Identification Items
1. Self-serving bias
2. Standpoint
3. Personal constructs
4. Cognitive complexity
5. Mind reading
6. Fundamental attribution error
7. Implicit personality theory
8. Empathy
9. Perception
10. Constructivism
11. Attribution
12. Interpretation
13. Stereotype
14. Culture
15. Prototype
Essay Items
1. Use the ladder of abstraction to explain how you perceived and acted in a particular situation.
Make sure that you include and label each level of the abstraction ladder in your example.
2. Your book talks about a dozen states that have passed laws to establish standards for English
for international teaching assistants. Don Rubin did a study that looked into this matter.
Discuss what he did and what he found.
3. Using a specific example of a time when you misperceived a situation, name and explain
how at least three of the guidelines would have helped you perceive the situation more
accurately.
4. Explain how the self influences our perceptions of others. Describe an example of when the
self influenced your perceptions of another and your communication with that person.
5. Your friend, Mark, has a problem with perception and communication. Based on what you
learned in class and from your book on guidelines for improving perception and
communication, fully describe three guidelines for improving perception and
communication.
6. Explain four of the seven guidelines for improving the accuracy of perceptions.
7. What is the process of human perception?
8. What are the dimensions of attributions?
9. Explain the ladder of abstraction and use an example.
10. Why is eyewitness testimony not always reliable?