College of Education
School of Continuing and Distance Education2014/2015 – 2016/2017
SOCI 323
Social Psychology
Session 6 – Social Perceptions
Lecturer: Dr. Peace Mamle Tetteh, Department of SociologyContact Information: [email protected]
Session Overview
What are perceptions? Are opinions the same as perceptions? What factors influence the perceptions we have of people, things or situations? Can we use the perceptions we have of others to explain their behavior? Additionally, how accurate are our perceptions and under what circumstances would these perceptions change and/or not change? These are the questions we shall seek to answer in this session. Specifically in this session, we shall explain how perceptions are formed using non-verbal communication.
At the end of the session, the student will be able to:• define and explain the process of social perception• define non-verbal communication and identify the various channels/cues
of non-verbal communication. • explain how people form perceptions based on non- verbal cues• identify the inaccuracies and the strengths of using non-verbal cues in
social perception.
Social Psychology
Session Outline
The key topics to be covered in the session are as follows:
• Definition of Social Perceptions
• Definition of Non Verbal Communication
• Channels of Non-Verbal Communication
• Uses of Non-Verbal Communication
• Non-Verbal Communication, Technology and Gender
• Sample Question
• Summary of Session
• References
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Reading List
• Read chapter three (3) of the required text and the articles on this session sis, posted on Sakai.
Social Psychology
DEFINING SOCIAL PERCEPTIONTopic One
Social Psychology
What is Social Perception?
• Social perception is ‘the process through which we seek toknow and understand other people (Baron & Branscombe,2012)
• The process involves learning about the temporary causesof behavior as well as the more permanent causes ofbehavior.
• To obtain information about the temporary causes ofothers behavior (feelings and emotions) we focus on non-verbal cues which are provided by others facial expressions,eye contact and body posture or movements.
Social Psychology
What is Non-Verbal Communication?
• This is communication between individuals that does not involvethe content of spoken language. It relies instead on an unspokenlanguage of facial expressions, eye contact and body language(Baron & Branscombe, 2012)
• In many situations, behavior is strongly affected by temporaryfactors and causes (shifting moods, emotions, fatigue etc). Thus tounderstand behavior, you must pay significant attention to such nonverbal communication as people may not want to talk about howthey feel even if asked.
• Thus, non verbal communication reveals much insight into otherpeoples’ moods and feelings from silent language.
• The most revealing non verbal cues involve facial expressions (eyecontact), body movements and posture (body language).
Social Psychology
CHANNELS OF NON VERBAL COMMUNICATION
Topic Two
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Facial Expressions
• This channel of communication has the longest history of research,starting with Darwin’s book in 1872.
• Many researchers have suggested that much human feelings, emotionsand attitudes are reflected on the face.
• The renowned philosopher Cicero indicates that, “The face is the imageof the soul”.
• Research (Rozin et al 1994) have indicated that five basic emotions areexpressed on the face namely happiness, sadness, fear, anger, disgust.These emotions tend to be the first to appear in human development.
• A sixth emotion has been suggested as another emotion but currentresearch is mixed on this. It thus suggests that though humans express thisemotion, it may not be as basic as the other five.
• Its important to note that even though only 5/6 emotions are named,humans are capable of expressing many more emotions than these.
Social Psychology
Facial Expressions
• Facial expressions are universal. People in all situations faced withsimilar emotion provoking situations express similar cues.
• Also despite the geographical locations, these expressions aremeaningful to all people. Thus, all humans can encode (express oremit non verbal behavior) and decode (interpret the meaning ofthe non verbal behavior other people express).
• Non verbal cues are therefore ‘specie specific’ and not ‘culturespecific. In other words they are specific to humanity and not to aparticular culture.
• Zagonc (1985) suggests that facial expressions and the capability touniversally recognize and or interpret them has survival value.Thus, through the process you can warn others of impendingdanger or can help prepare them for aggression against outsideattackers (through signs of facial anger).
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Facial Expressions
• However, even though many non verbal cues can be decoded by others who arewatching, it sometimes can be a challenging task. Your decoding of others nonverbal cues can be inaccurate. This happens because of three reasons namely:
• Affect blends (facial expressions in which one part of the face registers oneemotion while another part of the face registers a different emotion.)
• Pretence: The instance when people try to appear less emotional than they are sothat others will not know how they really feel.
