Psychology 2720A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Nonverbal Communication, Social Perception, Eye Contact

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2720A/B
• Professor: Rachel Calogero

Document Summary

Social perception: the study of how we form impressions of other people and make. Psychology 2720a chapter 4: social perception inferences about them. It is generally accepted that the ability to interpret these six emotions is universal. I(cid:373)pli(cid:272)it perso(cid:374)alit(cid:455) theor(cid:455): people"s s(cid:272)he(cid:373)as or ideas a(cid:271)out (cid:449)hat ki(cid:374)ds of perso(cid:374)alit(cid:455) traits go together: e. g. many people believe that is someone is kind, he or she is generous as well. Causal attribution: answering the (cid:862)why(cid:863) question: attribution theory: the study of how people explain the causes of their own and other people"s (cid:271)eha(cid:448)iour. The nature of the attributional process: when trying to decide why people behave as they do (e. g why a father just yelled at his young daughter) we can make one of two attributions. If we conclude that the man yelled because his daughter had just stepped into the street without looking, we would be making an external attribution for his behaviour.