5 - Person Perception

Question 1

impression formation

Answer 1

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

Question 2

halo effect

Answer 2

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

biased that they co-occur

Question 3

sources of information for impression formation

1.

2.

3.

4.

Answer 3

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

Question 4

transference

Answer 4

familiarity and similiarity

Question 5

Implcit theories of personality

Answer 5

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

e.g Halo effect

Question 6

spontaneous trait inferences

Answer 6

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

Question 7

Winter & Uleman (1984)

trait recall

Answer 7

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

Question 8

knowledge activation

Answer 8

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

Question 9

Higgins, Rholes, & Jones (1977)

Donald experiment

Answer 9

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

Question 10

priming

Answer 10

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)

Question 11

Bargh & Peitromonaco (1982)

Donald revisited

Answer 11

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

Question 12

indirect / spreading activation

accessibility

Answer 12

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

Question 13

disambiguate

Answer 13

form an impression of ambiguous behaviour, using related accessible constructs

Question 14

heider’s dichotomy

Answer 14

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)

Question 15

Behaviour = Actor’s Disposition + Immediate Situation

Answer 15

Behaviour = Actor’s Disposition + Immediate Situation

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

Question 16

Discounting and Augmentation

Answer 16

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)

Question 17

Jones and Harris 1967

Castro Essay

Answer 17

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)

Question 18

correspondent inference

and when it’s justified

1.

2.

3.

Answer 18

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

Question 19

correspondence bias (jones)

and why

Answer 19

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

Question 20

Sequential Nature of Attritional Process (Gilbert, 2002)

Answer 20

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.

Question 21

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

Answer 21

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

Question 22

problems/impact of person perception

Answer 22

• 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

Question 23

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

Answer 23

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

Question 24

behavioural confirmation

Answer 24

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