Perception of a Situation

Analysis

1. Perception of a situation can be different from reality and is dependent on Individual interpretations of external/ internal stimuli/data. Perceptions could be wrong or right based on what information is being considered as input, how much of it is being considered and on which information we are focussing. The example of old+young woman could be an illustration of what is happening in this case. One might focus only on a certain side and say the woman is old while others might focus on the flip side and say the woman is young. The answer to the question logically follows from this assessment.

- It is clearly evident in Jennifer’s report that she has become prone to Recency effect (considering past 15 months information only and also not trying to find out the real reasons of Mike’s performance nosediving) and Horn effect (Generalizing based on one or two bad inputs). Also she has considered only selective information to form a perception. While considering information like joining other drivers for a drink or two she is seeing things in isolation and not probing more required facts. Thus, Jennifer’s and Mike’s reports are different because Jennifer’s report is perception based and Mike’s is fact based and Yes, In result both of them have different perception of the same accident.

2. The perceptual process of Jennifer and Mike is based on the Principle of Attribution which attempts to explain how a perceiver uses information to explain the behaviour of others, by attributing that behaviour to internal factors, external factors or anything else. It also derives from the recency effect and Horn effect principles mentioned above.