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Instructor Resources for Chapter 4
_______________________________________
Chapter Outline
Opening scenario: Making Sense of Our Social World
I. The Process of Perception
a. Interpersonal perception defined
b. Three stages of the perception process
i. Selection
ii. Organization
iii. Interpretation
c. Influences on perceptual accuracy
i. Physiological states and traits
ii. Culture and co-culture
iii. Social roles
d. Forming perceptions online
Learn it, apply it, reflect on it
II. Fundamental Forces in Interpersonal Perception
a. Stereotyping relies on generalizations.
b. The primacy effect governs first impressions.
c. The recency effect influences impressions.
d. Our perceptual set limits what we perceive.
e. Egocentrism narrows our perspective.
f. Positivity and negativity biases affect perception.
Learn it, apply it, reflect on it
III. Explaining What We Perceive
a. Explaining behavior through attributions
i. Locus
ii. Stability
iii. Controllability
b. Recognizing common attribution errors
i. Self-serving bias
ii. Fundamental attribution error
iii. Overattribution
Learn it, apply it, reflect on it
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IV. Improving Your Perceptual Abilities
a. Being mindful of your perceptions
i. Know yourself.
ii. Focus on others’ characteristics: The influence of gender and culture
iii. Consider the context.
b. Checking your perceptions
i. Separate interpretations from facts.
ii. Generate alternative perceptions.
iii. Engage in perception-checking behaviors.
iv. Revise your perceptions as necessary.
Learn it, apply, reflect on it
In-text boxes:
a. At a Glance: Stages of the perception process
b. Assess Your Skills: Being altercentric
c. Communication/Light Side: Seeing the world differently: Lovers and their rose-
colored glasses
d. Got Skills? Self-serving bias
e. At a Glance: Three common attribution errors
f. Got Skills? Direct perception checking
g. Fact or Fiction? When making perceptions, more information is always better.
Key Terms
attribution
egocentric
fundamental attribution error
interpersonal perception
interpretation
negativity bias
organization
overattribution
perception
perceptual set
positivity bias
primacy effect
recency effect
selection
self-serving bias
stereotypes
Definitions for Key Terms
attribution: an explanation for an observed behavior
egocentric: unable to take another person’s perspective
fundamental attribution error: the tendency to attribute others’ behaviors to internal rather than
external causes
interpersonal perception: the process of making meaning from the people in our environment
and our relationships with them
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interpretation: the process of assigning meaning to information that has been selected for
attention and organized
negativity bias: the tendency to focus heavily on a person’s negative attributes when forming a
perception
organization: the process of categorizing information that has been selected for attention
overattribution: the tendency to attribute a range of behaviors to a single characteristic of
a person
perception: the process of making meaning from the things we experience in the environment
perceptual set: a predisposition to perceive only what we want or expect to perceive
positivity bias: the tendency to focus heavily on a person’s positive attributes when forming a
perception
primacy effect: the tendency to emphasize the first impression over later impressions when
forming a perception
recency effect: the tendency to emphasize the most recent impression over earlier impressions
when forming a perception
selection: the process of attending to a stimulus
self-serving bias: the tendency to attribute one’s successes to internal causes and one’s failures
to external causes
stereotypes: generalizations about groups of people that are applied to individual members of
those groups
Discussion Questions
• What inaccurate perceptions do people often have of you? Why are people prone to making
these perceptual mistakes? What perceptual mistakes concerning other people do you find
yourself making?
• How do hunger, fatigue, and illness affect your perception-making abilities? Are their
effects different?
• Why is the idea of stereotyping so distasteful to many people?
• In what situations have your “eyes played tricks on you”? When have you noticed that your
perceptual set caused you to “see” something that wasn’t really there (or not to see
something that was)?
• Why do you think people are so motivated to come up with attributions for behavior?
• Can you think of a situation when you have committed the error of overattribution with
someone? What characteristic of that person did you over-attribute his or her behavior to?
How did you realize you were over-attributing?
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• If we recognize that our perceptions are always limited, what can we do to improve our
perception making? How can we make our perceptions less limited?
• What is the difference between a fact and an interpretation? How can you tell the
difference?
• When forming online perceptions, what do we mean by “more information is sometimes
better, but not always”?
• What does the appearance of your avatar say about you?
Additional Resources
• Adams, R. B., Ambady, N., Nakayama, K., & Shimojo, S. (Eds). (2011). The science of
social vision. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
• Manusov, V., & Harvey, J. H. (Eds.). (2001). Attribution, communication behavior, and
close relationships. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
• Margalit, M. (2010). Lonely children and adolescents: Self-perceptions, social exclusion,
and hope. New York, NY: Springer.
