Exam 4: Interpersonal Perception

During your first session of this class, your instructor introduced him or herself and you probably respected his or her position as an authoritative figure in the classroom. Which of the following classification schema likely helped you organize that information?

Egocentrism is a normal stage of human development.

Perceptual ability is influenced by social and occupational roles.

Most people probably wouldn't admit that they stereotype others, but research shows that stereotyping is a fairly common pattern of perception-making. As you have learned in this chapter, there is nothing inherently negative about stereotypes, so why do you suppose stereotyping is so distasteful to people? If you were teaching a workshop about stereotyping to a group of college students, what would you most want them to know about it?

Which of the following statements is true with respect to perceptual accuracy?

What is mindfulness, and how can we engage that process when making attributions?

Define the primacy and recency effects, and explain how they work together to influence perceptions.

Identify and describe the three types of attribution errors discussed in your textbook. Which do you think is most common? Why? Which do you think is potentially the most damaging to relationships? Why? Do relationship type or context factor into those decisions? Finally, suggest one way that someone could overcome each of those attribution errors.

Angela had just been promoted to department chair at the college where she taught. Although she treated everyone the same, several of the male professors in the department were put off by Angela's requests. As a result, the female professors thought of Angela as fair and equitable in her treatment, but the male professors began resenting her and openly challenging her position on several issues. The male professors probably treated Angela that way because they

Which of the following processes is at work when we are able to recall only information that confirms our existing stereotypes?

In which of the following instances might you have committed the self-serving bias?

An explanation for why something occurred is called a(n)

Many people believe strongly in the notion that "seeing is believing." However, research has shown that perceptual sets can cause people to "see" things that aren't really there, or not to see things that are. Why do you think people have so much confidence that what they see reflects reality? Is it simply because they are ignorant of the research, or do you think most people would continue to think that "seeing is believing," even if they were aware of perceptual sets? Defend your answer with reasoned arguments.

Explain the similarities and differences between facts and interpretations, using concrete examples.

When competent communicators discover that their perceptions were inaccurate, they will respond by

Compare and contrast the fundamental attribution error and the self-serving bias as common attribution errors.

Describe in detail the direct and indirect perception-checking processes. Next, think of a unique situation in which it would be appropriate to engage in direct perception-checking but not indirect perception-checking. Also think about a situation in which indirect perception-checking is a preferable option. Which factors/features of those situations led you to make those decisions? Finally, discuss why the perception-checking process in general is important.

Overattribution is essentially the same thing as the primacy effect.

We have a tendency to discount first impressions as untrustworthy.

Which term refers to the ongoing process of making meaning from what we experience in our environment?