person perception Flashcards
what is person perception?
Person perception is a process by
through which we gauge others’
temporary states - such as their
emotions, intentions, and desires -
and enduring dispositions - such as
their beliefs, traits, and abilities
what is impression formation?
Impression formation is the process
by which observers integrate various
sources of information about others’
self-presentation into a
judgment
name models on how we form judgement on people
asch 1945 - configural model
anderson 1981 - cognitive algebra?
what is the configural model (asch, 1945)
- When forming impressions of others, some traits of the person
influence us more than others - These ‘central traits’ are important, whereas ‘peripheral traits’ are less so
- asch wanted to test the theory that some traits stand out more than others
- he trained someone to come in and do a talk in a class
- asch described him in positive words: Intelligent, Skillful, Industrious, Warm, Determined, Practical, Cautious
- while in another class did the same but switched him being warm with cold
results: warm - people describe him positively, cold - more negative = this shows that the central traits change people’s view
what are the critisisms of asch’s 1946’s configural model?
- how do you know what trait is central?
- the order that you find the central trait out can influence the impression
explain how we positively vs negatively judge people
positively
- give people the benefit of the doubt
- we tend to assume the best of people
- we evaluate people more positively than groups
negatively
- if we hear negative information it gives a very strong influence of our impression = these are much harder to change
what is cognitive algebra? (anderson 1981)
- A model for understanding how we arrive at an
overall evaluation of a person - Assumes we have a mental rating scale we use
when judging others
how does physical appearance affect how we judge others?
people tend to think more positively about people that are seen as attractive
what is personal constructs? kelly (1955)
Kelly (1955) suggested we each
develop unique ways of judging people,
based on our preferences – e.g. I value
intelligence more, and thus judge
people I see to be intelligent more
positively than you, who values humour
give an example of how the halo effect has effected everyday life
anonymous marking
- Landy & Sigall (1974) – provided participants with good
and bad essays. Participants saw essays with an attractive,
unattractive, or no photograph of ‘author’
- results: attractive people were much more likely to get better grades
what is the theory behind people putting positive traits with more attractive people, vice versa
the halo effect - dion, berscheid and walster (1972)
explain the reverse halo effect (dermer and thiel 1975)
- Dermer & Thiel (1975) had low, average and high attractiveness
people rate low, average, and high attractive women - results: people who were seen as less attractive would rate medium to attractive people with worse qualities
are our perceptions on attractiveness accurate (feingold,1992)
- Meta-analysis of over 40 studies on ‘halo effect’, n >
1600 - Strong evidence for halo effect… but very weak
evidence for associations between attractiveness and
traits! - Good looking people are not more intelligent, have
more friends, more self absorbed, or more sociable or
dominant
are our perceptions accurate? (naumann et al 2009)
Naumann et al (2009) demonstrated we can detect personality from appearance!
* Compared accuracy under ‘controlled’ and ‘natural’ poses
* Showed we are generally rational and accurate in person perception, but ‘natural’ poses revealed more information
