3. Perceiving Ourselves and Others in Organizations

attribution process

the perceptual process of determining whether an observed behaviour or event is caused mainly by internal (personal characteristics) or external (situational) factors

categorical thinking

organizing people and objects into preconceived categories that are stored in our long-term memory.

confirmation bias

the process of screening out information that is contrary to our decisions, beliefs, values, and assumptions, while more readily accepting confirming information

contact hypothesis

a theory stating that the more we interact with someone, the less prejudiced or perceptually biased we will be against that person

empathy

the ability to understand another person’s situation or viewpoint (perspective taking), be sensitive to their thoughts and feelings, and experience their emotions

false-consensus effect

a perceptual error in which we overestimate the extent to which others have beliefs and characteristics similar to our own

fundamental attribution error

the tendency to see the person rather than the situation as the main cause of that person’s behaviour

global mindset

an individual’s ability to perceive, appreciate, and empathize with people from other cultures, and to process complex cross-cultural information

halo effect

a perceptual error whereby our general impression of a person, usually based on one prominent characteristic, colours our perception of other characteristics of that person

Johari Window

a model of self-awareness and mutual understanding with others that advocates disclosure and feedback to increase our open area and reduce the blind, hidden, and unknown areas.

locus of control

a person’s general belief about the amount of control they have over personal life events

mental models

visual and relational images that we develop in our minds to describe, explain, and predict the world around us

perception

the process of receiving information about and making sense of the world around us

primacy effect

a perceptual error in which we quickly form an opinion of people based on the first information we receive about them

recency effect

a perceptual error in which the most recent information dominates our perception of others

selective attention

the process of attending to some information recieved by our senses and ingoring other information

self-concept

an individual’s self-beliefs and self-evaluations

self-efficacy

a person’s belief that they have the ability, motivation, correct role perceptions, and favourable situation to complete a task successfully

self-enhancement

a person’s inherent motivation to have a positive self-concept (and to have others perceive them favourably), such as being competent, attractive, lucky, ethical, and important

self-fulfilling prophecy

the perceptual process in which our expectations about another person cause that person to act more consistently with those expectations

self-serving bias

the tendency to attribute our favourable outcomes to internal factors and our failures to external factors

self-verification

a person’s inherent motivation to confirm and maintain their existing self-concept

social identity theory

a theory stating that people define themselves by the groups to which they belong or have an emotional attachment

stereotype threat

occurs when a situation sensitizes a person to their social group’s negative stereotype (usually competence), which increases their stress, distraction, and effort to avoid the negative trait to such an extent that they are more likely to display the undesirable trait

stereotyping

the perceptual process of characterizing an identifiable group by specific traits and automatically assigning those traits to individuals perceived as members of that group