Imagine a world where we all saw everything in the same light. Now, doesn’t that sound boring? Well, thankfully we do not live in a world where everyone perceives the same stimuli in the same manner. Here on planet Earth, we all envision the social world in different ways. Everyone lives severely different lives; therefore, everyone has their own construal. A person’s construal is how they perceive, comprehend, and interpret the social world. There are two basic motives, which help form a person’s construal: self-esteem and accuracy. People often construct their view of the world in a way that either makes them feel better about themselves (self-esteem) or in a way, which supports their previous beliefs about the world (accuracy). However, if these two motives were ever to pull in opposite directions, more often than not, we would change our view on the world in order to keep our self-esteem up. So, what type of properties help make up our construal? There are two main types of properties: objective and subjective. Objective properties are facts or concrete pieces of evidence that an event happened or an object is real. Subjective properties are opinions or ideas about an object or event, which do not hold true with everyone. For example, if Jack was walking up the stairs and he tripped, an objective property of the situation would be “Jack tripped,” and a subjective property would be “Jack is clumsy.”
In an episode of Thirtysomething, Elliot and Nancy get in a fight and it is obvious they do not have the same construals of the evening. When getting ready for dinner Elliot kisses Nancy’s neck, which is an objective property since it is displayed in both perceptions of the couple, but from then on, their perceptions...
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...steem and his motivation to be accurate. When Nancy called him a “little boy” and a “geek,” she caused his self-worth to decrease, and it did not help when she performed her twirling routine. When watching the show, you notice a common theme between everyone’s viewpoints. The owner of the construal portrayed in the show is always innocent. This supports the notion when being pulled in opposite directions, the motivation to protect your self-worth will always prevail.
The concept of construal helps us understand what motivates human behaviors, and it shows us the variation in comprehension of the social world. It also brings to light the importance of situational influence and subjective properties, which, in turn, helps us understand the fundamental attribution error, or the tendency to explain behaviors in terms of personality traits instead of situational.
There are some human phenomena, which seem to be the result of individual actions and personal decisions. Yet, these phenomena are often - on closer inspection – as much a result of social factors as of psychological ones.
With healthcare in the United States advancing so rapidly, there are new ways to treat just about any kind of illness every day. With being able to treat illnesses in new ways, and also the advancement of medical equipment, comes the possibility of a lot more people living up into their 90’s, and maybe even getting to reach 100. The aging population, which keeps growing every so rapidly, will be using up a lot more sources as the years go by. This means, that we need to educate more doctors and nurses, etc., and also make more living facilities for older adults. The question that comes up in my mind, is when is “old” actually”. Most people stereotypically consider ages 75 and older old, but that doesn’t mean they are actually “old”, does it?
Emerging Adulthood represents the period of development from late teens through their twenties, mainly focusing on the ages 18-25. This is the period which people start exploring and realizing the capabilities of their lives, which then helps them characterize as adults and no longer teenagers. This topic of psychology is compelling to me because it’s a stage that every adult has lived through, it’s interesting that we have all experienced it differently based on our life circumstances and demographics. It’s interesting to see the changes throughout the years and eventually it will be easier for young people to explore these years as more young adults are going to school nowadays. It teaches me to further understand why emerging adults go through
Many people’s assumptions are driven by appearance but in some cases the appearance can be
Assumptions influence our perceptions because when assumptions are made, it is often the case that there is not enough information for the assumptions to be accurate. Dillard gives an example that relates to this in her essay when she says, “[We] see what [we] expect” (Dillard 20). When an assumption is formed about a person or situation, then things that agree with that assumption is what is looked for, so that is what will be perceived. This may create inaccurate impressions. Another problem with making assumptions is that it is assumed that there is consistency to others’ behavior and often the focus on negative things about others. When it is assumed that there is consistency to others’ behavior, it is assumed that after seeing them act one way once or twice, they will always act like that. (Beebe 77). These examples relate to another idea that Dillard talks about in her essay. Dillard says, “Peeping through my keyhole I see within the range of only about thirty percent of light that comes from the sun…” (21). This agrees with an idea that people tend to ignore information when making perceptions and only looking at a small portion of the big picture and make perceptions based off of that. An example that relates to all of these would be if someone expects a person to be rude, then whenever those two people interact, rude behavior will be all that is looked for and all that is given any thought. People often form perceptions off of assumptions and small pieces of the big picture which oftentimes makes those perceptions that a person might have
Personality is patterns of thinking, behavior and emotional responses that make up individuality over time. Psychologist attempt to understand how personality develops and its impact on how we behave. Several theories attempt to explain personality, using different approaches. The social-cognitive and humanistic approaches are two of many theories that attempt to explain personality. This essay will identify the main concepts of social-cognitive and humanistic approach, identify perspective differences and discuss approach limitations.
The Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE) is a concept within social psychology that assumes when someone is aggressive, it is due to a flaw in their personality as opposed to a reaction to their personal circumstances (Aronson, Wilson & Akert, 2015). However, there is typically a situational reason for the other person’s behavior that is not taken into account through the FAE (Aronson, Wilson & Akert, 2015). I have been guilty of making the FAE myself; for example, I can think of two situations where my frustration led me to believe that there were flaws in my antagonists’ characters. Recently, my mother wanted me to assist my brother in scheduling classes for the semester. Since I was annoyed that my mother was insisting that I assist him when
The way that each individual interprets, retrieves, and responds to the information in the world that surrounds you is known as perception. It is a personal way of creating opinions about others and ourselves in everyday life and being able to recognize it under various conditions. Each person’s perceptions are used as a kind of filter that every piece of information has to pass through before it determines the effect that it has or will have on the person from the stimulus. It is convincing to believe that we create multiple perceptions about different situations and objects each day. Perceptions reflect our opinions in many ways. The quality of a person’s perceptions is very important and can affect the response that is given through different situations. Perception is often deceived as reality. “Through perception, people process information inputs into responses involving feelings and action.” (Schermerhorn, et al.; p. 3). Perception can be influenced by a person’s personality, values, or experiences which, in turn, can play little role in reality. People make sense of the world that they perceive because the visual system makes practical explanations of the information that the eyes pick up.
As individuals age they will come to a point in their lives where they are considered to be in middle adulthood. According to Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman (2016), middle adulthood is the range from 30-60 which involves physical and health changes (p. 477). Some individuals may take this time to reflect on their lives and be happy will all of the things they have done and look forward to what is still to come and there may be others who feel that should have changed things or even may experience a “midlife” crisis. AllPsychologyCareers website (2016) states, “Midlife crisis is a time of great emotional upheaval, anxiety, and drastic changes in behavior (para. 13). Middle adulthood can be a time of contentment or even regret.
This helps us organize the schemas related to how we see the world despite not always being correct. Assuming that anyone who is kind is also honest and trustworthy is a prime example. That being said self-fulfilling prophecies occur when our beliefs lead us to fulfilling them. If a teacher assumes that a student is intelligent based on factors other than intelligence it can actually push the student to achieve academically. The teacher may dedicate more time to help the student, may call on them more in class, and may give better feedback. If a student believes they are intelligent and capable they are more likely to pursue their studies with greater focus and motivation. What is apparent is that the way people judge and perceive others attributes based on global perceptions and evaluations can in fact affect what opportunities a person is given in life, as well as their
During young adulthood, range from 18- 40 years old, life is quite busy since people are always on the run. It is easy to say that many people do not think what they eat before they eat. Perhaps, it is because of the busy life during young adulthood that has a huge impact in our diet which can be detrimental to our health. In addition, many people have to go to work and school and they end up having little or no time to eat. In this case, they run to the closest fast food place and order something that is not very healthy. According to Fryer and Ervin (2013), “During 2007–2010, adults consumed, on average, 11.3% of their total daily calories from fast food.” Young adulthood is the phase in life that many people consume low nutrient food which
Many individuals, especially psychologist, question how can they describe a person’s personality using theories in order for society to have an understanding of why people behave the way they do. There have been many debates in regards to this question. Some psychologists state that genetics is one of the main factors why people react a certain way, depending on the circumstance. However, other researchers indicate that the environment plays an enormous role on the individual. Although both of these predictions might be accurate, one will not fully understand unless there is more information linked to their arguments. According to trait theories in the book of Psychology, there are multiple theories that explain different types of possibilities to these behaviors, two of them are called Trait Theory and Social-Cognitive Theory.
With regards to human behavior, studies show that social perceptions are formed as a mixture of experience and expectations of how a individuals defining physical or overriding characteristics will impact how we imagine that person to be for instance through their ethnicity, nationality, religion, class or if they are living with a disability. These assumptions are often deep-rooted and formed in childhood.
This perspective suggests that much of human behavior is mediated by thought processes like memory and attention, belief systems, attitudes and language. Belief systems, value systems, thought processes, reason and intelligence have a significant impact on why we do the things we do and act the way we act. The cognitive perspective suggests that much of human behavior is significantly influenced by cognitive processes and is thus amenable to our thoughtful control (1). Cognitive Psychology revolves around the notion that if we want to know what makes people tick then the way to do it is to figure out what processes are actually going on in their minds
Attribution theory suggests that when we observe an individual's behavior, we attempt to determine whether it was internally or externally caused. That determination depends largely on three factors: distinctiveness, consensus, and consistency. Our perceptions of people differ from our perceptions of inanimate objects.