Perception Meaning and Features

“Perception is the process through which the information from outside environment is selected, received, organized and interpreted to make it meaningful to you. This input of meaningful information results in decisions and actions.”

A few definitions of perception as given by different authors are as explained below:

“Perception may be defined as a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment.”

According to Joseph Reitz, “Perception includes all those processes by which an individual receives information about his environment seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling. The study of these perpetual processes shows that their functioning is affected by three classes of variables—the objects or events being perceived, the environment in which perception occurs and the individual doing the perceiving.”

In simple words we can say that perception is the act of seeing what is there to be seen. But what is seen is influenced by the perceiver, the object and its environment. The meaning of perception emphasises all these three points.

Features of Perception

(i) Perception is very important in understanding the human behaviour, because every person perceives the world and approaches the life problems differently- Whatever we see or feel is not necessarily the same as it really is. It is because what we hear is not what is really said, but what we perceive as being said. When we buy something, it is not because it is the best, but because we take it to be the best. Thus, it is because of perception, we can find out why one individual finds a job satisfying while another one may not be satisfied with it.

(ii) If people behave on the basis of their perception, we can predict their behaviour in the changed circumstances by understanding their present perception of the environment. One person may be viewing the facts in one way which may be different from the facts as seen by another viewer.

(iii) With the help of perception, the needs of various people can be determined, because people’s perception is influenced by their needs. Like the mirrors at an amusement park, they distort the world in relation to their tensions.

(iv) Perception is very important for the manager who wants to avoid making errors when dealing with people and events in the work setting. This problem is made more complicated by the fact that different people perceive the same situation differently. In order to deal with the subordinates effectively, the managers must understand their perceptions properly.

Thus, for understanding the human behaviour, it is very important to understand their perception, that is, how they perceive the different situations. People’s behaviour is based on their perceptions of what reality is, not on reality itself. The world as it is perceived is the world that is important for understanding the human behaviour.