CHAPTER 4

Self-concept,
Perceptions, and
Attributions
 OBJECTIVES:
DESCRIBE SELF-CONCEPT AS A FACTOR TO
UNDERSTAND JOB PERFORMANCE AND
WELL BEING
DISCUSS PERCEPTION, ITS PROCESS AND
ERRORS
EXPLAIN THE DIFFERENT ATTRIBTION
MODELS
Self-concept, perceptions and attributions are
important factors that impact an employee’s view of
his work environment. Understanding these
individual characteristics will surely aid managers
and non-managers in performing the respective
roles and jobs more efficiently and effectively.
Self-concept
Self-concept refers to how a person thinks about, evaluates or
perceives himself. It is an important and useful way to
understand and improve performance and welfare.
There are three conceptual dimensions of self-concept which
influences a person’s adaptability and well-being. They are:
1. complexity- a person’s self-concept has higher complexity
when its consists of many categories.
2. consistency- a person has high consistency when similar
personality traits and values are required accross all aspects
of self concept.
3. clarity- this means the level of a person’s self conceptions
are clearly and confidently described, internally consistent
and stable across time.
Self-Enhancement
People are also by nature inspired to promote and care for themselves. Self-
enhancement is a desire to magnify positive aspects of self-conceptions
while isolating oneself from negative feedback and information.
Self-verification
People are also inspired to verify and maintain their self-concepts. Self-
verification assumes that people work to preserve their self-views by seeking to
confirm them. It stabilizes a person’s self-concept which helps guide his
thoughts and actions.
Self-verification has numerous implications in organizational behavior, which
are:
1. It affects the perceptual process because employees are likely to remember information that is
consistent with their self-concepts
2. The more confident employees are in their self-concepts, the less they accept feedbacks
whether positive or negative, that is odds with their self-concepts
3. Employees are motivated to interact with others who affirm their self concepts and this affect
how well they get along with their boss and co employees in teams.
Self-evaluation
A positive self-concept is what almost everyone endeavors to have. However,
some people have more positive evaluation of themselves than do others.
Self-evaluation is an individual’s honest and objective assessment of himself.
Self-evaluation is usually defined by three concepts:
1. Self-esteem-the extent to which a person has generally positive feelings
about himself.
2. Self-efficacy- is a personal belief on competencies and abilities.
3. Locus of control - deals with the degree to which people feel answerable
for their own behaviors.
Self-monitoring - refers to the level to which a person is able of checking his
actions and appearance in social situations. People who are social monitors
understand what the situation demands and act accordingly. Their greater
ability to modify their behavior according to the demands of the situation and
to manage their impressions effectively is a great advantage for them.
PERCEPTIONS
Perception is an intellectual process by which an individual selects,
organizes and provides meaning to the world around him. Perception of the
environment is not entirely rational.
Perceptual process:
1. Objects are present in the world
2. A person observes
3. The person uses perception to select objects
4. The person organizes the perception of objects
5. The person interprets the perceptions
6. The person responds
The selection, organization, and interpretation of perceptions can differ
among different people.
Perceptual Selection
Human beings are simultaneously exposed to different stimuli in his
