Interpersonal Communication Q3
True/False: A "recency effect" occurs when we pay attention to the first pieces of information we receive about a person or situation.
False
True/False: Culture is something that is inherited through genetics.
False
True/False: If we assume a person's behavior was caused by an internal factor or personality characteristic, then we attribute his or her behavior to a stimulus.
False
True/False: Imposing consistency is an effective tactic for improving your perception skills.
False
True/False: People prefer complex explanations to simple ones.
False
True/False: People tend to give more weight to positive information than negative information about others.
False
True/False: Selective attention is the process of exposing ourselves to situations that reinforce how we make sense out of the world.
False
True/False: The three stages of the interpersonal perception process are: select, organize, and integrate.
False
True/False: When we use the most obvious and vivid information available upon which to base our perceptions of others, we are oversimplifying.
False
True/False: With the exception of the United States, stereotyping is NOT common in other countries and cultures around the world.
False
True/False: Your perceptions of another person are seldom influenced by who you are.
False
Which of the following statements about perceptual accuracy is TRUE?
People give more weight to negative information than to positive information.
Some of our experiences are too painful to remember. XXXX helps us repress such memories
Selective recall
True/False: A "halo effect" occurs when we attribute positive qualities to someone we like without ever actually observing those qualities.
True
True/False: A construct is a bipolar quality that we use to classify people.
True
True/False: An implicit personality theory is essentially a stereotype.
True
True/False: Fritz Heider says all people are "naive psychologists" because we try to understand and explain the motives behind another's actions.
True
True/False: Interpersonal perception is a two-way street. Our perceptions of others affect the ways in which we communicate with them, and their perceptions of us affect the way they communicate with us.
True
True/False: Interpersonal perception is the process by which we evaluate people and interpret their actions.
True
True/False: Refusing to see the good side of someone you dislike may be the result of a horn effect.
True
True/False: When we become aware of a sound or movement, simply because it breaks through our sensory threshold, we are engaged in passive perception.
True
True/False: When we focus our attention on certain elements of our environment and ignore other stimuli, we are engaging in selective perception.
True
You see your friend Alexis sitting quietly, leaning forward with his head in his hands. As you approach him, you say, "Alexis, you look like you are really tired." True/False: Your statement is an example of a direct perception check.
True
Miguel is a freshman attending the university for the first time. He is confused and uncertain about where he is supposed to go for dinner. He spots several of the residents of his dorm leaving his floor and going downstairs, which he concludes that since it's about dinner time, must be in the direction of the cafeteria. He decides to follow and see if they lead him to the cafeteria. Which of the following processes is Miguel most likely employing?
active perception
When we perceive elements of our environment because we are motivated to select specific particular information, we are engaged in
active perception.
Which of the following is an example of direct perception checking?
asking someone if your perception is accurate
Sarah has been a faithful member of your study group all semester. But tonight she not only didn't show up, but she can't be reached on her cell phone. You remember that her father has been seriously ill and infer that Sarah has probably had to rush home to tend to him. Which process of perceptual organization and interpretation did you use in arriving at this conclusion?
attribution theory
The theory that explains how we generate explanations for other people's behavior is
attribution theory.
Uncertainty reduction theory suggests that we seek information in order to
better understand our own motives.
Which process of perceptual organization is used when we try to determine whether a person's actions are caused by circumstance, a stimulus, or the person whose behavior we are interpreting?
causal attribution theory
The process of organizing information we receive by filling in missing information is called
closure.
Each of the following is one of the causes we use to determine the cause of a person's behavior EXCEPT
genetic makeup.
Rex likes Karl, in part, because he thinks Karl is fun, smart, and energetic. When Paul points out to Rex that Karl is a terrible driver, Rex refuses to believe it. Perhaps Rex's perception is clouded by the
halo effect.
All of the following are processes of interpersonal perception EXCEPT:
identifying barriers to accurate perception
Which barrier to accurate perception is involved when we fail to focus on important information because we give too much weight to obvious and superficial information?
ignoring information
Which process of perceptual organization and interpretation is being used when we use information we think we know about a person to make assumptions about things we don't know about the person?
implicit personality theory
Rebecca is nervous and fidgets during her job interview with Calder. She is hired anyway, but Calder is surprised when he sees her at work on her first day and she is calm and collected. Calder may be guilty of the perceptual mistake of
imposing consistency.
