Transcript CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 2
SOCIAL PERCEPTION
UNDERSTANDING OTHERS
Chapter objectives
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After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
Describe the major purpose and functions of social perception.
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Define what is meant by nonverbal communication and how it is related to the concepts and terms "irrepressible," "deception," and "emotional contagion."
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Describe the six (or perhaps seven) basic emotions expressed in unique facial expressions. Does this mean we are limited to only a small number of facial
expressions?
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Describe how body language, including gestures, posture, and movements can communicate emotion, including such examples as ballet and various
emblems.
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Identify and describe the five key nonverbal cues that may allow us to recognize deception.
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Compare and contrast the key elements of Jones and Davis' theory of correspondent inference with Kelley's theory of attribution.
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Explain the difference between internal and external causes and controllable versus uncontrollable factors.
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Contrast the discounting and augmenting principles.
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Describe and contrast the major attributional errors: the correspondence bias, the actor-observer effect, and the self-serving bias. Consider cultural
differences with respect to these biases .
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Discuss how attribution theory has been applied to the study of depression and prejudice .
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Discuss how Asch's research on central and peripheral traits support his view that forming impressions involves more than simply adding together
individual traits.
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Contrast older models of how we combine diverse information about others into unified impressions of them with more contemporary perspectives.
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Describe the role played by exemplars and abstractions when we make judgments about others.
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List self-enhancement tactics and other-enhancement tactics used in impression management, and describe research results on whether these tactics
"pay off" for persons using them.
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Provide evidence to support the idea that we are quite accurate in social perception.
SOCIAL PERCEPTION
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1.
2.
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The process through which we seek to know
and understand other people.
We will focus on four aspects of social
perception which are:
Nonverbal communication
Attribution
Impression formation and impression
management.
How accurate social perception really is?
NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION: THE
LANGUAGE OF EXPRESSIONS, GAZES
AND GESTURES
• Nonverbal Communication: Communication
between individuals that does not involve the
content of spoken language. It relies instead on
an unspoken language of facial expressions,
eye contact, and body language.
• Nonverbal cues are provided by changes in
facial expressions, eye contact, posture, body
movements and other expressive actions.
Nonverbal Communication: The Basic
Channels
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i)
ii)
iii)
iv)
v)
Research findings Research findings
indicate that information about our inner
states is often revealed through five
basic channels:
Facial expressions
Eye contact
Body movements
Posture
touching
FACIAL EXPRESSIONS AS CLUES TO
OTHERS EMOTIONS
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Roman orator Cicero stated “The face is the
image of the soul”
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It appears that there are 6 basic emotions are
represented clearly and from an early age on
the human face (Izard (1991) Rozin, lowery &
Ebert (1994)
i) Anger
ii) Fear
iii) Happiness
iv) Sadness
v) surprise
ARE FACIAL EXPRESSIONS
UNIVERSAL?
• Early research seemed to suggest that facial
expressions are universal. Ekman & Friesen(1975)
• The results of more recent studies (Russell, 1994,
Carroll & Russell 1996) indicate that while facial
expression may indeed reveal much about others
emotions, our judgments in this respect are also
affected by by the context in which the facial
expressions occur and various situational cues.
• Overall while facial expressions are not totally
universal around the world, cultural and contextual
differences do exist with respect to their precise
meaning.
GAZES STARES: EYE CONTACT AS
ANONVERBAL CUE
• Ancients poets often described the eyes as
“windows of the soul”
• We do learn a lot about others feelings from their
eyes.
• High levels of gazing from others is interpreted
as asign of liking or friendliness(Kleinke 1986)
• A stare however is a form of eye contact in
which a person continues to gaze steadily at
another regaredless of what the recipient does,
it is often interpreted as a sign of angeror
hostility.
BODY LANGUAGE GESTURES
POSTURES AND MOVEMENTS
• Body language often reveals others emotional
states.
• Large numbers of movements (touching,
rubbing, Scratching) suggest emotional arousal.
• Gestures often provide specific information
about others feelings.
• Gestures fall into several categories, the most
important being emblems.
• Emblems are body movements carrying a
specific meaning in a given culture
TOUCHING
• Depending on various factors touch can suggest
affection, sexual interest, dominance, caring, or
even aggression.
• When considered appropriate it often produces
positive reactionsin the person being touched.
• Research findings indicate that handshaking
provides useful nonverbal cues about others’
personality and can influence first impressions of
strangers.
ATTRIBUTION: UNDERSTANDING THE
CAUSES OF OTHERS BEHAVIOUR
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Attribution is the process through which we
seek to identify the causes of others behaviour
and so gain knowledge of their stable traits and
disposition.
• Many theories of attribution have been
proposed but we will look at two:
1. The theory of Correspondence inference: This
theory describes how we use others behaviour
as a basis of their stable dispositions.
2. Kelley’s theory of causal attribution: How we
answer the question “why?”
The Theory of Correspondence
Inference
• In order to infer stable dispositions from
people’s behaviour we need to look at the
following according to Jones and Davis’s
theory:
Behaviour
is
freely chosen
Behaviour yields
distinctive
noncommon effects
Conclude behaviour reflects
stable traits
Behaviour is low
in social
desirability
Kelley’s theory of causal
attribution:
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Many times we want to know why people have acted in
a certain way or why events have turned out in a
specific way.
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To help us answer the why question Kelley proposed a
theory based on three sources of information:
i) Consensus:The extent to which other people react to
some stimulus or event in the same way as the person
we are considering.
ii) Consistency: a)
The extent to which an individual
responds to a given stimulus or situation in the same
way on different occasions.(i.e across time)
iii) Distinctiveness: a)
The extent to which an
individual in the same manner to different stimuli or
events.
An example of Kelley’s Theory of
Causal Attribution
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An example of a server who flirts with a customer
Many other servers
also flirts with
Customer
(Consensus high)
Server flirts
With
customer
This server also flirts
With this customer at
Other times
(Consistency is high)
This server does not flirt
with other customers
(distinctiveness is high)
This server’s
behaviour is
Attributed to
External causes
e.g. the
customer’s
attractiveness
An example of Kelley’s Theory of
Causal Attribution
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An example of a server who flirts with a customer
No other servers
flirt with
Customer
(Consensus low )
Server flirts
With
customer
This server
also flirts with the
Customer at other times
(Consistency is high)
This server also flirts
with other customers
(distinctiveness is low)
This server’s
behaviour is
Attributed to
internal causes
e.g. the
customer’s
attractiveness
Attribution: Some Basic Sources of
Error
• The Correspondence Bias: Overestimating the role of dispositional
causes.
• Jones (1979)labeled the correspondence bias – the tendency to
explain others actions as stemming from (or corresponding to)
dispositions even in the presence of clear situational causes.
• This bias seems so general in scope that many social psychologist
refer to it as the fundamental attribution error.
• The reasons for this error are varied but one is