Key Terms
Perception
Screening, selecting, organizing, and interpreting stimuli to give them meaning Perceptual selectivity: process of selec
Key idea
Perception is NOT a photographic record of reality. It is a personal construction shaped by the perceiver's needs, value
Response salience
Tendency to notice things related to your immediate needs or concerns. A worker exhausted after a long shift tracks the
Response disposition
Tendency to recognize familiar objects faster than unfamiliar ones. Past learning predisposes us to see what we expect.
Classic example
People shown playing cards with reversed colors (red spades, black hearts) consistently described the cards as they expe
Social perception
The process by which we perceive other people. More complex than perceiving objects because people are dynamic and the s
Age
Older workers are stereotyped as more resistant to change, less creative, less interested in learning new skills, less c
Race/Culture
Assumptions based on cultural or ethnic background; affects hiring, evaluation, and day-to-day interaction.
Gender
Assumptions about women in management roles; coworker and superior support gaps make an already difficult role harder.
Selective perception
Systematically screening out information we do not want to hear, while amplifying information that confirms our existing
Organizational example
The Dearborn and Simon study again. Production managers saw production problems.
Perceptual defense
When information is personally threatening, recognition thresholds go up. The mind works to block, reframe, or distort t
Three principles
1. Threatening stimuli require more cognitive signal to break through than neutral stimuli 2.
Attribution theory
The cognitive process by which people interpret the causes of behavior -- their own and others'.
Foundation (Heider)
Behavior is driven by a combination of internal forces (ability, effort) and external forces (luck, task difficulty). Wh