Factors that Impact Perception - Coursework Example

Factors That Impact Perception Name: College: Course: Lecture: Name: Introduction Perception is the psychological function of giving meaning to stimuli such as shapes, colours, taste, sounds, movement, touch, pain, smells, pressure and pain (Bronlow, 2006). Perception gives rise to personal behavioural reactions to particular situations. In spite of the fact that a group of people may actually observe the same entity, they each possess their own description of what is observed; their apparent view of reality. Perception is a procedure that all persons take part in as they move through different events in their daily lives. When one meets people, make decisions related to business, pass judgment or evaluate performances, their perception surrounding such occurrences help persuade their next course of action. In a way, perception, whether flawed or accurate is their reality. Perception can also be defined as a process that people go through shaped by sensory impressions and surrounding stimuli, to explain their immediate environment. Causes that distort or shape people’s perception have a considerable impact on individual behaviour. An individual’s perception of other people is created initially by statement made by others, characteristics surrounding individual behaviour or visual cues (Weiten, Dunn and Lloyd, 2008). When creating perception of other people, one first generates a judgment surrounding external and internal factors shaping an individual. For instance, one might deduce that a homeless man has had made unfortunate decisions in life or has a problem to do with substance abuse (internal factors). Nevertheless, one might also deduce that the wandering man has unmanaged mental illness or was dumped as a child (external factors). This is a clear indication that people can see the same thing, yet develop own description of what is seen. Internal and External Factors The first phase in the perception process is selection and attention. Why do people attend to specific stimulus and not to others? There are important factors to take into account in this debate: internal factors which are related to the condition of the person and external factors which concern the surroundings and pressure external to the individual. Therefore, the perception process is based on both external and internal factors. The sensory system (internal factor) has limitations; people are not capable of seeing for miles and miles (Elyse, 2009). Neither are they capable of hearing very high or very low-pitched sounds. Every sense has specialist nerves, which act in response in a different way to the kinds of energy, which are experienced. For example, eyes obtain and convert the light effects into electrical signals, which are conveyed to the image context of the brain and transformed into meaning. The sensory system is universal to react to alterations in the surroundings. This has specific consequences for the manner in which people perceive the environment and it elaborates why people are able to disregard the purring of the heating system, but recognize instantaneously a phone ringing. Habituation is the term employed to characterize the way in which people take no notice of the familiar situations. Psychological determinants will also impact what is picked out. These internal influences such as learning, motives, and personality gives rise to specific ways. Most notably, learning from past experiences has a decisive impact all through the phases of the perceptual procedure. It will impact the stimuli supposed in the first case, and then the manner in which that stimulus is processed and understood, and ultimately the response. External factors include the knowledge of acquaintance with or expectations concerning a given situation or earlier experiences that influence perception. External determinants refer to the characteristics or nature of the stimuli. Any figure of these factors may be accessible at a given situation or time. Therefore, it is the total sequence of the stimuli together with the circumstances in which such stimulus occur that influence discernment. Initial Impression One perpetual tendency that may impact behaviour is initial impression. The initial impression people form about others seems to have a long-lasting effect (Robbins, 2005). Indeed, first impressions, once created, are remarkably resilient to conflicting information. Even in cases in which people are informed that the initial impressions were as a result of inaccurate data, individuals believe in them to a certain extent because once they form initial impressions, they tend to become independent from the proof that established them. Consequently, any conflicting information that people receive fails to serve the function of changing them. If a person, for example, met his or her colleague who treated him or her in an impolite manner, and when requested for assistance, the colleague brushed the request off. One is likely to form the belief that the colleague is an unhelpful and rude person. Later on, the person may hear that the colleague’s mother is critically ill, making him or her very stressed. In realism, the colleague may have been abnormally stressed on the day they met one another. If they had met at a time when the colleague’s stress level was lower, the person could have imagined that the colleague is a really nice person. But probabilities are that an impression that the colleague is unhelpful and rude will not be altered even when the person hears about his or her mother. As an alternative, this fresh piece of information will be incorporated to the first one: the colleague is unhelpful, rude and his or her mother is sick. Body Language and Facial Expressions People take original information concerning body language, appearance, what is articulated, and more significantly how it is articulated to create a judgment very rapidly as to what type of an individual one is. First impressions are largely grounded on body language and facial features as well as different bias and generalizations that impact the accurateness of those perceptions (Robbins, 2005). From bodily looks to mode of clothing; from race to religion to level of education and social class; when meeting somebody for the very first time individuals look upon persons that are similar to them favourably. In any way, the first impression goes back to one’s primitive endurance instinct. Is this individual a threat? If the individual seems to be sociable, people drop their guards and permit themselves to continue their evaluation. They look at all details to try to determine information, scrutinize the person and eventually form a judgment within, say, three seconds and it is all accomplished subconsciously. Trust The first thing people look for when meeting a person is trust. If an individual is capable of coming up as truthful, then a first thought will most probably be favourable as this individual is not a real threat. Out of every judgment people make concerning others, solely on first impression, their judgment of an individual being truthful or not are the one they come to in the smallest amount of time, almost instantaneously. It is thought that a person can judge another’s face on whether it seems truthful in roughly 100ms (Bronlow, 2006). This rapid judgment is only rivalled by their judgment of attractiveness. Stereotypes One of the main factors biasing perception is stereotypes. A stereotype is a term used to characterize the mental picture people form, and the behaviour they display, when they categorize according to general form, rather than concentrating on the specific attributes portrayed by a person example of that