Chapter 3: Perception, Attribution, and Diversity Flashcards
Perception
The process of interpreting the messages of our senses to provide order and meaning to the environment.
3 Components of Perception
Perceiver, target and a situational context.
Perceptual defence
The tendency for the perceptual system to defend the perceiver against unpleasant emotions.
Social identity theory
States that people form perceptions of themselves based on their personal characteristics and memberships in social categories.
Primacy effect
The tendency for a perceiver to rely on early cues or first impressions.
Recency effect
The tendency for a perceiver to rely on recent cues or last impressions.
Central traits
Personal characteristics of a target person that are of particular interest to a perceiver.
Implicit personality theories
Personal theories that people have about which personality characteristics go together.
Projection
The tendency for perceivers to attribute their own thoughts and feelings to others.
Stereotyping
The tendency to generalize about people in a certain social category and ignore variations among them.
Attribution
The process by which causes or motives are assigned to explain people’s behaviour.
Dispositional attributions
Explanations for behaviour based on an actor’s personality or intellect.
Situational attributions
Explanations for behaviour based on an actor’s external situation or environment.
Consistency cues
Attribution cues that reflect how consistently a person engages in a behaviour over time.
Conensus cues
Attribution cues that reflect how a person’s behaviour compares with that of others.
Distinctiveness cues
Attribution cues that reflect the extent to which a person engages in some behaviour across a variety of situations.
Fundamental attribution error
The tendency to overemphasize dispositional explanations for behaviour at the expense of situational explanations.
Actor-observer effect
The propensity for actors and observers to view the causes of the actor’s behaviour differently.
Self-serving bias
The tendency to take credit for successful outcomes and to deny resposibility for failures.
Workforce diversity
Differences among recruits and employees in characteristics such as gender, race, age, religion, etc.
Stereotype threat
Members of a social group feel thye might be judged or treated according to a stereotype and that their behaviour and/or performance will confirm the stereotype.
Trust
A psychological state in which one has a willingness to be vulnerable and to take risks with respect to the actions of another party.
Perceived organizational support (POS)
Employees’ general belief that their organization values their contribution and cares about their well-being.
POS Predictors
Perceived Organizational Support
- Supervisor support
- Fairness
- Organizational rewards
- Job conditions
POS Consequences
Perceived Organizational Support
- Job satisfaction
- Organizational commitment
- Positive mood
- Performance
- Reduced strains
- Reduced turnover and absenteeism
Organizational support theory
States that employees who have strong perceptions of organizational support feel an obligation to care about the organization’s welfare and to help the organization achieve its objectives.
Signalling theory
Job applicants interpret their recruitment experiences as cues or signals about unknown characteristics of an organization and what it will be like to work in an organization.
Contrast effects
Previously interviewed job applicants affect an interviewer’s perception of a current applicant, leading to an exaggeration of differences between applicants.
Halo effect
The rating of an individual on one trait or characteristic tends to colour ratings on other traits or characteristics.
Similar-to-me effect
A rater gives more favourable evaluations to people who are similar to the rater in terms of background or attitudes.
Behaviourally anchored rating scale (BARS)
A rating scale with specific behavioural examples or good, average, and poor performances.
Frame-of-reference (FOR) training
A training method to improve rating accuracy that involves providing raters with a common frame of reference to use when rating individuals.
