What Is Perception?

What is perception? According to Britannica online perception “in humans, the process whereby sensory stimulation is translated into organized experience. That experience, or percept, is the joint product of the stimulation and of the process itself. Relations found between various types of stimulation (e.g., light waves and sound waves) and their associated percepts suggest inferences that can be made about the properties of the perceptual process; theories of perceiving then can be developed on the basis of these inferences. Because the perceptual process is not itself public or directly observable (except to the perceiver himself, whose percepts are given directly in experience), the validity of perceptual theories can be checked only indirectly. That is, predictions derived from theory are compared with appropriate empirical data, quite often through experimental research.” (Encyclopedia Britannica Online , 2008)

There are two main theories of perception: Active perception and Passive perception. Perception is more or less a theory and is the oldest study in psychology. Perception differs from one person to another. Not everyone perceives everything the same. Some people are picture thinkers and some are not. Like some people are Visual learners and some are not. So, individuals who are not picture thinkers may not perceive shape shifting as the world around him or her changes. Perception plays tricks on what humans see; it dilutes human’s reality and the truth. The human mind can only learn new information from things the mind already knows.

The way humans behave varies with each situation. Many businesses and corporations usually have ethics codes placed to encourage appropriate behavior. However everyone knows these codes are not as effective as the businesses would like them to be. Even though these codes are placed does not change the employees personal traits or values him or her believes in. If the employee agrees with the codes the employee will follow the codes. Perception will always vary because individuals select and filter differently. Individuals also interpret and organize things differently. Individuals make sense of his or her environment by organizing, interpreting, and selecting information. A person’s perception of others impact an organizations behavior depends on what the person believes. Let’s say for example the Human Resource manager is unfriendly and closed minded this may impact the organizations behavior, or if he or she is a racist and biased if may affect the whole company. I think the impact also depends on where the individual is on the organizations ladder. They impact would differ, whether or not they were an employee or in a higher level position.

Shortcuts have positive and negative effects when using perceptive shortcuts when judging others. There are different types of shortcuts Selective Perception, Halo effect, contrast effects, projection, and stereotyping. Selective perception is when employers looks into information about an individual and look into their interests, experience, background, and their attitude. But the truth about this shortcut is it can cause businesses to jump to conclusions instead of seeing him or her truly. The Halo Effect is when an employer looks into his or her appearance and personality traits. This is a negative shortcut because most employers will make the wrong judgment due to lack of resources and knowledge. Contrast effects compare employees by comparing characteristics