Webinar Three Social Perception

Emblem: a specific sign; like hand or body movements that signify something without using wordsThese emblems are not the same in every culture

Illustrators: when you use your hand to supplement your verbal conversationSuch as giving directions with your hand: "First you turn right *point to the right*"Supports the verbal component

Affect displays: smiling; expressions of emotions

Regulators: gestures that help to continue a conversation; such as when you are having a conversation and the other person nods their head to show they understand

Adaptors: things that we often do when we are nervous or we do them because we are bored; subconscious touching or movementTwirl their hair, bite their lip, play with earingSometimes a way to show that someone is stressed or bored, but it is not always saying that someone is bored

Personal space: when two people are standing close together it generally means that the two people have a relationship; friendship or intimate relationship

You don't always need to hear what someone is saying but you can understand what they are trying to say by their non-verbal cuesEx.  Teacher was at the grocery store with her roommates; two were German.  They were talking and teacher said that she thought they could get all the groceries to the car without a cart; they asked how she knew because they were speaking German.  She knew because she watched their behavior and picked up on the non-verbal cues

Deception: we tend to think that we are pretty good at detecting lying and deception when in reality we really suck; it is 50/50The main reason that we are so bad is because we are focusing on the wrong thingsAccuracy: sometimes we are more accurate when we know the person better; not always the caseWe look at: pauses, stuttering, nervous behavior...Facial, Verbal, BodyPeople believe that liars look to the left when they lie...COMPLETELY FALSE LIARS DO NOT LOOK ANY PARTICULAR WAY3 Things that People do when they lie:Do give somewhat shorter answersUse adapters more (sometimes people use adapters because their hair is really in their face...)--not the same as fidgetingTheir pupils dilate Only people who can more accurately detect deception: secret service agents, some clinical psychologists trained in the area, CIAPolice officers and detectives are not so goodPeople are nervous when they lie, unless you are a sociopath/psychopath: we are nervous because we don't want to get caught lying; sometimes we are nervous because we are being interrogated (stressful environments)Polygraph: doesn't detect lies instead nervousness

Attribution Theory:Attributions are things we do on an every day basis: explanations to why people do thingsWhy do you think they did it?2 types of attributions (that we talk about):Internal: your personality, disposition; why did you act that way? Because you are that type of personExternal: it's not you it's something or someone else that is affecting you; something about the environmentMake attributions about other people and ourselvesCovariation Model:How we come up with attributions are unconscious thoughtsConsensus: do other people have similar responses? (look for words like always and similar)Distinctiveness: Does the person respond similarly to other stimuli? (when see the word unusual in most cases is distinctiveness)Consistency: Is the person's response consistent over time? Ex: Student falls asleep in classInternal: the student is lazy (something about them)External: the student wasn't able to get enough sleep because something outside of their control happened (something happened to them)Consensus: are other students falling asleep in class as well?  Does that mean that you are just a boring teacher?Distinctiveness: Does the person fall asleep in other classes as well?  Maybe it's not me, it is not unusualConsistency: Does the student fall asleep every class?  Or just once a semester?  If the student falls asleep consistently, then attributions can be madeMake judgments about people and formulate our response about the behavior; makes the teacher less likely to want to help the studentIf the student is working full-time and going to school full-time then more likely to give the student benefit of doubt and help them out

Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE): Our tendency to first go with person explanation: you acted like a jerk therefore you are a jerkActors: they tend to play nice characters, but in real life they might actually be a jerk: same goes with actors who play bad guysForget the power of the environment

New Page