• Strack, F., & Förster, J. (2011). Social cognition: The basis of human interaction. New
York, NY: Psychology Press.
• Wolfe, J. M., Kluender, K. R., Levi, D. M., Bartoshuk, L. M., Herz, R. S., Klatzky, R. L.,
Lederman, S. J., & Merfeld, D. M. (2014). Sensation & perception (4th ed.). Sunderland,
MA: Sinauer Associates.
• Zebrowski, J. A. (2006). New research on social perception. Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science
Publishers.
Learning Objectives in CONNECT for Interpersonal Communication
The Process of Perception
• Define perception.
• Define interpersonal perception.
• Recall that perception is a three-stage process.
• Know that perception is initiated by sensory experience.
• Describe the selection stage of the perception process.
• Describe the three characteristics that influence selection.
• Describe the organization stage of the perception process.
• Recall that to classify a stimulus, a perceptual schema is applied to it.
• Explain the four types of schema used to classify information about people.
• Describe how we use schema to organize information about people.
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• Describe the interpretation stage of the perception process.
• Explain the three factors that influence interpretation.
• Distinguish between personal experience, knowledge, and closeness as ways to
interpret behavior.
• Recall that the stages of perception are not linear may, in fact, overlap.
• Recall that perceptual errors are easy to make.
• List the three factors that influence perceptual accuracy.
• Define physiology.
• Differentiate between physiological states and physiological traits.
• Explain how biological rhythms are physiological traits.
• Explain how culture and co-cultures influence perceptions and interpretations of
others’ behavior.
• Recall that each person perceives the world through multiple “lenses.”
• Explain how social roles influence perceptual accuracy.
• Describe the role of visual cues when communicating online.
• Describe the research findings related to avatars and perception.
Fundamental Forces in Interpersonal Perception
• Recall that perceptions are vulnerable to multiple biases.
• Define stereotype.
• Explain the three-part process of stereotyping.
• Recall that stereotyping may lead to inaccurate evaluations of people.
• Explain the selective memory bias.
• Recall that some stereotypes may be accurate.
• Identify the two elements for productively dealing with stereotypes.
The Primacy Effect Governs First Impressions
• Explain the principle of the primacy effect.
• Explain why first impressions are critical.
• Recall that first impressions are changeable.
• Describe the recency effect.
• Recall that first and last impressions are more important that the ones in between.
• Define perceptual set as a predisposition to perceive only what we want to perceive.
• Describe how a perceptual set influences how people make sense of circumstances and
other people.
• Describe what it means to be egocentric.
• Describe what it means to be altercentric.
• Define positivity bias.
• Explain the role of idealization in forming new romantic relationships.
• Define negativity bias.
• Explain the strength of negativity bias in competitive situations.
• Describe the influence of positivity and negativity biases in long-term relationships.
Explaining What We Perceive
• Define attribution.
• Identify the three dimensions of attribution.
• Explain locus as a dimension of attributions.
• Compare and contrast internal and external causes of behaviors.
• Explain stability as a dimension of attributions.
• Describe how causes for behavior vary in how controllable they are.
• Differentiate between controllable and uncontrollable attributions for behavior.
• Recall that people are vulnerable to making attribution mistakes.
• Explain the self-serving bias.
• Recall that the self-serving bias deals primarily with attributions about the self and
important people in one’s life.
• Describe how the self-serving bias is a form of self-delusion.
• Explain the fundamental attribution error.
• Describe the strength of the fundamental attribution error.
• Recall that people’s behaviors are often responses to external forces.
• Explain the problematic effects of overattribution.
• Explain the ease of overattribution with marginalized groups.
Improving Your Perceptual Abilities
• Recall that perceptual abilities can be improved.
• Explain how knowing oneself may help improve perceptual ability.
• Explain how an awareness of others’ gender and culture may help improve perceptual
ability.
• Explain how an awareness of context may improve perceptual ability.
• Recall that checking the accuracy of your perceptions is the second step of improving your
perceptual abilities.
• Differentiate between description and interpretation, when checking the accuracy of
perceptions.
• Describe the two important reasons for generating alternative perceptions.
• Define direct perception checking.
• Explain the three elements of direct perception checking.
• Define indirect perception checking.
• Describe why good communicators revise their perceptions when necessary.
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In-Class Exercises
In-Class Exercise A: Fundamental Attribution Error
1. The fundamental attribution error suggests that people attribute others’ behaviors to stable,
internal causes (such as personality traits) more so than their own behaviors (i.e., people are
more likely to attribute their own behaviors to situational causes). This activity illustrates
the effect. It takes about 15 minutes and can be done with a class of any size.
