z Week 6 readings; Chapter 3 (p. 61-73) AND Chapter 7 (p. 182-186) Impression Formation z The Process of Perception Perception is the process of making meaning from what we experience in the world around us. I.E. what is going on here? z The Process of Perception Unconscious because we don’t notice we are doing what we are paying attention to, how we organize it, how that impacts our perception. Selection: what we choose to pay attention to Organization: how we classify the stimulus Example: Structures we use to categorize information around us to help us make it through the day. Interpretation: what meaning we assign to the stimulus z The Process of Perception: Several factors affect selection How unusual or unexpected the stimulus is Unusual to hear a skateboard in a building, etc. Something odd might become normal and you stop noticing it Frequency of exposure to the stimulus The train track noise near your house fades into the background and you stop noticing it because you’re used to it The building you live in is under construction so you expect the sounds but they’re loud so they still startle you Intensity of the stimulus Sudden yelling at 3 a.m.; Beeping in silent apartment from unknown source - carbon monoxide detector’s dead batteries that seem loud z The Process of Perception: Several factors affect organization Physical constructs Role constructs Age brackets such as grandma’s role versus a professor You communicate differently with your professors because of their role Interaction constructs Make assumptions about people based on how they present themselves or how they look *these 4 here lead to interpretation* Their behavior makes you think they’re class clown or a helper, etc Psychological constructs Thoughts/feelings: assume the person crying is an emotional person How people make you feel z The Process of Perception: Several factors affect interpretation Experience with the other person If you know someone well, it’s easy to assign meaning to their behavior because you have had been getting to know them (leads 2 knowledge) Knowledge of them Helps you interpret their actions Example: Interpret someone being nice to only you and none of your other co-workers that is a lot different than if they are just simply a person that’s nice to everyone at work z The Process of Perception: Several factors affect interpretation (continued) Closeness of relationship with them Unexpected behavior: feel it’s sincere if it’s your best friend Classmate brings you coffee: you wonder if ulterior motives are there because it’s harder to interpret what they’re doing and why. THE PROCESS of select/organiz/interpret: is not always linear How we interpret a behavior depends on what we notice about it, for example, but what we notice depends on the way we interpret it Not 1 then 2 then 3…Lots of overlapping happening simultaneously & connected in dif ways (within different contexts and situations). z Accuracy of perceptions is influenced by… Physiological states and traits: States: transient and temporary such as hungry, tired, stressed about upcoming test Traits: longer-term and ongoing states of mind. For example: Worse hearing affects what you pay attention to If you’re a morning person, night sounds make you paranoid, skeptical of your surroundings, or lead you to interpret these noises in a sinister way z Accuracy of perceptions is influenced by… Cultures and co-cultures: Culture influences perception. For example, kids see their parents as outdated, and parents see them as unsophisticated Co-culture: depending on your economic class standing… For example, you might feel that wealthy people are constantly taking advantage and that would lead you to be untrusting of a company that claims they will be giving back to communities Political groups perceive behaviors of the ”other” differently z Accuracy of perceptions is influenced by…(continued) Social roles: Behaviors we expect people to engage in during certain situations. For example, if you cry at a funeral, that’s expected. Or if someone is blasting music from their laptop during class you would be irritated because they are breaking that social norm of being quiet during class time. z Stereotyping: A 3-part process Can lead to negative stereotyping of groups of people. It can be problematic and lead to misperceptions, but also… stereotyping is a way in which we categorize our world. We are constantly making sense of our surroundings that are constantly changing. Identify a group we believe someone belongs to Students, teachers, or staff: as we are looking around on campus, we want to be safe so we expect certain types of people to be here z Stereotyping: A 3-part process Recalling a generalization about people in that group If you are lost on campus, you would probably ask someone who is older or dressing professionally because you identify their profession as a faculty member and recall the generalization that faculty have been here a while. It’s safe to say they probably know their way around. Apply the generalization to that person z Stereotyping We have to streamline how we make sense of all the given messages we are seeing in a given moment so that we aren’t completely overwhelmed by tons of things happening around us. As know groups better, our knowledge accurately reflects them ~Marilyn Monroe: identify her as a blonde ~Recall a group generalization: that blonde’s have more fun ~Finally, you apply that generalization to that person and therefore, you, Marilyn, must have more fun that the average joe z Perceptual set A predisposition to perceive only what we want or expect to perceive We find what we are looking for because we are looking for stereotypes based on our predispositions. When this happens we are not receiving other kinds of information that would help us change that perception/stereotype. Perceptual sets are difficult because they can impact our perspective and they narrow what we pay attention to (selection) z Perceptual set Shapes the way we interpret social situations Maybe you think older women are bossy because mom and grandma have always told you what to do, then when you meet an older woman that behaves in a similar way, you interpret them as a bossy mom or grandma z Explaining what we perceive Attribution Theory Attributions are the explanations we give for our own and other people’s behaviors Someone does something and in response we try to create a set of attributions to why they did that Example: Why do people act or think a certain way? z Attributions vary according to their: Locus, Stability, Controllability Locus (where the cause of behavior is located) Internal loci: They do things because of personality/characteristic. They do things because they are smart or they are leaders. External: Something outside of them caused their behavior. z Attributions vary according to their: Stability Is the cause of behavior stable/unstable. Is it permanent, semipermanent or is it something that’s not easily changed like a strong cultural characteristic or personal dynamic. (stubborn) A know-it-all is a stable trait because it’s hard to change. Unstable attribution: someone who’s normally nice snaps once z Attributions vary according to their: Controllability How controllable the cause of the behavior is. You make a controllable attribution for someone when you believe they made a decision to do something because it was in their control Uncontrollable: out of their control, acted on by an outside force. When we see someone do something, we decide our interpretation so it isn’t always one or the other/black and white. z Attribution Thought Exercise Situation: someone who sits next to you in class is rude Did they have a fight with their significant other, do they have a headache? Are they always a jerk or is this a different kind of behavior for them? Why is this person doing what they’re doing? Someone cuts you off in traffic because they’re going to miss their exit, maybe they’re having a baby, didn’t see you, or late. Insightful to think of multiples reasons, don’t settle on first one. z Attribution Thought Exercise You do poorly on a test and a classmate didn’t—why? You didn’t prepare enough in terms of layering your math skills step-by-step? The teacher is teaching too advanced of material. Maybe they’re better at math, super smart or cheated. Or they’ve already taken the class before. z One: Explaining what you perceive One way we attribute our perceptions: Self-serving Bias Our tendency to attribute our success to stable, internal causes while attributing our failures to unstable, external causes. Our success are deserved; our failures are not our fault. This statement is not always true^^ but sometimes we happen to think that way because we often attribute our success to hard work and not luck. This is not always the case because not everything in life is black and white. z Two: Explaining what you perceive The opposite of self-serving bias: Fundamental Attribution Error We attribute other people's behaviors to internal causes, not external behaviors. If someone else fails a test, we think they didn't study enough and assume the failure is more of a character flaw than an outside force. We make arguments in favor of our own work, and we denigrate other people in terms of failure. z Three: Explaining what you perceive The influence of the accuracy of our attributions Overattribution We can identify a prominent characteristic of a person and we attribute most of what that person says or does to that 1 characteristic. Often this happens because of nonflexible stereotypes. We meet a woman who is bossy which leads you decide all women are bossy instead of seeing women as more nuanced individuals.
