Social Influences on Behavior
Valerie Taylor
PSYC: 2005-11Social Influences on Behavior
Walden University
January 28, 2011
Instructor: Dr. Waller James
Friend of a Friend
The first person is someone whom I’ll probably never see again. Pam a co-worker and I decided to go shopping at the mall. She was being dropped off at my house by a male friend of hers named Demeitrius. He was introduced, and we all had a cup of java before going our separate ways. My initial impression of him was that he was gay, very discriminate about his attire, attractive and a people person. He was well groomed and had this great big smile when we shook hands. Even though we only had just met, he had a lot to say within those thirty minutes. As a matter of fact he over talked Pam and me about shopping deals the entire time fueled with a sense of humor. He was a six feet plus weighing in at around 350 or so and didn’t appear to be a shy person at all and exuded more femininity than I (being female) ever had. He didn’t appear to be self conscious about the shiny lip gloss, green contact lenses or polished nails that he sported. The contour of his speech was different and higher pitched than most men. Generally, a higher pitched voice indicates a person is a liar, but in Demeitrius case; I believe it was an effort to be more feminine. I determined that he was a very likable person.
First Impressions Evaluated
Forming impression entails separate inferences in part by: evaluation, negativity effect, positivity bias, and emotional information. The first thing I did when forming an impression of Demeitrius was an evaluation of liking or disliking him. His great big smile and enthusiastic handshake was received well. “A general evaluative bias in person perception is to evaluate people positively; a phenomenon termed the positivity bias” (Taylor, et al 2006). The social context upon which we met dictated a positive bias, because of the commonality of being friends with the same person. We expected a
PSYC: 2005-11Social Influences on Behavior
Walden University
January 28, 2011
Instructor: Dr. Waller James
Friend of a Friend
The first person is someone whom I’ll probably never see again. Pam a co-worker and I decided to go shopping at the mall. She was being dropped off at my house by a male friend of hers named Demeitrius. He was introduced, and we all had a cup of java before going our separate ways. My initial impression of him was that he was gay, very discriminate about his attire, attractive and a people person. He was well groomed and had this great big smile when we shook hands. Even though we only had just met, he had a lot to say within those thirty minutes. As a matter of fact he over talked Pam and me about shopping deals the entire time fueled with a sense of humor. He was a six feet plus weighing in at around 350 or so and didn’t appear to be a shy person at all and exuded more femininity than I (being female) ever had. He didn’t appear to be self conscious about the shiny lip gloss, green contact lenses or polished nails that he sported. The contour of his speech was different and higher pitched than most men. Generally, a higher pitched voice indicates a person is a liar, but in Demeitrius case; I believe it was an effort to be more feminine. I determined that he was a very likable person.
First Impressions Evaluated
Forming impression entails separate inferences in part by: evaluation, negativity effect, positivity bias, and emotional information. The first thing I did when forming an impression of Demeitrius was an evaluation of liking or disliking him. His great big smile and enthusiastic handshake was received well. “A general evaluative bias in person perception is to evaluate people positively; a phenomenon termed the positivity bias” (Taylor, et al 2006). The social context upon which we met dictated a positive bias, because of the commonality of being friends with the same person. We expected a
Cited: Taylor, S. E., Peplau, L. A., & Sears, D. O. (2006). Social psychology (12th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.