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A good way to get teaching assistants when there is not a sufficient budget for them is to offer a credit 
course entitled Practicum in Teaching。 Thus; advanced students get credit for learning how to teach; and 
they typically learn the course materials more thoroughly than they did as “students。” This experience 
makes an excellent addition to their vita。 For those who do a good job; the incentive of a letter of 
remendation is often potent。 We may offer first…time undergraduate TAs the option of team…teaching two 
sections in order to share the anxiety; preparation load; and classroom activities。 

Typically; undergraduates at Stanford have taken sections for one credit beyond the units for the lecture 
course。 When the sections are organized around research projects; the grade is based on general class 
performance and attendance; not on any exams。 We have found that making sections optional; instead of 
required; decreases the number of unmotivated students who register for them。 

EXPERIMENTS AND DEMONSTRATIONS 

DOMAIN TITLE 

Social Perception (First class “icebreaker”) Impression Management and Formation 
Sensory Perception Coping with Being Temporarily Blind 
Methodology Reaction Times Can Be Revealing 
Conditioning Salivating for Pavlov 
Memory and Cognition Strategies for Enhancing Memory 
Motivation and Assessment Detecting Guilt and Deception 
Psychopathology Suicide: Intentions and Acts 
Ethics and Research Evaluation and Research Ethics 
Psychotherapy Clinical Interventions 

Both graduate and undergraduate student TAs report that being able to use this set of materials had many 
benefits。 Among them they noted: lessening of anxiety at the start of their teaching experience; increased 
confidence in presenting a variety of topics and approaches; and saved preparation time。 Use of these 
materials enabled TAs to perform different functions across a set of activities and generally created a 

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positive feeling among their students that something worthwhile was happening in the discussion sections。 

379 


IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT AND FORMATION 

OBJECTIVES 

1。 To acquaint class members with one another and to provide a first…session “icebreaker” to get 
students talking。 
2。 To stimulate discussion about how people form impressions about others and how they manage 
the impressions others will form about them。 
3。 To examine how people’s beliefs influence their social judgments。 
4。 To demonstrate how interesting questions can be studied experimentally and how subjects’
responses can be quantified and analyzed。
OVERVIEW 

In the short time that the class has assembled; it is likely that two processes have been going on: impression 
management and impression formation。 Impression management is a plex set of verbal and nonverbal 
behaviors that a person engages in with the intent to appear in a desired way。 Impression formation is the 
process of making judgments about the attributes of other people。 In this section; we will do the following: 

1。 Begin by going around the room and having the students introduce themselves by answering the 
question; “Who Am I?” The “Who Am I?” test is an old projective test that repeatedly asks 
respondents to answer the question “Who are you?” Answering this question gets students to self…
disclose quickly。 After you have gone pletely around the room once; go around the room again; 
having the students answer the same question。 You will find that each time you go around the 
room; students self…disclose more。 This process is very sensitive to your initial remarks; and you can 
easily direct the tone of students’ replies。 Go around the room as many times as practical。 This 
simple activity will pay…off by creating a supportive; friendly; and humane environment that will 
last for the entire term。 
2。 As each student speaks; all others will list up to five adjectives that they think are probably
characteristic of this person。
3。 For three students chosen arbitrarily; list on the chalkboard the adjectives that class members chose 
as descriptive of each person in question。 
4。 Ask the people who were selected whether the adjectives that the class members chose are the ones 
that they intended to generate。 
5 。 Ask students to list the three traits they each think are most characteristic of the course instructor。 
Pool their impressions to determine the frequency of each trait and where there is consensus or 
disagreement。 Ask students for behavioral or perceptual evidence they used to infer each of the 
traits they listed。 Ask them to use the Impression Formation Tally Forms to outline their 
impressions。 
6。 Analyze five different styles of self…presentation。 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION 

In social encounters; we are selective in what we tell other people about ourselves and in what we look for 
in them。 We engage in impression management by giving others information that will lead them to form 
certain conclusions about us。 We also engage in impression formation by seeking out information about 
others in ways that may confirm our initial impressions about them。 This demonstration examines how 
people manage their impressions of others by selectively presenting information that is relevant to some 
goal…in this case; getting a job。 It also explores how people recruit information about others as they form 
impressions about them。 In doing this; the demonstration provides a relatively nonthreatening means for 

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students to bee better acquainted。 

SELF…PRESENTATION STYLES 

Robert Arkin (Ohio State University) improved on this demonstration by adding the following unit on 
individual styles of self…presentation。 See the taxonomy chart (from a research article by Jones and Pittman; 
1982) in which; for each of four types of self…presentation styles; there are four columns of information: a) the 
emotion that the actor wants to arouse (the goal of the interaction); b) the attributions the actor seeks to elicit 
from others about himself or herself; c) the prototypical actions used to achieve those objectives; and d) the 
risks of negative attributions being made instead of the intended one。 Read the chart carefully to get a sense 
of these styles; strategies; and consequences。 

