Every workplace behavior cannot be understood without considering the concepts of

personality, ability, attitudes and values. Personality, ability, attitudes and values are
important individual characteristics that can influence work performance. They are
also important concepts for predicting and changing behavior in the organizational
settings. Managers who overlook these variables do themselves, their employees and
their organizations a disservice.

Personality at Work

Personality encompasses the relatively stable feelings, thoughts, and behavioral

patterns that have been formed significantly by genetic and environmental factors
which give an individual his identity. An individual’s personality differentiates him
from other people. Understanding someone’s personality offers clues about how that
person is expected to act and feel in a variety of situations. I order to successfully
manage organizational behavior, an understanding of different employees’
personalities is useful. Having this knowledge is also practical for placing people in the
right jobs and organizations.

Most aspects of personality formation, development and expression are not completely
understood. Most experts agree that personality is a product of both nature and
nurture. Nature means the genetic or hereditary origins of a person. The genetic
makeup has been inherited from the mother and father of the individual. Genetic
factors account for almost 50% of the differences in behavior and 30% in determining
temperament. This means the genetic code does not only determine the person’s eye
color, skin tone and physical shape but also personality.

Heredity is not the only factor that influences personality. Personality is affected
heavily too by nurture. Nurture consists of the person’s socialization, life experiences
and other forms of interaction in the environment. Family relationship which
consists of the experiences of a person has with parents, siblings and other family
members is a significant force in nurture. How an individual’s parents expressed their
feelings, how many siblings a person has, in what order he was born and the
grandparents’ role in his upbringing are forces that could greatly shaped the
personality of a person. Social class could also shape personality. The community
where a child grows up is the environment in which he learns about life. Social
class determines a person’s self-perception, perception of others and perception about
work, authority and money. Managers must understand social class to avoid
organizational problems on adjustment, quality of work life and
dissatisfaction. Culture is another significant factor in shaping personality. The
impact of culture in an individual’s personality happens gradually and at times leaves
no choice but to accept. The stable functioning of a society demands shared behavior
amongst members. This means there must be common personality characteristics in
order to institutionalize various patterns of behavior.

Psychologically speaking...👩‍🏫👇

Big Five Personality Traits

Over the last a hundred years, a hundred personalities have been identified by
experts. However, in the past 25 years, a consensus on personality has surfaced which
describe d the five personality traits a person possesses. Traits are recurring
regularities or trends in people’s responses to their environment. This has been called
the “Big Five” personality traits with acronym of CANOE. Each of the five traits is
described below:

  

1. Conscientiousness refers to the number of goals on which a person focuses.

People who focus on few goals are organized, systematic, punctual, achievement
oriented, and dependable. This reflects that conscientious people
are accomplishment striving or a strong desire to complete a task-related goals as
a means of expressing personality.
2. Agreeableness is the person’s ability to get along with others. Agreeableness
causes a person to be nice, tolerant, sensitive, trusting, kind, and warm. Not
surprisingly, agreeable people help others at work consistently.
3. Neuroticism refers to the degree to which a person is anxious, irritable,
aggressive, temperamental, and moody. These people are likely to have emotional
adjustment problems and experience stress and depression on a habitual basis.
4. Openness mirror’s a person’s rigidity of beliefs and range of interests. People
with high levels of openness are original, intellectual, creative, and open to new
ideas. People high in openness are also flexible and willing to learn new things.
5. Extraversion reflects an individual’s comfort level with relationships.
Extroverts tend to be outgoing, talkative and sociable. They tend to be effective in
jobs involving sales and marketing.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Aside from the Big Five Personality Traits, possibly the most well-known and most
often used personality assessment is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Unlike
the Big Five, which appraises traits, MBTI measures types. Assessments of the Big
Five do not categorize people as neurotic or extrovert which are all a matter of degrees.
MBTI on the other hand, classifies people as one of 16 types. In MBTI, people are
grouped using four dimensions. Based on how a person is classified on these four
dimensions, it is possible to talk about 16 unique personality types.

In 1943 MBTI was developed by a mother-daughter team of Isabel Myers and

Katherine Cook Briggs. At the time the intention was to help World War II veterans in
discovering the occupation that would fit their personalities. One distinguishing
characteristic of this test is that it is explicitly designed for learning, not for employee
selection purposes.

