Introduction to Social Psychology

(DLE 2083)

Prepared by:
AHMAD SYAFIQ
BIN MOHD ARIF
CHAPTER 02

PERSON PERCEPTION:
FORMING IMPRESSIONS OF OTHERS
COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES:
CLO1. Describe general information pertaining to social
psychology psychological theories.
CLO2. Demonstrate critical thinking about the major theories and
research findings in social psychology.
CLO3. Explain orally on the theories and principles of social
psychology in everyday behavior.
CHAPTER LEARNING OUTCOMES:
1. Define the concept of self in social psychology.
2. Able to understand human behavior in different situations.
NO. ASSESSMENTS WEIGHTAGE EXPECTED SUBMISSION

1 TEST 20% WEEK 5

2 ASSIGNMENT 20% WEEK 9

3 PRESENTATION 10% WEEK 11

HOW DO WE COME TO UNDERSTAND OURSELVES?
NATURE OF THE SELF
- Perceiving one’s self
- Duality of the self:

1. Self-concept: our knowledge of who we are; the totality of our beliefs and feelings
about ourselves.
2. Self-awareness: the act of thinking about ourselves.
SELF CONCEPT PHYSICAL SELF
“I AM TALL”

ACTIVE SELF
“ I AM GOOD AT
FOUR SPORTS”
COMPONENTS
OF THE SELF SOCIAL SELF
“ I AM NICE TO OTHERS’

PSYCHOLOGICAL
SELF
“I BELIEVE IN PEACE”
THE SELF AS A SOCIAL BEING
Social Identities
The aspects of our self-concept based on our group membership.
- set of values, beliefs, and goals

Ethnic Identity
An individual’s sense of personal identification with a particular
ethnic group.
- a state of mind
HOW DO WE COME TO UNDERSTAND OTHERS?
SOCIAL PERCEPTION
Social Perception
A process through which people see to know and understand others
through:

- Nonverbal Communication
- Attribution
NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION
Communication between individuals that relies on an unspoken language of facial
expressions, eye contact, and body language.

People communicate, intentionally or unintentionally, without words through nonverbal

communication.

Nonverbal behavior is used to express emotion, convey attitudes, communicate

personality traits, and to facilitate or modify verbal communication.
NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION
1. Eye Contact
2. Haptics
3. Facial Expressions
4. Body Language
ATTRIBUTE
Attribution
Process which we use information to make inferences about
causes of behavior or events.
CORRESPONDENT INFERENCE
Describes how people use others’ behavior as a basis for
inferring their stable dispositions (Jones and Davis, 1965)

Eg: You are watching two people work on a project.

Ahmad criticizes Ali strongly for not doing his work
properly.

- You might infer that Ahmad is overly critical.

ERRORS IN ATTRIBUTION
Actor-Observer Effect
The tendency to attribute our own behaviour to situational causes,
but others’ behaviour to internal causes.

Self-Serving Bias
- The tendency to attribute positive outcomes to internal causes but
negative outcomes to external causes

- We tend to take credit for positive behaviours or outcomes, but

blame negative behaviours or outcomes on external causes.
IMPRESSION
Impression Formation
The processes through which we form impressions/images of others.

Impression Management/Self-Presentation
Efforts by individuals to produce favorable first impressions on
others.
IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT
- Research indicates that it does have positive effects.

Eg: First impression on the run – Speed dating

- People are given seven minutes to impress potential dates
- Research indicates that generally people appear to form
initial judgments
about others in about one or two minutes.
THANK YOU
REFERENCES
1. Kassin, S. M., Fein, S. & Markus, H. R. (2017). Social Psychology. Boston, MA:
Cengage Learning.
2. Shaver, K. G. (2016). An Introduction to Attribution Processes. Routledge.
3. Wyer, Jr. R. S. & Carlston, D. E. (2018). Social Cognition, Inference, and Attribution.
Psychology Press.
4. Parkinson, B. (2019). Calibrating emotional orientations: Social appraisal and
other kinds of relation alignment. In D. Dukes & F. Clément (Eds.), Foundations of
affective social learning: Conceptualizing the social transmission of value (pp. 117–
141). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108661362.006