Chapter 4 Flashcards
Social Perception
The study of how we form impressions of and
make inferences about other people
Nonverbal Communication
How people communicate, intentionally or unintentionally, without words Examples: Facial expressions Tone of voice Gestures Body position Movement Use of touch Gaze
Encode
Express or emit nonverbal behavior
Decode
Interpret the meaning of nonverbal behavior
Darwin
Nonverbal forms of communication is species, not
culture, specific
Are facial expressions of emotion universal
Yes, for the six major emotional expressions
– Anger, happiness, surprise, fear, disgust, and sadness
Affect blends
Facial expressions in which one part of the face
registers one emotion while another part of the face
registers a different emotion
Display rules
– Dictate what kinds of emotional expressions people are
supposed to show
– Are culture-specific
Examples of Display Rule Differences
- Display of emotion
- Eye contact/gaze
- Personal space
Emblems
– Nonverbal gestures that have well-understood
definitions within a given culture
– Usually have direct verbal translations, like the “OK”
sign.
• Emblems are not universal!
Judging a book by its cover
– Easily observable things we can see and hear
– Crucial to first impression
How quickly do first impressions form
Form initial impressions based on facial appearance in
less than 100 milliseconds
Limited exposure can
lead to meaningful first
impressions of abilities and personalities
Thin-slicing
– Drawing meaningful conclusions about another
person’s personality or skills based on an extremely
brief sample of behavior
Primacy Effect
When it comes to forming impressions, the first traits
we perceive in others influence how we view
information that we learn about them later
Belief Perseverance
The tendency to stick with an initial judgment even in
the face of new information that should prompt us to
reconsider
Using First Impressions and Nonverbal
Communication to Our Advantage
- Public speaking
- Job interview
- Hand shake quality
- Body language
Causal Attribution
– Attribution Theory (Fritz Heider)
– Covariation Model (Harold Kelley)
Heider
– “Father” of attribution theory
– “Naïve” or “commonsense” psychology
Viewed people as amateur scientists
– Piece together information to figure out cause
Attribution theory
The way in which people explain the causes of their
own and other people’s behavior
When deciding about causes of behavior, we can
make one of two attributions
– Internal, dispositional attribution
– External, situational attribution
Internal Attribution
Infer a person is behaving in a certain way
because of something about the person (e.g.,
attitude, character, personality)
External Attribution
• Infer a person is behaving a certain way because
of something about the situation
• Assume most people would respond the same
way in that situation
The Covariation Model
A theory that states that to form an attribution
about what caused a person’s behavior, we
systematically note the pattern between the
presence or absence of possible causal factors
and whether or not the behavior occurs