being perceived by others Flashcards
target vs perceiver
target: person being perceived
perceiver: person perceiving the target
why do we make errors in perception
- perceiver is not good at assessing other’s feelings
- target is not good at expressing feelings
expressive accuracy
an individuals ability to accurately express their thoughts, emotions, and/or personality
in order to be perceived accurately by others, you need to give other people accurate cues to read
how is expressive accuracy studied?
people complete a big 5 personality inventory - compare their results to what other people say about them
if they line up = good expressive accuracy
where do we see more variability?
- in a target’s ability to accurately express themselves
- in a perceiver’s ability to accurately read targets
in expressive accuracy - with targets
what does it mean when we say that expressive accuracy is a stable individual difference
some people’s personalities are habitually perceived more or less accurately than others
what are some implications of expressive accuracy
people who express their personalities more accurately:
- have better psychological adjustment
- have higher levels of well being
- are less sensitive to social threat
- are more dominant
- have higher social status
- are more feminine/socialized to follow women’s gender roles
can also lead to better marital satisfaction and more social support
what are some factors that lead to better expressive accuracy?
- individuals who were raised in a more expressive family environment have better expressive accuracy
- when people are told to “just be themselves” they actually do tend to display their personalities more accurately
display rules
social norms that guide the appropriateness of displaying certain emotions
- people typically avoid displaying negative emotions in consideration of others’ thoughts/feelings
display rules can limit expressive accuracy
what was the guest lecturer’s study
- do people accurately express their emotions when they interact with their friends/ in what contexts to friends perceive one another’s emotions inaccurately?
friends come into the lab and talk about a problem
watch a video of the conversation and rate how they were feeling and how they think their friend was feeling
a lot time people’s perceptions are inaccurate
then have random people rate ps - take average of rando’s accuracy and compare to friend’s accuracy
does how accurately a target expresses their emotions predict how accurately their friend perceives them?
- what does it mean when the friend performs worse/better
what are some examples of contexts when individual’s emotions are perceived inaccurately by their friends?
- romantic couples tend to be less accurate at inferring each other’s feelings during conversations that provoke jealousy
- individuals may perceive their friends when talking about peer problems (hypothesis)
- individuals may perceive their friend’s emotions inaccurately when talking about (shared) academic problems
looking glass self
people’s perceptions of themselves are influenced by their perceptions of what others think about them
meta perception
a person’s perception of what others think of them - requires making inferences based on incomplete/ambiguous cues
what are some factors that decrease meta perception
- perceivers don’t always pick up on expressive cues
- false consensus effect: people tend to overestimate the overlap between their self views and the views of others
- self esteem biases meta perception
false consensus effect
people tend to overestimate the overlap between their self views and the views of others - how you perceive yourself influences how you think others perceive you
what are two ways that self esteem biases meta perception?
self enhancement bias: most people overestimate the positivity of other’s perceptions
looking through the looking glass darkly: some people tend to be pessimistic about other’s perceptions of them
how accurate are people’s meta perceptions
we tend to be good at judging how people in general view us, but we overestimate the uniformity of other’s views because we cannot accurately distinguish the perspectives of specific other people
why are self views so susceptible to influence from other’s perspectives?
we care about what others think of us - self esteem might be a measure of perceived self acceptance
how does meta perception influence self perception?
- people will automatically incorporate other’s views into their self concept, particularly if those views are positive, and consistent with their self view
- meta perceptions can induce behaviour change which influences self perception
self fulfilling prophecy
receiving information about others’ expectations causes people to behave in line with those expectations
pygmalion study
self fulfilling prophecy study in schools
told some teachers kids were ‘growth spurters’ based on an intelligence test (lie)
kids who were labelled as growers actually did better - bc of teacher’s high expectations
more support for self fulfilling prophecy
mother’s false beliefs about their adolescents’ educational outcomes influenced adolescents’ post secondary educational attainment
nurses’ expectations about patients’ rehabilitation outcomes influenced their recover
stereotype threat
the fear of confirming negative stereotypes about one’s group often undermines one’s performance, and confirms stereotype
why does the stereotype threat hinder performance?
- puts people under extra pressure to succeed
- may cause them to take actions to protect their self worth that hinder their achievement
- primed to behave in line with the stereotype
