1

Social perception and attribution

Lecture-6

Perception
The process of interpreting ones environment Social perception involves observing and interpreting information about others to be able to understand them and prepare our responses to them.

Perception: An Information Processing Model

Stage 1
Selective Attention/Comprehension A

Stage 2
Encoding and Simplification

Stage 3
Storage and Retention

Competing environmental stimuli People Events Objects

B C D E F

Interpretation and categorization

A C F

Memory

Judgments and decisions

Stereotypes
Stereotype is an individuals set of beliefs about the characteristics of a group of people What are some commonly held stereotypes?

Stereotyping: A Mental Shortcut

1) Begins by categorizing people into groups 2) Infer that all people in a category possess similar traits or characteristics 3) Form expectations of others and interpret their behavior according to stereotypes 4) Stereotypes are maintained by Overestimating the frequency of stereotypic behaviors exhibited by others Incorrectly explaining expected and unexpected behaviors Differentiating minority individuals from oneself

Characteristics of Stereotypes
Their nature is not always negative Based on generalizations (often inaccurate) Older workers are more accident prone Disabled workers cost a lot of money to accommodate Women are more emotional Can lead to poor decisions and discrimination

Female Stereotypes
Emotional Affectionate Talkative Patient Creative Easygoing Intelligent Ambitious Courageous Aggressive 90% 86% 78% 72% 65% 38% 36% 33% 27% 20%

10

Male Stereotypes
Aggressive 68%

Courageous
Easygoing Ambitious Intelligent

50%
45% 44% 21%

Patient
Creative Talkative

19%
15% 10%

Affectionate
Emotional

5%
3%

11

Perceptual Errors
Perceptual Error Halo Description
A rater forms an overall impression about an object and then uses that impression to bias ratings about the object A personal characteristic that leads an individual to consistently evaluate other people or objects in an extremely positive fashion The tendency to avoid all extreme judgments and rate people and objects as average or neutral The tendency to remember recent information. If the information is negative, the person or object is evaluated negatively The tendency to evaluate people or objects by comparing them with characteristics of recently observed people or objects

Leniency

Central tendency

Recency effects Contrast effects

12

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Pygmalion Effect Someones high expectations for another person result in high performance Galatea Effect An individuals high selfexpectations lead to high performance Golem Effect Loss in performance due to low leader expectations

13

A Model of the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Supervisor expectancy

Performance
6 4

Leadership

Motivation

Subordinate selfexpectancy

14

CAUSAL ATRIBUTION

Suspected causes of behavior Kelleys Model of attribution : * Internal factors, personal characteristics that cause behavior * External factors, environmental characteristics that cause behavior

15

3 Dimensions of Kelleys model

CONSENSUS :Involves

the comparison of an individuals behavior with that of his or her peers determined by comparing a persons behavior on one task with his or her behavior on other tasks. determined by judging if the individuals performance on a given task is consistent over time.

DISTINCTIVENESS : is

CONSISTENCY : is

16

Causes of Behavior
Internal factors Personal characteristics that cause behavior (e.g., ability, effort) External factors Environmental characteristics that cause behavior (e.g., task difficulty, good/bad luck)