PERCEPTION 1.4

PERCEPTION 1.4

Sometimes so called idiots become successful and the perceived intelligent 'Chaturs' prove to be the original idiots. Well, the question arises why perceptions are far from the reality. Why do we make mistakes while perceiving others. The answer lies here.

Now we will talk about Distortions or Errors in Perception. Remember Movie '3 Idiots' that talks about the most important of human pursuits: self-actualization. This movie depicts the 3 typical characters, Farhan Qureshi (R. Madhavan), Raju Rastogi (Sharman Joshi) and Ranchhoddas Shamaldas Chhanchad (Aamir Khan). Farhan is studying engineering to pursue his father's wishes, over his own passion for wildlife photography. Raju is studying to get his family out of poverty. On the other hand, Rancho studies for his simple passion in machines. Rancho believes that one should follow excellence, not success, as success will take care of itself if excellence is followed. At the same time,  the college director, Dr. Viru "Virus" Sahastrabuddhe (Boman Irani) perceives all these three students as '3 Idiots' while his favourite student, Chatur Ramalingam (Omi Vaidya), known as "Silencer", believes in mindless memorizing over understanding in order to reach his goals. But finally the same '3 idiots' became successful and the 'perceived intelligent' Chatur proves to be an original idiot. Well the question arises why perceptions are far from the reality. Why do we make mistakes while perceiving others. The answer lies here,

     DISTORTION/ ERRORS IN PERCEPTION:

Perceptual distortion is a position where a person does not perceive an individual/ situation/ object as it actually may be. This is caused due to several factors which affect our judgment. These errors are, A. Personality; B. Mental Set; C. Attribution; D. Halo Effect; E. Stereotyping; F. Perceptual Selectivity; G. Projection; H. Expectancy

A. Personality: 

• The perceiver tries to project his personality attributes in others known as ‘projection’.
• The perceiver tries to fit his attitudes, beliefs, expectations to reality, known as ‘process of self fulfillment/  expectancy’

B. Mental Set:

• It’s a tendency of a person to react in a certain way to a given situation.
• In organizations, people have tendency to perceive about others on the basis of their mental set which causes misperception.
• The perceiver has various assumptions based on which he looks for various desirable and undesirable traits of other people and forms judgment which may be favorable or unfavorable.

G. Projection:

• When one’s own personal attributes are assigned to others, then projection takes place.
• If we assume they are similar to us. For example, if we want challenges and responsibility in our job, we assume that others also like the same.

H. Expectancy:

• Expectancy is the tendency to perceive people, objects, or events on the basis of what is expected from them in the first place.
• It is sometimes referred as ‘Pygmallion* Effect’.

     *Pygmallion was a mythical Greek sculptor who made a statue of a girl  that he wanted to come to his life and it was based on his expectations.

                 - MANAGERIAL APPLICATIONS OF PERCEPTION- 

1. Selection of Employees
2. Interpersonal Working Relationship (OB)
3. Performance Appraisal
4. Delegation of Authority
5. Organizational Change and Development
6. Project Management