Social Cognition 2-Impression & Attribution

Social Cognition 2- Impression Formation and Attribution
1. Impression Formation
When you meet another for the first time, you will have the first opportunity to think and determine who he is. In your brain, the impression formation is formed about him.

• Social Categorization
• Implict Personality Theories

1) Social Categorization

For the impression formation, the information about a new person is categorised automatically and unconsciously.

Sometimes, this social categorization can make problems such as the following:

• Stereotype
• To resolve the stereotype, understand the sterotype and think carefully.

2) Implicit Personality Theories

You can organiae schemas such as categorising certain types of people. This schemas helps you to remember the people. The schemas can be stereotyped when you don't understand and have any experience with others. For an example, if you catergorize some types of people depending on the skin color.

2. Attribution

Attribution refers to the way to explain causes of one's behavior. For an example, you alway say he is a good guy because he showed you good manners or he has a lot of money.

• Situational cause
• Dispositional cause

1) Situational cause

If someone tends to explain cause of one's behavior from external causes such as the weather, traffic, or enviroment, it is said to be a situational cause.

• ex) When you tend to explain cause of your behavior from the situational cause, you always say to the teacher in this way, "I was late because the traffic was terrible".

2) dispositional cause

The cause of behavior is within the individual or internal cause.

• ex) When you tend to explain cause of your behavior from within the individual, the dispositional cause, you always say to the teacher in this way, "You're a great teacher because you're very kind and friendly to me".

3) Fundamental Attribution Error

tendency:

• overestimate the dispositional cause
• underestimate the situational cause

4) Strategies to reduce the attribution error

• Notice how many other people are doing the same thing- one: the dispositional cause, many numbers: the situational cause
• Think what are you doing in the same situation- If a lot of people behave in the same way, the cause of behavior is in the situational cause.