Mr. Johnson is interviewing college students for a summer internship program in the public relations department. When Josephus enters the room, Mr. Johnson initially sees a young man, well groomed, in a three-piece suit. Then he notices that Josephus' shoes are not polished. Mr. Johnson decides that Josephus simply will not do for the job. Which process of perceptual organization and interpretation did Mr. Johnson most likely employ?
impression formation
The theory that explains how you develop perceptions about people and how you maintain and use those perceptions to interpret their behaviors is called
impression formation theory.
You aren't sure if Amy is mad at you or just in a bad mood. Trying to figure it out, you pay close attention to her tone of voice, her eye contact, and body movements. Since she speaks quite pleasantly to some of the others around you, but avoids eye contact with you, and speaks in short, clipped sentences when you ask her questions, you decide she is mad at you. Which strategy for improving perceptions did you use?
increasing your awareness
When we look for nonverbal cues to help us understand how a person is feeling about something we did, we are engaging in
indirect perception checking.
You shake hands with someone and notice that the hands are hard and callused. You might infer that this person worked with his hands. And since he is wearing coveralls, you assume he is a farmer. Which stage of the perceptual process would be reflected in this example?
interpreting or attributing meaning
Peter noticed that Bill came to class late one day. When he met Bill later at a party, he turned to one of his friends and remarked, "Yeah, Bill's the guy I told you about who comes to class late all the time." The perceptual barrier Peter is exhibiting is
overgeneralizing.
Maria is sitting in a study area in the library trying to study a lesson in which she really isn't interested. All of a sudden, she smells cologne, which causes her to look up. Which of the following processes is Maria most likely employing?
passive perception
When we perceive elements of our environment simply because our senses are in operation, we are engaged in
passive perception.
When Beth first met Katie at work, Katie was impatient, stressed out, and irritable. For quite a while, Beth had a negative impression of Katie, and tried to avoid her. In reality, Katie is kind and even-tempered. Which of the following best describes why Beth persisted in seeing Katie in a negative light?
primacy effect
Mary goes to the gym to exercise after work because she says her husband, John, comes home late every night. John stays at work late because he says Mary works out every night anyway. Which principle of organizing and imposing structure is involved?
punctuating
A woman observes what she believes is her husband flirting with the waitress at a restaurant where the couple is having dinner. The husband claims he only smiled at the waitress and that in any case, it was because his wife was acting angry anyway. The wife says she was angry because he was flirting. The disagreement about what happened can best be explained by which process in the organizing stage of the perception process.
punctuation
What is the proper ordering of the stages by which we come to make sense of the various stimuli around us?
selecting, organizing, interpreting
Our tendency to put ourselves in situations that reinforce our attitudes, beliefs, values, or behaviors is known as
selective exposure.
What process is involved when we direct our attention to specific elements of our environment and ignore others?
selective perception
When Lori got an A on her music history paper, she concluded that she was indeed smart. The next week, however, when she failed her biology test, she blamed the professor's "confusing" questions for her poor result. Lori is using what barrier to accurate perception?
self-serving bias
Our tendency to take credit for the good things that happen to you, but deny responsibility for the bad things is called the
self-serving bias.
The theory that suggests that a person's social position, power, or cultural background influences how the person perceives the behavior of others is called
standpoint theory.
When we categorize individuals and attribute a set of qualities to them because of their membership in that category, what perceptual process are we using?
stereotyping
When Brad ran out of the party crying, Sarah suspected he had broken up with June. She is attributing Brad's behavior to the
stimulus.
Searching for and applying patterns in our perceptions of structures and people is called
superimposing.
After the first day of classes Hadya has already decided that her economics professor is strict ("He said he doesn't tolerate cell phones"), her art professor is flaky ("She came in late because she couldn't find the room"), and her communication professor is fun ("He sat on the desk and started to learn all of our names"). What process has Hadya used in forming her perceptions?
thin slicing
