SOCIAL PERCEPTION

Social perception is the study of how people form impressions of and make inferences about other people

... about the environment or surroundings they are in or about life of interaction with other elements altogether

We learn about other's feelings and emotions by picking up on information we gather from their physical appearance, and verbal and nonverbal communication

Facial expressions, tone of voice, hand gestures, and body position are just a few examples of ways people communicate without words

A real world example of social perception would be understanding that someone disagrees with what you said when you see them roll their eyes

Attribution

Attribution is being able to successfully identify a person's behavior based on the current context of the situation

For example, if you are at a wedding, you attribute everyone's happiness because getting married is a cause to celebrate

Most importantly, social perception is shaped by individual's motivation at the time, their emotions, and their cognitive load capacity

All of this combined determines how people attribute certain traits and how those traits are interpreted

Attribution theory

A large component of Social Perception is attribution

Attribution helps individuals understand and rationalize the behavior of others through the use of information gathered by observation

Observation

It's a skill

Psychological research into attribution began with the work of Fritz Heider in the early part of the 20th century

Subsequently it's been developed further by Harold Kelley and Bernard Weiner

People make attributions to understand the world around them in order to seek reasons for a particular individual’s behavior

When people make attributions they are able to make judgments as to what was the cause of a certain behavior

...the insight thus formed drives us to a judgement about that person or situation or both

When people make attributions they are able to make judgments as to what was the cause of a certain behavior

However, a common mistake people make is called Fundamental Attribution Error

Fundamental Attribution Error

It means that the original explanation for the behavior was misidentified

An example of this would be a mother misattributing her son's excitement to sugar from the candy he just ate, as opposed to the real cause of his excitement being that his favorite TV show is on

HOW
do we attach meaning to other's behavior, or our own?

Attribution theory

“Attribution theory deals with how the social perceiver uses information to explain events...

It examines what information is gathered and how it is combined to form a causal judgment”

Attribution theory is concerned with how and why ordinary people explain events as they do

Implicit personality theory

Implicit personality theory is commonly associated with social perception because it identifies the biases we exhibit based on the limited information we know about unfamiliar people

In brief moments of our interaction with unfamiliar people we pick up on the social cues presented and form opinions

Implicit Personality Theory states that people divide the personality traits of others into two groups:

Central/Primary traits or Peripheral/Secondary traits

Those highly influential traits that have a strong impact on overall impression of a person are primary or central traits

Those which have a lesser impact on the overall impression are secondary traits

Through these central/peripheral traits Implicit Personality Theory helps us explain social perception

Example

Suppose you're waiting for making a payment at the cash counter of a grocery store

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What were we

Yeah...

the cashier woman comes across as snappy and rude as these are the central traits

We're customers; we'll be expecting a polite service

Think

Think of the prominent traits you watched in her which made you make that impression

From that central trait, as you walk away with your groceries the peripheral traits, such as attractiveness or intelligence is tainted by her central trait of being rude

Implicit Personality Theory helps people to socially perceive others by generating a broader outlook on their personality using central and peripheral traits and use these traits to categorize people to predict their behavior

An individual's mindset and intentions are assessed by processing the information transmitted by him

This reception, processing and inference are the processes involved in social perception

You may be transmitting a lot of cues, and people pay attention to them to form an insight into your personality

The visual cues, auditory cues and verbal cues are being picked up by others for analysis in this regard

Social Perception

By comprehending and analysing the visual, auditory and verbal cues people form opinion

This process of bridging between the known and unknown about other persons is the key social skill which makes social interactions posssible

TESTING

TASIT

TASIT is an audiovisual test created for the clinical assessment of social perception

Several critical component of social competence forms the basis of this test

TASIT uses complex, dynamic, visual and auditory cues to test these components

The skill to identify emotions which is impaired in many clinical conditions is being tested here

The ability to judge what the other person is having in mind or what are his intentions while speaking something also is tested in TASIT

Theory of Mind

Theory of mind (often abbreviated "ToM") is the ability to attribute mental states—beliefs, intents, desires, pretending, knowledge, etc.—to oneself and others and to understand that others have beliefs, desires, and intentions that are different from one's own

Deficits occur in people with autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, as well as neuro-toxicity due to alcohol abuse