Through MBTI, 16 types of personalities could be created by combining the four

different scales below:

1. Extraversion (E) – Introversion (I): The extraversion-introversion dichotomy is

a way to describe how people respond and interact with the world around them.
Extroverts tend to be action-oriented, enjoy more regular social interaction, and
feel keyed up after spending time with other people. Introverts on the other side are
 thought-oriented, enjoy deep and momentous social interactions, and feel
revitalized after spending time alone.
2. Sensing (S) – Intuition (N): This scale engages in looking at how people collect
information from the world around them. People who choose sensing are apt to pay
attention to reality, mostly to what they can discover from their own senses. They
tend to center on facts and details and take pleasure in getting practical
experience. Those who favor intuition pay extra attention to things like patterns
and impressions. They like thinking about possibilities, visualizing the future and
abstract theories.
3. Thinking (T) – Feeling (F): This scale concentrates on how people formulate
decisions depending on the information that they collected from their sensing or
intuition functions. People who desire thinking, set a greater accent on facts and
objective data. They tend to be consistent, rational and impersonal when weighing
a decision. Those who prefer feeling are more expected to consider people and
emotions wen concluding.
4. Judging (J) – Perceiving (P): The final scale involves how people deal with the
outside world. Those who lean to judging favor structure and firm decisions. People
who lean to perceiving are more open, flexible and adaptable. These two tendencies
interact with the other scales. The judging-perceiving scale aids illustrate whether
a person is an extravert when taking in new information (sensing and intuiting) or
when making decisions (thinking and feeling).

Other Personality Traits in the Workplace

1. Proactive Personality means a person’s preference to fix what is supposed as

erroneous, change the status quo, and apply initiative to solve problems. Instead
of waiting to be told to do, proactive people take action to start significant change
and get rid of the obstacles they encounter along the way. People with proactive
personality are more successful over the field of their careers, because they use
initiative and obtain greater understanding of the politics within the organization.
Proactive people are precious assets to their companies because they may have
higher levels of performance. They adjust to their latest jobs speedily because they
comprehend the political environment better and often make friends more quickly.
 Proactive people are eager to learn and engage in many developmental activities to
improve their skills.
2. Machiavellianism describes behavior directed towards attaining power and
controlling the behavior of other people. People who are more Machiavellian are
rational, non-emotional, willing to accomplish their personal goals in life, place less
concern on loyalty and friendship and enjoy manipulating the behavior of other
individuals. On the other side, people that are less Machiavellian are emotional,
not willing to lie to succeed, give importance to loyalty and friendship and are not
happy in manipulating others.
3. Risk Propensity is the degree of willingness of a person to take chances and
create risky decisions. A manager with high risk of propensity is willing to
experiment with new ideas and may venture with new products. A manager with
low risk propensity may lead the organization into stagnation or may make the
organization successful in turbulent times through sustaining stability and calm.
Therefore, the organization’s environment is an important determinant of the
probable results of risk propensity.
4. Creativity involves the ability to break away from the habit-bound way of
thinking and generate novel and useful ideas. It produces innovation which is the
lifeblood of a growing number of successful organizations.

Ability

Ability is a person’s talent to perform a mental or physical task. It includes both the
natural aptitudes and the learned capabilities needed to productively finish a
task. Aptitudes are the natural talents that aid employees in learning specific task
more speedily and execute them better. Learned capabilities are the skills and
knowledge that a person currently has. They tend to diminish over time when not in
use.

The following abilities have been discovered to help differentiate between higher and
lower performers in the workplace: mental ability, emotional intelligence, tacit
knowledge and physical ability.

Mental Ability
Mental ability also known as intelligence is a better predictor of training proficiency
and job success when selecting candidates for a position. Mental Ability is the
acquisition and application of knowledge on solving problems. There are several types
of mental abilities namely:

