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PERCEPTION AND INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOUR:Three concepts of personality, Bias in Perception

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Human Relations­ MGMT611
VU
Lesson 04
PERCEPTION AND INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOUR
"Perception is a process through which people select, organize, interpret, retrieve and respond to
information."
Perception is word which means "a process of knowing." How do you know a reality, how you see things
and interpret them. It may be related to reality or may not.
Three concepts of personality:
Communication has many forms. Everyone who communicates through a picture, verbal design or with a
landscape has its three meanings.
(1) Intended meanings, the meanings which I want to convey to the audience.
(2) The second meaning is dictionary meaning e.g. communication material, words I have used.
(3) Most important is "perceived meanings" the meanings that you are getting .your meanings will b
based on meanings that you are getting from the other person's speech.
So perceived meanings are critically important, e.g. during a lecture many a time what I say you don't take it
the way I said and this leads to misunderstanding. The difference between intended and perceived
meanings is called misunderstanding.
Life World
In sociology there is a concept "life world". Every person has a different life world. What are his life
experiences? Due to different experiences a person views different things in different way, e.g. I was an
M.A student. The psychology professor brought a vague painting and placed it on the wall. Then he asked
the student to write a story on it. There were 20 students and all of them write a different story. The idea is
actually depicted differently by all the students because everybody interpreted a same piece of information
according to his/her own experiences, although the source of information was same. "Truth and False"
may be very important but in terms of determining the behaviors of the individuals "perception" is
important but not the truth, e.g. a young boy and man came home late at night and thought that if I will
knock at door my dad will be angry so he climbed the gate and went in just to avoid his dad's anger. Dad
thought he is a thief, he picked up the gun and he shot him dead. Now what is important more is "truth or
perception". In this case it is clear that perception played a role but truth was son but his action was due to
perception. So, it is perception which determines individual's behavior not the truth.
Perception of individual is reality for that individual. If you understand this thing you would know that
source of major conflicts among people is due to different perception of different individuals.
Whenever you get a message you try to understand that this message has some intended meanings and
these meanings came from culture or from your own socialization, e.g. a delegation from china went to
Canada, during lunch some Chinese took a burp at the lunch, the Canadians felt a disgust and thought that
Chinese are ill mannered and don't know how to behave in a meeting. But someone other may understand
a different meaning by that burp and may thought that Chinese are appreciating food by taking burp.
Chinese are conveying it good about to their host but the Canadians are taking it negatively. This is a
difference between intended and perceived meaning. Source of misunderstanding is the gap between
intended and perceived meaning.
The gateway arch in mono Louis height and width are same 192 m but it is just a vertical, horizontal
illusion that which cause people to see vertical lines longer as compare to horizontal lines. I took this slide
from encyclopedia. It shows that the height is taller than the width. It is just an illusion. As it is illusionary
to see such a thing and you get a different message.
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Human Relations­ MGMT611
VU
In this illusion you look on left the length of lines A, B, C, D. you will notice that lines A, B will look
longer than the line C, D although they are same in length. On right there is a "PONZO" illusion in which
you see red lines. The top red lines look larger than lower red lines, but all are same in real. These are
illusion. This is communication in the form of picture. You are going to make judgment on the basis of
truth or perception. As earlier a father shot his son because he perceived him to be a thief.
Any message or letter through which you communicate, you have to put yourself in others shoes to
understand the meaning others want to convey you.
How you develop perception: you develop perception through your experiences, circumstances and action.
All these things influence the process of perception development. Perception is a process of giving the
meaning, the things influence it. And which are the things that forces people to perceive the things in a
way, which are the factors that influence the process of perception. How it influences the way you look on
different things.
Bias in Perception
(Development of Perception)
Following are main factors that influence the process of perception development.
(1) Stereotype images
(2) Expectations
(3) Projection
(4) Interest
(5) Selective exposure
(6) Frame of reference
If you look on one by one, you can realize that how each one of them influence the process of perception
development. Now as I am a professor of sociology. If you ask that is there any structural flaw in this
building. I can not look at those flaws. I can look on people's behavior, communication pattern. I can look
and describe what is going on in society, but I can not look on the design of the building because the focus
of my knowledge is toward another direction. Structural engineer can look on these. This bias is due to my
education, my interest. I look on things from my own point of view. A structural engineer can not look on
human relations. The bias comes through your education, interest and life experiences. My experiences are
due to the teaching of sociology, by practicing of sociology. So I am so confident to look on the things in
term of social dynamics, human relationship, personal and interpersonal relationship. On the other hand a
technical man, an engineer who is in the lab all the time handling with the instruments may not know many
human dynamics as a person like me. We as a sociologist better understand the behavior of mobs, crowds
as compare to those who are working with instruments/ equipments.
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Human Relations­ MGMT611
VU
Therefore the meaning I am trying to deliver is that the perceptions vary because life experiences are
different. How this bias of different individual develops and how different perception of particular things
occurs.
(1) Stereotype Images
We have certain images about different things i.e. about caste. We ask about someone's caste because we
have certain image about that caste i.e. Sheikh, Rajput, Kashmiri etc. These images are stereotype images.
So that we have some knowledge or some information about that person. If some one came in contact
with us we want to know about that person's sex, age just to have a view that what type of life experiences
that person could have. Society tells us about those images. Different individuals with different age, sex can
have different life experiences, i.e. education, occupation, age and sex all create different type of images.
We make guess about peoples after knowing their qualification.
So stereotype images are very important in term of developing your biases about different peoples
according to your own perception.
