10.2 Social Perception and Behaviour Flashcards
social perception (social cognition)
the way by which we form impressions about people in our social environment
formed based on observations, past experiences, and personal beliefs/attitudes
involves the perceiver, their target, and the situation
attribution
the process by which we attempt to explain and understand the behaviour of others
3 primary components of social perception:
the perceiver (the person making the assumptions)
the target (the person about which the perception is made)
the situation (the social context)
what is the perceiver influenced by? (3)
past experience → affects our attitudes towards current and future experiences and lead to particular expectations
motives → influence what info we deem important and what we choose to ignore
emotional state → can affect our interpretation of an event
impression bias
our selection of cues to form interpretations of others that are consistent over time
as the perceiver becomes more familiar with the target, the perception of additional cues becomes selective as they use existing categorizations of the target to paint a picture that is consistent with previous interpretations
primacy effect
refers to when first impressions are most important than subsequence impressions
recency effect
refers to when the most recent information we have about an individual is most important in forming our impressions
reliance on central traits
the tendency to organize the perception of others based on traits and personal characteristics that matter most to the perceiver
implicit personality theory
states that people make assumptions about how different types of people, their traits, and their behaviour are related
stereotyping
making assumptions about people based on the category in which they are placed
halo effect
a cognitive bias in which judgements about a specific aspect of an individual can be affected by one’s overall impression of the individual
the tendency to allow a general impression about a person to influence other, more specific evaluations about a person
example: i like Judy → Judy is a good mother
an individuals attractiveness can also produce the halo effect
just-world hypothesis
the tendency of individuals to believe that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people
KARMA!
self-serving bias (self-serving attributional bias)
refers to the fact that individuals will view their own successes as being based on internal factors, while viewing failures as being based on external factors
used to protect self-esteem
self-enhancement
the need to maintain self-worth; can be done through internal attributions of success and external attributions of failure
attribution theory
focuses on the tendency for individuals to infer the causes of OTHER people’s behaviours
2 main categories of attribution theory
dispositional (internal)
situational (external)
dispositional (internal) attributions
relate to the features of the person whose behaviour is being considered
situational (external) attributions
relate to the features of the surroundings or social context
consistency cues
refer to the consistent behaviour of a person over time
does person usually behave this way?
the more regular the behaviour → the more we associated that behaviour with the motives of the person
consensus cues
relate to the extent to which a persons behaviour differs others
do others behave similarly in situation?
distinctiveness cues
refers to the extent to which a person engages in similar behaviour across a series of scenarios
if a persons behaviour varies in different scenarios, we are more likely to form a situational attribution to explain it
does person behave differently in different situations?
correspondent inference theory
a theory that states that people pay closer attention to intentional behaviour than accidental behaviour when making attributions, especially if the behaviour is unexpected
fundamental attribution error
the bias toward making dispositional attributions rather than situational attributions in regard to the action of others, especially in negative contexts
attribute substitution
occurs when individuals must make judgements that are complex but instead substitute a simpler solution or apply a heuristic
cultural attribution
attributions are highly influenced by the culture in which one resides
ex. individuals tend to make more fundamental attribution errors than those in a collectivist culture
