Module 3: Chapter 3 (Perception & Attribution)

Question 1

Define Perception and state its three componets

Answer 1

the process of interpreting the messages of our senses to provide order and meaning to the environment
→ There are accurate perceptions of reality and inaccurate representations of reality
Ex. inaccurate representations - person hates me, but they actually like me

1. Perciever (you) - past experiences in your life leads you to see things in certain ways
2. A target being perceived - who you’re analyzing and who’s behaviour you’re trying to interpret
3. situational context - where in which the perception is occurring

Question 2

Define Social Identity Theory

Answer 2

a theory states that people form perceptions of themselves based on their personal characteristics and memberships in social categories

• Our personal identity is based on our interests, abilities, and traits
• We form perceptions of others based on their memberships in social categories
  → Ex. Teacher in class are perceived as professors to students but to the neighbour next door they perceive them as a baby boomer

Question 3

What are the four biases in Perception

Answer 3

1. Primacy and Recency Effects
2. Reliance on Central Traits
3. Implicit Personality Theories
4. Projection
5. Steotyping

Question 4

Biases: define Primacy Effect and Recency Effects

Hint: cues

Answer 4

• Primacy effect: the tendency for a perceiver to rely on early cues or first perceptions
  → Cues that we rely on early in the relationship
• Recency effect: the tendency for a perceiver to rely on recent cues or last impressions
  → Last impressions count the most
  People don’t give weight of recent cues

Question 5

personal characteristics of a target person that are of particular interest to a perceiver

Answer 5

[Biases] Central traits
→ Ex. People who are more attractive earn more money, better chance of being hired, promoted, receives good evaluations because people have an interest in that central trait of beauty

Question 6

personal theories that people have about which personality characteristics go together

Answer 6

[Bias] Implicit Personality Theories

→ Ex. Expect hard-working people to be honest, people with average intelligence to be friendly

Question 7

the tendency for perceivers to attribute their own thoughts and feelings to others

Answer 7

[Bias] Projection
→ Ex. An capitalistic business person assuming other business people favour the free enterprise system

Question 8

the tendency to generalize people in a certain social category and ignore variations among them

Answer 8

[Bias] Stereotyping
→ We assume that the individuals in this category have certain traits

Question 9

Define Attribution then explain Dispositional attributions and Situational attributions

Answer 9

Attribution: causes or motives explain people’s behaviour
→ Aspect of impression formation — how we perceive people’s motives

• Dispositional attributions: explanations for behaviour based on one’s personality
  → Explain behaviour by a function of friendliness, or laziness
• Situational attributions: explanations for behaviour based on one’s external situation or environment
  → Explain behaviour by a function of bad weather

Question 10

Define Consistency Cues, Consensus Cues, and Distinctiveness Cues

Answer 10

• Consistency Cues: reflect how consistently a person engages in behaviour over time
  → Behaviour that a person performs regularly is an indicative of their true motives
• Consensus Cues: reflect how a person’s behaviour compares with that of others
  → Acts that differ form social expectations provides us with information about actor’s motives
• Distinctiveness Cues: reflect the extent to which a person engages in some behaviour across a variety of situations
  → Ex. A prof who has good office hours, stays after class to talk with students, attends student functions… can be truly seen as student-orientated

Question 11

Bias error: Define Fundamental Attribution Error, Actors-Observer Effect, and Self-Serving Bias

Answer 11

• Fundamental Attribution Error: the tendency to believe that what people do reflects who they are
  → Many people who we observe are seen in rather constraint situations (work or school) that reduce our appreciation of how their behaviour might vary in other situations
• Actors-Observer Effect: the tendency to attribute the behaviour of others to internal causes while attributing our own behaviour to external causes
• Self-Serving Bias: the tendency to take credit for successful outcomes and deny responsibility for failures
  → If the behaviour has negative consequences the actor might scan the environment and find situational factors causes for the failure

Question 12

Rate Errors: Define the Halo effect

Answer 12

• When you notice one aspect about a person then assumes all these traits associated with that trait
  → Ex. Good looking people are nicer, a hard-worker, smart
  → Ex. Person has bad shoes, therefore the person is unclean, messy, unorganized