Social Cognition and Perception

To prepare:

• Review Chapters 3 and 4 of the course text, Social Psychology.
• Review the article, "Person Perception" found in this week's Learning Resources.

https://class.waldenu.edu/bbcswebdav/institution/USW1/201850_03/BS_PSYC/PSYC_2005_WC/artifacts/USW1_PSYC_2005_Week03_Boeree.pdf

• Watch the video on selective attention.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo

The Assignment (3-4 pages):

• Select one person in each category below:
  • A person you do not know and who you probably will not see again (clerk at the grocery store, etc.)
  • A person you have known for some time and for whom you can remember your first impressions (acquaintance, friend, spouse, etc.)
• Briefly describe each person including his or her specific behavior at your first meeting, the context of your interaction with each person, and your first impression of each person.
• Explain whether you made external (situational) and/or internal (dispositional) attributions for each person's behavior during that first meeting.
• Did you engage in automatic thinking or controlled thinking in forming your first impression of each person? Explain. What, if any, schemas or heuristics did you use?
• With which culture(s) do you identify? According to the information in this week's readings, how does your culture influence your impressions of others? For example, how does your culture influence your impressions of others? For example, (a) how does your culture influence the content of a particular schema (Aronson, Wilson, & Sommers, 2016, p. 70), (b) which culturally-specific display rules influence your impressions (Aronson, Wilson, & Sommers, 2016, pp. 90-91), or (c) when have you engaged in holistic or analytic thinking as your culture would predict (Aronson, Wilson, & Sommers, 2016, p. 110)?