Selective Perception and Decision Making - Research Paper Example

Selective perception & decision making Table of Contents page 3 2. Introduction page 4 3. Selective perception and decisionmaking : page 5 4. Conclusions : page 8 5. References : page 10 Abstract We are taking hundreds of decisions in our daily life. Some of these decisions might be sound whereas some others may have detrimental effects on our life. Some people make take sound and quick decisions while they are facing severe problems whereas some others fail to take good decisions while they face even smaller problems. Various parameters can control our decision making abilities. Our attitudes, intelligence, cultural backgrounds, emotional control, perceptions etc can affect our decision making abilities. According to Robbins et al (2008), Selective perception may affect our decision making abilities. This paper critically analyses the above opinion of Robins et al. Introduction Perception is the way that people organize and interpret everything around them in order to give meaning to experiences. The definition of perception does not change but each individual’s perception of an experience can be different. There are many things that influence a person’s perception. Personal beliefs, attitude, and past experiences can change the way a situation is perceived. Situational awareness also factor’s into perception. What might be normal in one situation might stand out in another. A person yelling at a football game would not stand out but the same person acting the same way in a church would be noticed (Hernandez, 2008) Man is a social animal who assumes many roles in life. A person could be a father, son, husband, brother, friend or a professional. In other words, same person will act differently at different places. If he behaves in his workplace, just like he behaves in his family or society, something definitely wrong with that person. He is supposed to or perceived to behave differently at different places like family, organization society etc. In short, the behaviour of a person is perceived to be dependent on the circumstances. In other words, the person should be extremely selective while perceiving different situations. Selective perception is the personal filtering of what we see and hear so as to suit our own needs. Much of this process is psychological and often unconscious. We simply are bombarded with too much stimuli every day to pay equal attention to everything so we pick and choose according to our own needs (Selective perception, n. d) Selective perception and cognitive biases have close relationships. In fact selective perception points towards the number of cognitive biases which may affect our perceptions. Cognitive bias is nothing but the pattern of deviation in judgment that occurs in particular situations. For example, we normally expect more marks from the children of an intelligent person. Sometimes our expectations may not be correct and those children might be idiots. In such cases, we would be forced to change our general perceptions about the abilities of the children of intelligent persons. In other words, we can say that we were forced to make a selective perception in the above case. We come across with many instances in which people behave indifferently at times. This is partly because of the influence of selective perceptions. For example, suppose we have given a nonalcoholic drink to a person and told them that it was an alcoholic drink. Sometimes that person may exhibit the mannerisms of a drunkard if he believes those words because of selective perception. That person might have seen many people behave differently under the influence of alcohol and his perception about the influence of alcoholic drinks up on a person will force him to behave same way like the drunkards. Selective perceptions can affect our decision making abilities according to Robbins et al (2008). Selective perception and decision making Selective perception describes how we categorise and interpret sensory information in a way that favours one category or interpretation over another. In other words selective perception is a form of bias because we interpret information in a way that is congruent with our existing values and beliefs. Psychologists believe this process occurs automatically (Psychology Definition Of The Week : Selective Perception, 2011) According to Robbins (2003), “selective perception is often the reason that friends can see problems in our marriage that we can’t”(Robbins 2003, p.74). For example, consider a person fall in love with a beautiful girl who has affairs with lot many other youth boys. That person may take her love seriously because of his infatuation towards her. However, a friend of that person can anticipate the dangers associated with such an affair because of his better ability in analysing that love affair in a neutral manner. In other words, emotions or infatuations can prevent a person from taking wise decisions. The boy in the above love affair case may perceive the love of the girl seriously because of his false beliefs or perceptions about the sincerity of that girl. Some times, he may not take the opinions of his friends seriously in this case because of his deep love towards that girl. However the friends may not have such barriers in taking decisions and they can see the dangers in such an affair easily. In short, selective perception about that girl forced the boy to take that love affair seriously. A selective vision system sequentially collects evidence to support a specified hypothesis about a scene, as long as the additional evidence is worth the effort of obtaining it. Knowledge representation and sequential decision-making are central issues for selective vision, which takes advantage of prior knowledge of a domains abstract and geometrical structure and models for the expected performance and cost of visual operators (Rimey, 1993) Financial institutions often sanction heavy loans to individuals