DEFINITIONS 3 Social Perception: Perceiving and Understanding Others Flashcards
social perception
The process through which we seek to know and understand other people.
nonverbal communication
Communication between individuals that does not involve the content of spoken language. It relies instead on an unspoken language of facial expressions, eye contact, and body language.
attribution
The process through which we seek to identify the causes of others’ behavior and so gain knowledge of their stable traits and dispositions.
impression management (self-presentation)
Efforts by individuals to produce favorable first impressions on others.
impression formation
The process through which we form impressions of others.
staring
A form of eye contact in which one person continues to gaze steadily at another regardless of what the recipient does.
body language
Cues provided by the position, posture, and movement of others’ bodies or body parts.
microexpressions
Fleeting facial expressions lasting only a few tenths of a second.
linguistic style
Aspects of speech apart from the meaning of the words employed.
correspondent inference
A theory describing how we use others’ behavior as a basis for inferring their stable dispositions.
noncommon effects
Effects produced by a particular cause that could not be produced by any other apparent cause.
consensus
The extent to which other people react to some stimulus or even in the same manner as the person we are considering.
consistency
The extent to which an individual responds to a given stimulus or situation in the same way on different occasions (i.e., across time).
distinctiveness
The extent to which an individual responds in the same manner to different stimuli or events.
action identification
The level of interpretation we place on an action; low-level interpretations focus on the action itself, while higher-level interpretations focus on its ultimate goals.