1. Verbal Ability – This is the ability to understand and express oral and written
communication quickly and accurately. There are two abilities under verbal ability
namely oral comprehension and written comprehension. Oral Comprehension is
the ability to understand spoken words and sentences while written
comprehension is the ability to understand spoken words and sentences.
2. Quantitative ability- refers to the two types of mathematical abilities. There
are two abilities under quantitative ability which are numerical aptitude and
numerical reasoning. Numerical aptitude is the ability to perform basic
mathematical operations quickly and accurately. Numerical reasoning is the ability
to analyze logical relationships and to recognize the underlying principles
underlying them.
3. Reasoning ability- this is the ability to analyze information so as to make valid
judgements on the basis of insights, rules and logic. There are four abilities under
reasoning ability specifically problem sensitivity, deductive reasoning, inductive
reasoning and originality. Problem sensitivity is the ability to sense that there is a
problem at present or likely to be one in the future. Deductive reasoning is the
ability to draw conclusion or make a choice that logically follows from existing
assumptions and data. Inductive reasoning is the ability to identify after observing
specific cases or instances the general rules that govern a process or that explain
an outcome. And originality is the ability to develop clever and novel ways to solve
problems.
4. Spatial ability – This is the ability linked to visual and mental representation
and manipulation of objects in space. It has two types to be precise spatial
orientation and visualization. Spatial orientation is having good understanding of
where one is relative to other things in the environment. Visualization is the ability
to imagine three-dimensional forms in space and to be able to manipulate them
mentally.
5. Perceptual ability- It is the ability to perceive, understand and recall patterns
of information. Under this ability are speed and flexibility closure and perceptual
 speed. Speed and flexibility closure is the ability to pick out a pattern of
information quickly in the presence of distracting information, even without all the
information present. Perceptual Speed is the ability to examine and compare
numbers, letters and objects quickly.

You can try the Free Mental Ability Tests in the link below:

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Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence is the handling of relationships and interactions with others. It

has four basic components namely:

1. the ability to recognize and regulate our own emotions (e.g., to hold our temper
in check)
2. the ability to recognize and influence others’ emotions (e.g., the ability to make
them enthusiastic about our ideas)
3. self-motivation (the ability to motivation oneself to work long hours and resist
the temptation to give up)
4. the ability to form effective long-term relationships with others

However, extensive research on EI suggests that a more appropriate model of this kind
of intelligence includes the following factors instead:

1. Appraisal and expression of emotions in oneself – An individual’s ability to

understand his or her own emotions and to express these naturally
2. 2. Appraisal and recognition of emotions in others – The ability to perceive and
understand others’ emotions
3. Regulation of emotions in oneself – The ability to regulate one’s own emotions
4. Use of emotions to facilitate performance – The ability to use emotions by
directing them toward constructive activities and improved performance (e.g., by
encouraging oneself to do better)
 

Tacit Knowledge

Tacit Knowledge also called informal knowledge is the unwritten, unspoken, and

hidden vast storehouse of work-related practical know-how that employees acquire
based on his or her emotions, experiences, insights, intuition, observations and
internalized information.

Here are some examples of tacit knowledge critical to business that is difficult to write
down, visualize and teach:

1. How to speak a language- Learning a specific language involves immersion or

using the language for long periods of time.
2. Innovation – Some individuals exert great effort with innovation for many
decades with modest success.
3. Leadership – There is no real process or training that can be assured to make a
leader. Leadership widens from experience.
4. Aesthetic Sense – It explains why art and culture is so much engaging.
Aesthetic sense is embedded in an individual’s world view. It can be refined but not
taught.
5. Sales- is another difficult social skill that is quite tricky to teach. Great sales
people are normally described as “naturals” because it is not easy to transfer the
skill to others.
6. Body Language- Is extremely significant to communication. However, it is
complex to teach.
7. Intuition- Is the ability to comprehend things with no application of logic. It is
vital to innovation and decision making.
8. Humor- it is not always likely to make clear why something is funny. It is hard
to teach a sense of humor. For instance, humor needs and exacting timing which
is considered intuitive.
9. Snowboarding- Tasks that necessitate physical coordination like riding a
snowboard or bicycle are regarded as tacit knowledge.
10. Emotional intelligence- is the ability to read and use emotions to influence
results.
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Physical Ability

Physical Ability is performing job-related tasks requiring manual labor or physical

skill. Jobs that require this ability are structural iron and steel workers, tractor trailer
and heavy equipment drivers, farm workers and firefighters. Here are a few important
types of physical abilities:

1. Strength- It refers to the degree to which the body is capable of exerting force.

There are several types of strength according to the job:

1. Static strength- It refers to the ability to lift, push or pull heavy objects using
hands, arms, legs, shoulders or back. it is involved in jobs in which people need to
lift objects, such as boxes, equipment, machine parts and heavy tools.
2. Explosive strength- It refers to the ability to exert short bursts of energy to move
the body or an object. Employees who are required to run, jump or throw things at
work must have this ability.
3. Dynamic strength- It is the ability to exert force for a prolonged period of time
without becoming overly fatigue and giving out. It is needed for jobs that need
employees to climb, ropes or ladders or pull themselves up onto platforms.

