Conation Aspect Conation aspect relates the person’s attitude, behavior, activity, and motivation.
Through conation aspect, perception could be built based on person’s point of view toward something. This perception is convicted to motivation and
behavior in his her daily life.
a. The Perceptual Process
To explain how the perception exists, the writer uses Gibson’s theory. Gibson 1985: 60 proposes that perception is the cognitive process by which an individual
gives meaning to the environment. Because each person gives his or her own meaning to stimuli, different individuals will “see” the same things in the different
ways. To make clear our understanding about how the perception exists, figure 1 is provided.
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Figure 2.1 The Person’s Perceptual Process by Gibson 1985: 61
Stimuli Observati
on of the stimuli
Factors influencing
perception Evaluation
and interpretati
on of reality
Response behavior
Attitudes formed
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From the Figure 1, we can see how the perception is formed. It is begun with the stimuli in which each person selects various signals that influence his or her
perceptions of people, objects, and symbols based on the individual needs. After selecting the various signals, he or she observes those signals or stimuli considering
the factors that influence the perception. Here, someone processes the stimuli in his or her mind which is called as the cognitive processing. When the cognitive process is
finished, it will continue with forming evaluation and interpretation on reality. Through the evaluation and interpretation, it would affect the response behavior and
form the attitudes. The Figure 1 makes us understand that there might be any possibilities of different perception among the second grade students of senior high
school about the use of portfolio in writing class.
b. Factors that Affect Person in Forming Perception
According to Gibson 1985: 64, there are six factors that influencing the perception in the perceptual process. They are stereotype, selectivity, self-concept,
situation, need, and emotion. Those factors will be explained as follows. 1 Stereotype
Stereotype is a set of beliefs about the characteristics of people in a particular group that are generalized to all members of the group Gibson, 1985: 64. For
example most Sumatrans like eat the highly seasoned and spiced food. But in fact, not all Sumatrans like to eat that kind of food. Most of the stereotypes are the wrong
perceptions because it is formed not because of the fact that happens in our 11
environment. Gibson 1985: 65 also says that stereotyping could result in implementing improper programs.
2 Selectivity Not all stimuli that exist in our environment are taken and processed in our
mind. Thus, we select what is important and relevant in fulfilling the person needs. In selecting the stimuli, it depends on our interest of the stimuli. It is supported by
Gibson’s statement 1985: 66 that people tend to ignore the information or cues that might make them feel uncomfortable. For example, a girl who takes blue as her
favorite color will select many things of which the color is blue and ignore other things which are not blue although they might be more beautiful. That is why people
have different perception. 3 Self-Concept
Mouly 1973: 92 says that we perceive only those things that are consistent with our motives and goals and interpret our experiences to make them compatible
with our present self-concept. The way we see ourselves in the form of self-concept will affect our perception about something in our environment. For example, if
people always see something pessimistically, they will also see everything around them pessimistically. The person’s self-concept will perform the attitude which is as
the result of his her felling towards particular things. 4 Situation
Situation can affect people in perceiving something, for example in the matter of time, Gibson et. al. 1985: 67 stated that the presses of time will literary press the
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manager to overlook some details, to rush certain activities, and to ignore certain stimuli such as request from other managers or superiors. People tend to work quickly
when they do not have much time. The limitation of time makes people less careful. Therefore, the outcome of their work will also be affected. In students’ audio-visual
project, time is considered important because this project needs to elaborate many things to make a good product.
5 Need Perception is significantly influenced by needs and desires Gibson, 1985: 6.
There are always many considerations in choosing something based on the persons’ needs and expectations. People tend to perceive something positively if they feel that
it can satisfy their needs and expectations. 6 Emotion
Emotion is someone’s strong feelings that influence his or her in forming perception. Kreitner and Knicki 1992: 212 state that emotions have significant
effect on our perception. The person’s positive perception such as happiness, gladness, contentment, and so on may cause good perception toward something. In
the contrary, the person’s negative emotions, such as anger, jealousy, envy, disappointment toward something could cause bad perception on that thing.
2. Project-Based Learning
