Ohm Chapter 5: Perception

Perception

• Perception involves organizing and interpreting sensory impressions to derive meaning from the environment.

Factors Affecting Perception

• Factors in the Perceiver:

  • Attitudes: Personal beliefs influence how individuals perceive events.
  • Motives: Personal needs shape situational interpretation.
  • Interests: Focusing on specific interests impacts perception.
  • Experience: Past experiences inform the interpretation of new information.
  • Expectations: Preconceived notions affect how events are perceived.

• Factors in the Situation:

  • Time: Timing of an event can alter perception.
  • Work Setting: The context of the workplace shapes behavior interpretation.
  • Social Setting: Surrounding social context influences perceptions.

• Factors in the Target:

  • Novelty: Unusual stimuli capture attention.
  • Motion: Moving objects are more noticeable.
  • Sounds: Auditory stimuli influence perception.
  • Size: Larger objects tend to attract notice.
  • Background: The environment surrounding a target affects interpretation.
  • Proximity: Nearby objects are perceived in relation to each other.
  • Similarity: Similar items are grouped and perceived as related.

Attribution Theory

• Observers determine the cause of behavior as either internal (person-related) or external (situation-related).

• Distinctiveness:

  • High distinctiveness indicates unusual behavior across contexts (suggests external attribution).
  • Low distinctiveness indicates consistent behavior across situations (suggests internal attribution).

• Consensus:

  • High consensus reflects similar behaviors among individuals in the same situation (external attribution).
  • Low consensus indicates unique behaviors (internal attribution).

• Consistency:

  • High consistency suggests that behavior is characteristic of the individual (internal attribution).
  • Low consistency may suggest influence from situational factors (external attribution).

Fundamental Attribution Error

• The tendency to underestimate external influences on behavior and overestimate internal factors.

Self-Serving Bias

• Individuals attribute their successes to internal factors while blaming failures on external circumstances.

Shortcuts in Judging Others

• Selective Perception: Filtering perceptions based on personal interests and background.
• Halo Effect: Making positive assumptions based on a single favorable trait.
• Horns Effect: Developing a negative impression due to one unfavorable characteristic.
• Contrast Effect: Evaluating individuals based on recent comparisons to others in similar traits.
• Stereotyping: Judging individuals based on group affiliations.

Application of Shortcuts in Organizations

• Influences occur in contexts such as employment interviews, performance expectations, and evaluations.

Decision-Making Models

• Rational Decision-Making Model: A structured approach aiming for optimal outcomes through defined steps (define problem, identify criteria, etc.).
  • Assumes decision-makers have complete information and unbiased identification of all options.

Limitations of Rational Model and Bounded Rationality

• Bounded rationality arises from:
  • Limited information processing capacity.
  • Situations lacking optimal solutions lead to satisfactory rather than optimal decisions.
  • Complexity necessitates reducing problems to manageable interpretations.

Bounded Rationality Process

• Identify problems and search for criteria and alternatives.
• Likely limited thoroughness in criteria; favoring visible and familiar solutions.
• Focus on alternatives that closely align with the current state until a suitable option emerges.

Biases and Errors in Decision-Making

• Overconfidence Bias: Weak performers tend to overestimate their abilities; overly optimistic entrepreneurs often face lesser success.
• Anchoring Bias: Reliance on initial information without adequately adjusting for new data.
• Confirmation Bias: Seeking information that supports existing beliefs while dismissing contradictory evidence.
• Availability Bias: Judgments are based on information that is easily accessible.
• Escalation of Commitment: Continuing a poor decision due to personal responsibility for the outcome.
• Randomness Error: Misguided belief in predicting random outcomes can impair decision-making.
• Hindsight Bias: Believing post-outcome that an event was predictable.

Individual Factors Affecting Decision-Making

• Personality, gender, mental ability, and cultural differences influence decision-making processes.

Organizational Factors Affecting Decision-Making

• Various organizational elements impact how decisions are made and perceived.

Affect

• Affect encompasses a wide range of feelings, manifested through emotions and moods.

Emotions

• Cause: Triggered by specific events.
• Duration: Brief, lasting seconds to minutes.
• Nature: Specific and numerous, including anger, fear, sadness, happiness, disgust, and surprise.
• Expression: Associated with distinct facial expressions.
• Orientation: Action-oriented.

Moods

• Cause: General and often unclear triggers.
• Duration: Longer lasting, from hours to days.
• Nature: More general; categorized into positive affect and negative affect.
• Expression: Lacks distinct facial expressions.
• Orientation: Predominantly cognitive.

Six Universal Emotions

• Anger
• Fear
• Sadness
• Happiness
• Disgust
• Surprise

Positive and Negative Emotions

• Positive Emotions: Associated with feelings of being well-rested, treated with respect, enjoyment, smiling, laughing, and engaging in interesting activities.
• Negative Emotions: Include anger, stress, sadness, physical pain, and worry.

Sources of Emotions and Moods

• Personality: Emotions and moods have a trait component; affect intensity varies among individuals.
• Time of Day: Mood tends to improve during the midpoint of the day.
• Day of the Week: Happiness generally increases towards the week’s end.
• Weather: Perception of weather affecting mood (illusory correlation); no real impact observed.
• Stress: Low-level, constant stress can adversely affect mood.
• Social Activities: Interactions, dining, and informal activities can enhance positive mood.
• Sleep: Poor sleep quality correlates with increased negative emotions.
• Exercise: Can improve mood, particularly in depressed individuals.
• Age: Older adults tend to focus more on positive stimuli compared to younger ones.
• Sex Differences:
  • Women display more emotional expressiveness.
  • Women experience emotions more intensely and have longer-lasting moods.
  • Women express emotions more frequently than men.

Emotional Labor

• Definition: Requirement for employees to portray emotions aligned with organizational expectations in workplace interactions.
• Felt Emotions: Actual emotions an individual experiences.
• Displayed Emotions: Emotions deemed appropriate by organizational standards.
• Types of Emotional Labor:
  • Surface Acting: Involves suppressing true feelings and adopting a facade.