2. Stamina- It refers to the ability of the person’s lungs and circulatory system to
work efficiently while he is engaging in prolonged physical activity. It is important
for jobs requiring running, swimming and climbing like athletes, dancers,
commercial divers and firefighters.

Flexibility and Coordination- Flexibility means the ability to twist, stretch, bend or

reach. This is required on jobs that need extreme ranges of motion like walking in
cramped compartment or an awkward position. Coordination is the quality of physical
movement.
a. Dynamic flexibility- is needed for a job that is repeated and somewhat quick bends,
twists or reaches as a house painter on a ladder attempting to paint some trim just
barely within reach. Athletes, dancers, riggers, industrial machinery mechanics,
choreographers, commercial divers and structural oil and steel workers need this
ability.

b. Gross body coordination- It is the ability to synchronize the movements of the body,
arms and legs to do something while the body is in motion.

c. Gross body equilibrium- It is the ability to maintain the balance of the body in
unstable contexts or when the person has to change direction like jumping rope and
walking on a beam balance.

3. Psychomotor ability- It means the capability to manipulate and control objects.a.

Fine manipulative ability- This is the ability to keep the arms and hands steadily while
using the hands to do precise work, generally on small or delicate objects like arteries,
nerves, gems and watches.

b. Control movement ability- This is the ability to make precise adjustments using

machinery to complete work effectively like anyone who drills things for a living
whether wood, concrete or teeth.

c. Response orientation- This is the ability to choose the right action swiftly in

response to several different signals.

d. Response time- This is the ability that reflects how quickly a person responds to
signaling information after it happens.

5. Sensory ability- It is the capability related with vision and hearing.

a. Near and far vision- It is the ability to see the details of an object up close or at a
distance.

b. Night vision- It is the ability to see things on low light.

c. Visual color discrimination- It is the ability to detect differences in colors and
shades.

d. Depth perception- It is the ability to judge relative distances.

e. Hearing sensitivity- it is the ability to hear differences in sounds that vary in terms
of pitch and loudness.

f. Auditory attention- It is the ability to focus on a source of sound in the presence of

other sources.

g. Speech recognition- It is the ability to identify and understand the speech of others.

Attitudes in the Workplace

An attitude is a persistent mental state of readiness to feel and behave in a favorable

or unfavorable manner about a particular person, object or idea. Three significant
conclusions could be taken from the definition which are:

1. Attitudes are stable- Without strong reasons to change attitudes, the attitudes

of people will remain the same.
2. Attitudes are directed towards some person, object or idea- people could have
specific yet differing attitudes say on their jobs, about their immediate supervisors
or on an idea presented by a friend.
3. An attitude on an object or a person relates to an individual’s behavior towards
that object or person- The attitudes of people may influence their actions. People
may behave in ways consistent to their actions.

Attitude Formation

Personal values, experiences and personalities are some forces that could form
attitudes. It is significant to know the structure of an attitude in order to see how
attitudes are formed and could be changed. There are three important components of
an attitude namely:
1. Affective- This is the emotional component of an attitude which includes the
feelings of a person about an object that could be positive, negative or neutral.
People with high positive affectivity are relatively cheerful and optimistic, have an
overall sense of well-being and perceive things optimistically.
2. Cognitive- This component consists of the person’s perceptions, beliefs and
opinions about something. It refers to the thought processes highlighting
rationality and logic. Evaluative belief of a person is a vital element of
cognition. Evaluative belief could be noticed by the favorable or unfavorable
impression of a person toward an object or person.
3. Behavioral- This element of an attitude is the tendency of a person to take
action in a definite way toward someone or something.

Two Important Attitudes in the Workplace

1. Job Satisfaction- is the degree of gratification or fulfillment of an employee in

his work. Personal factors like needs and aspirations determine are drivers of job
satisfaction.
2. Organizational Commitment- mirrors the identification and attachment of an
individual to the organization. A highly committed employee would see himself as a
true member of the organization, would ignore negligible sources of dissatisfaction,
and would have intention to stay in the job.

