PSYCH 101 Lecture 23: Psych 101 - LE 23
Nahas
Psych 101
General Psychology
LE
Fall 2018
● How do People Think About Others
○ Physical Appearance Affects First Impressions
■ The first thing people tend to notice in other people is the face
● The face gives away mood, interest, competence, and
trustworthisness
● In western cultures, people value the ability to “look you in the
eye” as a sign of trustworthiness, whereas in other cultures, it can
be seen as a sign of disrespect
■ Non-verbal Behavior is the sum of facial expressions, movements, and
gestures, and is another way that people form impressions of others
○ People Make Attributions About Other People
■ Attributions are explanations for why certain events or outcomes occur
■ Attributional Dimensions
● Different attributions can exist for events (and even be a
combination)
○ Personal Attributions are attributions that have to do with
things within people (mood, character)
○ Situational Attributions are attributions made based on
situation and outside events
● Attributions can also be made based on stability and controllability
■ Attributional Bias
● When people make attributions about other people’s behavior, they
tend to overemphasize personal qualities and underemphasize
situational ones
○ This phenomena is known as fundamental attribution
error
● On the other hand, when they make attributions about themselves,
they underemphasize persona qualities
○ This effect is not as large, and is primarily applicable to
negative events
● Culturally, Eastern people tend to view situations more holistically
than Western people, but are still subject to the same bias
○ Stereotypes are based on Automatic Categorization
■ Stereotypes are a form of cognitive schema that allow for easy,
streamlined processing of information
● They help us speed up the processing time
● They help us deal with the limitations inherent in our processing
■ In turn, stereotypes shape our impressions and behaviors of and towards
others
■ Once stereotypes are formed, they are often strongly maintained
Document Summary
The first thing people tend to notice in other people is the face. The face gives away mood, interest, competence, and trustworthisness. In western cultures, people value the ability to look you in the eye as a sign of trustworthiness, whereas in other cultures, it can be seen as a sign of disrespect. Non-verbal behavior is the sum of facial expressions, movements, and gestures, and is another way that people form impressions of others. Attributions are explanations for why certain events or outcomes occur. Different attributions can exist for events (and even be a. Personal attributions are attributions that have to do with things within people (mood, character) Situational attributions are attributions made based on situation and outside events. Attributions can also be made based on stability and controllability. When people make attributions about other people"s behavior, they tend to overemphasize personal qualities and underemphasize situational ones. This phenomena is known as fundamental attribution error.
