Every single day, people are faced with decisions whether be it as simple as what to do or what to wear for the day. Every single minute is characterized by choices, choices that people make, rationally or irrationally. decision making is as essential process in the human nature. Much has been learned about the psychology of human decision making as well as decision making within organizations. This paper will examine and assess the extent by which people’s judgments and decisions are influenced by one’s perception and interpretation of the world.
There are many factors affecting our choices in life. The field of judgment and decision making is concerned on how people combine desires and beliefs to choose a course of action. There are three components in the conceptual design for a decision. It includes courses of action or choice options and alternatives; beliefs about objective states, processes and events in the world including outcome states and means to achieve them; and desires, values or utilities that describe the consequences associated with the outcomes of each action-event combination. Decision making is central to every human activity; thus, everybody is a decision-maker. It must be noted though that good decision making begins with a consecutive, purposeful, strategic-thinking process. In addition, good decisions are those that efficiently choose or select means that are available in a given circumstance or situation to attain the goals of the decision maker.
Defines a decision as “the act or process of deciding; a conclusion or resolution reached especially as to future action, after consideration; the settlement of a question; a formal judgment; tendency to decide firmly; resoluteness”. Many theories of decision making exist in disciplines for both scientific and social science paradigms. In statistics, decisional theory is a strategy of measuring the decision-making process, or making it into mathematical form to make the most efficient and effective choice. In early economic theories, there is also a decision-making model of economic utility wherein people choose the best option that provides the maximum positive utility. The aforementioned early theories are also referred to as classical decision-making which basically shows how decisions are made in ideal situations.
In psychology, the highlight of the process of decision-making has been a primary area of focus and study. In Janis and Mann’s Conflict Model of Decision-making, the process of decision=making is viewed as a stressful process which involves an assessment of risk and an assessment of success and time availability to make a decision. This model hypothesize that people make a decision through a decision balance sheet wherein individuals evaluate the gains and losses of a decision on the basis of tangible gains or losses for oneself and for significant others and approval or disapproval from the self and from significant others as well.
Usually though, our decisions and judgments are primarily affected and influenced by how we perceive and interpret the world. In psychology, perception is a “neurological process of observation and interpretation; any neurological process of acquiring and mentally interpreting information from the senses”. It is the process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to what happens in their environment perceptions are essential because individuals act upon their interpretation of events and at other times fail to act because of perceptions. People are sometimes faces with the same events; however, there are different perceptions and views on such same events. Comments that perception is like beauty. It is in the eye of the beholder.
It must be noted that an individual’s behavior is based upon their perception of what reality, not on reality itself actually. The world as it is perceived or viewed is the world that is behaviorally important. Each one of use the five senses to experience our surroundings. They are the senses of sight, touch, smell, hearing and taste. Organizing all these information that we receive from these senses is called perception states that perception is a cognitive process. Perception actually helps individuals select, organize, store and interpret stimuli into a meaningful and rational picture of the world. As each person gives one meaning to stimuli, different individuals “see” the same things in different ways.
Obstacles in Making Accurate Perceptions
Sims has outlined some obstacles that hinder individuals from making accurate perceptions. They are stereotyping, first impression error, halo effect, contrast effect, selective perception and implicit personality theories. Each of these obstacles will be examined and discussed in the proceeding part of this paper.
Stereotyping. Stereotypes are considered to be a group concept, actually held by one social group about another. They are often used in a negative or prejudicial sense and are usually used to justify certain discriminatory behavior . The basis for commonly held stereotypes may be associated to one’s sex, race, ethnic group and age. An example of stereotyping may be: the belief or perception that older workers are not capable of being trained for new tasks or younger workers cannot handle responsibility. Even though stereotyping may seem inaccurate and worthless, in some cases, there be “kernel of truth” in the basis of stereotyping; Stereotypes are sometimes based on actual group characteristics. It must be noted though that as stereotypes are some typical beliefs based on the element of truth wherein the beliefs are derived from observations that hold true for the entire group but do not hold much truth and accuracy for given individuals in the group.
First Impression Error. As the saying goes, “first impressions last”. First impression errors mean that a person may observe a very brief bit about another person’s behavior in their first encounter and conclude that this behavior mirrors what the person is really like. Such impressions may be dangerous in interviews for work as these first impressions become the lasting impressions in the basis for their long-term employment relationships.
The Halo Effect. The halo effect is described as when a person good at something is assumed to be good at something else. This positive assumption creates a halo. Gives two instances for this type of obstacle in making accurate perceptions. Example one: Let us say that you are a supervisor in a machine shop. An employee, let us call him John, has been one of the best drill operators in your section for the last ten years. A lathe operator is in need in another section. So, you recommend John, assuming that he will do superb at the lathe as he does in drill pressing. However, John fails; he may be very good in the other task but it doesn’t mean that he will definitely be great with the other task as well. He lacked the necessary skill and the training for the other task. Figuratively speaking, you have somehow placed a halo over John’s head. Another example may be when two people have a violent fistfight on the job. One is rather a personal friend of yours with whom you socialize off the job. There may be a tendency for you to place a halo over your friend’s head by assuming that the other person must have been the cause of the fight and conflict .
Projection. Projection happens when an individual credit our own feelings and attributes to others. People engaging in projection have the tendency to perceive others according to what they themselves are like instead of according to what the person observed is really like. It must be noted that the observations may be accurate as they make observations of people who are actually like them; however, accuracy don’t always happen as they might have observations on people who are not like them. So, when engaging in projection, one must respond to individual differences.
Contrast Effects. Contrast effect can distort perceptions. A very common example is when illustrated in an old saying among entertainers that states never to follow an act which has kids or animals in it. There is a common belief that majority of the audience just love and adore kids and animals that the entertainer will look bad in comparison. This specific example portrays how contrast effects can affect and distort perceptions. States that people don’t assess a person in isolation. A person’s reaction to one person is influenced by other people we have just encountered.
Selective Perception. Selective perception happens when perceptions arise from influences by one’s own interests. When individuals can longer take in all stimuli received, one has the tendency to select out certain elements. For instance, as one purchase a car, for some unknown reason you just begin to notice the same type of car every now and then on the streets compared to before purchasing the car .
Implicit Personality Theories. As people have individual mini-theories on how people look and behave, this will result to inaccurate perceptions. These theories, helps each one of us to organize our perceptions and take shortcuts rather than incorporating new information all the time. Adds that people are cognitive misers. As the world becomes more complex and confusing and as people have only a limited mental capacity, people try to make sense of the world by grouping traits and appearances into clusters that may seem to go together.
The discussion on what hinders making accurate perceptions have enlightened us on the issue of how much one’s perceptions and interpretation of the world can affect and influence decision-making as well as making judgments. We have seen how perceptions are distorted by stereotyping, first impression error, halo effect, contrast effect, selective perception and implicit personality theories.
Researches on judgment and decision making have recognized important limitations in cognitive and emotional processing. It must be noted that errors in decisions occurring due to biases have widespread effects. Many scientists, economists and psychologists are driven to make behavioral assumptions in the market place as a result of real-world violations of the rational choice theory. In psychology, many examinations are made in the concept of rationality. Psychologists are further examining different and alternative frameworks and theories to explain ways of how people make decisions and what influences them upon making their decisions.
The future of judgment and decision-making research within psychology lies in its capability and capacity to develop other theories and frameworks that make associations with research on emotions and cognition, in addition to social and institutional factors. Such associations will definitely influence and affect our views in decision making and adjustability and provide good foundations for research in many years ahead.
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