Accuracy of person perception: do people know what kinds of impressions they convey?

Do people know what kinds of impressions they convey to other people during particular social interactions? In a study designed to answer this question, subjects interacted individually with three partners on each of four different tasks. After each interaction, participants reported their impressions of the other person's likability and competence. They also postdicted the impressions they believed they conveyed to the other person along the same dimensions. Accuracy was computed as recommended by Cronbach (1955) and by Kenny's (1981) Social Relations Model. Subjects could tell to a significant degree how the impressions they conveyed to their partners changed over time (time accuracy) and how they changed over time in different ways with different partners (differential accuracy). They could also tell how their competence was differentially perceived by different partners (dyadic accuracy). However, they were not very accurate at discerning which partners perceived them as most competent or most likable across all interactions (person accuracy). Subjects believed that they conveyed similar impressions of themselves to all of their partners, although actually partners evidenced little agreement with each other in their impressions of a given subject. The implications of these findings for symbolic-interactionist theories of the development of the self and impression-management perspectives on social behavior are described.     

Integration of stimulus dimensions in perception and memory: composition rules and psychophysical relations

A series of five experiments used the method of magnitude estimation to assess how height and width are integrated in perceptual and in memorial judgments of area. Separate groups of subjects estimated the areas of perceived or remembered rectangles produced by a symmetrical 4 X 4 factorial design of height and width. Additional independent groups of observers made area judgments, based on special mixes of perceptual and memorial information referring to the height and width components of the to-be-judged rectangles. Both perceptual and memory data obeyed the bilinear interaction prediction of the normative multiplicative model. The relation between perceived and actual area as well as the relation between remembered and actual area could both be described by a compressive power function, with the exponent being reliably smaller for remembered than for perceived area. These results seem to imply a principle of integration rule invariance across perceptual and memorial estimates of a given set of stimuli, in conjunction with characteristically different valuation operations.     

Elevation in Response to Entertainment Portrayals of Moral Virtue

Media psychologists have long puzzled over how individuals can experience enjoyment from entertainment such as tragedies that often elicit profound feelings of sadness. The present research examines the idea that a focus on “meaningful” entertainment and affective responses identified as “elevation” may provide a framework for understanding many examples of sad or dramatic entertainment. The results of this study suggest that many types of meaningful cinematic entertainment feature portrayals of moral virtues (e.g., altruism). These portrayals, in turn, elicit feelings of elevation (e.g., inspiration) that are signified in terms of mixed affect and unique physical responses (e.g., lump in throat). Ultimately, elevation also gives rise to motivations to embody moral virtues, such as being a better person or helping others.     

Professional Basketball's Unsportsmanlike Fouls in the Eyes of the Beholders

A series of three experiments, based on the method of Functional Measurement, has explored the importance assigned by professional basketball players to relevant dispositions of defense and offense players, as determinants of unsportsmanlike fouls. The 106 participants were leading male players in the premier basketball league in Israel. Experiment 1 was based on a 16 (2⁴)‐cell model. In an individual meeting, each participant estimated the likelihood that a defense player would commit an unsportsmanlike foul on an offense player. In each of the 16 to‐be‐judged incidents, specific information on a specific combination of aggressiveness and susceptibility to victimisation of two imaginary protagonists in an offense–defense on‐the‐court incident was given to the participant. Experiment 2 was a replication of Experiment 1. There, however, names of 16 well‐known players were mentioned, the aggressiveness and susceptibility to victimisation of each fitting the model requirements. In Experiment 3, a partial replication of Experiment 2, likelihood estimations were made from two perspectives—potential perpetrator and potential victim. Overall, meaningful importance was assigned especially to the dispositions of the perpetrator, not the victim. The findings are conceived as reflections of players' cognitive schemata of on‐the‐court violence. Basée sur la méthode de la mesure fonctionnelle, une série de 3 expérimentations a exploré l’importance que des joueurs de basket professionnels attribuent aux dispositions de joueurs attaquant ou défenseur à commettre des fautes anti sportives. Les 106 sujets sont des joueurs de sexe masculin de la ligue 1 de basket israélienne. L'expérience 1 est basée sur un modèle à 16 (2⁴) cases. Lors de passation individuelle, chaque participant estime la probabilité qu'un joueur arrière commette une faute anti sportive sur un joueur avant. Pour chacun des 16 incidents à juger, une information spécifique a été donnée aux participants. Il s'agissait d'une combinaison particulière de l'agressivité et de la propension à la victimisation des deux protagonistes imaginaires dans une situation d'incident soit offensif soit défensif sur le terrain. L'expérimentation 2 est une réplique de la première. Cependant, les noms de 16 joueurs connus sont mentionnés, l'agressivité et la propension à la victimisation étaient appropriées aux exigences du modèle. Dans l'expérience 3, réplique partielle de la deuxième, la probabilité des estimations a été faite selon deux perspectives: auteur potentiel et victime potentielle. Globalement, une importance significative a été assignée aux dispositions de l'auteur et non de la victime. Les résultats sont conçus comme reflétant le schéma cognitif des joueurs lors de violence sur le terrain.