Importance of a Person Perception - Research Paper Example

?Person Perception The basic building block of our mentality is that we take the whole world, cut it into pieces, separate those pieces fromeach other and make our own meaningful impression. Person Perception is a concept of psychology that determines how an individual shapes and perceives the outside information. Individuals generally capture information through their sensory organs and give meanings to them based upon their own distinctive perception. Perception of every individual differs from the other due to different characteristics and personality traits. Different philosophers and authors have described this concept by giving their own viewpoint. People normally feel compatible with those objects, individuals and surroundings that are close to their own understanding and perception. It is noted that in our daily life, perception plays a huge role. How we interact with others, how we react to a certain situation, how we behave, all of these are the results of our perceptions. Introduction Perception can be described as the way that is tried to understand surroundings. Human being gather information through their sensory organs but perception gives meaning to this information. A perception cannot be similar for two different people. For instance, two individuals perceive a similar situation but they give different meaning to it because they perceive it in a different manner. In short, perception can be defined as a procedure by which individual gives meaning to the information, becomes aware of it and infers information about the surroundings. Perception determines the behavior of a person and how a person reacts in a particular situation. Perceptions are generally formed by the past experiences, personal characteristics, context of the situations, physical cues and many other factors. Selective perception is also a type of perception in which a person makes impression on the basis of selective traits and characteristics and not by judging that object as a whole. The Perceptual Process Source: managementconsultingcourses.com Factors affecting Perception Different types of information are used to shape the impression of other person including certain characteristics of that person, the context of the situation and one’s own personal traits. People often quickly make impression of other person with minimum information. Physical Cues In determining an impression, physical cues play a vital role. If you see a man dressed in professional looking suit, you immediately form an impression that the person might work at some bank or law firm. Physical cues often portray the major part of information in order to make an impression. Physical cues can often lead to deceptive judgments as well. Some people whom we perceive kind and trustworthy often go against our expectations. Tankard (1970) has also point out eye position as the most important of the physical cue. He states that time span that is spent in eye contact decreases the interpersonal distance. Clothing, speech, gestures, postures and facial expressions are other variables of physical cues. Social Categorization Social categorization is often also known as mental short cut. In social categorization, we tend to categorize people on the basis of some common characteristics. This process happens both consciously and unconsciously. Some most common grouping includes gender, age, race and occupation. Social categorization allows people to make quick judgments. It helps in making quick decision because when a person observes these aspects, he instantly starts to focus on other subjects as how might the person behave in a certain situation or the expectations that one might have for them. Social categorization often leads to stereotyping and other errors. For instance, imagine yourself getting on a bus. You see two types of seats available, one next to an elderly woman, and the other next to a grim face burly man. You choose to sit next to the elderly woman as it gave you the impression of harmlessness. But soon you find out that the woman is skilled in picking pockets. This example suggests that social categorization can often lead to misjudgments. Psychological Factors Psychological Factors are also the vital reason of different perception of different people. Factors including personality, learning and motives, past experience influence the perception of an individual to a great extent. Factors which are compatible with a person’s attitude, personality and interest are more likely to draw attention than other factors. For instance, if you hear the word ‘organizational behavior’ or ‘management’ when you are a business graduate, you are more likely to turn your attention towards the subject unconsciously. The Target In the above mentioned diagram, we have seen that the pre-requisite to create a perception is attention. It has been observed that the tendency to put more attention towards the subjects that are; large in size, moving, loud, intense, repeated, contrasted, stand out from the background, bright and novel. The Situation Situations or the context are primary factor to shape our perception. The presence of a bartender in a bar hardly draws any attention but if you see any of you friend or relative near hospital or ICU, you will certainly put your attention to it. Person Perception- Attribution Theory Kelly (1967) stated attribution theory as the process that is conducted by an individual to master the cognitive structure of his environment. Attribution theory refers to the manner in which we judge individuals differently depending upon the behavior they are portraying. Whenever we judge the behavior of an individual, we tend to determine whether it has been internally caused or externally caused. In internally caused behavior, it is believed that the behavior of an individual is under his personal control and in externally caused behavior it is believed that the behavior of an individual is a result of external situations and the external environment has compelled them to do so. For instance, when you invite your friend to a dinner at your home and he refuses without giving you any reason, you tend to ascribe that he is careless and unconcerned about your feelings but then if someone points out his increased responsibilities and remarkable efforts in his father’s business due to the sudden death of his father, you now ascribe the external factors. Implicit Personality Theory (IPTs) Implicit Personality Theory refers to the collective assumptions and beliefs that we create and that are linked to the behavior and characteristics of that person. For instance, at your workplace you see a new co-worker that is happy you implicitly assume that the person would be generous, kind, helpful and friendly as well. Implicit personality theory is a collective set of assumptions and beliefs that one implicitly creates in order to shape the perception of an individual. According to Critcher and Dunning (2009), implicit personality theory demonstrates egocentric pattern of projection as well. If we see a person who is egocentric, we assume that the person would be aggressive, introvert and reserved as well. Person Perception in Real World Setting There has been an extensive debate on the subject of Perception and Reality. Many people argue that we see the world not as it is in reality, but as we perceive it. Others contradict to this and say that reality is same for everyone irrespective of the perception of an individual. In my mind, Reality speaks out as event that cannot be changed for instance a death of a friend or family member, but our response towards that event is determined by our perception. We can choose to hue and cry over this incident or we can choose to learn lessons from this and make our life more beneficial for ourselves and for others. Reality is an unchangeable and uncontrollable element but perception refers to the way we give meaning to that reality. It is common to refuse the existence of that reality which we haven’t experienced. I regard this as a limiting mindset. The real attitude is to be an explorer. This is how we invite new experiences in our lives. Some people consider it as open mindedness or wishful thinking but I believe this how we sculpt the reality. References Bargh, J. A., Chen, M., & Burrows, L. (1996). Automaticity of social behavior: Direct effects of trait construct and stereotype activation on action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 230-244. Cherry, Kendra. (n.d.). Person Perception: How We Form Impressions of Other People. Retrieved 12 November 2011 from http://psychology.about.com/od/socialpsychology/a/person-perception.htm Critcher , Clayton R. and Dunning, David. (2009). Egocentric Pattern Projection: How Implicit Personality Theories Recapitulate the Geography of the Self. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(1), 1–16. Kelley, Harold H. (1967). Attribution Theory in Social Psychology. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 15, 192-238. Tankard, Jr James W. (1970). Effects Of Eye Position On Person Perception. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 31, 883-893. Read More