Change of Attitude

Managers in most organizations are active in changing employee attitudes. Often they
use systematic ways of doing it like these techniques:

Persuasive Communication is the use of television, radio and internet

advertisements to persuade people to change attitudes. There are four elements in the
persuasive communication approach to attitude change, which are:

1. Communicator- Here are the qualities of the communicator that would affect
attitude change in the target:
a. The communicator’s overall credibility – People give more weight to persuasive
messages given by people they respect.

b. Trust in the intentions of the communicator – People will believe the communicator
if he is objective and less serve-serving.

c. Similarity of interests of goals and interests with target – This is the reason why
celebrities are used in ads because they are widely liked and have characteristics
which are perceived by people to be comparable to them.

d. Attractiveness of the communicator – The physical attractiveness of the

communicator will create strong tendency for people to be persuaded.

2. Message – It is the content intended to stimulate the change in other’s attitudes.

3. Situation – It is the surroundings in which the message is offered.

4. Target – He is the person whose attitude the communicator desires to change. the
following people would have difficulty in changing their behavior:

a. More rigid and less willing to change their attitudes.

b. With high self-esteem because they know they are correct.

c. Locus of control

Cognitive Dissonance is the uneasy feeling when an individual behaves in a way

inconsistent with existing attitude. It is assumed that attitudes and behavior must be
consistent. This means that the behavior of a person should not be contradictory with
the attitudes that they hold. This kind of inconsistency is called cognitive dissonance.

There are three conditions that lead to dissonance and the changing of attitude, which
are:

1. Behavior must be considerably inconsistent with the attitude rather than

slightly inconsistent
2. Inconsistent behavior may cause damage or have negative effects for others
3. Inconsistent behavior must be voluntary and not forced or at least the person
may perceive it that way.
Feelings of discomfort and tension are often dealt with through dissonance reduction.

Values

Values refer to stable and evaluative life goals that people have, reflecting what is
most important to them.

Types of Values

Instrumental values can be defined as specific methods of behavior. Instrumental

values are not an end goal, but rather provide the means by which an end goal is
accomplished. The instrumental values include:

 Cheerfulness
 Ambition
 Love
 Cleanliness
 Self-control
 Capability
 Courage
 Politeness
 Honesty
 Imagination
 Independence
 Intellect
 Broad-mindedness
 Logic
 Obedience
 Helpfulness
 Responsibility
 Forgiveness

The end goals that people strive to achieve and are most important to us are known
as terminal values. Terminal values are the overall goals that people hope to achieve
in their lifetime. Terminal values include inner harmony, social recognition, and a
world of beauty. Here is the list of the 18 terminal values which are:

 A world at peace- free of war and conflict

 Family security- taking care of loved ones
 Freedom- independence; free choice
 Equality- brotherhood, equal opportunity for all
 Self-respect- self-esteem
 Happiness- contentedness
 Wisdom- a mature understanding of life
 National security- protection from attack
 Salvation- saved; eternal life
 True friendship- close companionship
 A sense of accomplishment- a lasting contribution
 Inner harmony- freedom from inner conflict
 A comfortable life- a prosperous life
 Mature love- sexual and spiritual intimacy
 A world of beauty- beauty of nature and the arts
 Pleasure- an enjoyable, leisurely life
 Social recognition- respect; admiration
 An exciting life- a stimulating, active life

Values Congruence

The term value congruence, or value “fit”, has received much attention lately from
business organization. The concept of value congruence refers to how similar an
individual’s values hierarchy to the values hierarchy of the organization, a co-
employee or other sources of comparison. Person-organization value
congruence happens when the employee’s and organizations dominant values are
similar to the organization most likely will make decision compatible to the
organizational values based from mission and objectives.

A second type of values congruence entails of how consistent the values evident in
ones action (enacted values) with what ones say he believes in (espoused value).
This espoused-enacted values congruence is vital for leaders because any obvious gap
undermines their perceived integrity.

The third type of values congruence consists of the compatibility of an organization’s

dominant values with the prevailing values of the community or society in which it
carries out business.

Cross-cultural Values

1. Individualism – it can be defined as the level to which a person values

independence and personal uniqueness.

The main characteristics of individualism are:

1. identity is based on the individual

2. tasks prevail over relationships
3. speaking one’s mind is a sign of honesty
4. Collectivism- It is the extent to which people value duty to groups to which they
belong and to group harmony.

