Perceiving others

Question 1

Thin slice accuracy

Answer 1

Where people make judgments about a person based on a small amount of information given to a perceiver (such as a face).
i.e., trustworthiness, competence, likability, aggressiveness and attractiveness. There is also a consensus of these traits across perceivers.

Question 2

What was the Ambady and Rosenthal (1993) study and what did it find?

Answer 2

Students were asked to rate teachers non-verbal behaviour based on 3 x 10 second silent videos. People extracted accurate and consensual information about teachers traits in this short time, with perceptions being the same over a longer duration.

Question 3

detecting lies.

Answer 3

We are not good at detecting lies. In a profession study, people could only tell lies 50% of the time across all professions. we extract facial information quickly which could lead us astray.

Question 4

What are two ways to see if people might be lying?

Answer 4

If their speech is sped up and raises in pitch.

There is cognitive effort that goes into lying. Lying is harder to do.

Question 5

What is attribution theory?

Answer 5

Looking at peoples behaviour and making an inference about the causes of their disposition.

Question 6

What are the two factors of attribution that Heider (1958) focuses on?

Answer 6

Personal
An internal characteristic of a persons caused behaviour (e.g. ability, personality, mood, effort)

Situational
An external factor causes the behaviour (the task, other people, luck)

Question 7

What does Jones and Davis (1965) correspondence inference theory say about the distinction between internal and external attribution factors?

Answer 7

The conditions under which we make dispositional attributes to the behavior we perceive as intentional. Davis used the term correspondent inference to refer to an occasion when an observer infers that a person’s behavior matches or corresponds with their personality.

Question 8

What are some factors that are representative of an enduring disposition?

Answer 8

A persons behaviour reveals their character when attribution is freely chosen, departs from what norms and roles dictate and produces fewer desirable effects.

Question 9

What did the Jones and Harris (1967) study find?

Answer 9

Participants were given two papers to read about a public figure. They made more corresponding inferences if they could make a choice about what paper they wanted to read rather than being assigned to a paper.

Question 10

Covariation principle

Answer 10

The cause of behaviour should be present when the behaviour occurs and absent when it does not.

Question 11

What are the three types of information that influences Kelley’s (1967) covariation model?

Answer 11

Consensus
Do other people react similarly to this stimulus?

Distinctiveness
Does this person react differently to other stimuli?

Consistency
Does this person react similarly to this stimulus on other occasions?

Question 12

What are the limitations of Kelleys model?

Answer 12

We don’t always use the information available.

We can be poor at determining covariation.

May attribute causality to most salient feature.

Requires multiple observations.

Question 13

Fundamental attribution error, what study shows this?

Answer 13

The tendency to overlook situational factors and instead make internal attributions for other’s behaviours. This is easier.

This is in the Jones and Harris study, where people made this error when judging the beliefs of the essay they were given.

Question 14

What is the Gilbert and Malone (1995) two-step attribution model?

Answer 14

1. people identify behaviour and make personal attribution (this happens fast)
2. amend attribution to account for situational factors (requires effort and thought)

Question 15

Why do we make an attribution first then assess situational factors?

Answer 15

Because we are focusing on the individual, their actions and behaviour are salient.

Question 16

What are some cultural factors that influence attribution judgments?

Answer 16

In the west people describe people by abstract traits, whereas in eastern cultures the context that person is in is important.

Question 17

What factors were controlled in cultural attribution studies, what did they show?

Answer 17

When situational factors were made salient. Those that were in eastern cultures were less likely to make a fundamental attribution error than those in western cultures.

When situational factors were not made salient, both groups equally made the fundamental attribution error.

Question 18

How is the fundamental attribution error related to belief in a just world?

Answer 18

This is the idea that good things happen to good people, bad happens to bad. This could also incorporate victim blaming and place a bias on a situation. Victim blaming makes us feel safe and in control.

Question 19

What are some traits according to Asch’s configural model that allows people to move from attribution to an integrated impression of who they are?

Answer 19

There are two types of traits that people generally make when evaluating a person. They are central and peripheral traits. They have a large impact on impressions and can shape our overall view of a person.

Question 20

What are the two most common social dimensions that allow people to construct an integrated impression of people?

Answer 20

Warmth and competence. These two dimensions vary within people and help evaluate our overall perception of someone.

Question 21

What are two element of describing someone when forming impression that makes us evaluate an impression? (specifically to do with words)

Answer 21

There is a primacy effect that happens when describing peoples traits. Those traits said first have greater impact on impressions.

Valence is also a factor, where negative traits are more distinct than positive.

Question 22

What is a confirmation bias and what are the three ways in influences our perception of people?

Answer 22

Once people have an initial view of something or someone, they interpret, seek and create information that supports that view.

The three forms this takes is through

1. perseverance of beliefs
2. confirmatory hypothesis testing
3. self-fulfilling prophecy

Question 23

What study demonstrates the perseverance of beliefs bias?

Answer 23

Participants were asked to rate the performance of a child on a test. They were measured before they were given information about her socio-economic status and after. Results showed that participants judgment of her ability was to do with her SES, meaning giving people more information can make them more biased.

Question 24

What is confirmatory hypothesis testing and what study showed this?

Answer 24

We actively search for information to confirm out hypothesis.

Synder and Swan (1978) told participants they were interviewing an introvert or an extrovert. Depending on the condition, participants chose questions that may align with who they thought they were interviewing.

Question 25

What is the cycle of the self-fullfilling prophecy?

Answer 25

There is the perceivers expectations

which feeds into perceivers behaviour towards the target

which feeds into targets behaviour towards the perceiver

then back into the perceivers expectations

Question 26

What is the Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) study find about self-fulfilling prophecy?

Answer 26

Confederates informed a class of grade 1 and 2 students that they were “bloomers” with a greater IQ than the average. They came back 8 months later to see if anything had changed. All the students IQ levels had been heightened from the original measure.