2. Before running the experiment, photocopy the form on the next page, making enough copies
to give two to each student.
3. After handing out the forms to your students, name a celebrity that everyone in your class
should know (it could be an actor, a television star, a musician, a politician—just so long as
it is someone with whom everyone is familiar). Ask your students to think about that person
while reading through the adjective pairs on the handout. For each adjective pair, students
should indicate whether they think the celebrity possesses one of the traits in each pair, or
whether they think the celebrity’s behavior depends on the situation. Instruct them to make a
check mark for each line on the handout.
4. Next, have them put the first form aside and then complete the second copy of the form with
reference to themselves. Again, for each line, they should check whether they possess one of
the two attributes in the pair or whether their behavior depends on the situation.
5. After they have finished reporting on themselves, have students count up the number of
adjectives they check and the number of “depends on the situation” responses they checked
on the celebrity form, and write their totals on the lines at the bottom of the page. Have them
repeat this process for their own form.
6. If the fundamental attribution error holds, most students will end up with more “depends on
the situation” marks on their own forms than on their celebrity forms. In other words, they
should be more likely to make situational (external) attributions for their own behaviors than
for the behaviors of another. Ask how many students (by show of hands) had more “depends
on the situation” marks on their own forms than on their celebrity forms. It should be the
majority of the class—you can then use that as an illustration of the fundamental attribution
error.
[This exercise is adapted from Kite, M. E. (1991). Observer biases in the classroom. Teaching of
Psychology, 18, 161–164.]
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Is the person more… or… or…?
It depends on the situation
Serious ______
Lighthearted ______
______
Subjective ______
Analytic ______
______
Future oriented ______
Present oriented ______
______
Energetic ______
Relaxed ______
______
Unassuming ______
Self-assertive ______
______
Lenient ______
Firm ______
______
Reserved ______
Expressive ______
______
Dignified ______
Casual ______
______
Realistic ______
Idealistic ______
______
Intense ______
Calm ______
______
Skeptical ______
Trusting ______
______
Quiet ______
Talkative ______
______
Cultivated ______
Natural ______
______
Sensitive ______
Tough-minded ______
______
Self-sufficient ______
Sociable ______
______
Dominant ______
Submissive ______
______
Cautious ______
Bold ______
______
Uninhibited ______
Self-controlled ______
______
Conscientious ______
Happy-go-lucky ______
______
TOTAL ______
TOTAL ______
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In-Class Exercise B: What’s Her Story? The Role of Interpretation
1. This exercise illustrates that different people can interpret the same observed behaviors
differently. The exercise uses the video clip “Introducing Kelsey,” which is available on the
course website.
2. Begin by watching the video clip with your class, but give your students no specific
instructions beforehand. The video clip portrays Kelsey, the newest of three suitemates
whose behavior makes quite an impression on the other two.
3. After watching the video, ask students to pair up. Then, ask each pair to write a short story
(1–2 paragraphs in length) about Kelsey. That is, based on their interpretation of Kelsey’s
behavior, they should craft a short story describing Kelsey. What kind of person is she?
What sort of family did she grow up in? What does she value? What’s her college major?
How does she perceive herself? What does she want to do with her life?
4. Have pairs of students share their short stories with the rest of the class, and take note of
both similar and different themes that emerge from the stories. Use the comparison of
stories to discuss with your students how easily people can observe the same behavior yet
make different interpretations of it.
5. If you have time, you might also ask what particular characteristics of the video caused
students to make the interpretations they did. That may also illustrate the principle of
selection, since students are likely to attend to different elements in each scene.
6. Note that this is a subjective activity—unlike similar activities (such as the Interpersonal
Perception Task, with which you may be familiar), there are no objectively correct answers.
Thus, it is not a test of sensitivity or perceptual ability; rather, it is an exercise allowing
students to explore their experiences of interpersonal interpretation.
In-Class Exercise C: Priming to Create a Perceptual Set
1. A perceptual set is a tendency to interpret stimuli in a particular way, according to
expectations. This exercise makes use of a technique called priming to generate different
perceptual sets within your class. The activity can be done with a class of any size.
