Social Perception and Attributions

Chapter Seven

McGraw-Hill/Irwin 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Copyright 2013 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Learning Objectives
LO.1 Describe perception in terms of the information-processing model. LO.2 Summarize the key managerial implications of social perception. LO.3 Discuss the process of stereotype formation. LO.4 Summarize the managerial challenges and recommendations of sex role, age, racial, ethnic, and disability stereotypes.

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Learning Objectives (cont.)

LO.5 Describe and contrast the Pygmalion effect, the Galatea effect, and the Golem effect. LO.6 Discuss how the model of the self-fulfilling prophecy is expected to work. LO.7 Explain, according to Kelleys model, how external and internal causal attributions are formulated. LO.8 Contrast the fundamental attribution bias and the self-serving bias.

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An Information Processing Model of Perception

Perception
cognitive process that enables us to interpret and understand our surroundings

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Perception: An InformationProcessing Model

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Stage 1: Selective Attention/Comprehension

Attention
Process of becoming consciously aware of something or someone

People pay attention to salient stimuli Salient

something that stands out from context

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Question?
Beverly has $11,000 for investment. She speaks with various friends and neighbors to find out what stocks they have invested in. Beverly can be described as being on which stage of the social information processing model? A.Selective attention; comprehension B.Encoding C.Simplification D.Storage and Retention
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Stage 2: Encoding and Simplification

Schema
Represents a persons mental picture or summary of a particular event or type of stimulus

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Restaurant Schema

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Stage 3: Storage and Retention

Event memory
information about both specific and general events

Semantic memory
general knowledge about the world, mental dictionary of concepts

Person memory
information about a single individual or groups of people
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Stage 4: Retrieval and Response

Decisions are based on:
The process of drawing on, interpreting, and integrating categorical information stored in long-term memory Retrieving a summary judgment that was already made

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Managerial Implications: Hiring

Interviewers make hiring decisions based on their impression of how an applicant fits the perceived requirements of a job and on the basis of implicit cognition
Implicit cognition
represents any thoughts or beliefs that are automatically activated from memory without our conscious awareness.

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Managerial Implications: Performance Appraisal

Important for managers to accurately identify the behavioral characteristics and results indicative of good performance Characteristics serve as the benchmarks for evaluating employee performance

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Managerial Implications: Leadership

Good leaders exhibit the following behaviors:
Assigning specific tasks to group members Telling others they had done well Setting specific goals for the group

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Question?
Which of these is (are) managerial implication(s) of perception? A.Interviewers with racist and sexist schemata can undermine the accuracy and legality of hiring decisions. B.Faulty schemata about what constitutes good versus poor performance can lead to inaccurate performance appraisal, which can erode work motivation, commitment, and loyalty. C.Research demonstrates that employees' evaluations of leader effectiveness are influenced strongly by their schemata of good and poor leaders. D.All of these.
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Stereotypes: Perceptions about Groups of People

Stereotype
An individuals set of beliefs about the characteristics or attributes of a group

Not always negative May or may not be accurate

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Stereotypes: Perceptions about Groups of People

It is important to remember that stereotypes are a fundamental component of the perception process and we use them to help process the large amount of information that bombards us daily. It is not immoral or bad to possess stereotypes Inappropriate use of stereotypes can lead to poor decisions

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Stereotyping Process
1. Categorize people into groups according 2. 3.
to various criteria Infer that all people within a category possess the same traits Form expectations of others and interpret their behavior according to our stereotypes

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Stereotyping Process
4. Stereotypes are maintained by:
Overestimating the frequency of stereotypic behavior exhibited by others Incorrectly explaining expected and unexpected behaviors Differentiating minority individuals from oneself

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Commonly Found Perceptual Errors

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Sex-Role Stereotypes
Sex-role stereotype
the belief that differing traits and abilities make men and women particularly well suited to different roles

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Sex-Role Stereotypes
1. People often prefer male bosses 2. Women have a hard time being perceived
as an effective leader 3. Women of color are more negatively affected by sex-role stereotypes than white women or men in general

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Age Stereotypes
Age stereotypes reinforce age discrimination because of their negative orientation. Long-standing age stereotypes depict older workers as less satisfied, not as involved with their work, less motivated, not as committed

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Age Stereotypes
Research shows that as age increases so does employees job satisfaction, job involvement, internal work motivation, and organizational commitment. Moreover, older workers are not more accident prone.

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Racial and Ethnic Stereotypes

Micro aggressions
represent biased thoughts, attitudes, and feelings that exist at an unconscious level

Stereotype threat
refers to the predicament in which members of a social group must deal with the possibility of being judged or treated stereotypically, or of doing something that would confirm the stereotype.
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Managerial Challenges and Recommendations

An organization first needs to inform its workforce about the problem of stereotyping through employee education and training Managers need to identify valid individual differences that differentiate between successful and unsuccessful performers. Remove promotional barriers for men and women, people of color, and persons with disabilities
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Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: The Pygmalion Effect

Self-fulfilling prophecy
someones high expectations for another person result in high performance for that person Also known as Pygmalion effect

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A Model of the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

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Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Galatea effect
occurs when an individuals high selfexpectations for him- or herself lead to high performance

Golem effect
a loss in performance resulting from low leader expectations

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Putting the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy to Work

1. 2. 3. 4.
Recognize that everyone has the potential to increase his or her performance. Set high performance goals. Positively reinforce employees for a job well done. Provide frequent feedback that conveys a belief in employees ability to complete their tasks. Give employees the opportunity to experience increasingly challenging tasks and projects.
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Putting the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy to Work

6. Communicate by using facial expressions, voice
intonations, body language, and encouraging comments that reflect high expectations. 7. Provide employees with the input, information, and resources they need to achieve their goals. 8. Introduce new employees as if they have outstanding potential. 9. Encourage employees to stay focused on the present moment and not to worry about negative past events. 10.Help employees master key skills and tasks.
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Causal Attributions
Causal Attributions
suspected or inferred causes of behavior

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Performance Charts

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Kelleys Model of Attribution

Behavior can be attributed either to: Internal factors within a person (such as ability) or to: External behavior within the environment (such as a difficult task)

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Kelleys Model of Attribution

Consensus
involves a comparison of an individuals behavior with that of his peers.

Distinctiveness
involves comparing a persons behavior on one task with the behavior from other tasks.

Consistency
determined by judging if the individuals performance on a given task is consistent over time.
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Question?
Francesca has had stable performance and high quality from one task to another. This refers to:

A.Low consensus. B.High distinctiveness. C.High consensus D.Low distinctiveness.

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Attributional Tendencies
Fundamental attribution bias
Reflects ones tendency to attribute another persons behavior to his or her personal characteristics, as opposed to situational factors.

Self-serving bias
Represents ones tendency to take more personal responsibility for success than for failure.
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Managerial Implications
One study revealed that managers gave employees more immediate, frequent, and negative feedback when they attributed their performance to low effort. A second study indicated that managers tended to transfer employees whose poor performance was attributed to a lack of ability.
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Managerial Implications
Men and women have different attributions regarding the causes of being promoted Managers tend to disproportionately attribute behavior to internal causes that can result in inaccurate evaluations of performance, leading to reduced employee motivation

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Video Case: Andre Thornton

What attributes or experiences help Andre Thornton in being successful at GPI? In what ways can Thornton serve as an example for all minority individuals? Does GPIs size help or hinder them in serving the needs of their clients? Can you draw correlations between sports and business? What are they?

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