Social Perception Flashcards
Social perception
The study of how we form impressions of and make inferences about other people
Nonverbal 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 gaze.
What do non-verbal cues help us to do?
express emotions, our attitudes, and our personality.
Encode
To express or emit nonverbal behavior, such as smiling ot patting someone on the back
Decode
To interpret the meaning of the non-verbal behavior other people express, such as deciding that a pat on the back was an expression of condescension and not kindness.
Was charles darwin right about facial expressions of emotion being universal?
answer seems to be yes for at least six major emotional expressions including, anger, sadness, happiness, surprise, fear and disgust.
Why is pride a particularly interesting emotional display?
because it involves a facial expression as well as body posture and gesture cues.
Affect blends
Facial expressions in which one part of the face registers one emotion while another part of the face registers another emotion.
Display rules
Culturally determined rules about which no-verbal behaviors are appropriate to display.
Emblems
Non-verbal gestures that have well-understood definitions within a given culture; they usually have direct verbal translations, such as the OK sign.
How long does it take to form initial impressions of others?
we form impressions of others based solely on their facial appearance in less than 100 milliseconds.
Thin-slicing
Drawing meaningful conclusions about another person’s personality or skills based on an extremely brief sample of behavior
Primary Effect
When it comes to forming impressions, the first traits we perceive in others influence how we view information that we learn about them later.
Belief perseverance
The tendancy to stick with an initial judgment even in the face of new information that should prompt us to reconsider.
Attribution Theory
A description of the way in which people explain the causes of their own and other peoples behavior
Internal attribution
The inference that a person is behaving in a certain way because of something about the person, such as attitude, character, or personality.
External attribution
The inference that someone is behaving a certain way because of something about the situation he or she is in; the assumption is that most people would respond the same way in that situation.
Covariation model
A theory that states that to for an attribution about what caused a persons behavior, we systematically note the pattern between the presence or absence of possible causal factors and whether the behavior occurs.
Consensus information
Information about the extent to which other people behave to the same way toward the same stimulus as the actor does.
Distinctivness information
Information about the extent to which one particular actor behaves in the same way to different stimuli
Consistency information
Information about the extent to which the behavior between one actor and one stimulus is the same across time and circumstances.
Fundamental attribution error
The tendancy to overestimate the extent to which other peoples behavior is due to internal, dispositional factors and to underestimate the role of situational factors.
Perceptual salience
The seeming importance of information that is the focus of peoples attention
Two step attribution process
analyzing another persons behavior first by making an automatic internal attribution and only then thinking about possible situational reasons for the behavior, after which one may adjust the original internal attribution.
