5 - Person Perception Flashcards

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1
Q

impression formation

A

Developing a cognitive representation of another person

Using information in memory to determine who another person/group is, interpret their actions, and guide our own actions toward them

impressions

influence our interpretations of actions

guide our behaviours towards the person

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2
Q

halo effect

A

when one good or bad trait biases the perception of other traits (e.g what is beautiful is good)

biased that they co-occur

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3
Q

sources of information for impression formation

1.

2.

3.

4.

A
  1. transference
  2. salience
  3. implicit theories of personality
  4. spontaneous trait inferences
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4
Q

transference

A

familiarity and similiarity

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5
Q

Implcit theories of personality

A

we group character traits together and think they co-occur with individuals

e.g Halo effect

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6
Q

spontaneous trait inferences

A

people sometimes automatically form an impression in the form of a trait

trait words help us categorize and store info efficiently, though must be careful with generalizing the trait to the person outside the specific situation

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7
Q

Winter & Uleman (1984)

trait recall

A

read sentences about different people
doing different behaviors (e.g., “The professor has his
new neighbours over for dinner.”)

Later asked to recall the sentences, at
which time they were randomly assigned to be:
a. cued by relevant trait words (e.g., friendly)
b. cued by semantically relevant words (e.g., party)
c. given no cues

trait cues had best recall

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8
Q

knowledge activation

A

Activation = Accessibility x Applicability, where

Accessibility is the activation potential or readiness
of some stored knowledge unit

Applicability is the similarity or overlap between
the features of a stored knowledge unit and the
features of a stimulus or input

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9
Q

Higgins, Rholes, & Jones (1977)

Donald experiment

A

Phase 1: Participants unobtrusively primed with
applicable or inapplicable positive or negative trait
words
as part of an unrelated perception study

Phase 2: Participants read ambiguous passage about
Donald and were asked to form an impression of him

results: enhancement of positive impression/negative impression

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10
Q

priming

A

activating a cognitive representation to
increase its accessibility, and therefore increase the
probability that this cognitive representation will be
used in processing information

Priming effects are not dependent on awareness of
the effect
of the prime…

…or even on awareness of the prime itself (e.g.
subliminal priming)

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11
Q

Bargh & Peitromonaco (1982)

Donald revisited

A

Participants were given hostile or neutral primes subliminally, then read the same passage about Donald

found that priming still had its effect since those who were primed with hostile words felt Donald was more hostile than those primed with neutral words

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12
Q

indirect / spreading activation

accessibility

A

Knowledge units are connected in a network and when activated, they can influence the accessibility of related units (i.e think about Santa→Christmas→Presents→Winter)

Accessible constructs are used (consciously or not) to interpret ambiguous behavior and form an impression of it (disambiguate)

accessibility can be chhronic/momentary…… ppl often unaware of the causes of fluctuations in accessibility

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13
Q

disambiguate

A

form an impression of ambiguous behaviour, using related accessible constructs

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14
Q

heider’s dichotomy

A

Fritz Heider, Psychology of Interpersonal Relations (1958)

**Internal Attributions - **attribute behavior to the person’s intrinsic qualities (Person)

**External Attributions - **attribute behavior to the anything external to the person (Situation)

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15
Q

Behaviour = Actor’s Disposition + Immediate Situation

A

Behaviour = Actor’s Disposition + Immediate Situation

immediate situation - includes both the entity toward which the behaviour is directed and the circumstances around the behaviour

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16
Q

Discounting and Augmentation

A

Discounting: Attributing behavior less to the person than the situation

Augmenting: Attributing behavior more to the person than the situation

Z (behaviour) = X (person) + Y (situation)

X decreases as Y increases (Discounting)
X increases as Y decreases (Augmentation)

17
Q

Jones and Harris 1967

Castro Essay

A

2 IVs:
Topic: pro-Castro or anti-Castro
Volition: topic chosen or assigned

Conclusion: Observers judgements of true attitudes show signs of discounting the situation, but they don’t discount enough…… judgements of attitudes corresponded to the topic (e.g. demonstrated behaviour) rather than volition (situation)

e.g. leap to conclusion that behaviours reflect inner characteristics, although it is often the situation

correspondence BIAS (FAW)

18
Q

correspondent inference

and when it’s justified

1.

2.

3.

A

Characterizing someone as having a personality trait that corresponds to his or her behavior

justified when

  1. behaviour is not typical, is unexpected..
  2. the behaviour has unique effects, differentiating effects (versus several factors possibly also affecting outcome)
  3. individual freely chooses to perform the behaviour
19
Q

correspondence bias (jones)

and why

A

fundamental attribution error….

prone to attribute other’s behaviour to the person instead of the situation, (even when it is unjustified because other possible causes of the behaviour exist)

  • motivated to attribute behavior to dispositions (illusion of control, just world)
  • people are more salient than situations
  • sequential nature of attribution process……

….. behaviors/context => IDing, processing => inference

20
Q

Sequential Nature of Attritional Process (Gilbert, 2002)

A
  1. We see and identify a behavior.
  2. Then we characterize that behavior.
  3. If we are motivated and able to adjust for the situation, then we arrive at a final judgment.
21
Q

Gilbert, Pelham, and Krull (1988) – Muted Woman Video Study

A

Participants see a muted video of a woman acting anxious while engaged in a conversation

IVS:
topic of conversation (anxiety provoking/innocuous) cognitive load (memory task/ no memory task)

DV: ratings of the woman’s **trait **(i.e. dispositional) anxiety

Under a cognitive load (memory task), participants discounted the personal qualities, but those not under a cognitive load made more correct attributions

22
Q

problems/impact of person perception

A
  • Rapid and automatic impression formation and attribution help us make sense of our reality
  • Our impressions of others will impact our behavior
    toward them
    , and consequently their behavior
    toward us
  • Better understanding of how these processes work helps us to better understand others and ourselves
23
Q

Snyder, Tanke, and Berscheid, 1977 (phone flirting)

A

Male and female participants had a telephone conversation with each other.

Male participants were given a photo supposedly of their partner

IV: attractive or unattractive
DVs: blind observer’s ratings of how sociable each participants’ part of the conversation was (in isolation)

Male participants were rated as more sociable when they thought they were speaking to attractive
women

Female participants were rated as more sociable when their male partners thought they were attractive

behavioural confirmation

24
Q

behavioural confirmation

A

We assume that attractive people are sociable and friendly, so we attempt to elicit that behavior to confirm our expectations