2. This exercise comes in two parts: the priming activity and the evaluation measure. It is very
important that students be led to believe that these two parts are unrelated to each other. An
ideal cover story would involve giving the priming activity as an in-class assignment
(perhaps with the description that it is related to the lesson on language, which is the topic of
the next chapter), and then having a colleague come into your class to hand out the
evaluation measure as though he or she were recruiting for a study and the evaluation
measure were the questionnaire. Alternatively, you could assign the priming activity as
someone you want done before the upcoming lesson on language, and then hand out the
evaluation measure as an in-class activity for your discussion of perception. However you
do it, it is imperative that you create the impression that there is no connection between the
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priming activity and the evaluation measure—and it is equally imperative that the priming
activity be done first!
3. In the priming activity, students are presented with various groups of four words and are
instructed to construct a three-word phrase out of each four-word group. You will create two
versions of the priming activity, one involving several word groups containing hostile words
(e.g., kick, hate, break, kill) and the other involving several word groups containing kind
words (e.g., help, friend, share, love). Each version must also contain word groups that are
affectively neutral. A list of example hostile, kind, and neutral word groups is provided
below. Create two handouts: each should contain some word groups that are neutral and
some that are either hostile or kind (but not both). Put each handout on a different colored
paper.
4. Hand the priming activity out to your students in an alternating manner, so that one student
gets the hostile version and the next student gets the kind version. Tell students to work
quickly to write out three-word phrases out of each four-word group, and then to hold onto
their responses once they’re finished.
5. The evaluation exercise involves reading an ambiguous story about a character named
Donald. The story is adapted from Wyer and Srull (1981). Students should be instructed to
read the story carefully and then report their perception of Donald according to the scale
provided. Again, it is critical to create a cover story that disassociates this evaluation
exercise from the priming activity.
6. Research shows that working with emotionally charged words creates perceptual sets, so
students who worked with the priming activity containing hostile words should be primed to
dislike Donald more than students who worked with the kind words. Depending on the size
of the class and your own comfort level with statistics, you might collect the evaluations and
perform a t-test on the scores to see if this group difference came out. (If you do, you will
need to have students clip their evaluation exercise and their priming activity together
before you pick them up, or you will have no way of knowing which priming group each
student’s evaluation exercise belongs to.) Or, you might ask your class to indicate, by show
of hands, how many evaluated Donald higher than 4, higher than 5, higher than 6, etc., and
see if the shows of hands seem to differ according to the color of the paper the priming
activity is on.
7. Chapter 4 does not talk specifically about priming (which is advantageous for this exercise)
but you can explain it as a technique that creates a particular perceptual set. Having just
attended to a series of hostile words should, according to research, prime students to like
Donald less, whereas working with kind words should cause students to like him more.
[Sources: Kite, M. E. (1991). Observer biases in the classroom. Teaching of Psychology, 18, 161–164;
Wyer, R. S., & Srull, T. K. (1981). Category accessibility: Some theoretical and empirical issues
concerning the processing of social stimulus information. In T. E. Higgins, C. P. Herman, & M. P. Zanna
(Eds.), Social cognition: The Ontario symposium (Vol. 1, pp. 161–196). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates.]
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Sample Word Groups for Priming Activity
(adapted from Kite, 1991)
Neutral
Hostile
Kind
walks dog he far
she clothes wears buys
write you letter I
tall is man short
picture takes job she
goes went out man
slow he fast ran
job I do found
reads boy book you
map you read book
I watch call him
I you bread eat
rides fast drives she
I you me call
women knew man boy
leg break arm his
hit boy dog she
hate me I you
burns boy child girl
kick chair she desk
you bites dog boy
me hurt you I
cat child you scratch
man bird shoots boy
you I me beat
breaks glass he window
throws book he chair
you loud yell scream
kills he man bug
I you boy kick
child he friend helps
buys girl gift boy
mother him rocks child
believe you me help
house toy builds he
fixes father toy makes
love him her you
boy food shares eats
flowers picks she gives
man cookies bread bakes
she friends makes has
hugs man child woman
hand package holds he
you book reads boy
cat girl dog pets
The “Donald Story” from Wyer and Srull (1981)
Read this aloud to students and then ask them to indicate, on a scale of 1-7, how much
they like Donald.
I ran into my old friend Donald the other day, and I decided to go over and
visit him, since by coincidence we took our vacations at the same time. Soon
after I arrived, a salesman knocked at the door, but Donald refused to let him
enter. He also told me that he was refusing to pay his rent until his landlord
repaints his apartment. We talked for a while, had lunch, then went out for a
ride. We used my car, since Donald’s car had broken down that morning, and
he told the garage mechanic that he would have to go somewhere else if he
couldn’t fix his car that same day. We went to the park for about an hour and
then stopped at a hardware store. I was sort of preoccupied, but Donald
bought some small gadget, and then I heard him demand his money back
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from the sales clerk. I couldn’t find what I was looking for, so we left and
walked a few blocks to another store. The Red Cross had set up a stand by
the door and asked us to donate blood. Donald lied by saying he had diabetes
and therefore could not give blood. It’s funny that I hadn’t noticed it before,
but when we got to the store, we found that it had gone out of business. It
was getting kind of late, so I took Donald to pick up his car and we agreed to
meet again as soon as possible.
