Psy/201 Social Development

Social Development Research

PSY/201

The article I have chosen to review and summarize for this assignment addresses selectivity during social information processing. It investigates whether or not this selectivity evolves with age and social experience. This article was chosen because it is informative and interesting. The author chose to use the technique of experimentation to analyze whether or not increased age affects the way in which humans process social information. The article provides clear detailed documentation of these experiments and their results. What this article and these experiments suggest provide another piece to the puzzle of social development issues. The test subjects in the experiments (varying in age) were asked to read descriptive behaviors of a person, then to form an impression of that person based on the behaviors described. The behaviors presented were characterized by moral traits and competency traits. The subjects were told to imagine spending the day with a person exuding these behaviors in order to help them form an impression of them. Humans automatically judge all things. They recognize physical traits instantly. Moral traits and competency traits of others are judged as well. This is part of the social information processing procedure. There is natural selectivity involved in this process. Some people will be more drawn to people who possess good moral traits and others will be drawn to those who possess competency traits. The question sought to be answered here is if this selectivity differs with age and social experience. This study suggests that the moral and competency traits that are perceived are processed and valued differently in response to age, social experience, and shifting social goals. This article would be an excellent resource for a research paper based on social information processing and how selectivity is affected by age. This article may not provide enough information

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