(2) Frame of Reference
It looks on things with narrow focus. An individual works in an organization. That organization wants
more work from that individual for efficiency but the individual think that organization wants extra work
for that amount. Now that organization and individual both have different focus. Organization is looking
for efficiency. On the other hand if there is a union in that organization, it may be look on different things
like being exploited. Individual look on the things from there narrow frame of reference, narrow in the
sense that they have limited focus. They never look beyond; they only look within their frame of interest.
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Table of Contents:
  1. HUMAN RELATIONS:Some Guidelines for Effective Human Relations, Communication has 3meanings
  2. CULTURE AND PERSONALITY:Definition of sub culture, Definition of Personality, Types of Persons
  3. PERSONALITY AND STRESS:Personality, PERSONAL TOOLS TO CONTROL STRESS
  4. PERCEPTION AND INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOUR:Three concepts of personality, Bias in Perception
  5. PERCEPTION AND GROUP BEHAVIOR:Characteristics of Groups, Individual and Group Behavior
  6. ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOUR:Types of Attitudes, Steps to turn attitude into action
  7. PERSONAL MOTIVATION AND ACHIEVEMENT:Needs and Motivation, Self-discipline and motivation
  8. SOLVING PROBLEMS SKILLFULLY:Problem solving and cognition, Ways to solve problems
  9. CREATIVITY IN PROBLEM SOLVING:Barriers to creativity, Tips to solve problems creatively
  10. HANDLING PERSONAL ISSUES:Self-Defeating Behaviour, Positive attitude to tackle personal problems
  11. CONFLICT RESOLUTION:WHY SO MUCH CONFLICT EXISTS, TECHNIQUES FOR RESOLVING CONFLICTS
  12. COMMUNICATION AND HUMAN RELATIONS:Process of communication, Improving gender barriers to communication
  13. ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION:To improve listening skills, Types of organizational communication
  14. UNDERSTANDING COMMUNICATION STYLES:Modeling communication style, Sociability continuum
  15. SELF-ESTEEM:Building process of self-esteem, Self-esteem and public image
  16. BUILDING SELF-CONFIDENCE:The importance of self-confidence and self-efficacy, Balanced Self-Confidence:
  17. BECOMING A LEADER-1:Assessing leadership role, Traits and Characteristics of Effective Leaders
  18. BECOMING A LEADER-II:Theories of leadership, Developing leadership potential
  19. GLOBALIZATION AND CROSS-CULTURAL DIFFERENCES:Religious Values and Bicultural Identities
  20. IMPROVING CROSS-CULTURAL COMPETENCE:Strategies to improve cross-cultural relations, More steps to improve Cultural Relations
  21. BUILDING GOOD RELATIONS WITH MANAGERS:Impressing your manager, Coping with a problem manager
  22. BUILDING GOOD RELATIONS WITH CO-WORKERS:Make Co-workers feel important, Maintain Honest and Open Relationships
  23. BUILDING GOOD RELATIONS WITH CUSTOMERS:Salesperson Represents the Business, Approaching the Customer, Excuses vs. Objections
  24. CHOOSING A CAREER-1:Ten Myths about Choosing a Career, Attitude toward and Perceptions about Myself
  25. CHOOSING A CAREER-II:Choosing a career and developing a portfolio Career, Suggestions for career Preparation
  26. FINDING A JOB:Targeting your job search, The Internet and Résumé Database Services, Extreme Job Hunting
  27. SIGNIFICANCE OF RESUME:Major types of resumes, Electronic Submission of the Résumé
  28. IMPROVING INTERVIEW SKILLS:Successful interview, Knowing the employer or Organization
  29. IMPROVING WORK HABITS-1:Reasons of procrastination, Techniques for Reducing Procrastination
  30. IMPROVING WORK HABITS-2:Developing the proper attitudes and values, Time-management techniques
  31. NEW MODEL OF CAREER ADVANCEMENT:Career portability, HUMAN RELATIONS SELF-ASSESSMENT
  32. TAKING CONTROL OF YOURSELF:Develop Outstanding Interpersonal Skills, Business etiquettes
  33. EXERTING CONTROL ON OUTSIDE ENVIRONMENT:Important communication tip, Exerting control over the outside world
  34. MANAGING PERSONAL FINANCES-1:Your personal financial plan, Steps in budget making
  35. MANAGING PERSONAL FINANCES-2:Basic investment principles, Tolerance for Investment Risks, Types of investments
  36. ACHIEVING HAPPINESS-1:Finding happiness and enhancing your personal life, The key to happiness
  37. ACHIEVING HAPPINESS-2:The Five Principles of Psychological Functioning, Your mind and Happiness
  38. ACHIEVING HAPPINESS-3:Need for intimacy, Working out issues with relationships
  39. APATHY AND ITS REMEDIES:Let us try to understand the various definitions of apathy, Coping strategies for apathy
  40. ENHANCING PERSONAL ETHICS-1:Influence of Culture, Common ethical problems
  41. ENHANCING PERSONAL ETHICS-2:Common ethical problems, Guidelines for Behaving Ethically
  42. HELPING OTHERS GROW:Being a Nurturing, Positive Person, A list of mentoring behaviour, Coaching skills and techniques
  43. REVIEW-I:What is a Human Relation?, Meanings of Communication, Two types of stress, Some personal problem, Communication style
  44. REVIEW-II:Steps to build self-confidence, Globalization, Building Good Relations with Co-workers, Good work habits
  45. REVIEW-III:New model of career advancement, Choosing your investment, Tactics for Dealing with Difficult People