The Different Ways We Evaluate People

valuation and Judgment Checkpoint Evaluation and Judgment Checkpoint Question One What ar the different ways in which we pronounce people? When we meet someone for the first time, we nonice a number of surface characteristicsclothes, gestures, manner of speaking, notion of voice, appearance, and so on. Then, drawing on these cues, we assign the person a ready-made family unit. Associated with each category is a schema (plural schemata), which, is a set of beliefs or expectations somewhat something (in this case, people) that is based on past experience and is presumed to harbour to all members of that category (Fiske & Taylor, 1991).Schemata serve a number of important functions (Gilbert, 1998). First, they allow us to make inferences astir(predicate) other people. We assume, for example, that a friendly person is likely to be good-natured, to accept a societal invitation from us, or to do us a small favor. Second, schemata play a crucial role in how we defend and remember information. Schemata toilette also lure us into remembering things intimately people that we never real observed. Most of us associate the traits of shyness, quietness, and preoccupation with ones own thoughts with the schema introvert.Question deuce How do these factors play a role in our expectations of other people? Over time, as we stay to interact with people, we add new information about them to our mental files. However, our later experiences generally do not influence us nearly so much as our earliest impressions. This is known as the primacy effect. check to Susan Fiske and Shelley Taylor (1991), they point out that human thinkers are cognitive misers. Instead of exerting ourselves to interpret every detail we let out about a person, we are stingy with our mental efforts.Once we have formed an impression about someone, we tend to keep it, even if our first impressions were formed by jumping to conclusions or through evil (Fiske, 1995). Thus, if you already like a new acquaintance, you whitethorn excuse a flaw or frailness you discover later on. Conversely, if someone has made an early bad impression on you, you may go down to believe subsequent evidence of that persons good qualities. Moreover, first impressions can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy. A stereotype is a set of characteristics believed to be shared by all members of a social category.Question Three What are the disadvantages of these expectations? A stereotype is a special kind of schema that may be based on almost any distinguishing feature, but is most often applied to sex, race, occupation, physiologic appearance, place of residence, and membership in a group or organization (Hilton & Von Hipple, 1996). When our first impressions of people are governed by a stereotype, we tend to infer things about them solely on the basis of their social category and to ignore facts about individual traits that are inconsistent with the stereotype.As a result, we may remember things ab out them selectively or inaccurately, thereby perpetuating our initial stereotype. For example, with a quick glance at almost anyone, you can classify that person as male or female. Once you have so categorized the person, you may rely more on your stereotype of that gender than on your own perceptions during further interactions with the person. Stereotypes can tardily become the basis for self-fulfilling prophecies. References Morris, C. & Maisto, A. (2005) Social Psychology. Retrieved November 13, 2009, from The Psychology of Science, Axia College e-Resource.