UNIVERSIDAD TÉCNICA ESTATAL DE QUEVEDO

UNIDAD DE ESTUDIOS A DISTANCIA

MODALIDAD SEMIPRESENCIAL

English
Accounting Article

How does contact with accountants influence

perceptions of accounting?

By: Paul K. Wells paul.wells@aut.ac.nz

Taylor & Francis Group

Teacher: Lcda. Gabriela Galeas A Msc.

Name: Ronny Bajaña Zavala

2019
 INTRODUCTION
1. Researchers

Researchers: Noun. Someone whose job is to study a subject carefully, especially in order to
discover new information or understand the subject better.

Researchers used two groups of people for this study Simple past (affirmative)

Bibliography: Cambridge English Corpus

2. Perceptions

Perceptions: Noun. The ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the
senses.

The results of the research found that contact makes little difference to the perceptions they had
about accountants. Simple past (affirmative)

Bibliography: Cambridge English Corpus

 3. Recruitment

Recruitment: Noun. The action of finding new people to join an organization or support a
cause.

This method of recruitment may explain why a substantial number of eligible subjects refused.
Simple past (affirmative)
Bibliography: Cambridge English Corpus

4. Replicate

Replicate: Verb. Replicate itself (of genetic material or a living organism) reproduce or give
rise to a copy of itself.

In order to replicate, cells must make copies of their DNA’ Simple past (affirmative)
Bibliography: Cambridge English Corpus
5. Further

Further: Adverb . To a greater distance or degree, or at a more advanced level

The idea of replicating the study came up as an opportunity to further understand the relation
between accountants and their circle. Simple past (affirmative)
Bibliography: Cambridge English Corpus
 HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT

1. Consensus

Consensus: Noun. With clause ‘there is a growing consensus that the current regime has failed
The general consensus is that they are in public life for what they can get out of it. simple present
(affirmative)

Bibliography: Cambridge English Corpus

2. Focusing

Focusing: Noun. An act of concentrating interest or activity on something.

I concentrated all of my focusing into my magic as I formed a fireball in my hand. Simple past
(affirmative)
Bibliography: Cambridge English Corpus
3. Accurately

Accurately: Adverb. In a way that is correct in all details; exactly.

The accounting system must accurately reflect the true financial condition of the cooperative.
simple present (affirmative)

Bibliography: Cambridge English Corpus

4. Provided

Provided: Conjuntion. On the condition or understandiThere is a strong argument for this,

Provided you have a basic understanding of investment markets. simple present (affirmative)
Bibliography: Cambridge English Corpus
 5. Strengthen

Strengthen:Verb. Enable or encourage a person to act more vigorously or effectively.

It is strengthen by being reinforced by multiple people who accept its reality. simple
present (affirmative)
Bibliography: Cambridge English Corpus

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

1. Satisfy

Satisfy: Verb. Adequately meet or comply with (a condition, obligation, or demand)

In response, web servers must evolve to satisfy these demands. simple present (affirmative)
Bibliography: Oxford Living Dictionaries
 2. Finding

Finding: Noun. The action of finding someone or something.

These finding suggest that contact with accountants through lived experience does
influence the perceptions people have of accounting. Simple past (affirmative)

Bibliography: Oxford Living Dictionaries

3. Appear

Appear: Verb. Come into sight; become visible or noticeable, especially without apparent
cause.
As soon as we sit down as friends though, it appears that interests are dampened, if not doused
completely. Simple past (affirmative)
Bibliography: Oxford Living Dictionaries
 4. Perform

Perform: Verb. Carry out, accomplish, or fulfil (an action, task, or function).

After the session, most people feel relaxed and mellow but in complete control of all of
their faculties and able to perform any task or duty such as driving or working.’Simple
past (affirmative)

Bibliography: Oxford Living Dictionaries

5. Stereotype

Stereotype: Noun. A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a

particular type of person or thing.

They only serve to reinforce society's stereotypes of who we are. simple present (affirmative)

Bibliography: Oxford Living Dictionaries

 FINDINGS
1. Willing

Willing: Adjective. Ready, eager, or prepared to do something.

He's eager and willing to please and follows my instructions without a fault. present progressive
(affirmative)

Bibliography: Oxford Living Dictionaries

2. Overgeneralize

Overgeneralize: Verb. Draw a conclusion or make a statement about (something) that is

more general than is justified.

It generalizes - and at times overgeneralizes - about all media's content, and perhaps about all of
society's, too. simple present (affirmative)

Bibliography: Oxford Living Dictionaries

 3. Imply

Imply: Verb. Indicate the truth or existence of (something) by suggestion rather than explicit
reference.

Amassing more data does not necessarily imply the acquisition of better information. simple
present (Negative)

Bibliography: Oxford Living Dictionaries

4. Undertake

Undertake: Verb. Commit oneself to and begin (an enterprise or responsibility); take on.

One effect of generalising is that the group of participants is likely to categorise all the work
undertake in that context as accounting related.Stereotypical simple present (affirmative)

Bibliography: Oxford Living Dictionaries

 5. Range

Range: Noun. The area of variation between upper and lower limits on a particular scale.

