Thursday, April 15, 2010

Social Cognition : Impressions, Impression Formation

Definition -
Formulation of tentative conceptions about others' emotions, motivations and personalities by gathering and interpreting situational and behavioral cues.

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Impression Formation
1) Non-verbal communication
  • physical characteristics
  • face problem/expression
  • eye contact
  • posture, gait, movement
  • open/closed posture
  • gestures
  • proxemics
2) Verbal communication
Two levels of assessment are involved:

Semantic - content/ what shit they talking
Expressive - tone, volume/ how the fuck they talking

3)Paralinguistic Cues
Variations in speech
  • intonation, volume, pitch
  • word emphasis
  • pauses/hesitation
'Who are you?'
'WHO...are...YOU!!!!??'

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Impression Formation : Principles

1)Formed through direct/indirect contact
2)Evaluated from limited external information
3)Impressions partly based on stereotypes (schema)
4)First impressions initially based on outward appearance
5)Primary Effect - First impressions form a base for subsequent judgements
6)3 Levels of judgements : physical, socio-cultural, psychological

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