Individual versus provided constructs, cognitive complexity and extremity of ratings in person perception

Abstract.— Bruner & Tagiuri's (1954) concept of implicit personality theory, and Kelly's (1955) theory of personal constructs were used as a basis for a hypothesis that an individual's own constructs mediate more differentiated perceptions of other people than constructs provided by the experimenter. The hypothesis was tested by using four indices of cognitive complexity and one index of extremity of ratings to measure differentiation. The individual constructs were derived by using Reptest. The provided constructs were Semantic Differential and Personality Differential scales. The subjects were 36 psychology students. Two experimenters were employed to control experimenter effects. The data did not support the hypothesis but showed that differences between individual constructs and provided constructs are dependent upon which criterion is chosen to contrast the two types of constructs, which indices are used to measure the chosen criterion, and what type of provided constructs are compared with individual constructs.     

Structural representations of person perception A comparison between own and provided constructs

Abstract.— The dimensions of perceiving other people were compared from two types of data, one representing a person's individual constructs and indexed by two different rating methods (Reptest technique and Similarity Ratings), the other constructs provided by the experimenter, also measured by two methods (Semantic Differential and Personality Differential). Thirty-one female psychology students, rated fifteen role figures by using the four methods. Indices of factorial and cluster similarity of roles showed that the different rating methods yielded highly similar role structures. Each congruent factor and cluster could also be characterized by identical trait properties, but there were also important differences between the methods. Especially family roles formed factors and clusters that were not similar in the four sets of data. The results are discussed within the context of Kelly's personal construct theory.     

The convergent validity of four indices of cognitive complexity in person perception A multi-index multimethod and factor analytical approach

Abstract.— An application of the Campbell and Fiske multimethod-multitrait analysis and factor analysis was used to study the convergent validity of the following indices of cognitive complexity: Bieri's Index, Vannoy's Interaction Variance Measure, Number of Factors, and First Factor Percentage. In the analysis the individual constructs elicited by Reptest were contrasted with two sets of provided constructs, namely Semantic Differential and Personality Differential scales. The subjects were 36 psychology students. The results indicated that the convergent validity of the indices over construct type was low and that the construct type had an effect upon the intercorrelations of different indices of cognitive complexity.     

Automaticity of chronically accessible constructs in person x situation effects on person perception: it's just a matter of time

Models of Person X Situation influences on social behavior and judgement have invoked two distinct mechanisms: a personality disposition and a situational press. In this study we conceptualized both influences in terms of a single underlying mechanism, construct accessibility. We pitted the characteristic ways that individuals perceive others against situational influences on accessibility (i.e., contextual priming) and tracked over time the relative power of these competing influences on the outcome of an impression-formation task. Subjects possessed either a chronically accessible (chronics) or an inaccessible (nonchronics) construct for either outgoing or inconsiderate behavior. As predicted, as the delay since the priming event lengthened (from 15 to 180 s), chronics were progressively more likely to use the chronically accessible construct instead of the primed alternative construct to categorize an ambiguous target behavior, whereas nonchronics' relative use of the primed and alternative constructs did not change as a function of postpriming delay.     

Individual cognitive style affects flood-risk perception and mitigation intentions

Risk perception of natural hazards has been widely studied as one of the potential determinants of people's behaviors and behavioral intentions. However, individual differences can also affect risk perception. The present work focused on the link between an individual cognitive mindset (i.e., level of holism) and flood-risk perception. It also assessed the consequences of such a link on public and personal mitigation intentions, taking into account the sense of connection with the environment, the psychological distance from the adverse event, and the role played by previous personal experience with flooding. Our study (N = 191) showed that the individual cognitive style predicted risk perceptions and personal (for both experienced and no-experience groups) and public (only for experienced group) mitigation intentions, through the mediation of the sense of connection with the environment and the psychological distance from the adverse event. Results are discussed in terms of their practical implications for public communication and policies about environmental hazards.     

Multifarious person perception: How social perceivers manage the complexity of intersectional targets

Stereotyping plays an important role in how we perceive the members of social groups. Yet stereotyping is complicated by the fact that every individual simultaneously belongs to multiple social groups. For example, the stereotypes that are called to mind about a Black individual can vary depending on that person's age, gender, and sexual orientation. This phenomenon—termed intersectional stereotyping—has recently inspired a variety of intriguing research findings. But these research findings pose challenges for prevalent theories of stereotyping. These prevalent theories tend to argue either that (a) perceivers inevitably attend to certain social identities (e.g., gender) when stereotyping intersectional targets, or that (b) perceivers inevitably attend to all detectable social identities at once. In contrast to these perspectives, we argue that perceivers generally attend to just one social identity (or one intersection of identities) at a time when stereotyping intersectional targets, as a function of the social context. For example, gay Black men can be alternately stereotyped as gay people, as Black people, as men, or as gay Black men specifically. The approach described here can account for a diverse array of findings emerging from research on intersectional stereotyping. Moreover, by specifying the factors that render particular identities salient in the minds of social perceivers, this approach offers clear and falsifiable predictions regarding the situated stereotyping of multifaceted individuals.     

Facial expressive cues in person perception.