The main characteristics of collectivism are:

1. identity is based on the group to which one belongs

2. relationships prevail over tasks
3. direct confrontations should be avoided
4. power distance- it can be defined as the extent to which people allow unequal
distribution of power in a society and in an organization.
5. Uncertainty avoidance- This is the extent a culture programs its members to
feel either uncomfortable or comfortable in unstructured situations. Unstructured
Situations are novel, unknown, surprising, and different from usual.
6. Achievement Orientation- A strong achievement orientation means that when
work-related goals come into conflict with other areas of life, the desire to achieve
will win out.

Self-concept, Perceptions and Attributions

Self-concept refers to how a person thinks about, evaluates or perceives himself.

There are three conceptual dimensions of self-concept which influences a person’s

adaptability and well-being. They are:

1. Complexity- a person’s self-concept has higher complexity when it consists of

many categories.
2. Consistency- a person has high consistency when similar personality traits and
values are required across all aspects of self-concept.
3. Clarity- this means the level of a person’s self-conceptions are clearly and
confidently described, internally consistent and stable across time

Self-Enhancement

Self-enhancement is a desire to magnify positive aspects of self-conceptions while

isolating oneself from negative feedback and information.

Self-verification

Self-verification assumes that people work to preserve their self-views by seeking to

confirm them. It stabilizes a person’s self-concept which helps guide his thought and
actions.

Self-verification has numerous implications in organizational behavior, which are:

1. it affects the perceptual process because employees are likely to remember

information that is consistent with their self-concepts
2. the more confident employees are in their self-concepts, the less they accept
feedbacks whether positive or negative, that is at odds with their self-concepts
3. employees are motivated to interact with others who affirm their self-concepts
and this affect how well they get along with their boss and with co-employees in
teams

Self-Evaluation
Self-evaluation is an individual’s honest and objective assessment of himself. It is
usually defined by three concepts which are self-esteem, self-efficacy and locus of
control.

1. Self-esteem is the extent to which a person has generally positive feelings

about himself.
2. Self-efficacy is a personal belief on competencies and abilities.
3. Locus of control deals with the degree to which people feel answerable for their
own behaviors. People with high internal locus of control or internals believe that
they can influence their own destiny and what happens to them is caused by their
own doing. While, those individuals with high external locus of control
or externals suppose that things happen to them because of other people, luck, or
powerful being. Internals feel greater control over their own lives and so they act in
ways that will add to their chances of success. Externals on the other hand, believe
that what happens to them is the result of luck or fate.

Self-Monitoring

Self-monitoring refers to the level to which a person is able of checking his actions and
appearance in social situations.

Perceptions

Perception is an intellectual process by which an individual selects, organizes and

provides meaning to the world around him.

 Perceptual Process

The perceptual process is the sequence of psychological steps that a person uses to

organize and interpret information from the outside world. It consists of six steps:

1. objects are present in the world

2. a person observes
3. the person uses perception to select objects
4. the person organizes the perception of objects
5. the person interprets the perceptions
6. The person responds

Perceptual Selection

Perceptual selection is the choice of the stimuli that would depend on what people feel
is pertinent for them and or appropriate for them. It is driven by internal and external
factors. Internal factors include:

1. Personality- Personality traits influence how a person selects perceptions. For

example, conscientious people tend to pick details and external stimuli to a greater
degree.
2. Motivation- People will choose perceptions based on what they need in the
moment. They will support that they think will aid them with their present needs,
and be more likely to disregard what is immaterial to their needs.
3. Experience- The patterns of incidences or associations one has learned in the
past affect current perceptions. The person will choose perceptions in a way that
matched with what they found in the past.

External factors include:

1. Size- A larger size makes it more likely an object will be selected. The larger the
size of the stimuli, the more likely it is to be perceived like headlines in the
newspaper; brand name on the packaging of the product.
2. Intensity- Greater intensity, in brightness, for example, also increases
perceptual selection. The larger the force or power of a stimuli, the greater the
chances of it getting perceived like strong smell or a loud noise; flashy colors on
the packaging or in the advertisement; strong aroma of food.
3. Contrast- When a perception stands out against a background, there is a
greater likelihood of selection. Any stimuli that stands out from the rest of the
environment is more likely to be noticed; like capital and bold letters; a black and
white advertisement amongst color ads on TV; or a colored advertisement in the
black and white newspaper.
4. Motion- A moving perception is more likely to be selected. Anything that moves
has a greater chance of being perceived like a scroll advertisement.
5. Repetition- Repetition increases perceptual selection. A repeated stimuli is more
likely to be noticed; like advertisements in audio-visual media are more likely to be
noticed than in the print media.
6. Novelty and Familiarity- Both of these increase selection. When a perception is
new, it stands out in a person’s experience. When it is familiar, it is likely to be
selected because of this familiarity.

