Psych 360 Social Psychology PDF

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Person Perception ● Process by which we come to know about other people’s temporary states and enduring dispositions ○ Two Parts ■ Impression Formation ■ Attribution Impression Formation ○ Rapid assessment of salient characteristics into an overall judgment ○ How do people integrate the various traits they infer about a given person to form a coherent impression? ■ Integrating traits into a coherent impression ● Summation Model ○ Valences are added up ● Averaging Model ○ Valences are averaged ● Anderson (1968) ○ Support for averaging model ■ Information Integration Theory ● Personal characteristics of the perceiver ● Weighted average of target’s traits ○ Valence + importance ○ Trait negativity bias Gestalt Psychology

● Each trait is influenced by its context Solomon Asch (1946) ● Central traits ○ Some traits are more important than others Harold Kelley (1950) ● Guest Lecturer ● IV: Trait descriptor used (warm or cold) ● DV: Student favorability ● Result: “warm” produced more favorability

Early Information Colors Perception of later Information ● Remember Harold Kelley ● Primacy Effect ○ Jones et al. (1968) ■ Test of intellectual ability ■ IV: Order of right / wrong questions ■ DV: Intelligence rating ■ Result: Ratings were higher when correct answers came mainly from first half (earlier information) ● Contradictory traits? ○ Intelligent and foolish, outgoing and shy ○ Not mere averaging to arrive at median ○ May construct multidimensional model

■ He is X when Y ■ He is intelligent in academics, but foolish with money ■ She is outgoing at parties, but shy with professors Attributions ● Causal attribution ○ An assumption about why a person acted the way he or she did ● Two major kinds of attributions: dispositional and situational ○ Dispositional attributions: Something about the way the person himself made him act that way ○ Situational attributions: Something about the situation made the person act that way ● People make attribution errors ● Fundamental attribution error (Correspondence Bias) ○ The tendency to underestimate the contribution of situational factors and to overestimate the contribution of personal factors in explaining another person’s behavior ○ Ned Jones and Victor Harris (1967) ■ Speeches from debate team members ■ IV 1: Speech was pro or anti Castro ■ IV 2: Debater’s position was chosen or assigned ■ DV: Estimate of debater’s actual support for Castro ● Pro: Choice (59) & No choice (40) ● Anti: Choice (22) & No choice (24)

○ Ross, Amabile, and Steinmetz, 1977 ■ “Alex trebek effect” ■ Simulated quiz game ■ IV: Assigned to be contestant or questioner ■ DV: Ratings of general knowledge of the participants ● By observers as well as by participants themselves ■ Results: Contestants and observers rated the questioner higher than contestant ● We make situational attributions for ourselves much more readily than we do for others ● Actor-observer difference ○ The tendency to attribute others’ behavior mainly to dispositional factors but one’s own behavior mainly to situational factors ● Reasons for actor-observer difference ○ Perceptual salience (figure vs background) ○ Availability of information ● Reasons for fundamental attribution error ○ Perceptual salience ○ Non-obvious or subtle situational influences ○ Motivational ○ Automaticity...