1。 Begin by asking the class; “Suppose you wanted to arouse respect in someone for one of your recent 
acplishments; what would be the impression you would want to create?” (Refer the students to 
their charts。) 
2。 Then; for each of the four styles; mention the emotion to be elicited and have the students infer the 
appropriate style。 
3。 Get the students to generate the attribution sought in order to arouse each emotion。 
4。 Next; have the students give specific actions that would produce the desired emotion (e。g。; 
“Casually mention to your date that; when you were chatting at dinner the other evening at your 
parents’ home in Monaco; she/he told you that”)。 This is; naturally; the fun part。 The examples can 
be wacky。 At some point; work in the name of the style (in this case; self…promotion)。 In addition; the 
fact that one risks making a poor impression (negative attributions risked) can also be fun。 In the 
example above; one could be accused of being a name…dropper or a place…dropper。 
5。 For a lively discussion; ask if there are any sex differences in the use of these styles。 You should; 
however; be aware of sexist stereotypes and use them to advantage as part of the psychology of 
false impression formation。 
PITFALLS TO AVOID 

Because this is the first research section; you will have to strike a difficult balance between encouraging 
students to self…disclose and keeping a lively pace so that there is time to plete the demonstration。 

DISCUSSION; EXTENSIONS; AND EXPERIMENTAL VARIATIONS 

To bring the impression formation idea to life; you can use the following exercise to good effect。 First; ask 
students to guess the basic rules of impression formation。 With reference to a job interview; for instance; ask 
what would be a mon and basic rule to use in making a good impression on the interviewer (or anyone 
else for that matter)。 Students will almost certainly cite the power of first impressions; i。e。; “putting your best 
foot forward。” 

The following experiment illustrates the power of first impressions。 Three groups of subjects participated。 
Each group learned about the performance of an individual taking a test of intellectual achievement (say; a 
test of analogies or anagrams)。 All three groups learned of someone who got approximately 15 of 30 fairly 
difficult items correct。 

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Taxonomy of Self…Presentation Styles


Style Emotion to Be Positive Attributions Prototypical Negative Attributions 
Aroused Sought Actions Risked 
Ingratiation Affection Likable Self…
Characterization 
Opinion Conformity 
Other 
Enhancement 
Favors 
Sycophant 
Conformist 
Obsequious 
Intimidation Fear Dangerous 
Ruthless 
Volatile 
Threats 
(incipient ) 
Anger 
(incipient) 
Breakdown 
Blusterer 
Wishy…Washy 
Ineffectual 
Self…
Promotion 
Respect 
Awe 
Deference 
petent 
Effective 
“A Winner” 
Performance 
Claims 
Performance 
Accounts 
Performances 
Fraudulent 
Conceited 
Defensive 
Supplication Nurturance 
(Obligation) 
Helpless 
Handicapped 
Unfortunate 
Self…Deprecation 
Entreaties For Help 
Stigmatized 
Lazy 
Demanding 

Note: Student Study guide omits terms within each cell so that students can figure them out。 

From Jones & Pittman; 1982 

But the three groups differed in one crucial way。 One group learned of someone (whom they watched on 
videotape) who did well on the first half of the items (say; about 10 of 15 correct); but then did poorly on the 
second half (say; only 5 of 15 correct)。 The second group learned of someone who did about equally well 
through the test (say; about 7 or 8 of the first 15 items correct and about 7 or 8 of the next 15 correct)。 Finally; 
the third group learned about someone who did poorly on the first half of the items (say; about 5 of 15 
correct); but then improved considerably on the second half (say; about 10 of 15 correct)。 

One group judged the performer much brighter than the other groups。 Which one? 

This demonstration raises a number of questions and issues of social perception; but the main point 
illustrated is the power of first impressions。 The group that judged the performer brightest was the 
“descending performance” group。 That is; those who saw a brilliant performance to begin with and then 
saw it deteriorate as time went by。 Why? 

Seemingly; perceivers make snap judgments。 They had decided how smart the guy was by the fifth; eighth; 
or tenth trial。 And; even when they saw the guy’s performance deteriorate; they were unwilling to give up 
their original attribution。 “Well; he’s bright; so he must have gotten bored; or stopped trying this silly; easy 
task; or something 。 。 。“ For the person who began doing poorly; and improved: “He is clearly a bozo。 But he 
must have gotten the message and really started trying。 Finally; he caught on。 Clearly; he’s slow。” 

Again; the perceivers were unwilling to give up their first

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