Though there are philosophical approaches to issues raised in discussions such as this, the theory of mind as such is distinct from the philosophy of mind

Philosophy of mind

Philosophy of mind is a branch of philosophy that studies the nature of the mind, mental events, mental functions, mental properties, consciousness, and their relationship to the physical body, particularly the brain

The mind-body problem, i.e. the relationship of the mind to the body, is commonly seen as one key issue in philosophy of mind, although there are other issues concerning the nature of the mind that do not involve its relation to the physical body, such as how consciousness is possible and the nature of particular mental states

Self-Concept

Carl Rogers (1959) an American Psychologist known for his Client-Centered approach in psychotherapy and student-centered in education...

defines Self Concept as "the organized, consistent set of perceptions and beliefs about oneself.”

Each person have his own self-concept that reflects all his personal attributes, beliefs and attitudes

In brief Self Concept is the sum total of the evaluations one had made on himself and includes things that make up himself

Commonly it's believed that the development of the self image starts early in the childhood

How it gets developed and what are its various stages etc. are still subjects of debate

The eminent psychologists of the world who worked on this include M. Lewis, C. Rogers, E. Erikson, J. Brooks-Gunn and Jean Piaget

Do you know that the clothes one wears also influences the self perception of a person?

It's been found that the medicos in their junior years when they knew that they were wearing the doctors' coat, became more involved

Self Image

Self-image is a compilation of the things seen in oneself whether they be internal, external or social attributes

In simple terms, self-image is what an individual sees
in his self

Self Image is not based much on reality as it's on one's perception

Some women suffering from anorexia nervosa believe that they are overweight when in fact they are grossly underweight

Self-image is influenced by many aspects of an individual's personal and social life including, parents, friends, anxiety, stress etc

A study done in China attempted to see the relationship between body image depression and self-regard

The results showed that self-regard is negatively impacted by an overall body image depression

Girls scored lowered than boys and students who lived in the city scored lowered compared to the ones who lived in the country side

Ideal Self

Ideal model is the person one wishes to be himself, or what he want to keep before others

It is the mental model of your “perfect” self

Often, the ideal self is not aligned with the individuals' capabilities in their current situations

This creates incongruity between the ideal self and the self-image

Most of the time achieving complete congruence is not possible

Self-Esteem

It's the importance or value one attributes to oneself

Higher self-esteem is positive and lower is negative self-esteem

Higher self-esteem is associated with optimism, confidence and self-acceptance

Low self-esteem is associated with pessimism, consistent worries, and lack of self-confidence

We can call it self-worth - one's own assessment as to what one is fit for, suitable for, which position one deserves

Bias

Social bias is defined as "prejudicial attitudes towards particular groups, races, sexes, or religions, including the conscious or unconscious expression of these attitudes in writing, speaking, etc

There are many causes and effects of social bias

Some effects of social Self bias

• Dunning-Kruger effect
• Egocentric bias
• Overconfidence bias
• Forer effect (Barnum effect)

Some effects of social Group bias

• Status quo bias
• Ingroup bias
• Stereotyping

Some effects of social Interaction bias

• Halo effect
• False consensus
• Projection bias
• Actor observed bias

Dunning–Kruger effect – an effect by which people may perform badly at a task, but lack the mental capability to evaluate and recognize that they have done poorly

Egocentric bias – The tendency to give more credit to ourselves from positive outcomes than an observer

Overconfidence bias – Overestimating one's own confidence (as in Dunning–Kruger effect)

Forer effect (Barnum effect) – Placing high belief in a general description thinking it was meant specifically for an individual.
example: horoscopes

Group

Status quo bias – Tendency to favor certain circumstances because they are familiar

Ingroup bias – Behaving a certain way to become more favorable in a group

Stereotyping – Attributing traits to people based on certain traits of the group

Interaction

Halo effect –
Tendency to believe in the nature of a person (good/bad) based on general traits of people

False consensus – Assuming others agree with what we do (even though they may not)

Projection bias – Assuming others share the same beliefs as us

Actor-observed bias – Tendency to blame our actions on the situation and blame the action of others based on their personalities

Social perception gives individuals the tools to recognize how others affect their personal lives

I hope the topic Social perception is covered in quiet some length

If you've anything more to be added to it please mail me

THANK YOU