Some of the ways in which we evaluate people are impression formations, attributions, and our attitudes. Impression formations are often formed through our first impressions. These include their clothes, gestures, manner and tone of speaking, appearance, gender, and often many other things (Morris & Maisto, 2005).
Physical appearance often gives a hint of what and who the person is. The way a person talks and relate to others is another strong criteria often used in evaluating a person. The way a person speaks can tell you about their confidence and what their personality is about. What we know about a person before we meet them plays a role because we have a preconceived concept of what we might be expecting from that person. Attributions focus on why we interpret behaviour as reflecting personal traits or social situations (Morris & Maisto, 2005).
Why a person behaves a certain way is what we ask ourselves and we come to our own conclusions which are attribution. Our attitudes are already set through our beliefs and feelings about things and people.
How do these factors play a role in our expectations of other people?
Our expectations of other people are affected by how we have evaluated them. A well dressed person who speaks very well may give us the impression that the person may be scholarly or a professional. An athletic looking person may give us the impression they like to work out and stay in shape. We could determine that a person who is always late is just lazy (Morris & Maisto, 2005).
The Essay on Person Perception People Stereotypes Process
Person Perception The mental processes we use to form judgements and draw conclusions about the characteristics and motives of other people are called person perception. If you break it down a person is a human and perception is the process of integrating or organizing and interpreting sensations. This, in short, means that person perception is the clues we draw to judge another person. It is ...
How we judge people from our first impressions to the attitudes we have all help us form impressions and expectations of what we see in others. Our background of what we expect to see ripples over into what we expect. When what we have determined we expect is not what we see then we definitely apply attributions in the situation. Most people do have expectations of what they see in a person based on how they look, how they speak, and how they dress. Often, these expectations may not be right.
What are the disadvantages of these expectations?
What we expect of people before we really get to know them has many disadvantages that can cause one to judge a person unfairly. A persons looks and how they dress are often misleading. Just because I meet someone with greasy pants on does not mean that person is a mechanic. That person could be a doctor who decided to work on his car and had to run out and get a part that he was missing. Our perceptions of people are often wrong until we get to know them. People are blinded by our first impressions of others. Most first impressions are lasting, but they can be wrong. A person may also assume expectation on others to meet their personal preferences based on their own experiences. Our stereotype of others leads to inaccurate judgement because it does not allow us to get to know the other person because we already have a perception of that person. Ultimately, our expectations of others, whether it be impression formation, attribution, or our attitude, are a disadvantage to us getting to know the real person on the other side. I once heard a saying, “Check your preconceived notions at the door and you might learn something today.