environment. Perceptual selection is the choice of the stimuli that would
depend on what people feel is pertinent for them and/or appropriate for
them. It is driven by internal and external factors. Internal factors include:
1. Personality - personality traits influence how a person selects
perceptions.
2. Motivation - people will choose perceptions based on what they need in
the moment.
3. Experience- The patterns of incidences or associations one has learned
in the past affect current perceptions
External factors include:
1. Size
2. Intensity
3. Contrast
4. Motion
5. Repetition
6. Novelty and familiarity
Concepts in perceptual selection:
1. Selective Exposure - tendency to seek out messages that they find
pleasant, are comfortable with, and confirm their beliefs and
preconceived notions and expectations
2. Selective Attention - people are attracted to those stimuli that they
consider to be relevant in terms of a match with their needs and avoid
those that are irrelevant.
3. Perceptual Defense- people may select stimuli which they later find as
psychologically threatening and uncomfortable. In such cases, they have
a tendency to filter out that stimuli, although initial exposure has taken
place
4. Perceptual blocking - When exposed to a large number of stimuli
simultaneously, people may often block the various stimuli, as they get
stressed out. This is because the body cannot cope up with so may stimuli
at the same time.
Perceptual Organization
The following factors are those that determine perceptual organization:
1. Figure-Ground - perceptions of something as new can stand out against
the background of everything of the same type that is old.
2. Perceptual Grouping - perceptions are grouped together into a pattern
3. Closure- tendency to try to create wholes out of perceived parts
4. Proximity - Perceptions are physically close to each other are easier to
organize into a pattern or whole
5. Similarity- Similarity between perceptions promotes a tendency to group
them together
6. Perceptual Constancy - This means that if an object is perceived always to
be or act a certain way, the person will tend to infer that it actually is
always that way.
7. Perceptual context - people will tend to organize perceptions in relation
to other pertinent perceptions, and create a context out of those
connections.
Visual Perception- is the ability to interpret the surrounding environment by
processing information that is contained in visible light. The resulting perception is
also known as eyesight, sight or vision.
Visual perception processing is subdivided into categories:
1. Visual discrimination - is the ability of the child to be aware of the distinctive
features of forms including shape, orientation, size and color.
2. Visual figure ground- the ability to distinguish an object from irrelevant
background information.
3. Visual closure - is the ability to recognize a complete feature from fragmented
information.
4. Visual memory- the ability to retain information over an adequate period of time.
Obtaining maximum information in the shortest possible time provides for
optimal performance and is essential fo reading comprehension and spelling.
5. Visual sequential memory- the ability to perceive and remember a sequence of
objects, letters, words and other symbols in the same order as originally seen.
Visual perception processing is subdivided into categories:... cont.
6. Visual form constancy is the ability to recognize objects as they change
shape, size and orientation.
7. Visual spatial skills refer to the ability to understand directional concepts
that organize external visual space. These skills allow an individual to
develop spatial concepts, such as right and left, front and back, and up and
down as they relate to their body and objects in space,

