Forming Social Impressions

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses attribution theories that argue that people look for another's attributes to explain their patterns of behaviour and highlights the concerns raised with this theory. The paper then discusses the theory that focuses on the use of social stereotypes in interpersonal interaction and explains the behavioural strengthening process employed by perceivers that adds to the self-fulfilling nature of the stereotype. The paper concludes that even the attribution theory is little more than a stereotype as we rely on our inferred qualities, and not the true situation, to make judgements.

From the Paper:

"With regard to impression formation and social interaction, we find two key theoretical areas promoting alternative cognitive and behavioural processes. It is noted that both theoretical approaches are not without their criticisms, but that they also approach the process of dyadic impression formation in subtly different ways.
"The first of these theories are 'attribution theories', in which it is argued, within social interactions participants are continually (albeit, perhaps subconsciously) looking for causation of behaviour in the target partner and from these attributes, inferring the qualities of said person to explain their patterns of behaviour. Participants then assess the situational factors they are in and then 'adjust those inferences' (Gilbert et al. 1988: p733). (e.g., what qualities does target 'X' have that have made them act in such a way? Has the current situation forced or inhibited the actions?)"

Sample of Sources Used:

• Darley, J. & Gross, P. (1983). A hypothesis-confirming bias in labelling effects. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 44 (1), pp.20-33.
• Gilbert, D., Pelham, B. & Krull, D. (1988). On cognitive busyness: When person perceivers meet persons perceived. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 54 (5), pp733-740.
• Gleitman, H. Fridlund, A. J., & Reisburg, D. (1999). Psychology. 5th ed. Norton: New York.
• Snyder, M., Tanke, E. & Berscheid, E. (1977). Social perception and interpersonal behavior: On the self-fulfilling nature of social stereotypes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 35 (9), pp656-666.

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• Research Paper # 23691 : "Our Motivations"

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