The effect of facial expressions on estimates of the likelihood that a person will again commit an offense for which he has been arrested was studied. Such information did not affect estimates of 34 male and 36 female undergraduates as much as did the objective information provided about the offense. The results suggest directions for research on the role of facial expressions in interpersonal judgments.     

Negativity and positivity effects in person perception and inference: Ability versus morality

The present paper deals with negativity and positivity effects in trait inferences and impression formation. In the first experiment we tested the suggestion of Skowronski and Carlston (1987) that in the domain of morality negative information is more diagnostic, will therefore receive more weight and result in a negativity effect whereas in the domain of abilities, positive information is more diagnostic resulting in positivity effects. Results of our first experiment support these predictions: negative behavioural information leads to more certain inferences concerning morality and positive behavioural information leads to more certain inferences concerning ability. In a second experiment, we investigated the relative weight of positive versus negative ability-and morality-related traits in an impression formation task. We counterposed traits from both morality and ability domains to see which was the most dominant in determining evaluative impressions. Findings of this second experiment showed strong negativity effects but also revealed that information related to morality is more influential in forming an evaluative impression than equally extreme information related to ability. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Diversity in the person,diversity in the group: Challenges of identity complexity for social perception and social interaction

Social psychological research is increasingly coming to grips with the complexity of social identity within the individual, both from the perspective of perceivers trying to form impressions and make judgments about multiply categorizable targets, as well as from the perspective of actors using their different self‐aspects as a framework for guiding their interactions with the social world. I review several contributions to the effort to better understand these issues and then explore some of their possible implications for understanding the nature and consequences of diversity within the group. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of alcohol on person perception: a social cognitive neuroscience approach

The acute effects of alcohol on cognitive processing of expectancy violations were investigated using event-related brain potentials and a cued recall task to index attentional and working memory processes associated with inconsistency resolution. As predicted, expectancy-violating behaviors elicited larger late positive potentials (LPP) and were recalled better than expectancy-consistent behaviors. These effects were moderated by alcohol and the valence of initial expectancies. For placebo group participants, positive targets performing negative behaviors elicited the largest LPP responses and were recalled best. For those in the alcohol groups, negative targets behaving positively elicited the largest LPP and recall responses. These findings suggest that alcohol does not globally impair working memory processes in person perception but instead changes the nature of valenced information processing. Findings are discussed in the context of alcohol's effects on working memory processes, reward sensitivity, and the prefrontal cortical structures thought to mediate them.     

Chromaticity, spatial complexity, and self-motion perception

The effects of visual field color and spatial complexity on self-motion perception were investigated by placing observers inside a large rotating cylinder (optokinetic drum). Under optokinetic-drum conditions visually induced self-motion (vection) is typically perceived within 30 s, even though all forms of sensory input (eg vestibular, proprioceptive, auditory), except vision, indicate that the observer is stationary. It was hypothesized that vection would be hastened and vection magnitude increased by adding chromatic colors and spatial complexity to the lining of an optokinetic drum. Addition of these visual-field characteristics results in an array that shares more visual-field characteristics with our typical environment that usually serves as a stable frame of reference regarding self-motion perception. In the color experiment, participants viewed vertical stripes that were: (i) black and white, (ii) various gray shades, or (iii) chromatic. In the spatial complexity experiment, participants were presented with: (i) black-and-white vertical stripes, or (ii) a black-and-white checkerboard pattern. Drum rotation velocity was 5 rev. min(-1) (30 degrees s(-1)), and both vection onset and magnitude were measured for 60 s trials. Results indicate that chromaticity and spatial complexity hasten the onset of vection and increase its perceived magnitude. Chromaticity and spatial complexity are common characteristics of the environments in which our visual system evolved. The presence of these visual-field features in an optic flow pattern may be treated as an indicator that the scene being viewed is stationary and that the observer is moving.     

Person, situation, and person-by-situation interaction components in person perception

The hypothesis that people store situation and person-by-situation interaction information as well as trait information about one another's behavior was tested by administering modified S-R Inventories of Anxiousness and Hostility to 54 male and 59 female undergraduates. Subjects rated the strength of affect that would be evoked by a series of situations in the two same-sex college students whom they knew best, the best-known opposite-sex person, a casually known same-sex person, and the “average college student.” Indices were constructed to measure the extent of (a) perceived average differences among people (traits), (b)perceived average differences over situations, and (c) perceived person-by-situation interaction. Analyses of variance showed that: (a) the ratings of the two best-known same-sex persons and the best-known opposite-sex person contained more interactive information than did the ratings of a casually known person and (b) females perceived more situational variability in the behavior of their own sex than did males. The amount of perceived person-by-situation interaction did not differ as a function of sex of rater or affect to be rated. It was concluded that the naive psychologist, like many professional psychologists, is an interactionist.     

Sequential development of cognitive complexity.

It has been demonstrated by Bieri and others that cognitive complexity is a meaningful personality construct for adults and older adolescents. The present study investigated by use of the Adapted Modified Role Repertory Test and the Modified Role Repertory Test possible developmental change in a child's system of role constructs, i.e., a child's ability to construe social behavior in a multi-dimensional way. Subjects were 90 third, 99 fifth, 90 seventh, and 89 ninth grade children, and 83 adults. Data suggest that with time a child's system of constructs becomes more differentiated. Therefore, development is accompanied by greater cognitive complexity.