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Chapter 5Understanding Perceptions and Attributions

The Perceptual Process* (esp. Figure 3.1, p. 68)

Perceptual Selection* Person Perception* Perceptual Errors* Attributions: Perceived Causes of Behavior* Exercise: Truth or Consequences?

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Perception

Definition: The process by which people select, organize, interpret, and respond to information from the world around them. Perception (consciously and unconsciously) involves

searching for, obtaining, and processing information in the mind in an attempt to make sense of the world

Selection and organization often account for differences in interpretation/perception between individuals observing the same stimuli

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Basic Elements in the Perceptual Process* (See Figure 3.1, page 68)

Environmental Stimuli

Observation* Taste * Smell* Hearing * Sight* Touch

Perceptual Selection* External factors* Internal factors

Interpretation* Perceptual errors* Attributions

Response* Covert* Overt

Perceptual Organization * Perceptual grouping

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Concepts Manifest in the Princeton Case

Selective Screening: the process by which people filter out most information so they can deal with the most important matters

Perceptual Set: an expectation of a perception based on past experience with the same or similar objects

Pollyanna Principle: the notion that pleasant stimuli are processed more efficiently and accurately than unpleasant stimuli; an effect of motivation on perception

Perceptual Grouping: tendency to form individual stimuli into a meaningful pattern by continuity, closure, proximity, or similarity

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Person Perception

Definition: the process by which individuals attribute characteristics or traits to other people; closely related to attribution

Implicit personality theories: personal beliefs about the relationships among other’s physical characteristics, personality traits, and specific behaviors

Impression Management: the attempt people make to manipulate or control the impressions others form about them

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Common Perceptual Errors

Perceptual defense: the tendency for people to protect themselves against ideas, objects, or situations that are threatening

Stereotyping: the tendency to assign attributes to someone solely on the basis of the category of people, of which that person is a member

Halo effect: the process by which the perceiver evaluates another person solely on the basis of one attribute, either favorable or unfavorable

Projection: the tendency for people to see their own traits in others

Expectancy effects: extent to which expectations bias how events, objects, and people are actually perceived Self-fulfilling prophecy: expecting certain things to happen will

shape the behavior of the perceiver in such a way that the expected is more likely to happen

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Nature of the Attribution Process*

Definition: The ways in which people come to understand the causes of their own and others’ behaviors

Most often an unconscious process (i.e., people are not normally aware of making attributions)

People are constantly attributing the behavior of themselves and others to either internal (i.e., personal) or external (i.e., situational) causes.

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The Attribution Process

Antecedents--factors internalto the perceiver

Attributions made by the perceiver

Consequences for the perceiver

•Information•Beliefs•Motivation

•Perceived external or internal causes of behavior

•Behavior•Feelings•Expectations

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Theory of Causal Attributions

ConsistencyDoes person usuallybehave this way in

this situation?

DistinctivenessDoes person behave

differently in differentsituations?

ConsensusDo others behavesimilarly in this

situation?

No

No

Yes

Internal Attribution(to person’s disposition)Yes

Yes

Yes

External Attribution(to person’s situation)

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Frequent Attribution Errors*

Fundamental Attribution Error = overestimating the personal causes for other’s behavior while underestimating the situational causes

Self-Serving Bias = attributing personal success to internal factors and personal failure to external factors