:

·         large rather than small

·         bright rather than dull

·         loud rather than quiet

·         strong rather than weak

·         unfamiliar rather than familiar

·         moving rather than stationary

Once we pay the attention to the signal, we process them depending on many factors. The factors include our own:

·         Experience  

·         Personality

·         Motivation

We also have an ability to complete ambiguous information by our own knowledge and past experience.  Our perceptions are mere impressions and need not be true. Understanding of our own perceptual world is difficult because there are many influences of which we are unaware.

Perceptual sets and assumptions. The concept of perceptual set or perceptual expectation applies to the ways in which we see other people, events, and objects. There are two related and prominent features of the process of people perception: the halo effect and stereotyping.

Halo effect is a judgment based on a single striking characteristic, such as an aspect of dress, speech, posture, or nationality.

Stereotype is a category or personality type to which we allocate people on the basis of their membership of some known group.

Any aspect of our appearance is a form of non-verbal communication. These factors combined with our behavior, sends signals that others decode in the light of their experience. Examples are: age is related to reliability, tall and handsome means self-confident and knowledgeable, short and overweight persons will deter others, etc.

Perceptual errors and how to avoid them. The main sources of errors in perception include:

·         Not collecting enough information about other people.

·         Basing our judgments on information that is irrelevant or insignificant.

·         Seeing what we expect to see an what we want to see, and not investigating further.

·         Allowing early information about someone to influence our judgment, despite later and contradictory information.

·         Allowing our own characteristics to influence our judgments of others.

·         Accepting stereotypes uncritically.

·         Attempting to decode non-verbal behavior out with the context in which it appears.

Use the following remedies to minimize your perceptual errors:

·         Take more time and avoid instant or snap judgment about others.

·         Collect and consciously use more information about others.

·         Develop self-awareness and an understanding of how our personal biases and preferences affect our perceptions and judgment of other people.

·         Check our attributions – the assumptions we make about causes of behavior, particularly the links we make between aspects of personality and appearance on one hand and behaviour on the other.

Important note.

Your employability gets affected by the perception of the people who interview you. The following are the major perceptions which resulted in denial of employment.

·         Poor personal appearance

·         Nervous, lack of confidence

·         Making excuses

·         Over aggressiveness

·         Late arrival for the interview

·         Vague response to questions