Chapter 4: Social Perception Flashcards
What is SOCIAL PERCEPTION?
the study of how we form impressions of other people and make inferences about them
What is NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION?
the way in which people communicate, intentionally or unintentionally, without words; nonverbal cues include facial expressions, tone of voice, gestures, body position and movement, the use of touch, and eye gaze
What is ENCODE, in terms of facial expressions?
express or emit nonverbal behaviour, such as smiling
What is DECODE, in terms of facial expressions?
interpret the meaning of the nonverbal behaviour that other people express
EX: deciding that a smile was a sincere expression of enjoyment rather than politeness
What are EMBLEMS?
nonverbal gestures that have well-understood definitions within a given culture; usually have direct verbal translations
What are IMPLICIT PERSONALITY THEORIES?
a type of schema people use to group various kinds of personality traits together
EX: if someone is kind, they will also be generous
What is ATTRIBUTION THEORY, and who is it associated with?
the study of how people explain the causes of their own and other people’s behaviour
Fritz Heidier
What is an INTERNAL ATTRIBUTION?
the inference that a person is behaving in a certain way bc of something about them, such as their attitude, character, or personality
EX: a father has poor parenting skills, which explains his inappropriate discipline of his child
What is an EXTERNAL ATTRIBUTION?
the inference that a person is behaving in a certain way bc of something about the situation they are in; the assumption is that most people would respond the same way in that situation
EX: the child’s behaviour was dangerous, so the father’s extreme reaction was warranted
What is the COVARIATION MODEL, and who is it associated with?
a theory stating that to form an attribution about what caused a person’s behaviour, we systematically note the pattern bw the presence (or absence) of possible causal factors and whether or not the behaviour occurs
Harold Kelley
What 3 types of information do we examine for covariation?
Consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency
What is CONSENSUS INFORMATION?
information about the extent to which other people behave the same way the actor does toward the same stimulus
EX: do other people yell at your coworker the way that your boss does? or is it just him?
What is DISTINCTIVENESS INFORMATION?
information about the extent to which the actor behaves in the same way to different stimuli
EX: does your boss yell at all employees, or just this one coworker?
What is CONSISTENCY INFORMATION?
information about the extent to which the behaviour bw the actor and the stimulus is the same across time and circumstances
EX: does your boss yell at this coworker frequently, in a variety of scenarios?
Describe “Blaming the Victim” fundamental attribution error.
even when we are made aware of the situational factors responsible for the plight of disadvantaged members of our society, we may still see the individuals as responsible for their misfortune; victims could have exercised control over a situation, but didn’t
What is PERCEPTUAL SALIENCE?
information that is the focus of people’s attention; people tend to overestimate the causal role of perceptually salient information
Describe “Perceptual Salience” fundamental attribution error.
when we try to explain someone’s behaviour, our focus of attention is usually on the person, not the situation; situational factors are often practically invisible to us
Describe the Two-Step Process of attributions.
analyzing another person’s behaviour by FIRST making an automatic internal attribution, and THEN thinking about possible situational reasons for the behaviour
What is the ACTOR/OBSERVER DIFFERENCE?
the tendency to see other people’s behaviour as dispositionally caused, while focusing more on the role of situational factors when explaining one’s own behaviour
What are SELF-SERVING ATTRIBUTIONS?
the tendency to make internal, dispositional attributions for our successes, but blame our failures on external, situational factors
EX: when explaining victories, athletes and coaches point overwhelmingly to aspects of their own team and players; when explaining losses, external factors are more relevant
What are DEFENSIVE ATTRIBUTIONS?
explanations for behaviour that avoid feelings of vulnerability and mortality
What is BELIEF IN A JUST WORLD?
a form of defensive attribution wherein people assume that bad things happen to bad people and good things happen to good people
What is a BIAS BLIND SPOT?
the tendency to think that other people are more susceptible to attributional biases than we are
