Oxbridge Notes | Impression Of Individuals

SOCIAL PSYCH

2 FUNDAMENTAL PROVERBS
Construction of Reality	What is real for us is shaped by cognitive processes and social processes
Pervasiveness of Social Influence	Other people influence virtually all of our thoughts, feelings, and behaviour, whether they are physically present or not
3 MOTIVATIONAL PRINCIPLES
Mastery	People strive to understand and predict events in the social world in order to obtain rewards
Connectedness	People seek support, liking and acceptance from people they care about and value
Valuing ‘me and mine’	People desire to see themselves, and other people and groups connected to themselves, in a positive light
3 PROCESSING PRINCIPLES
Conservatism	Individuals’ and groups’ views of the world are slow to change and prone to perpetuate themselves
Accessibility	Info that is most readily available has the most impact on thoughts, feelings, and behaviour
Superficiality versus depth	People ordinarily put little effort into dealing with info, but at times are motivated to consider information in more depth

IMPRESSIONS OF INDIVIDUALS

WHY do we form impressions?

Impressions guide our actions to meet our needs

Eg if we know somebody is hard working, we may ask them to be our study partner impressions guide us along the paths of our social lives

FORMING FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Cues for impression formation

We believe that appearance, behaviour, and choices reflect personality, preferences and lifestyles

Physical Appearance	Walster et al., 1966	‘What is beautiful is good’ Randomly paired college men and women for an evening together Researchers scored each student’s attractiveness, social skills, and had their grades/IQ/personality test scores Physical attractiveness was the most important influence on satisfaction and increased likelihood for another date
	Eagly & Makhijani, 1991	Attractive = interesting, warm, outgoing, socially skilled
	Clifford, 1975	School teachers rate more physically attractive children as having more intelligence and greater academic potential
	Stewart, 1985	More attractive criminals are given lighter prison sentences
	Todorov, 2009	In USA and Korea, baby-faced adult males were viewed as more naïve, honest, kind, and warm
	Zebrowitz et al., 1991	Website with over 1 million faces guess facts and political affiliation from photos = accuracy above chance
Nonverbal communication	Info is communicated by facial expressions, eye contact, and body language
	Friedman et al., 1988	We like those who express their feeling nonverbally more than less expressive people
	Mehrabian, 1972	We like people who orient their bodies toward us and we believe they like us unconscious
	Niedenthal & Cantor, 1986	We like those who look at us with dilated pupils – sign of interest and attention - unconscious
	Ekman, 1987	Across many diverse cultures: People express emotion with similar bodily postures and facial expressions = emotional expression is a universal language
	Ambady & Rosenthal, 1993	Impressions can be accurate 10secs of silent video of a teacher sufficient for impression formation Impressions of the teacher matched those from the teachers’ students
	Mast & Hall, 2004	Ps shown photos of an interaction between 2 co-workers Ps could accurately judge which had the higher status
Familiarity	Zajonc, 1968	Mere exposure effect
Familiarity	Moreland & Beach, 1992	Women seen more often in college lecture are rated as more interesting/warm by students
Environment	Gosling et al., 2022	Ps observed college dorms but never met who lived there Observers impressions were similar to how the occupant rated themselves Similar accuracy found when observes looked at offices ‘Behavioural residue’
Environment	Back et al., 2010	Ps looked at social-networking profiles Their impressions of a person correlated highly with the users’ personalities
Behaviours	Eg if you know someone volunteers a lot you can conclude they are caring an altruistic
Salient cues	Characs that are different stand out eg rude, being tall, keeping snakes Nelson & Miller, 1995: Ps more likely to buy a skydiving related birthday present for a friend who is a skydiver and tennis player ie most distinct hobby is most salient and forms impression

How do we interpret cues?

via an automatic process using stored knowledge which influences all of our social beliefs and behaviours

Gilbert, 1998: first impressions rely on rapid but effortless automatic cognitive processes

2 forms:

Association – prior knowledge of links between cognitive representations

Accessibility – the ease and speed with which knowledge comes to mind

Associations	Strong links between cognitive representations Think of one concept, the other is activated eg stealing (behaviour) and dishonesty (personality trait) Can be: Similar in meaning eg sense of humour and laughter Repeatedly thought about together eg fish and chips
Accessibility	Rely on info which comes to mind easily and quickly Ford & Thompson, 2000: the more accessible the knowledge, the more likely it will automatically come to mind, so the more likely it is to guide our interpretation of cues Information can become accessible and influence interpretation of cues in 3 ways:
Simultaneous activation: MOOD: Isen, 1987: Happy people see their own and others’ behaviour more positively activates positive information PHYSICAL SENSATION: Ackerman, Nocera, & Bargh, 2010: Ps asked to judge a job candidate whose CV was on either a heavy or light clipboard Those holding the heaving board judged the candidate as more serious about the job physical sensation of heaviness activates concepts of importance/seriousness EXPECTATION: Kelley, 1950: Students given background info on a guest lecturer before he arrived diff students told diff things Results clearly demonstrated the effects of expectation Rosenhan, 1973: Doctors expect the patients to display disturbed behaviour Patients in a mental hospital even though...

Associations

Strong links between cognitive representations

Think of one concept, the other is activated

eg stealing (behaviour) and dishonesty (personality trait)

Can be:

Similar in meaning eg sense of humour and laughter
Repeatedly thought about together eg fish and chips

Accessibility

Rely on info which comes to mind easily and quickly

Ford & Thompson, 2000: the more accessible the knowledge, the more likely it will automatically come to mind, so the more likely it is to guide our interpretation of cues

Information can become accessible and influence interpretation of cues in 3 ways:

Simultaneous activation:

MOOD: Isen, 1987:

Happy people see their own and others’ behaviour more positively activates positive information

PHYSICAL SENSATION: Ackerman, Nocera, & Bargh, 2010:

Ps asked to judge a job candidate whose CV was on either a heavy or light clipboard

Those holding the heaving board judged the candidate as more serious about the job

physical sensation of heaviness activates concepts of importance/seriousness

EXPECTATION: Kelley, 1950:

Students given background info on a guest lecturer before he arrived diff students told diff things

Results clearly demonstrated the effects of expectation

Rosenhan, 1973:

Doctors expect the patients to display disturbed behaviour

Patients in a mental hospital even though...

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