Perceptual Organization

When exposed to a large number of stimuli simultaneously, people may often block
the various stimuli, as they get stressed out. This is because the body cannot cope up
with so many stimuli at the same time. The people thus, blocks out the various stimuli
form their conscious awareness. This is called perceptual blocking.

After certain perceptions are selected, they can be organized differently. The following
factors are those that determine perceptual organization:

1. Figure-Ground- Once perceived, objects stand out against their background.

This can mean, for instance, that perceptions of something as new can stand out
against the background of everything of the same type that is old.
2. Perceptual Grouping- Grouping is when perceptions are brought together into a
pattern.
3. Closure- This is the tendency to try to create wholes out of perceived parts.
Sometimes, this can result in error, though, when the perceiver fills in unperceived
information to complete the whole.
4. Proximity- Perceptions that are physically close to each other are easier to
organize into a pattern or whole.
5. Similarity- Similarity between perceptions promotes a tendency to group them
together.
6. Perceptual Constancy- This means that if an object is perceived always to be or
act a certain way, the person will tend to infer that it actually is always that way.
7. Perceptual Context- People will tend to organize perceptions in relation to other
pertinent perceptions, and create a context out of those connections.
 

Visual Perception

Visual Perception is the ability to interpret the surrounding environment by

processing information that is contained in visible light. The resulting perception is
also known as eyesight, sight, or vision (adjectival form: visual, optical, or ocular).

Visual perceptual processing is subdivided into categories including visual

discrimination, visual figure ground, visual closure, visual memory, visual sequential
memory, visual from constancy, visual spatial relationships, and visual-motor
integration.

1. Visual discrimination is the ability of the child to be aware of the distinctive

features of forms including shape, orientation, size and color. Visual
discrimination, figure ground, and closure problems may result in a person
confusing words with similar beginning or endings and even entire words.
2. Visual figure ground is the ability to distinguish an object from irrelevant
background information.
3. Visual closure is the ability to recognize a complete feature from fragmented
information.
4. Visual memory is the ability to retain information over an adequate period of
time.
5. Visual sequential memory is the ability to perceive and remember a sequence of
objects, letters, words, and other symbols in the same order as originally seen.
6. Visual form constancy is the ability to recognize objects as they change size,
shape, or orientation.
7. Visual spatial skills refer to the ability to understand directional concepts that
organize external visual space.

Social Perception

Social perception is the study of how people form impressions of and make inferences
about other people.
There are includes three domains of competence on being competent in social
perception are:

1. knowing that other people have thoughts, beliefs, emotions, intentions, desires,
and the like
2. being able to “read” other people’s inner states based on their words, behavior,
facial expression and the like
3. adjusting one’s actions based on those “readings”. That is, a socially competent
person can make note of other people’s facial expressions, tone of voice, posture,
gestures, words, and the like, and on the basis of these clues, make reasonably
accurate judgements about the person’s state of mind, emotions, and intentions.

Perceptual Errors

In the workplace the process of making evaluations, judgments or ratings of the

performance of employees is subject to a number of systematic perception errors. They
are the following:

1. Central tendency- Appraising everyone at the middle of the rating scale.

2. Contrast error- Basing an appraisal on comparison with other employees rather
than on established performance criteria.
3. Different from me- Giving a poor appraisal because the person has qualities or
characteristics not possessed by the appraiser.
4. Halo effect- Appraising an employee undeservedly on one quality (performance,
for example) because s/he is perceived highly by the appraiser on another quality
(attractiveness).
5. Horn effect- the opposite of the halo effect. Giving someone a poor appraisal on
one quality (attractiveness) influences poor rating on other qualities (performance).
6. Initial impression- Basing an appraisal on first impressions rather than on how
the person has behaved throughout the period to which appraisal relates.
7. Latest behavior- Basing an appraisal on the person’s recent behavior.
8. Lenient or generous rating- perhaps the most error, being consistently generous
in appraisal mostly to avoid conflict.
9. Performance dimension error- Giving someone a similar appraisal on two
distinct but similar qualities, because they happen to follow each other on the
appraisal form.
10. Same as me- Giving a good appraisal because the person has qualities or
characteristics possessed by the appraiser. Spillover effect: Basing this appraisal,
good or bad, on the results of the previous appraisal rather than on how the
person has behaved during the appraisal period.
11. Status effect- Giving those in higher level positions consistently better
appraisals than those on lower level jobs.
12. Strict rating- Being consistently harsh in appraising performance.

