Social Psychology – Chapter 3 – Perceiving and Understanding Others
Social perceptoo – the process through which we seek to know and understand other
people
Nooverbal commuoicatoo – communicaton between individuals that does not involve the
content of spoken language. It relies instead on an unspoken language of facial expressions,
eye contact, and body language
Atributoo – the process through which we seek to identfy the causes of otherss behavior
and so gain knowledge of their stable traits and dispositons
Impressioo formatoo – the process through which we form impressions of others
Impressioo maoagemeot (self-preseotatoon – eforts by individuals to produce favorable
frst impressions on others
Nonverbal Communicatonn The Unspoken Language of Expressions, Gazes, Gestures, and
Scents
Nonverbal cues irrepressible (difficult to control)n informaton conveyed by such cues and
eforts to interpret this input “nonverbal communicatonn
Nonverbal communicatonn The Basic Channels
1. Facial expressions as clues to otherss emotons
Anger, fear, happiness, sadness, disgust basic emotons, clearly
represented
Emotons can occur in many combinatons and each reacton can vary in
strength
Facial expressions are universal in many diferent cultures
Cultural diferences also exist with respect to the precise meaning of facial
expressions
2. Eye Contact as a nonverbal cue
High level of eye contact with others interpreted as a sign of liking/positve
feelings
o exceptonn stariog – a form of eye contact in which one person
contnues to gaze steadily at another regardless of what the recipient
does
( people already in highly excitable state, interpret anything
approaching a stare from another driver as an aggressive act)
3. Body language as nonverbal cue
Body laoguage – cues provided by the positon, posture, and movement of
otherss bodies or body parts
Especially movements in which one body part does something to another part
(touching, rubbing, scratching) suggests emotonal arousal the greater the
frequency of such behavior, the higher level of arousal or nervousness
, Large-scale body movements or postures sometmes provide important
informaton about otherss emotons, and even about their apparent traits
Gesturesn emblems – body movements carrying specifc meanings in a given
culture
4. Touching as nonverbal cue
Interpretng Informaton about touching depends on the person, the nature of
physical contact, the context in which touching takes place
When touching is appropriate positve reactons in the person being touched
Scentn Another Source of Nonverbal Social Informaton
Body scent as a subtle nonverbal cue
Paralinguistc cues – changes in the tone or infecton of otherss voices
Are Facial Expressions an Especially Important Source of Informaton About Others?
Facial expressions are especially important
Almost impossible to ignore such informaton
o If facial expressions (esp. negatve ones) are seen once, they are stll easier
notced than other stmuli on later occasions
We tend to perceive more in otherss faces than is really there, interpretng the basic
appearance of their faces as suggestve of specifc emotons, even if they arenst really
present
Facial expression play a role in generatng emotons or feelings they can
trigger/infuence internal emotonal experiences (facial feedback hypothesis)
The Facial Feedback Hypothesis
suggests that there is a close link between the facial expressions we show and our
internal feelings, and that this relatonship works in both ways
expressions we show refect our internal feelings or emotons and these expressions
feed back into our brains and infuence our subjectve experiences of emoton
feedback forming our facial muscles do play a role in shaping our emotonal
experiences
Deceptonn Recognizing It Through Nonverbal Cues, and Its Efects on Social Relatons
Lying all-too-common part of social life
1. How good are we at recognizing deceptons by others?
We tend to assume that if people are truthful in one situaton or context, they
will be truthful in others
2. How can we do a beter job at this task?
Microexpressioos – feetng facial expressions lastng only a few tenths of a second (quick,
difficult to suppress)
Ioterchaooel discrepaocies – inconsistencies between nonverbal cues from diferent basic
channels (results from fact that people lying ofen fnd it difficult to control all channels at
once)
Social perceptoo – the process through which we seek to know and understand other
people
Nooverbal commuoicatoo – communicaton between individuals that does not involve the
content of spoken language. It relies instead on an unspoken language of facial expressions,
eye contact, and body language
Atributoo – the process through which we seek to identfy the causes of otherss behavior
and so gain knowledge of their stable traits and dispositons
Impressioo formatoo – the process through which we form impressions of others
Impressioo maoagemeot (self-preseotatoon – eforts by individuals to produce favorable
frst impressions on others
Nonverbal Communicatonn The Unspoken Language of Expressions, Gazes, Gestures, and
Scents
Nonverbal cues irrepressible (difficult to control)n informaton conveyed by such cues and
eforts to interpret this input “nonverbal communicatonn
Nonverbal communicatonn The Basic Channels
1. Facial expressions as clues to otherss emotons
Anger, fear, happiness, sadness, disgust basic emotons, clearly
represented
Emotons can occur in many combinatons and each reacton can vary in
strength
Facial expressions are universal in many diferent cultures
Cultural diferences also exist with respect to the precise meaning of facial
expressions
2. Eye Contact as a nonverbal cue
High level of eye contact with others interpreted as a sign of liking/positve
feelings
o exceptonn stariog – a form of eye contact in which one person
contnues to gaze steadily at another regardless of what the recipient
does
( people already in highly excitable state, interpret anything
approaching a stare from another driver as an aggressive act)
3. Body language as nonverbal cue
Body laoguage – cues provided by the positon, posture, and movement of
otherss bodies or body parts
Especially movements in which one body part does something to another part
(touching, rubbing, scratching) suggests emotonal arousal the greater the
frequency of such behavior, the higher level of arousal or nervousness
, Large-scale body movements or postures sometmes provide important
informaton about otherss emotons, and even about their apparent traits
Gesturesn emblems – body movements carrying specifc meanings in a given
culture
4. Touching as nonverbal cue
Interpretng Informaton about touching depends on the person, the nature of
physical contact, the context in which touching takes place
When touching is appropriate positve reactons in the person being touched
Scentn Another Source of Nonverbal Social Informaton
Body scent as a subtle nonverbal cue
Paralinguistc cues – changes in the tone or infecton of otherss voices
Are Facial Expressions an Especially Important Source of Informaton About Others?
Facial expressions are especially important
Almost impossible to ignore such informaton
o If facial expressions (esp. negatve ones) are seen once, they are stll easier
notced than other stmuli on later occasions
We tend to perceive more in otherss faces than is really there, interpretng the basic
appearance of their faces as suggestve of specifc emotons, even if they arenst really
present
Facial expression play a role in generatng emotons or feelings they can
trigger/infuence internal emotonal experiences (facial feedback hypothesis)
The Facial Feedback Hypothesis
suggests that there is a close link between the facial expressions we show and our
internal feelings, and that this relatonship works in both ways
expressions we show refect our internal feelings or emotons and these expressions
feed back into our brains and infuence our subjectve experiences of emoton
feedback forming our facial muscles do play a role in shaping our emotonal
experiences
Deceptonn Recognizing It Through Nonverbal Cues, and Its Efects on Social Relatons
Lying all-too-common part of social life
1. How good are we at recognizing deceptons by others?
We tend to assume that if people are truthful in one situaton or context, they
will be truthful in others
2. How can we do a beter job at this task?
Microexpressioos – feetng facial expressions lastng only a few tenths of a second (quick,
difficult to suppress)
Ioterchaooel discrepaocies – inconsistencies between nonverbal cues from diferent basic
channels (results from fact that people lying ofen fnd it difficult to control all channels at
once)
