Perceptual Distortion: Understanding Perception and Managing Bias

Running head: Perceptual Distortion
Perceptual Distortion
Essay
System04104
8/10/2018

Perceptual Distortion
1
Perception and Perceptual Distortion
Perception plays an important role in understanding the human behaviour because every
person perceives the world and approaches the life problem differently. Actually, what really
a person sees or feel is not necessarily the same as it really is. It is because what a person
hears is not really said, but perceive as being said. Perception distortion in one word is an
incorrect interpretation or analysis of a perceptual experience. A perceptual distortion
generally occurs when an individual response to stimuli, which vary from how, it is
commonly perceived. When we buy something, it is not because it is the best rather we
consider it as the best. Thus, it is perception, because of one-person find himself in the job
satisfactory position but another one may not be satisfied with the same job. It is all about the
matter of different perception of the individual (Wilson, 2018). Generally, perception refers
to a process by which a person organizes and interprets their sensual impression in order to
give meaning to that particular situation or environment. In other words, perception is what
we experience after seeing, touching, smelling, hearing, and tasting any object, which is
around us. It can also refer to the processes that permit us to identify information from the
patterns of energy that impinge on our sense organs. In an organisation, Perceptual distortion
can lead to lower employee’s performance, low morale and biased thoughts and an overall
reduction in the organisation's effectiveness.
However, there are several factors that distort our perception such as our mental or emotional
habits, out stereotype thinking, halo effects etc. playing a crucial role in our perception. The
perceptual distortion can also cause the psychological disorder, medical or drugs, physical
damage to the brain or sensory organs of a person. These factors generally distort our
perceptions of what is happening in the outer world. There are not too many peoples, who
selected to be aware enough to understand what is going on in reality. To avoid the
perceptual distortion on has to keep in mind about the way the perceptual process works. A
person can easily avoid the perceptual distortion by communicating with others and talk to
another person that what he/she perceived about the same object or situation, which may lead
to an agreement or otherwise communication process can help to short out the perceptual
differences (Yabe, Dave, and Goodale, 2017).

Perceptual Distortion
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Perceptual process
The Perceptual Process consists of four key steps. The first step of the perceptual process is
Stimuli or Cue. Every human being has five sensory organs through which the smell, touch,
feel, hear, see and taste. The information or stimuli about the object are received by these
organs. The written information is received through the eyes. Oral information is received
through hearing. Once this information received by the individual communicates, interpret
this information and having the different interpretation of the information because different
communicates have different interpretation skills. The second step is a selection of stimuli
which means there are many types of information or stimuli received from an object or
situation but communicates received only that information which makes some sense to him
(Liu, et. al, 2017). The selection is necessary because it is the most relevant information at
that time. The third step is filling the gaps. Actually, the perceiver fills the gaps with
supplementary information if he/she found incomplete information about the object or
situation. The perceiver also ensures and makes necessary efforts to maintain continuity in
the information. The last step in the Perceptual process is proximity, which means nearness or
closeness of information, may be perceived as a whole. It should be considered here that
proximity is different from similarity.
Factors that cause Perceptual Distortion
Distortion in perception results in creating a communication gap. Any person process and
interpret the incoming raw data with the help of their sensory organs and perceive it based on
their experience and knowledge, in terms of their current needs and interests. The person uses
the whole experience and knowledge to interpret a sensation. Perception is generally
triggered by complex patterns, not by individual sensation (Chinomona, and Dhurup, 2016).
Some people perceive ice = cold. Instead of some people, understand that ice is nothing but
frozen water. It happens because of cognitive bias because individuals stand on their past
belief, experience, knowledge and thoughts regardless of the information they get about the
object. John Schermerhorn Jr., in his book Organizational Behaviour, explains the six factors
that influence the perceptual process and created distortion and bias during perception. They
not only damage our understanding of ideas, concepts, and ideologies rather it prevents us to
see and to understand people from what they really are. The different causes that distort our
perception are as follows: