person perception

Question 1

DEFINE SOCIAL COGNITION

Answer 1

Social cognition involves how we interpret, analyse, remember and use information to make judgments about others in different social situations

There are many aspects of social cognition:
How we form impressions of other people (person perception),
How we go about explaining the behaviour of other people (attributions)
How we form attitudes towards people, particularly attitudes and stereotypes that may lead to prejudice and discrimination

Question 2

person perception

Answer 2

refers to the mental processes we use to form impresions and draw conclusions about the personal characteristics of other poeple -> first impressions are based on looks and acts

person perception is based on: physical appearance, body language, eye contact, facial expressions and personal space.
- perceptions of otherpeople begin with visible cues. (as we cannot see people’s personality traits, mental state etc.)

Question 3

person perception -> impressions of physical appearance

Answer 3

• impressions of physical appearance is important characteristics of first appearance

THE HALO EFFECT: a cognitive bias in which the impression we form about one quality of a person influences our beliefs and expectations about the person in other qualities

e.g individuals who are physically attractive benefit from the halo

Question 4

person perception - impressions from non-verbal communication

Answer 4

-facial expressions
-eye gaze, eye contact
-posture
- gestures
-other bodily movements, inclduing personal space