Grand hotels were outside my price range simple present (affirmative)

Bibliography: Oxford Living Dictionaries

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

1. Underrate:

Underrate: Verb. Underestimate the extent, value, or importance of (someone or something)

There is always a side of every profession that we don’t know, so its not fair to underrate any
profession. simple present (Negative)

Bibliography: Oxford Living Dictionaries

 2. Show

Show : Verb. with object Offer, exhibit, or produce (something) for inspection.
An alarm salesperson should show an ID card simple present (continuous)
Bibliography: Oxford Living Dictionaries

3. Inaccurate

Inaccurate: Adjective. Not accurate.

Many customers have been billed and others have been sent inaccurate bills. simple present
(continuous)
Bibliography: Oxford Living Dictionaries
 4. Commit

Commit: Verb. Perpetrate or carry out (a mistake, crime, or immoral act)

More criminals than ever before are carrying weapons to commit crimes. simple present
(affirmative)

5. Unaware

Unaware: Adjective. Having no knowledge of a situation or fact.

The world's media are, to an equal degree, completely unaware of what most people in the
world think or do.’ simple present (affirmative)
 ABSTRACT
This paper aims to contrast the different perceptions that people have about accountants.
Researchers used two groups of people for this study: members who had contact with
accountants and members who did not have prior contact with accountants. There was the
theory that the people who were in contact with accountants would have more positive
perceptions of them than the non-contact group. However, the results of the research
found that contact makes little difference to the perceptions they had about accountants.
However, the validity of the findings was put in doubt due to the high similarity among
the questionnaire finding among both groups. The idea of replicating the study came up
as an opportunity to further understand the relation between accountants and their circle.

INTRODUCTION

The results of this study suggest that the perceptions of the recipients of accounting
information were not significantly different from those of participants who had reported
no prior contact with accountants. Despite this apparent consensus, the participants who
had no contact with accountants perceived accounting to be practical, procedural, boring,
inflexible and focusing on efficiency, a view not shared by the participants who were the
recipients of accounting information. While the questionnaire findings provided a useful
indication of perception stereo typicality and dispersion, the inconsistency raises doubts
that the questionnaire has accurately captured their perceptions of accounting. The
interview responses suggested that the contact participants used lived experiences to
construct their understanding of accounting, and that was represented in memory as an
exemplar model.
 HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT
The second factor which appeared to influence participant perceptions of accounting
relates to the participants’ roles in the workplace. Where the participants had either
statutory or contractual compliance-based obligations, they perceived the accountant as
being the person to satisfy those requirements and hence make this obstacle go away, thus
creating an outcome dependency. These findings suggest that contact with accountants
through lived experience does influence the perceptions people have of accounting.
However, this influence appears to encourage people to overgeneralise specific
cultural and lived experiences when categorising accounting activity. The effect of
overgeneralising creates a very limited perception based on single exemplar models
that do not reflect the diverse roles performed by accountants.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

These findings also support claims made by Allport that contact under the wrong
conditions might increase prejudice and stereotyping. While contact with accountants
may influence perceptions of the duties they perform, this does not necessarily lead to
less stereotypical perceptions. Contact is only likely to reduce stereo-typicality when
individuals are willing to develop multiple exemplar kinds of accounting. This is more
likely to happen when there is contact with more than one accountant which might cause
the formation of multiple exemplars, decreasing the extent to which the individual
overgeneralises particular exemplars to represent accounting. Given that
overgeneralisation implies ‘inaccuracy in perceptions of the dispersion of group
members’ these findings confirm that the perceptions people have of accounting are not
always correct.
 FINDING
Another finding is that some participants were not able to differentiate between the work
of accounting clerks and accountants. This result might be related to how accountants and
professional associations promote the work of accountants to the public. Recognitions
among members who did not know an accountant tended to be restricted to an unique
duty and a single particular setting that was an overgeneralisation based on a lived
experience. One effect of generalising is that the group of participants is likely to
categorise all the work undertaken in that context as accounting related. Consequently,
contact may impact perceptions of accounting; however, this contact can cause people to
overgeneralise accountants and have stereotypical perceptions of them.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

Evidently, this study allowed us to discover that many members ignored the contribution
that accountants make to society and how individuals benefit from this contribution. The
suggestion of this study is that people are less likely to look for the full range of services
provided by accountants.. The results of this experiment recommend that the role of
accounting in society needs to be communicated and promoted. This will allow people to
be aware of the extend range of duties that accountants do, and not to put them under a
category. Neither to create false stereotypes about accountants. There is always a side of
every profession that we don’t know, so its not fair to underrate any profession.
BIBLIOGRAPHY

▪ https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/perception
▪ https://dictionary.cambridge.org/es/diccionario/ingles/satisfy
▪ https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/finding
▪ https://dictionary.cambridge.org/es/diccionario/ingles/appear?q=appears
▪ https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/perform