Attributions

Attribution is the process through which individuals link behavior to its causes to the
intentions, dispositions and events that explain why people act the way they do. It is
simply the process of attaching or attributing causes or reasons to the actions and
events people see. Attribution theory can be divided up into two different sections,
internal and external attributes. Internal attributes mean that the behavior is being
caused by something inside the person. Conversely, external attributes point to the
cause of the behavior to be the situation, not the person.

There are two significant models of attribution namely that of Kelley’s and Weiner’s.

Kelley’s Attribution Theory

The best known work on attribution is Kelley’s theoretical approach that is based on
two important contributions to the understanding of cognitive processes associated
with forming casual beliefs. First, the principle of covariance states that a behavior
will be attributed to a cause with which it covaries over time. Second, he identified
three sources of information people can use in analyzing covariance and thus arriving
at a casual judgment. More specifically, he suggested that individuals form casual
beliefs by analyzing the consistency, consensus, and distinctiveness of a response or
behavior.
1. Distinctiveness- This is the degree in which a person behaves the same way
across different situations. If Angie only smokes when she is out with friends, her
behavior is high in distinctiveness. If she smokes at any time, or place,
distinctiveness is low.
2. Consistency- This is the degree in which a person behaves the same way in
different occasions in the same situation. If Angie only smokes when she is out
with friends, consistency is high. If she only smokes on one special occasion,
consistency is low.
3. Consensus- This is the degree in which other people behave the same way. if
Angie smokes a cigarette when she goes out for a meal with her friend. If her friend
smokes, her behavior is high in consensus. If only Angie smokes it is low.

According to Kelley people fall back on past experience and look for either:

1. Multiple necessary causes- For instance, people see an athlete win a marathon

and they reason that she must be very fit, highly motivated, have trained hard etc.
and that she must have all of these to win.
2. Multiple sufficient causes- To illustration, people see an athlete fail a drug test
and they reason that she may be trying to cheat, or have taken a banned
substance by accident or been tricked into taking it by her coach. Any one reason
would be sufficient.

Bernard Weiner’s Model of Attribution

People attribute their successes and failures to four things:

1. Ability: i.e., “I have always been a good teacher.”

2. Effort: i.e., “I worked hard and studied those lessons for hours”
3. Task difficulty: i.e., “Those lessons were really easy.”
4. Luck: “I was lucky that I was already familiar with those lessons before.”

 
In addition, he categorized attribution characteristics into three casual dimensions
which are locus, stability, and controllability.

1, Locus- This refers to whether the cause of the event is perceived as internal to the
individual or external. If a learner believes that she failed an exam because she lacks
ability, she is choosing an internal cause because ability is internal to the learner, in
contrast, if a learner believes that he failed an exam because the teacher in
incompetent, he is choosing an external cause because teacher incompetence is
external to the student.

2. Stability- This refers to whether the cause is stable or unstable across time and
situations. If a learner believes that he failed a science exam because he lacks
ability in science is a permanent quality. In contrast, if a learner believes that he
failed the exam because he was ill at the time of the exam, then the cause is
unstable in cases in which the illness is a temporary factor. When a student
experiences success, attributions to stable causes lead to positive expectations for
success in the future. In the face of failure, however, attributions to stable causes
can result in low expectations for the future.
3. Controllability- Refers to whether the cause of the event is perceived as being
under the control of the individual. If a runner believes that he lost a race because
he did not get enough practice before the event, the cause is controllable because
he could have decided to spend more time practicing; in contrast, if he feels that he
lost the race because he simply lacks ability as a runner, then the cause is
uncontrollable. By definition, only internal attributions can be considered
controllable.

Attribution Biases

Attribution biases is when individuals make an assumption about others without

having all the data they need to be accurate.

There are two different types of bias errors: first is self-serving bias, where individuals
attribute positive dealings to their own character and negative dealings to external
factors. For example, smokers believe they are less likely than other smokers to get
lung cancer. The other one is the fundamental attribution error when a person assign
blames or a cause of something to the person themselves and does not take into
account external issues. For example, if a person is overweight, a person’s first
impression might be that they have a problem with overeating or are lazy and not that

they might have a medical reason for being heavier set.