Describe Asch's early work on the idea of central traits. Then discuss how these ideas are related to other research presented on impression formation
What will be an ideal response?
Answer:
Participants were provided with a list of traits that described a stranger. The list was identical across participants, but half of the participants had a list containing the trait "warm" and the other half had a list that included the trait "cold." Participants were then asked to rate the stranger on a variety of other traits. Although the use of either warm or cold was the only difference it resulted in quite different impressions. Those who read "warm" as one of the person's traits also thought this person was likely to be generous, happy, good-natured, sociable, popular, and altruistic. Similar results were found for the central traits "polite" and "blunt." That is these traits even when imbedded in the same list, greatly shaped how the person was perceived.
More recently research has shown that we have implicit personality theories in which we believe that certain sets of traits go hand in hand. The idea of what is beautiful is good is one example of this. We assume that a person who is attractive is also more likely to be socially skilled and polite. Additionally, knowing that a person is a first-born child may also lead us to develop a theory about their personality that indicates they are likely to be responsible, intelligent and so on. In any case a widely held belief about how combinations of traits go together may lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy such that the implicit personality theory becomes quite accurate as the person fulfills those traits. A person who is told they are kind frequently may in fact come to behave in a more kindly way toward others and to additionally live up to associated expectations such as being polite, complimentary, or generous.
You might also like to view...
Critics who argue that immigrants lack the technical knowledge to contribute to the U.S. economy fail to see some fundamental aspects of immigrant success, including which fact?
A. Most legal and illegal immigrants never succeed financially. B. Only a few immigrants come to the United States to get on welfare. C. Immigrants do not contribute more to the U.S. economy than they take away. D. Most immigrants eventually marry into native-born American families.
Identity theft costs victims about ____ and about ____ of personal time
a. $1 billion; 75 million hours b. $1.5 billion; 75 million hours c. $1.5 billion; 100 million hours d. $2 billion; 100 million hours
Because of an eye injury, you have to temporarily wear a patch over one eye. Using your uncovered eye, you notice that there is a small region of the visual field where you cannot see anything. This is known as
A. temporary blindness. B. retinal discontinuity. C. retinal sympathy. D. the blind spot.
The theory which proposes that human behavior represents the outcome of the struggle between inner forces is
A) psychoanalysis. B) feminist theory. C) queer theory. D) learning theory.