Sensation and Perception
-Sir John C. Eccles. 1903-1997. Neuroscientist, Nobel Prize in 1963
Lets start introducing a little bit of what is intercultural management about:
"The flow of business personnel internationally has meant that people are now having to work more and more in foreign environments and alongside people of different cultures. Being a manager in a foreign country is never an easy task. One has to deal with differences in business culture, etiquette, man-management styles, communication styles and much more."http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/intercultural/management/guide.html
knowing that intercultural business or managements includes to have a close relationship with people from other cultures and other manners of being... let me explain you how Culture have influence in the perception and sensation of any individual in the world.
¿ have you ever hear that Knowledge is found directly in conscious experience.? ¿ how do you relate that experience to other people? ¿have you hear experiences about something from another person? i am sure you had, and also you have created images of what the person describes even if you do not know all the details. is easy to imagine reactions of people when you already know them, but... what happens when you do not? how could you imagine or perceive experiences from people that does not see life as the same way as you do? in the business world it is a huge problem if you do not learn how to deal with it.
" Variety of Cultural, Social, and Emotional factors work together in complex ways to influence the way individuals perceive the world"
How culture influence ? well it provides the structure, guidelines, expectations and rules to help people to understand and interpret behavior,there are cultural differences in social
consequences, particularly when it comes to evaluating our emotions and behaviors and those of others.1
Example:
- Western Cultures:maximize positive emotions and reduce the negative ones
- Eastern Cultures:" dialectical thinking" seeking to find a middle way by experiencing a balance between negative and positive emotions
This cartoon illustrates how culture creates a fundamental framework for our perceptions and emotions
Theories of perception
there are 2 theories of social perception which are:
attribution
theory: also called actor-observed
bias and focusses on attribution or causes of an action, this
theory demonstrate
why
individuals have tendency to blame others for getting themselves into a bad
situation
Social
comparison theory: explain the tendency of individuals to
compare themselves with other who closely resemble themselves in order to
improve ones own feeling of value
¿ How does Perception and sensation work together ?
Sensation occurs:
- sensory organs absorb energy from a physical stimulus in the environment.
- sensory receptors convert this energy into neural impulses and send them to the brain.
Perception follows:
- the brain organizes the information and translates it into something meaningful.
- But what does "meaningful" mean? How do we know what information is important and should be focused on?
SOURCES:
1.Source: Boundless. “Cultural Influences on Perception.” Boundless Psychology.
Boundless, 06 Oct. 2014. Retrieved 11 Feb. 2015
from https://www.boundless.com/psychology/textbooks/boundless-psychology-
textbook/sensation-and-perception-5/advanced-topics-in-perception-40/cultural-
influences-on-perception-174-12709/
