Thursday, June 07, 2007

Functional factors influencing perception among other are necessity, mental readiness, emotional condition, and cultural background. A thirsty person sometimes perceives liquid of storage battery as a beverage, a beggar may perceive 5000 rupiahs as a big amount of money, while a rich person perceives it as a small amount. An angry person may perceive gift as a humiliation, while a person in war may sometimes perceive a passing-by animal as an enemy that should be shot. To celebrities, cars are prestigious things, while for ordinary people, cars are more perceived as transportation.

Structural factor influencing perception in such a way that when one perceives something, he perceives it as a whole, not as parts. When we perceive a face as a beautiful face, actually we perceive not only the face but also the whole body of the face owner. When a pious kyai (ulama) was seen wearing a shirt full of patches, we may tend to perceive him as a modest person (positive perception), but if we see an artist wearing a cloth full of patches, we tend to perceive him as eccentric (netral perception), while a criminal wearing a cloth full of patches may be perceived as shabby hobo. One in close relation with ulamas are often perceived as a pious person, a person in close relation with the authority are often perceived as an important person, while a person having good relations with a corrupter are often perceived as a henchman

Lecturers tend to perceive books and rice as main necessities, but farm labourers in general don’t seem to perceive books as part of his main necessities. Those mentioned above are the processes of perception. Not all good-deeds are perceived as goodness, but we can consider things that enable other perceive them wrongly. One’s akhlaq credibility plays an important role in developing others’ perception of him.