I. Overview

II. Interpreting behavior of others

A. Person Perception: How Do We Form Impressions of Others?

1. Perception is driven by a combination of bottom-up processing and top-down processing, and a similar analysis can be applied to the perception of people.

2. Physical Appearance--

3. Social schema--

4. Stereotypes

5. The Self-fullfilling Prophecy Effect--

6. Prejudice -

B. Attribution theory: Attributing causes to behavior.

1. Attributions are the inferences that are made when people assign causes to behaviors.

2. Covariation Model/Covarions principle

Harold Kelly's theory of attribution (1973): Covariation principle

• Consistency
• Distinctiveness
• Consensus

3. Internal Versus External Attributions.

4. The Fundamental Attribution Error

5. The Actor-Observer effect

The Actor-Observer Bias: