Lecture Sessions on Impression Formation (Person Perception)

1. Lecture Sessions on Impression Formation (Person Perception)

2. 1. What are the sources of information in forming impressions of the characteristics, or personality, of other people? To begin with, there are direct sources and second-hand information.

3. 2. Early research in impression formation: The work of Solomon Asch. • e.g. The role of trait centrality (“warm-cold” dimension) • and the order of presentation of positive and negative information)

4. Asch: In one study, separate groups of participants listened to one of two descriptions of an individual in the form of trait-adjectives. They were then asked to form overall impressions of the person and to rate that person on a list of other trait adjectives. Study 1 Information: Intelligent, skillful, industrious, warm, determined, practical, cautious OR Intelligent, skillful, industrious, cold, determined, practical, cautious

5. Study 2 Information: Intelligent, industrious, impulsive, critical, stubborn, envious OR Envious, stubborn, critical, impulsive, industrious, intelligent

6. 3. Forming impressions based on direct information – the observation of the behavior of others.

7. First Pretend Videotape Man pacing back and forth in agitated manner.

8. First Pretend Videotape Man pacing back and forth in agitated manner. Please rate him on the following: feeling calm:__:__:__:__:__:__:__: feeling anxious

9. First Pretend Videotape Man pacing back and forth in agitated manner. Please rate him on the following: calm (person):__:__:__:__:__:__:__: anxious (person)

10. Second Pretend Video • Café Scene: Man is given too much change when he pays his bill, leaves and comes back in to return the money.

11. Café Scene: Man is given too much change when he pays his bill, leaves and comes back in to return the money. • Please rate him on the following: • dishonest:__:__:__:__:__:__:__: honest

12. Café Scene: Man is given too much change when he pays his bill, leaves and comes back in to return the money. • Please rate him on the following: • dishonest (behaviour):__:__:__:__:__:__:__: honest (behaviour)

13. First Pretend Videotape Man pacing back and forth in agitated manner. Please rate him on the following: feeling calm:__:__:__:__:__:__:__: feeling anxious calm (person):__:__:__:__:__:__:__: anxious (person)

14. This was a State Judgement feeling calm:__:__:__:__:__:__:__: feeling anxious This was a Trait Judgement calm (person):__:__:__:__:__:__:__: anxious (person)

15. Causal attributions regarding the behavior of others or our own behaviour. dispositional: the person behaved as she did for dispositional, internal reasons, because of her personality, attitudes, and other attributes. situational: the person behaved as she did because of situational factors, the nature of the situation (e.g., anxiety arousing), whom she was with and their expectations, etc.

16. The Tendency (in Western Cultures, at least), is to Interpret Behaviour as Being Due to Dispositional Reasons Rather Than Situational Reasons

17. The Fundamental Attribution Error is to Interpret Behaviour as Being Due to Dispositional Reasons Rather Than Situational Reasons When a Situational Interpretation of the Cause of the Behaviour is More Accurate

18. Café Scene: Man is given too much change when he pays his bill, leaves and comes back in to return the money. • Please rate him on the following: • dishonest:__:__:__:__:__:__:__: honest • dishonest (behaviour):__:__:__:__:__:__:__: honest (behaviour)

19. Attributing causality 19

20. Attributions and reactions Dispositional Attribution (The man is a hostile person) Unfavourable Reaction (I don’t like this man) Negative behaviour (A man is rude to his colleague) Situational Attribution (The man was given an unfair evaluation) Symptomatic Reaction (I can understand) 20

21. Impressions based on non-verbal behavior – the role of expectations and again, the fundamental attribution error.

22. Snyder (1976) Led to Believe that the Topic Of the Interview Is PoliticsSex

23. Snyder (1976) Led to Believe that the Topic Of the Interview Is PoliticsSex State anxiety rating* 8.5 11.1 * higher scores represent higher levels of state or trait anxiety

24. Snyder (1976) Led to Believe that the Topic Of the Interview Is PoliticsSex State anxiety rating* 8.5 11.1 Trait anxiety rating* 46.2 58.4 * higher scores represent higher levels of state or trait anxiety

25. Impression Formation Based on Indirect Sources of Information Stereotypes and stereotyping as an indirect source in impression formation.

26. Stereotypes and Stereotyping Stereotypes refer to the expectations we have about the attributes of a category of people-in-general. To stereotype is to incorporate your expectations about the attributes of a category of people-in-general into your judgements about a specific member of that category.

27. More on Stereotypes The question of consensus Your judgments of French-Canadian-in- general

28. More on Stereotypes and how is this consensus developed? and the role of the fundamental attribution error (again)

29. Evidence for stereotyping And the question of attending to “individuating information” about an individual, that is, to information which is counter to the stereotype.

30. Gardner and Taylor Research participants listened to one of three audio-tapes of a man being interviewed (randomly assigned). Interviews (in English) were scripted by the researchers such that in:

31. Tape 1: French-Canadian, information consistent with the stereotype. Tape 2: French-Canadian, information irrelevant to the stereotype. Tape 3: French-Canadian, information opposite to the stereotype.

32. After listening to one of the tapes, subjects made judgements of the person being interviewed on the same rating scale that you used to rate French-Canadians-in-general. Based on certain ratings, a stereotype score was calculated (this was the dependent variable).

33. Gardner and Taylor 7 ________________________ tape 1 6 5 Stereotype 4 ________________________ tape 2 score 3 2 1 ________________________ tape 3 ___________________________ Tape 1 Tape 2 Tape 3

34. Gardner and Taylor 7 ________________________ X X 6 5 Stereotype 4 ________________________ score X 3 2 1 _________________________ ___________________________ Tape 1 Tape 2 Tape 3

35. The question of the accuracy of components of a stereotype.

36. Native Canadians-in-general Poor: __: X :__:__:__:__:__: Wealthy

37. Native Canadians-in-general Poor: __: X :__:__:__:__:__: Wealthy Educated: __:__:__:__:__:_X_:__: Uneducated

38. Native Canadians-in-general Poor: __: X :__:__:__:__:__: Wealthy Educated: __:__:__:__:__:_X_:__: Uneducated Physically: __:__:__:__:__:_X_:__: Physically Clean Dirty

39. Ethnocentrism To make an ethnocentric judgement is to evaluate the beliefs, values and behaviour of another group of people using the beliefs, values and behaviour of your own group as the standard for that which is morally correct and essentially human.

40. We can also expand our impression of others by incorporating our expectations about how attributes go together in people-in-general into our judgements of a specific individual. We have these expectations in general We may use these expectations in forming an impression of a single individual

41. In addition, our impressions of others can be expanded through indirect processes of assumed similarity halo effect

42. Kenny & DePaulo (1993) Do People Know How Others View Them?

43. Kenny & DePaulo (1993) Do People Know How Others View Them? 1.People tend to think that they make a similar impression on others (e.g., they think that others generally view them as good-natured or smart or that others like them about the same).

44. Kenny & DePaulo (1993) • Do People Know How Others View Them? • In terms of accuracy in the way that we think that others view us, generalized accuracy is fairly high, that is, our perceptions of how others in general view us is fairly high. • So that your belief that others in general see you as good-natured and smart is likely to be right.

45. Kenny & DePaulo (1993) Do People Know How Others View Them? 3. On the other hand, because people’s beliefs about how others see them tend to be undifferentiated, people seem to have less insight into how they are uniquely viewed by others.

46. Kenny & DePaulo (1993) Do People Know How Others View Them? 4. These distinctions are greater for trait judgements than for liking judgements.

47. Savitsky and others (2001) Do others judge us as harshly as we think? Suggest that others are less likely to form a negative view of us after witnessing our blunder than we would expect.

48. Our own expectations are based on the assumption of a strong correspondence inference made by others – that our behaviour corresponds to our inner disposition.

49. But your blunders do not take place in a vacuum, and include the observer’s other interactions with you, before and after, and a host of unrelated distracting factors at the time of the event.

50. In Study 1, participants were presented with three scenarios (e.g., you or someone else arrives at a party to discover that he/she is the only one to not bring a gift for the host). In study 2, participants attempted to solve very difficulty anagrams with their “poor” results announced to the other person in the session.