Chapter 3

Understanding Perceptions and Attributions

 The Perceptual Process* (esp. Figure 3.1, p. 68)

 Perceptual Selection*
 Person Perception*
 Perceptual Errors*
 Attributions: Perceived Causes of Behavior*
 Exercise: Truth or Consequences?

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 Perception

 Definition: The process by which people select,

organize, interpret, and respond to information
from the world around them.
 Perception (consciously and unconsciously) involves
searching for, obtaining, and processing information in
the mind in an attempt to make sense of the world
 Selection and organization often account for
differences in interpretation/perception between
individuals observing the same stimuli

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 Basic Elements in the Perceptual Process*
(See Figure 3.1, page 68)

Observation
Environmental * Taste * Smell
Stimuli * Hearing * Sight
* Touch

Perceptual Selection Perceptual

* External factors
Organization
* Internal factors
* Perceptual grouping

Interpretation Response
* Perceptual errors * Covert
* Attributions * Overt

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 Concepts Manifest in the Princeton Case

 Selective Screening: the process by which people filter

out most information so they can deal with the most
important matters
 Perceptual Set: an expectation of a perception based on
past experience with the same or similar objects
 Pollyanna Principle: the notion that pleasant stimuli are
processed more efficiently and accurately than unpleasant
stimuli; an effect of motivation on perception
 Perceptual Grouping: tendency to form individual stimuli
into a meaningful pattern by continuity, closure, proximity,
or similarity

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 Person Perception

 Definition: the process by which individuals

attribute characteristics or traits to other people;
closely related to attribution
 Implicit personality theories: personal beliefs
about the relationships among other’s physical
characteristics, personality traits, and specific
behaviors
 Impression Management: the attempt people
make to manipulate or control the impressions
others form about them

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 Common Perceptual Errors

 Perceptual defense: the tendency for people to protect

themselves against ideas, objects, or situations that are threatening
 Stereotyping: the tendency to assign attributes to someone
solely on the basis of the category of people, of which that person
is a member
 Halo effect: the process by which the perceiver evaluates
another person solely on the basis of one attribute, either
favorable or unfavorable
 Projection: the tendency for people to see their own traits in
others
 Expectancy effects: extent to which expectations bias how
events, objects, and people are actually perceived
 Self-fulfilling prophecy: expecting certain things to happen will
shape the behavior of the perceiver in such a way that the expected
is more likely to happen

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 Nature of the Attribution Process*

 Definition: The ways in which people come to understand

the causes of their own and others’ behaviors
 Most often an unconscious process (i.e., people are not
normally aware of making attributions)
 People are constantly attributing the behavior of themselves
and others to either internal (i.e., personal) or external
(i.e., situational) causes.

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 The Attribution Process

Antecedents-- •Information
factors internal •Beliefs
to the perceiver •Motivation

•Perceived external
Attributions made by the perceiver or internal causes
of behavior

•Behavior
Consequences for the perceiver •Feelings
•Expectations

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 Theory of Causal Attributions

Consistency
s Does person usually Ye
Ye s
behave this way in
this situation?

External Attribution
(to person’s situation) Yes
Distinctiveness
Does person behave Internal Attribution
No
differently in different (to person’s disposition)
situations?

Consensus
Ye
s Do others behave No
similarly in this
situation?

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 Frequent Attribution Errors*

 Fundamental Attribution Error = overestimating the

personal causes for other’s behavior while underestimating
the situational causes
 Self-Serving Bias = attributing personal success to internal
factors and personal failure to external factors

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