FIRST IMPRESSION

First Impression

Table of Contents

Introduction5

Background5

Purpose Statement9

Literature Review11

Methodology20

Participants20

Materials20

Design21

Procedure21

Results23

Table 123

Table224

Table325

Discussion27

References31

Appendix 133

Appendix 235

Abstract

People are quick and good at making assumptions of another person's personality when they enter into contact for the first time. Considering that is the case there should be an agreement between a person's own view of themselves and another person's rating of them on the same trait. Furthermore some traits will be easier to judge then other traits. This study replicated previous studies of understanding first impression by using different method such as face to face contact, the self-stranger ratings using “thin-slice” approach with no consensus at zero acquaintance. 118 undergraduate psychology student form the University of Sunderland were asked to take part at the study as part of their exercise. Big Five Inventory (BFI)-10 was used by the stranger to rate the target (self) and Big Five Inventory (BFI)-44 was used by the self to rate themselves. Results suggest that some traits were easier to judge than other traits, there was consensus between self-stranger ratings for four traits and there was no consensus for just one trait. It is concluded that overall people are good at judging other people's personality.

In an attempt to understand why people act and behave the way they do psychologists has come up with a number of theories to explain personality. Some of the most famous behaviourists include American psychologist B.F. Skinner and Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov, known for their conditioned reflex experiments. While these psychologists focused on conditioned reflexes and other traits of behaviourism, social learning theory looks at behaviour that is controlled by environmental influences rather than purely innate forces and conditioned reflexes. The paper that follows will outline the core differences between the behavioural approach to personality and the social learning approach to personality. This paper will also analyze one of my behaviours.

Introduction

Background

It is a famous conviction that a first impression is a permanent impression. First impressions are vital because they are the primary idea that a person structures about other person and it establishes whether a person chooses to practise any type of association with anyone. People tend to shape impressions of each other rather fast. They use minimal information, such as the sex of the person, appearance, or a brief encounter to draw conclusions about each other; these types of factors can lead people to form remarkably detailed impressions. The observation that a person is wearing conservative clothes, such as a suit and tie, for example, may lead to the interpretation of a variety of other characteristics, such as being conservative politically, or having a conservative job, such as a business man. People also use behavior to draw conclusions about others. For example, if someone observes a classmate helping an elderly person across the street, he or she concludes that the classmate is thoughtful and helpful.

In every day's life people interact with each other and form different judgment about whom they enter in contact with. The way individuals are perceived is important as it helps people form relationships and also guides ...