Chapter 3: Perceptions, Attribution, & Diversity Flashcards
Perception
Interpreting our sense to provide meaning to the environment
Components of Perception
- Perceiver
- Target
- Situation
Perception - Perceiver
their experience, needs, and emotion, can affect their perception of the target
a. Experience
Ex: caucasian men less likely to perceive gender / race barriers than woman
b. Needs
Ex: ppl who have been deprived of food will tend to see edible things in ambiguous pictures
Emotion
c. Emotion
Ex: worker who’s upset abt not getting promotion might perceive consolation as a gloating condescension
Perceptual Defence
tendency for perceptual system to defend perceiver against unpleasant emotions
Perception - Situation
every perception activity occur in a situational context, it can add info about a target
Ex : boss makes critical comments 2 weeks before he decides u get promoted or not
Social Identity Theory
“People form perceptions of themselves based on their personal characteristics & membership in social categories”
Personal Identity
based on our characteristics
Social identity
based on our perceptions of where we belong in society (rase, gender, religion)
Bruner’s Model of Perceptual Process
Model - Example
1) Unfamiliar target encountered - New co-worker
2) Openness to target cues - Observation; search for information
3) Familiar cues encountered - Co-worker is Stanford graduate with good grades
4) Target Categorized - Co-worker is “good person” with “great potential”
5) Cue selectivity - Co-worker’s poor performance ignored or distorted
6) Categorization strengthened - Co-worker is still “good person” with “great potential”
Perception is… (3 things)
1) Selective
2) Constance
3) Consistency
Selective
We do not use all available cues
Constancy
we perceive target same over time
Consistency
we ignore cues that differs from the image we have build on a person
Basic Biases in person Perception
1) Primacy & recency effects
2) Reliance on central traits
3) Implicit personality theories
4) Projection
5) Stereotyping
Primacy & recency effects
a. Primary effect : tendency to build a image of a person based on early relationship
b. Recency effect : last impression counts most
Ex : Good for job interview
Reliance on central traits
perceiving ppl based on traits that are of particular interest to us
Ex : physical appearance
Implicit personality theories
theory about which personalities go together side by side
Ex : hard-working ppl are honest, high intelligent ppl are not friendly
Projection
tendency to attribute own thoughts & feelings to others
In case of threatening / undesirable characteristics → projection can serve as perceptual defense
Ex : …., but so does everyone else!
Stereotyping
generalise about people & ignore variations among them
3 Specific aspect of steorotype
i. We distinguish some category of ppl
ii. We assume individuals in this category have certain traits
iii. We perceive that everyone in this category have this trait
Steorotype Threat
fear of confirming negative stereotype about us / one’s group
Attribution
Finding out motives to explain a person’s behaviour
Dispositional Attributions
characteristics responsible for a person’s behaviour