Social perception- is the study of how people form impressions of and

make inferences about other people. People learn about others’ feelings
and emotions by picking up on information gathered from their physical
appearance , and verbal and nonverbal communication.
Three domains of competence on being competent in social perception
are:
1. Knowing that other people have thoughts, beliefs, emotions, intentions,
desires and the like.
2. Being able to “read” other people’s inner states based on their words,
behavior facial expression and the like.
3. Adjusting one’s actions based on those “readings”. That is, a socially
competent person can make a note of other people’s facial expressions,
tone of voice, posture, gestures, words and the like, and on the basis of
these clues, make reasonable accurate judgements about that person’s
state of mind, emotions and intentions.
Perceptual errors
1. Central tendency-appraising at the middle of the scale
2. Contrast error - basing appraisal on comparison with other employees rather
than on established performance criteria
3. Different from me- Giving a poor appraisal because the person has qualities or
characteristics not possessed by the appraiser.
4. Halo effect - appraising an employee undeservedly on one quality
(performance, for example) because s/he is perceived highly by the appraiser
on another quality (attractiveness)
5. Horn effect- The opposite of the halo effect. Giving someone a poor appraisal
on one quality (attractiveness) influences poor rating on other qualities
(performance).
6. Initial impression - Basing an appraisal on first impressions rather than on how
the person has behaved throughout the period to which appraisal relates.
Perceptual errors.... cont.
7. Latest behavior
8. Lenient generous rating - the most common error, being consistently
generous in appraisal mostly to avoid conflict
9. Performance dimension error - Giving someone a similar appraisal on two
distinct but similar qualities, because they happen to follow each other on the
appraisal form.
10. Same as me - Giving a good appraisal because the person has qualities or
characteristics possessed by the appraiser. Spillover effect: Basing this
appraisal, good or bad, on the results of the previous appraisal rather than on
how the person has behaved during the appraisal period
11. Status effect - Giving those in higher level positions consistently better
appraisals than those in lower level jobs.
12. Strict rating - Being consistently harsh in appraising performance
ATTRIBUTIONS- is the process through which individuals link
behavior to its causes to the intentions, dispositions, and events
that explain why people act the way they do. It is simply the
process of attaching or attributing causes or reasons to the
actions and events people see.
Two different sections of attribution:
1. Internal attributes- behavior is being caused by something
inside a person
2. External attribute- point to the cause of the behavior to be
the situation, not the person.
Two Models of attribution:
Kelley’s Attribution Theory- based on two important contributions to the understanding of
cognitive processes associated with causal beliefs. First, the principle of covariance states
that the behavior will be attributed to a cause with which it covaries over time. Second,
three sources of information people can use in analyzing covariance and thus arriving at a
causal judgement.
1. Distinctiveness- the degree in which a person behave the same way across different
situations. If Angie only smokes when she is out with friends, her behavior is high in
distinctiveness. If she smokes at any time or place, distinctiveness is low.
2. Consistency - the degree in which a person behave the same way in different occasions in
the same situation. If Angie only smokes when she is out with friends, consistency is high. If
she only smokes on one special occasion, consistency is low.
3. Consensus - the degree in which other people behave the same way. If Angie smokes a
cigarette when she goes out for a meal with her friend. If her friend smokes, her behavior is
high in consensus. If only Angie smokes its is low.
Two Models of attribution:
Kelley’s Attribution Theory-
According to Kelley people fall back on past experience and look
for either:
1. Multiple necessary causes - For instance, people see an
athlete win a marathon and they reason that she might be
very fit, highly motivated, have trained hard, etc. and that she
mut have all of these to win.
2. Multiple sufficient causes- To illustrate, people see an athlete
fail a drug test and they reason that she may be trying to
cheat, or have taken a banned substance by accident or been
tricked into taking it by her coach. Any one reason would be
sufficient.
Two Models of attribution:
Bernard Weiner’s Model of Attribution
Weiner proposed a theory that looked at how people interpret success and
failure. According to Weiner, humans feel the need to explain both success
and failure, although this need is more prevalent in situations in which the
outcome was not unexpected. People attribute their successes and failures to
four things:
1. Ability - “ I have always been a good lawyer.”
2. Effort - “I worked hard and studied those cases for hours.”
3. Task difficulty - “Those cases were really easy.”
4. Luck- “I was lucky that I was already familiar with those cases before.”
Two Models of attribution:
Bernard Weiner’s Model of Attribution
In addition, he categorized attribution characteristics into three
causal dimensions:
1. Locus- refers to whether the cause of the event is perceived as
internal to the individual or external. If a learner believes that she
failed an exam because she looks ability, she is choosing an
internal cause because ability is internal to the learner.
2. Stability-refers to whether the cause is stable or unstable across
time and situations. if a learner believes that he failed a science
exam because he believes that he lacks ability in science, then his
cause is stable, particularly if he believes that his lack of ability in
science is a permanent thing.
Two Models of attribution:
Bernard Weiner’s Model of Attribution
In addition, he categorized attribution characteristics into three
causal dimensions: cont....

3. Controllability- refers to whether the cause of the event is

perceived as being under the control of the individual. If a runner
believes that he lost a race because he did not get enough practice
before the event, the cause is controllable because he could have
decided to spend more time practicing; in contrast if he feels that
he lost the race because he simply lacks ability as a runner, then
the cause is uncontrollable
Attribution Biases - is when individuals make an assumption about others
without having all the data they need to be accurate. In the business
environment, this is a challenge because this would lead to a great deal of
confusion and miscommunication, which would impact how the company
operates. It would also cause or support politics when individuals would
take what they assumed and act on it without taking the time to think
through the issue and get the real facts.
Two different types of bias errors:
1. Self serving - individuals attribute positive dealings to their own
character and negative dealings to external factors.
2. Fundamental attribution error-when a person assign blames a cause of
something to the person themselves and does not take into account
external issues.