Introduction:
I noticed at an early age that our perceptions form a very individual reality. One person can see a ski hill and imagine the thrill they get from it while the person sitting beside can be filled with the fear of pain due to an earlier injury. We can see a red-headed person and make a quick judgement about how wonderful that person must be. We hear a voice. We know that voice because our father smoked and wonder if that person is a cigarette smoker. We all make judgements regarding the world around us. We perceive the world not as others do, but as we do. Our perceptions of others are unique to our individual selves.
Assigning characteristic to people is called attribution. In this paper, we will discuss attributional styles and discuss a personal experience regarding attribution, the accuracy of initial impressions and the influences that our perceptions have on accurately assessing people.
Discussion
I was living in the mountainous jungles of Guatemala in an area called Sepamac. It was remote, and I was living on a coffee plantation with 116 huts amongst a Mayan people called K’ekchi’. A total of six of us spoke Spanish in the little area so I had to quickly learn their language. My mind was in full judgement mode. Not many Americans had ever been in the area. While there, a man asked me if I had been there in that area about 4 yrs. previously. I said no. He asked if I was sure that I had not been there earlier. I again said no I had not. Then he said, “you all look the same to me anyway.” and left bewildered. I was white and ten inches taller than him. That must have made me the same as the other man. This man judged me based on some earlier experience. His perception was wrong, but he was sure he was correct. It was interesting, and humorous to be judged like that.
Most of the natives lived and died within a very small radius of where they were born. The natives’ thought processes were not very deep. They woke in the morning, worked the coffee plantation for money and land for food. They were wonderfully kind and relatively simple, compared to a first-world society. I learned to really love an appreciate the people.
Germans had owned most of the plantations prior to WWII and occasionally you would meet a blue-eyed, lighter skinned Mayan. I meet one such man. He was older, white skinned, with blue eyes. When I met him, I regarded him as most of the others, as a simple thinker, with limited exposure to the rest of the world. My experience gave me a foundation from which to form an opinion.
I came to know him more. This man was not a simple Mayan. He was of Spanish descent and was relatively educated, could read and write, had learned the traditional stories of the Mayan culture, had traveled and been exposed to many of the other Mayan cultures throughout the country. I found that he was unique and that my perceptions of him were uniquely wrong. The reason for him living a poor Mayan lifestyle was that he had fallen in love with a beautiful Mayan girl when he was young and adopted a simpler, but difficult lifestyle. And he was happy. My perception of him changed.
Jhangiani and Tarry identify different perceiver characteristics types that help define characteristics of how we view others. They mention three attribution types; need for cognition, entity theorist and incremental theorist. Studying these types can help us understand how we individually perceive. It also provides a framework within which we can understand how others perceive.
Some people have a real need to understand reasons for the behaviors of others. These types of people have a need for cognition (Psychology, n.d.), or need to understand. With respect to perception, they want to know why behavior occurs. They analyze information deeply and carefully in order to develop that understanding. Those who are entity theorists view people in a different way. They believe and view characteristics as though they are fixed and unchangeable, or in other words, their traits are fixed. Incremental theorists that characteristics can change, that personality and perception are dynamic (Levy, Plaks, Hong, Chiu, & Dweck, 2001).
Let’s refer to my personal experience in Guatemala. I made a judgement regarding a man based on previous experiences from similar circumstances. My experience and expectations of behavior prejudiced my view of a man that I did not know. We became very good friends, and we exchanged watches when I left the area. It has been 36 yrs. and I still have that watch and hold it dear. He became a very different person than I thought. His changes did not come from anything he modified, but from my perception of him.
Conclusion
We defined three biases of individual perception from a personal perspective; those who have a need for cognition, entity theorists and incremental theorists. Learning to make judgements is important as managers and as individuals in general. As we come to understand the theories, we are given the chance to evaluate our own propensities, understand how others perceive and learn how to manage within the bounds of all perception styles.
