Sub: Behavioral Psychology

Unit III
Person Perception: How we
see ourselves and others
Faculty: Ms. Almas Ghaffar
Date: 09-02- 2011
 Objectives

At the end of this unit learners will be able to:

1. Understand basic principles of social perception.
2. Understand the process of self and other
perception and sources of errors involved in
formulating such perceptions.
3. Discuss perceptual inaccuracy with reference to
prejudice.
4. Identify ways to approach self and others
positively.
 Definition of Terms

• Social psychology:
Is the scientific study of how people's
thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are
influenced by the actual, imagined, or
implied presence of others
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_psychology_%28psychology%
29
 Definition of Terms

• Sensation:
Is the stimulus-detection process by which our
sense organs respond to and translate
environmental stimuli into nerve impulses that
are sent to the brain

• Perception:
Making “sense” of what our senses tell us-is the
active process of organizing this input and giving
it meaning (Passer & Smith 2001).
 Definition of Terms

• Self Perception:
An awareness of the characteristics that
constitute one's self; self-knowledge.

• Self-perception theory (SPT):

Is an account of attitude change developed by
psychologist Daryl Bem. It asserts that people
develop their attitudes by observing their behavior
and concluding what attitudes must have caused
them. http://www.answers.com/topic/self-perception-theory
 Definition of Terms
• Person perception:
Forming of judgements about other people,
particularly in relation to their personality or
mood.

• Social Perception:
Process through which people seek to know
and understand others
• How we form impressions (of people)
• and make inferences (about people)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_psychology_%28psychology%29
Social Perception
• Social Perception

• Perception is imperfect
• Need to fill-in-the-blanks
Implicit Personality Theories
• Ways we fill in the missing pieces
• Nonverbal behavior
(Universal recognition of 6 emotional expressions of anger, happiness,
surprise, fear, disgust, sadness)

• Implicit Personality Theories

(Inferring feelings, traits, motives via “schemas” about types of people,
including cultural schemas)

• Halo Effect
(If we consider someone good (or bad), we are likely to make similar
evaluations with other aspects of the person)

• “What is beautiful is good”

(If we consider someone beautiful, we are likely to believe they have
other positive qualities)
Basic desire to avoid Want to control
mistakes outcomes in life

GOAL: Seeking accuracy

Accuracy Strategies:
Kelly’s co-variation model
Discounting principle
Augmenting principle
Attributional Processes
• Co-variation model -
people determine the cause of an actor’s behavior by
assessing

• Consensus - how other people behave toward same stimulus

• Distinctiveness – how the person responds to other stimuli

• Consistency – frequency of person-stimulus across time and

situations
Why does Jack want to marry Jill?
Consensus is Low
(Others aren’t
interested in
Jill)
Distinctiveness Internal
is Low Attribution
(Jack will marry (Jack is
anyone) Desperate)
Consistency is
High
(Jack’s proposed
every day this
Consensus is
High
(Everyone wants
to marry Jill)
Distinctiveness External
is High Attribution
(Jack wants only (Jill is
Jill) desirable)
Consistency is
High
(Jack’s proposed
every day this
Consensus is Low
(Others aren’t
interested in
Jill)
Distinctiveness Interaction
is High Attribution
(Jack wants only (Jack and Jill have
Jill) that special magic)
Consistency is
High
(Jack’s proposed
every day this
Attributional Logic:
• Discounting principle -
as the number of possible causes for an event
increases, our confidence that any particular cause is
the true one decreases
• Example: If a guy gives a girl flowers, what could be the
cause?

• Augmenting principle -
if an event occurs despite the presence of strong
opposing forces, we give more weight to factors that
lead towards the event
• Example: If a guy gives a girl flowers, we are more likely
to think he really likes her if he had to walk through a
rainstorm to get them.
Basic desire to avoid Want to control
mistakes outcomes in life

GOAL: Managing self-image

Self-image Strategies:
Self-serving
attributions
 References
• Passer.M.W & Smith. R.E., (2001). Psychology:
Frontier’s and Applications. McGraw Hill. Toronto