External attributions connect the cause of behaviors to situational factors. Internal attributions connect the cause of behaviors to personal aspects such as personality traits. Why did my neighbor slam the door when she saw me walking down the hall? Why is my partner being extra nice to me today? Why did my officemate miss our project team meeting this morning? In general, we seek to attribute the cause of others’ behaviors to internal or external factors. In most interactions, we are constantly running an attribution script in our minds, which essentially tries to come up with explanations for what is happening. In addition, we will learn some common errors that we make in the attribution process that regularly lead to conflict and misunderstanding. By examining these processes, attribution in particular, we can see how our communication with others is affected by the explanations we create for others’ behavior. In either case, your existing perceptions of the other person are probably reinforced after your conversation and you may leave the conversation thinking, “She is never going to wake up and see how ignorant she is! I don’t know why I even bother trying to talk to her!” Similar situations occur regularly, and there are some key psychological processes that play into how we perceive others’ behaviors. When conversations and inevitable disagreements occur, you may view this person as “pushing your buttons” if you are invested in the issue being debated, or you may view the person as “on their soapbox” if you aren’t invested. I’m sure you have a family member, friend, or coworker with whom you have ideological or political differences. In this section, we will focus on how we perceive others, with specific attention to how we interpret our perceptions of others. We have already learned how the perception process works in terms of selecting, organizing, and interpreting. Just as others make impressions on us, we make impressions on others. In short, after only minimal exposure to a candidate’s facial expressions, people made judgments about the person’s competence, and those candidates judged more competent were people who actually won elections! As you read this section, keep in mind that these principles apply to how you perceive others and to how others perceive you. Even more surprising is that people’s judgments of competence, after exposure to two candidates for senate elections, accurately predicted election outcomes (Ballew II & Todoroy, 2007). Fascinating research has also been done on the ability of people to make a judgment about a person’s competence after as little as 100 milliseconds of exposure to politicians’ faces. Recognize the roles that culture and personality play in the perception of others.Īre you a good judge of character? How quickly can you “size someone up?” Interestingly, research shows that many people are surprisingly accurate at predicting how an interaction with someone will unfold based on initial impressions. ![]()
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