group. Stereotypes can be thought of as generalizations based solely on a group attribute (Robbins, 2005). For instance, beliefs that females are more cooperative than males, or that males are more forceful than females are stereotypes. Stereotypes can be negative, positive or neutral. In abstract terms, stereotyping is primarily an adaptive function. People have a natural propensity to group the information around them to make sense of their environment. Life would be complicated if people had to begin from scratch to comprehend every fresh situation and every new individual they encountered. What renders stereotypes potentially prejudicial and a perpetual discrimination is the inclination to generalize from a category to a specific individual. If the feeling that males are more forceful than females leads to selecting a male over an equally qualified female candidate for a specific position, the choice will be biased, unfair and potentially illicit. Stereotypes frequently create a condition called self-fulfilling divination. This occurs when a recognized stereotype makes one to act in a certain way, which causes the other party to act in a manner that substantiates the stereotype (Goldstien, 2006). For instance, if one has a typecast such as Asians are cooperative, one is more probable to be cooperative toward Asian persons. Given that one is treating the other individual satisfactorily, the feedback one gets may also be satisfactory, which substantiates the initial belief that Asians are cooperative. Suppose one believes that young workers are slackers. One is less expected to give young employee vast responsibilities or challenging and interesting and assignments. The outcome may be that the youthful employee may become more and more bored at work and begin goofing off, corroborating one’s suspicions that youthful people are slackers. Selective Perception Stereotypes persevere because of a process known as selective perception. Selective discernment refer to the verity that people select information according to their values, beliefs and attitudes. It means that individuals observe what they wish to observe and listen and what they want. For example, people tend to think positively of a person they adore, and perceive only the constructive part of his or her personality. The unconstructive characteristics of that individual, which may be visible to other people, are frequently ignored or overlooked. This form of perception simply means that people pay discriminatory attention to segments of the environment while disregarding other segments, which is specifically significant during the process of planning. One’s expectations, beliefs and background will influence which event’s one notices and which events one ignores (Goldstien, 2006). For instance, an executive’s purposeful background will impact the changes he perceives in the setting. Executives with a good background of marketing observe that fluctuations in the demand for their services, while executive possessing a background in information systems may more effortlessly perceive the revolutions in the information technologies the business is using. Discriminatory perception may also bring about typecasts because people are less probable to recognize occurrences that conflict their beliefs. An individual who believes that males drive superiorly than females may be more probable to notice females driving defectively than males driving inadequately. Consequently, a typecast is sustained because conflicting information may not reach one’s brain. If a person noticed some information that goes contrary to their view, it is no guarantee that they will change or even modify their prejudices and beliefs. First, when they come across examples that go contrary to their stereotypes, they tend to develop sub-groups. People who hold the view that woman are sociable when the come across a female who is forceful may categorize her as a career woman. Thus, the conflicting example does not contravene the typecast and taken as an exemption to the rule or people simply disregard the data. In one research, individuals against and in support of death punishment were exposed to two surveys, one revealing advantages of the death punishment while the other refuting any advantages (Bronlow, 2006). People opposed the survey that went contrary to their view as methodologically inadequate and ended up assuming in their initial view even more. In other terms, using information to debunk people’s views or formerly established perceptions may not inevitably work; an inclination to guard against when carrying out controlling and planning activities. Halo Effect The halo effect happens when people form perceptions of individuals based on the study of a single attribute which they portray. People permit that attribute to influence their impression of that individual without verifying them first. In a study, half of students were given a small note in which they were informed that their new tutor was thought to be a rather determined person, practical, critical and industrious and a warm person (Steinberg, 1995). The other half were provided with a note in which they were informed that he was thought to a rather determined person, practical, industrious, critical and cold person. After class, the students were requested to rank him on several divergent characteristics. Those who were provided with the warm note characterized the tutor as informal, popular and social. Those who were given the cold characterization thought he was self-centred and formal. It seems that a halo effect can function to an individuals’ disadvantage or advantage, depending on whether the judgment is unfavourable or favourable. Conclusion It is clear from the continuing discussion that there are many factors that impact on people’s perception of others as well as elements that affect the accuracy of first impressions. Perception is impacted by both internal and external factors. Internal factors are related to the condition of the person and external factors concern the surroundings and pressure external to the individual. In case of first impression, people take original information concerning body language, appearance, what is articulated, and more significantly how it is articulated to create a judgment. Trust is another factor that impacts perception. If a person is capable to come up as truthful, then a first thought will be favourable. Stereotype, a term used to characterize the mental picture people form when they categorize according to general form has been known to affect perception. This is because people have a natural propensity to group the information around them to make sense of their environment. Most importantly, people tend to select information according to their values, beliefs and attitudes. Even if information that goes contrary to people’s view is noticed, it is no guarantee that they will modify their prejudices and beliefs. Works Cited Bronlow, Silk. ‘Seeing is believing: Facial appearance, credibility, and attitude change’. Journal of Nonverbal Behaviour 16.1 (2006): 101-115. Elyse, Bob. ‘Factors affecting the self-concept of early adolescent girls’, Primary & Middle Years Educator 7.3 (2009):3-9. Goldstien, Edgar. Sensation and Perception. 7th ed. New York: Wadsworth, 2006. Robbins, Pius. Perception and Individual Decision Making. In Organizational Behaviour. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2005. Steinberg, Schores. Introduction to Communication Course Book 1: The Basics (Bk 1). London: Juta Academic, 1995. Weiten, Walter., Dunn, Lloyd. Psychology Applied To Modern Life: Adjustment In The 21st Century. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Co. 2008. Read More