• Culture (Ekman et al): Every culture has ‘display rules’ (culturally defined rulesabout which non verbal behaviors are appropriate to display). For instance,cultural norms discourage Ghanaian men from emotional displays such as grief orcrying (‘Barima nsu’- a man does not cry).
• Again in Japan cultural rules dictate that women should not exhibit a broaduncontrolled smile- if they do they hide it behind their hands (France, Hecht, &Paluck, 2003).
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Eye Contact
• You can learn about others feelings through the eyes (love, joy, sadnessetc) - “the eyes are the windows to the soul”.
• A high level of gazing or eye contact may be signs of liking orfriendliness (Lienke 1986). Too much and continuous gazes (staring)may be interpreted as a sign of hostility or anger (Ellsworth and Carlsmith, 1973). It may also mean friendliness, attraction, suspicion oreven surprise, depending on the situation.
• This non verbal cue is also shaped by culture. In some cultures, directeye contact may be considered invasive or disrespectful, whereas inothers avoiding eye contact may be suspicious.
• For instance in some Asian countries and even in traditional Ghanaiansociety, you are not expected to look directly into an adults eye as asign of respect. However in other places as the United States, you mustnot avoid eye contact if you want to portray yourself as an honestperson.
Social Psychology
Eye Contact
• This non verbal cue is also shaped by culture. Insome cultures, direct eye contact may be consideredinvasive or disrespectful, whereas in others avoidingeye contact may be suspicious.
• For instance in some Asian countries and even intraditional Ghanaian society, you are not expected tolook directly into an adults eye as a sign of respect.
• However in other places as the United States, youmust not avoid eye contact if you want to portrayyourself as an honest person.
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Body Language
• Body language refers to cues provided by the position,posture and movements of others’ bodies or body parts. Bodylanguage often reveals much about other peoples’ emotionalstates.
• Large amounts of movements, especially ones in which aparticular part of the body does something to another (e.g.scratching, lip licking, rubbing) suggest emotional arousal ornervousness (Knapp 1978).
• Body movements can also reveal much about others physicalstatus (e.g. age, vigor, and gait). Thus, though you may not seepeoples’ faces, their current moods and emotions can beknown through the movements and positions of their bodies.
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Gestures and Emblems
• Gestures are an aspect of body movements. An typeof gestures is Emblems: are body movements thatcarry a highly specific meaning in a given culture (e.g.thumbs up).
• Emblems vary from culture to culture, though allhuman situations have some emblems that havemeaning to all- examples- greetings, departures,insults etc.
• Can you think of any emblems specific to yourculture?
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OTHER SOURCES OF NON VERBAL COMMUNICATION
Topic Three
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Communicating Via Personal Space
• How people use personal space is another form of nonverbal communication. Standing ‘too far’ or ‘too close’ fromothers while you speak to them may affect theirimpressions about you.
• Again, cultures vary in what they consider ‘normal’ spacingor the normative use of personal space.
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Communicating Via Touch
The factors to consider in this context are:
• Who does the touching (a family member, friend stranger,gender etc)
• What is the nature of the physical contact or touch (gentle orrough; brief or prolonged)
• Which part of the body is touched (handshake, hug, pat onthe back etc)
• The context within which this touching takes place (in adoctors office, a social setting as a stadium or theatre etc)
• Depending on these factors, touch can suggest several thingsfrom affection, love to hatred.
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Communicating Via Body Scent
• Research has identified body scent as a subtle non-verbal cue
• Miller & Maner (2010) found a correlation betweenshifts in body chemistry occurring during women’smenstrual cycle and others (especiallymen)testosterone levels.
• Thus changes in body chemistry, reflected in subtlechanges in body odour, can serve as an informationalnon verbal cue (Baron & Branscombe, 2012:75)
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USES OF NON VERBAL COMMUNICATION
Topic Four
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Self Presentation
• Non verbal cues apart from being an important source ofinformation about others are useful for social interaction. It isused mainly in self presentation and in the detection ofdeception.
• Self presentation involves the use of several techniques designedto create a favorable impression of yourself to others. Non verbalcommunications have been used to induce favorable reactions inothers by people controlling their non verbal behaviors.