and organizations based on the loan seeker’s previous credit histories. In other words, the knowledge about the loan seeker’s previous credit histories often motivates the financial institutions while taking decisions in favor or against the loan seeker. Suppose, the loan seeker might have lost many of his previously earned wealth and the bank was unaware of it. In that case, the bank will sanction the loan to that person considering his previous histories. The opposite case is also possible. Banks will hesitate to give loans to a bad creditor even if he acquires new wealth. In short, the knowledge plays an important role in the decision making process. In the above case, the banks used selective perception techniques in decision making. “Managers routinely confront ill structured complex problems that challenge their cognitive abilities. They must meet such challenges with limited information procession capabilities. They act based on their belief structure on such occasions” (Walsh, 1988, p.873). In some cases, it is difficult for a person to take a decision based on the collected knowledge alone. Consider an anonymous customer approaches the manager of a printing unit with a huge business offer which needed to be completed within a short time span. The manager may not get enough time to collect more information about the customer or the project. He has to say yes or no in a short time period. Under such circumstances, the manager will use his senses, beliefs and intelligences while making decisions. In other words, selective perception helped the manager in taking decisions in such cases. Halo effect, stereotyping etc can affect the selective perception and the decision making processes. Halo effect is “drawing a general impression about an individual on the basis of single characteristics like intelligence, appearance etc” (Perception and individual decision making, 2010, p.9). In most of the cases, people have a habit of assessing a person based his race, ethnicity, culture or community he belongs. For example, most of the American companies were keener in appointing Americans at the top of their organization even when they operate in other countries. However, the above perception has changed a lot nowadays. Even the current American president belongs to a community of black origin. In other words, the role of selective perception at least in some decision making processes, is decreasing nowadays. Stereotyping is a process of “judging someone on the basis of one’s perception of the group to which that person belongs” (Perception and individual decision making, 2010, p.10). Females were earlier denied the opportunity to work at the top levels of the organizations because of the selective perception about their inferior abilities in tackling pressure situations. However, even the Pepsi like big companies currently have a female CEO at their top which clearly shows the diminishing role of selective perception in decision making. According to Walter Lippmann, “We do not first see and then define. We define first and then see. Even when something is right before your eyes, it is hard to view it without preconceived notions. It is nearly impossible for people to avoid biases in perception”(Plous, 1993, p.15). Many people have the false belief that “seeing is believing”. It is a wrong belief or assumption. Consider a male and female travelling together in a motor bike. Most of us will recognize them as lovers; however it is quiet possible that the girl could be the sister of that person. In other words, we cannot trust our eyes always. Eyes are only a sense we got and we have four other senses as well. It is inappropriate to trust the signals received from a single sense alone. In order to make sound decisions, we have to rely the signals from all our senses and our intelligence. In other words, it is not necessary that selective perception will help us in taking sound decisions. Conclusions Robbins et al’s (2008), opinions are right as far as selective perception and decision making processes are concerned. However it is not necessary that the selective perception always lead us towards sound decision making. Selective perception prevents us from analysing the different dimensions of a problems and hence the decisions reached with the help of selective perception might not be sound always. Selective perception and its role in decision making are currently diminishing because of the changing life philosophies and styles. References 1. Hernandez, C. (2008). Perception and decision making [online] Available at: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/868873/perception_and_decision_making.html[accessed on 05 January 2010] 2. Plous S (1993). The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1st edition (1993) 3. Perception and individual decision making, (2010). [online] Available at: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/10491821/Perception-and-Individual-Decisional-Making---Chapter-5 [accessed on 05 January 2010] 4. Psychology Definition Of The Week : Selective Perception, (2011). [online] Available at: http://counsellingcentral.com/psychology-definition-of-the-week-selective-perception/ [accessed on 05 January 2010] 5. Rimey R.D. (1993). Control of Selective Perception using Bayes Nets and Decision Theory. [online] Available at: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=898355 [accessed on 05 January 2010] 6. Robbins S.P. (2003). Decide and Conquer: Make Winning Decisions and Take Control of Your Life. Publisher: FT Press (September 8, 2003) 7. Selective perception (n. d). [online] Available at: http://lilt.ilstu.edu/rrpope/rrpopepwd/articles/perception3.html [accessed on 05 January 2010] 8. Walsh, J.P. (1988), Selectivity and Selective Perception.: An investigation of manager’s belief structure and information processing. The Academy of Management Journal. Vol. 31. No.4 [online] Available at: http://www.jstor.org/pss/256343 [accessed on 05 January 2010] Read More