Now, on a scale of 1–7 (where 1 means “not at all” and 7 means “a great deal”), how much
do you like Donald?
Out-of-Class Exercises
Out-of-Class Exercise A: Stereotypes in Advertising
1. In this exercise, students analyze the text and images in ten print ads for reflections of
stereotypes. The exercise works best when you dictate a particular category of stereotypes to
focus on, such as gender stereotypes or cultural stereotypes. (Gender stereotypes will be
used as the example in this description.)
2. Students should begin by collecting ten print or Internet-based ads to analyze. Each ad must
contain some text and at least one image, and the ten ads should be for ten different products
or services.
3. After collecting their ads, students should analyze each ad separately to determine the extent
to which it: 1) reflects a gender stereotype; 2) counters a gender stereotype; and/or, 3) fails
to reflect a gender stereotype. Students should keep several things in mind as they do their
analyses. First, gender stereotypes involve both women and men, and they can involve the
types of job each sex should have as well as the types of activities each sex should enjoy or
the types of clothing each sex should wear, among other things. Second, a given ad might
reflect one stereotype while countering another. For example, an image might depict a
mother bringing her infant to the doctor (reflecting the stereotypical notion of women as
caregivers) but the nurse at the doctor’s office might be a male (countering the stereotypical
notion that nurses are always women). Third, some ads might neither reflect nor counter any
gender stereotypes, so although students should be encouraged to critique the ads carefully,
they should also be cautioned not to “see” evidence for or against stereotypes where none is
present.
4. You may elect to have students write up their analyses in a short paper and/or to present the
results of their analyses in class. If your class is large enough, you might also choose to
divide your students into groups and assign each group one category of stereotypes to focus
on (gender, race, sexual orientation, abled/disabled, etc.).
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Out-of-Class Exercise B: Physiology Diary
1. Chapter 4 discussed several ways in which one’s physiology can influence perception–
making ability. This exercise helps students become attuned to their physiological rhythms
and the ways in which their mood—a major influence on perceptions—fluctuates through
the day.
2. The exercise works best when done over a period of several days, such as over a regular
seven-day week, although you can certainly assign it for fewer than seven days. (As an
alternative, assign it for three days: two weekdays and one weekend day.) Copy the handout
below, enough for each student for the number of days you have assigned. Assign a week
for the activity that is as “normal” as possible, without major exams, holidays, or other
abnormalities. Indicate to students that the exercise will require diligence but that it will
help them learn about their bodies and their moods.
3. Students should complete a new form for each day of the week. Each form requires
students to answer some questions a five different times during the day: upon awakening,
10 a.m., 2 p.m., 6 p.m., and right before retiring.
4. At the end of the week, have students go back through their diary pages and ascertain
patterns in the variation of their mood and energy level throughout the day. You might have
them generate a graph on which they plot their average mood and average energy scores
(averaged across the days) for each time period, so they can see the general pattern. You
may choose to have students write up a report of their physiological diary and perhaps ask
them to give examples illustrating how their perception-making processes were affected by
energy level and mood during the week of the assessment.
5. Although the exercise doesn’t address the perception-making process directly, it will attune
students to the ways in which their mood and energy level fluctuate systematically through
the day. Use this information to generate discussion about how students’ perceptions of
others also vary systematically; are they more impatient with others or more likely to make
negative attributions about others’ behaviors at certain points during the day?
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Physiology Diary Form
Your name ______________________________________ Today’s date _________________
Complete one block of this form at each of the following times today:
UPON AWAKENING
My mood was . . .
Very negative
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Very positive
My energy level was . . .
Very low
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Very high
10 a.m.
My mood was . . .
Very negative
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Very positive
My energy level was . . .
Very low
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Very high
2 p.m.
My mood was . . .
Very negative
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Very positive
My energy level was . . .
Very low
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Very high
6 p.m.
My mood was . . .
Very negative
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Very positive
My energy level was . . .
Very low
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Very high
RIGHT BEFORE BED
My mood was . . .
Very negative
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Very positive
My energy level was . . .
Very low
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Very high
Did anything unusual occur today that substantially affected your mood or energy level? If so,
briefly describe below and indicate approximately what time the event occurred: