Interpersonal Perception

• This chapter focuses on perception, interpersonal perception, and related concepts.

The Process of Perception

• Involves how we make sense of our social world, including defining interpersonal perception.
• Consists of three stages: Selection, organization, and interpretation.
• Influenced by Physiological states and traits, culture and co-culture, and social roles.
• Can also occur online.

Fundamental Forces in Interpersonal Perception

• Stereotyping relies on generalizations.
• First impressions are governed by the primacy effect.
• The recency effect influences impressions.
• Our perceptual set can limit what we perceive.
• Egocentrism narrows perspective.
• Positivity and negativity biases perception.

Explaining What We Perceive

• Attribution explains behavior, considering locus, stability, and controllability.
• Common attribution errors include self-serving bias, fundamental attribution error, and overattribution.

Improving Perceptual Abilities

• Requires mindfulness of perceptions.
• Necessitates knowing oneself
• Demands focus on others’ characteristics like gender and culture.
• One must consider the context.
• Checking perceptions involves separating interpretations from facts.
• Alternative perceptions need generation.
• Use perception-checking behaviors
• Perceptions should be revised as necessary.

Key Terms Defined

• Attribution: Explaining an observed behavior.
• Egocentric: Being unable to take another person’s perspective.
• Fundamental Attribution Error: The tendency to attribute others' behaviors to internal rather than external causes.
• Interpersonal Perception: Making meaning from people and relationships in our environment.
• Interpretation: Assigning meaning to selected and organized information.
• Negativity Bias: Focusing on negative attributes when forming a perception.
• Organization: Categorizing information selected for attention.
• Overattribution: Attributing a range of behaviors to a single characteristic of a person.
• Perception: Making meaning from environmental experiences.
• Perceptual Set: Predisposition to perceive only what we want or expect.
• Positivity Bias: Focusing on positive attributes when forming a perception.
• Primacy Effect: Emphasizing the first impression over later ones.
• Recency Effect: Emphasizing the most recent impression over earlier ones.
• Selection: Attending to a stimulus.
• Self-Serving Bias: Attributing successes to internal causes and failures to external causes.
• Stereotypes: Generalizations about groups applied to individual members.

Discussion Questions to Consider

• What inaccurate perceptions do people often have of you?
• How do hunger, fatigue, and illness affect perception-making abilities?
• Why is stereotyping distasteful?
• In what situations have your "eyes played tricks on you"?
• Why are people motivated to come up with attributions for behavior?
• Have you committed the error of overattribution?
• If perceptions are limited, how can we improve perception making?
• What is the difference between a fact and an interpretation?
• When forming online perceptions, what do we mean by “more information is sometimes better, but not always”?
• What does the appearance of your avatar say about you?

In-Class Exercises

• Exercise A: Illustrates fundamental attribution error.
• Exercise B: Explores the role of interpretation using a video clip.
• Exercise C: Uses priming to create a perceptual set.

Out-of-Class Exercises

• Exercise A: Requires analyzing stereotypes in advertising through print ads.
• Exercise B: Uses a physiology diary to track mood and energy levels.