• If you want to impress people, you may smile frequently, leanforward, maintain high eye contact, and nod in agreement atyour target person’s statements in situations as a job interview,dates and social events.
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NVC & Detection of Deception
• Micro Expressions: This refers to fleeting facial expressionslasting only a few tenths of a second. Such reactions appearvery quickly before persons can put their masks on (Ekmanand Friessent 1976).
• Eye Contact: ‘The eyes have one language everywhere’(George Herbert- English Poet 1593-1633). When individualsavoid your gaze or blink frequently they most probably arenot being truthful. (Klienke, 1986).
• Liars also show more dilated pupils than those who are tellingthe truth. They may also show an unusually low level of eyecontact or an unusually high one as they try to fake beinghonest by looking others right in the eye.
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NVC & Detection of Deception
• Adapters: This refers to instances when individuals move their hands and touchvarious parts of their body while speaking. In more cases than not, the person islying. You may notice that some people scratch their head, twist their fingers, pulltheir nose or chin etc. These may all be indications of deception.
• Exaggerated facial Expressions: Persons who are lying may sometimes showexaggerated facial expressions like smile more or too broadly. Sometimes you maymistakenly think that those who smile at you cannot deceive you. But smiling iscommonly used by deceivers to hide their feelings.
• Again the structure of peoples face (when people portray a sweet ‘baby face’ youtend to think that they are truthful). In such cases, you could pay attention toother non verbal cues or body movements.
• Another way to know if a person is lying is when they show greater sorrow than istypical in a given situation. For example if someone says ‘no’ to a request you havemade, and then shows exaggerated regret, it may most likely be that the reasonsthe person is giving you for saying ‘no’ are not exactly true.
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NVC & Detection of Deception
• Inter-channel Discrepancies: Differences noticed between differentchannels or NVC may be an indication of deception
• Changes in Speech (Para language): some aspects of people’slinguistic style can be revealing of deception. Instances of pitch ofvoice rising slightly (Zukerman et al 1981), many pauses andsentence repairs and hesitations (Stiff et al 1989), shorter answers,slower speech, ahs and uhms, fast speech may suggest deception.
• That is, if you know someone to be a fast talker/or a slow talker andall of sudden, in response to something, they start taking too fast orslow, you may need to watch closely for deception.
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Sample Question
• ‘With non-verbal communication, you cannot, not communicate’. Discuss.
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NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION: TECHNOLOGY & GENDER
Topic Five
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Gender and NVC
• Many studies have indicated that women are better than men atboth encoding and de-coding non verbal information.
• However, the exception is that women are good at de-coding nonverbal cues when a person is telling the truth, whilst men are betterat detecting lies (Rosenthal & De Paolo, 1979).
• This has been explained by Alice Eagly’s (1987) social role theory.This theory explains that the social expectations and roles assignedwomen by society, makes them more polite, nurturing, friendly andsensitive than men. Thus, in the face of deception, they turn offtheir non verbal cue decoding skills in polite deference to thespeaker.
• Also, because women usually occupy many low positions in society,it tends to be more important for women to have to be more politeand accommodating than it is for men (Deaux & Major, 1987).
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Technology and NVC
• The dilemma and challenge with e-mails (social media) is thatwords go out but there are no non verbal cues to give themadditional meaning.
• Emotions (humor, sadness, sarcasm) are stripped away andthe words stand alone, open to potential misinterpretations.
• To prevent this, we sometimes try to add emoticons but someof these emoticons are difficult to interpret or areinappropriate to use especially when the message is formal.
• Thus, words alone as used in e-mail communication can beeasily misunderstood, which may lead to problems forinterpersonal relationships.
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Summary of Session
• In this session we have explain how the temporary causes of behavior can be explained using non-verbal communication
• Non-verbal communication occurs through many cues. Ones ability to decode and encode these cues and their obvious and subtle meanings help in self presentation and in detecting deception.
• Technology has made the interpretation of some nonverbal cues quite complex
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References
• Robert, B. and Branscombe, N. (2012). Social Psychology. 13th Edition. Pearson Education, Inc.
• Aronson, E., Wilson, T. & Akert, R. (2007) Social Psychology. 6th Edition. Pearson Education Inc.
• Aronson, E., Wilson, T. & Akert, R. (2010) Social Psychology. 7th Edition. Pearson Education Inc.
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