Three Factors that Affect My Perceptions
Perceptions
According to William James, “Perception is the process of receiving information about and making sense of the world around us. It involves deciding which information to notice, how to categorize this information, and how to interpret it within the framework of existing knowledge.”
That’s means, perception has a really important role on our decision-making process including how we behave and affects our attitude toward external stimuli. Perceptions are subjective. Other people might not see as we see. As perceptions differ, no one can guess how others will behave in the same situation. Because it is heavily affected by internal and external factors.
Stereotype
According to Cardwell (1999), a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. When we judge someone based on the group they belong we will fall into this category. In my personal experience, I was heavily affected by this factor when I was young. I was raised in a conservative religious family. Since I was a child I always have been told that atheists are all evil since they don’t believe in God. At that time, since my cognitive function is not fully developed, I was affected by this stereotyping so much that I believe that statement was true. Nevertheless, as I grew older, I learned that I need to expand my perspective more and I should not judge people only from their beliefs.
As in the career level, one of the examples that I can tell is I always think that all Japanese people are hard workers. Thus, I put really high expectations on them more than people from my own country. As a manager, I need to observe our monthly employees’ performance. I trust the Japanese so I didn’t ask them to track their working time and results while I ask people from other countries to do so (we need to do that since we are working fully remote). At the end of the month, I look at their monthly performance. I was so shocked because I found that the Japanese team is not productive at all compared to the overseas team. After that, I learned to never judge people from their country’s stereotypes.
Halo Effect
Oxford dictionary defines Halo Effect as the tendency for positive impressions of a person, company, brand, or product in one area to positively influence one’s opinion or feelings in other areas. When we draw general impressions about an individual on the basis of a single characteristic our perception might be affected by this factor. In my personal life, I learned that attractive people tend to be perceived as smarter compared to unattractive people. When I was in university, attractive girls can get high scores easily compared to others, not because they are smarter but it because the lecturers have preferences for them.
As for my career life, I found some experience that might relate to this factor. During my fresh-graduate time, I work with a Japanese international organization in my home country. During that time we were handling a G to G project that require us to meet with the ministry staff regularly. One day, before the meeting, I was called by my superior. She asked me to wear a formal business suit and put on makeup to gain the ministry’s trust. She said that becoming attractive is the key to gain the trust of people. That’s how this Halo Effect factor impacting my life on the personal and professional level.
Selective Perception
Selective perceptions happen when people selectively interpret what they see on the basis of their interests, background, experience, and attitudes. Humans get too many external stimuli sometimes they need to pick and choose according to their needs. Have you ever heard the terms: “We hear what we want to hear, we see what we want to see”? This is selective perception.
On a personal level, I feel this factor has a huge effect on distorting my perceptions. In my personal life, I notice that my family is a hardcore opposition to the government. They always pay attention to the government’s mistakes and failures. Even though I told them about the good things given by the government (national GDP is increasing, Successful health insurance program, and other good things are done by the government) they still don’t want to accept the facts. In their perception, the government is bad and it will always be.
At the professional level, I observed that people who have bad relationships with their superiors tend to get a bad evaluation. It is because the superiors already have beliefs that they might be bad employees due to the bad relationship they have. So the superiors noticing their mistakes more than their achievements.
Conclusion
Everyone has different perceptions due to their internal and external factors. However, we need to understand that what we see might be different from what other people see. There are three factors that affect me the most that are: Stereotype, Halo Effects, and Selective Perception. Most of them impact me negatively, but somehow I can learn from those so hopefully in the future I can turn the negative effects into positive ones.
References:
Jangiani, R. (2012). Principles of Social Psychology (1st ed.). BCcampus Open Education.
Perception: Definition, importance, factors, perceptual process, errors. (2021, January 8). iEduNote. https://www.iedunote.com/perception
Selective perception and leadership — Management resource group. (2020, March 18). Management Resource Group. https://www.mrgpeople.com/blog/2017/12/14/selective-perception
Note:
This article is written based on University of The People Organizational Behavior (BUS 5113) written assignment by Fristy Tania in September 2021
