Social Judgement

Analytical Essay # 113685

Psychology > Behaviorism
Sociology

Social Judgement

A critical evaluation of how our social judgments may be flawed.

2,008 words () | 18 sources | APA | 2009 United Kingdom

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how in today's society we are constantly judging others and how this is to help us look at how society works and how people are supposed to behave in order to be socially accepted. It examines the statement that "our social judgments are essentially flawed; we are either wrong about others or wrong about ourselves" and critically discusses it with reference to psychological theory and research.

From the Paper:

"Jones and Davis (1965) said that we make these attributions by correspondent inference. This is where we look at the average person and what they would do. The more 'less average' a person is perceived to be, the more correspondent the inference. We then perceive their behaviour to be their intention. This is a clear example of how we can judge others wrongly. We can not be sure that our perception of the 'average' person is correct, and so if our perception is wrong, then we can not guarantee that the person is acting less average. It could be perfectly normal behaviour to others, thus resulting in a flawed impression. This is not always the case, sometimes we may be right about someone, especially with more extreme behaviours, as they are more likely to be further from the 'norm'."

Sample of Sources Used:

Asch, S.E. (1946) Forming impressions of personality, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 41, 258- 90.
Baumeister, R. F., & Jones, E. E. (1978). When self-presentation is constrained by the target's knowledge: Consistency and compensation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36(6), 608-618.
Briggs, S. R., & Cheeks, J. M. (1988). On the nature of self-monitoring: Problems with assessment, problems with validity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(4), 663-678.
Cialdini, R. B., Borden, R. J., Thorne, A., Walker, M. R., Freeman, S., & Sloan, L. R. (1976). Basking in reflected glory: Three (football) field studies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34, 366-375.
Claeys, W., & Timmers, L. (1993). Some instantiations of the informational negativity effect: Positive-negative asymmetry in category breadth and in estimated meaning arimilarty of trait adjectives. European Journal of Social Psychology, 23, 111-129.