What exactly is perception? Perception is the interpretation and organization each individual person perceives their environment (Robbins, 2005). For instance, being a resident of Arizona. One individual may think Arizona is the best place in the United States to live and another individual may think Arizona is the worst place to reside. There are a number of factors that shape and distort perception (Robbins, 2005). These factors are found in the individual, the object being perceived, and the situation in which the perception is made (Robbins, 2005).
Personal characteristics greatly affect perception as well (Robbins, 2005). Perception characteristics include an individual’s “attitude, personality, motives, interests, past experiences, and expectations (Robbins, 2005).” The characteristics of the object can also affect what the perception will be (Robbins, 2005). Examples of this would be loud people in a quiet group or an extremely unattractive person with an attractive one (Robbins, 2005). The context in which we see objects is just as important (Robbins, 2005). Time, location, light, there are many factors that can influence perception (Robbins, 2005). An example would be noticing an individual because of a flamboyant costume at a party and not noticing the same individual at a grocery store dressed normally.
Attribution theory is a way to explain how we judge people (Robbins, 2005). In short, attribution theory suggests that when one observes another individual’s actions, we attempt to find if it is internally or externally caused (Robbins, 2005). Internal behaviors are behaviors that are controlled entirely by an individual (Robbins, 2005). External behaviors are behaviors that are caused by external causes (Robbins, 2005). This dep ...