The sensory system (internal factor) has limitations; people are not capable of seeing for miles and miles (Elyse, 2009). Neither are they capable of hearing very high or very low-pitched sounds. Every sense has specialist nerves, which act in response in a different way to the kinds of energy, which are experienced. For example, eyes obtain and convert the light effects into electrical signals, which are conveyed to the image context of the brain and transformed into meaning. The sensory system is universal to react to alterations in the surroundings.

This has specific consequences for how people perceive the environment and it elaborates why people can disregard the purring of the heating system but recognize instantaneously a phone ringing. Habituation is the term employed to characterize how people take no notice of familiar situations. Psychological determinants will also impact what is picked out. These internal influences such as learning, motives, and personality give rise to specific ways. Most notably, learning from past experiences has a decisive impact all through the phases of the perceptual procedure.

It will impact the stimuli supposed in the first case, and then how that stimulus is processed and understood, and ultimately the response. External factors include the knowledge of acquaintance with or expectations concerning a given situation or earlier experiences that influence perception. External determinants refer to the characteristics or nature of the stimuli. Any figure of these factors may be accessible at a given situation or time. Therefore, it is the total sequence of the stimuli together with the circumstances in which such stimulus occurs that influence discernment.

One perpetual tendency that may impact behavior is the initial impression. The initial impression people form about others seems to have a long-lasting effect (Robbins, 2005). Indeed, first impressions, once created, are remarkably resilient to conflicting information. Even in cases in which people are informed that the initial impressions were a result of inaccurate data, individuals believe in them to a certain extent because once they form initial impressions, they tend to become independent from the proof that established them.

Consequently, any conflicting information that people receive fails to serve the function of changing them. If a person, for example, met his or her colleague who treated him or her in an impolite manner, and when requested for assistance, the colleague brushed the request off. One is likely to form the belief that the colleague is an unhelpful and rude person. Later on, the person may hear that the colleague’s mother is critically ill, making him or she very stressed. In realism, the colleague may have been abnormally stressed on the day they met one another.

If they had met at a time when the colleague’s stress level was lower, the person could have imagined that the colleague is a really nice person. But probabilities are that an impression that the colleague is unhelpful and rude will not be altered even when the person hears about his or her mother. As an alternative, this fresh piece of information will be incorporated into the first one: the colleague is unhelpful, rude and his or her mother is sick.People take original information concerning body language, appearance, what is articulated, and more significantly how it is articulated to create a judgment very rapidly as to what type of an individual one is.

First impressions are largely grounded on body language and facial features as well as different biases and generalizations that impact the accurateness of those perceptions (Robbins, 2005). From bodily looks to the mode of clothing; from race to religion to the level of education and social class; when meeting somebody for the very first time individuals look upon persons that are similar to them favorably.

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