BU288 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Boeing Canada, Absenteeism, American Sign Language
Document Summary
Perception: process of interpreting the messages of our senses to provide order and meaning to the environment. Helps sort out and organize complex and varied input received by our senses of sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing. People often base actions on interpretation of reality that their perceptual system provides, rather on reality itself. Perceiver"s experience, needs, and emotions can affect their perceptions of target. Past experiences lead the perceiver to develop expectations, which affect current perceptions. E. g. employees were asked about the influence of race and gender on promotions: caucasian men were less likely to perceive race or gender barriers to promotion than were caucasian woman, non-caucasian men, and non-caucasian women. Our needs unconsciously influence our perceptions by causing us to perceive what we wish to. E. g. lonely university students might misperceive the most innocent actions of opposite sex as indicating interest to them. Emotions, such as anger, happiness, or fear can influence our perceptions.
