The Social Psychological Theory - Essay Example

? Social Perception and Self-representation Social Perception and Self-representation The social psychological theory seeks to explain the codes of behavior that different people project. It also defines the factors that affect these behavioral codes. There are many concepts surrounding the social psychological theory. One of the concepts of the social psychological theory is social perception. One of the factors that affect social perception is self-presentation. This paper will analyze the behaviors of people in a social setting and examine how perception and self-presentation affect behavior in a social setting. Observations Observing people in a shopping mall in New York City provided an opportunity to ascertain different concepts of the social psychological theory. Saturday is a busy day in the mall and this made it easy to observe people without any hint that I was watching. I began making my observations at the entrance. The security personnel at the gate exhibited unique tendencies. Usually, the security personnel treated people differently. I watched a casually dressed young black man walking into the mall. One of the officers scrutinized him thoroughly and addressed him discourteously. The young man seemed to be getting impatient with their scrutiny, and was beginning to portray impolite prompts. However, they allowed him into the mall but after a while. The next man in line was an elegant white man. The security officer checking him did not pay much attention to detail and allowed him in without much struggle. I was the third in the line and after the officers scrutinized my handbag, I walked in. On getting into the mall, I continued making further observations. I noticed that each time male customers needed assistance from the assistance; they found it easier to approach only one of the female attendants. Out of ten male customers buying clothing, approached her for help. Each time, the female attendant seemed to understand their needs and they picked up a conversation. In addition, some women shopping for a wedding sought her opinion. I tried to figure out why all the customers settled on her. However, my thoughts were interrupted by the appearance of a female celebrity in the mall. The glances the celebrity received seemed to have some impact on her until she started smiling. In addition, I noticed that some customers indulged in some conversion although I was obvious that they had no previous acquaintances. It was evident that people seemed relaxed and most of the conversations were largely informal. Interpretations The above observations touch on some aspects of the social theory. One of these is social perception. There is away that people perceive others in society. In social perception, one uses the available cues and makes perceptions about another individual. Perceptions may be false because they rarely rely on facts. Misjudgments and misconceptions are common aspects in the social setting. Majority of perceptions result from categorizing individuals. These categories often consist of related encounters with people. It becomes easy for people who use categorization to make social perceptions to any individual who portrays the characteristic that defined a certain category. Perception presents people with an opportunity to recognize when it is necessary to respond to stimuli. In addition, perception of people enables an individual to move beyond the currently available information and make further conclusions. Moreover, perceptions in the social setting determine an individual’s behavior towards a certain object or person. Through perception, one can make predications of people’s responses (Zebrowsi, 2007). Several factors determine the categories that people form in perception. One of the factors is the perceiver’s purpose. Different people looking at the same situation or subject will form varying opinions depending on their purpose. In addition, the social context contributes greatly to the perceptions that result. Context denotes the setting and the people present in the setting and the expected code of conduct in such a setting. Perceptions often differ according to the social setting and the activities associated with the setting. Moreover, categories of perception may depend on experiences. A perceiver will associate a certain aspect with another one from his or her personal experiences. According to Zebrowski (2007), stereotypes have great influence on social perception. Although some may have originated from actual experience, the information from such experiences receives exaggeration. Stereotypes may have a basis on gender or ethnic backgrounds. From the observations described above, it is evident that different people made perceptions that guide their behavior. The security personnel at the entrance may have classified the black man in a category that deserves mo re scrutiny. The personnel have the responsibility of identifying anyone portraying attributes that can lead to harm. Therefore, the perception they made depended on their purpose for their perception. In addition, they perceived the elegant white man as a harmless individual and that may serve to explain why the security personnel did not take too much time on him. The male customers consulting the beautiful attendant probably made perceptions that she was friendly and could offer honest opinion. At some point, one may associate the perception with a gender stereotype. However, the fact that even female customers in the mall consulted her shows that people perceived that she was friendly. Her beauty may have influenced the people to make perceptions based on a common stereotype that beautiful people are warm. It is possible that all the customers had a different perception of the situation. Despite the categorization basis, the social perception influenced the behavior of the people greatly. According to Jussim (2012), self-perception and that of others affects the behavior projected. On the other hand, the behavior projected by the female celebrity depended on her contextual perception. This being a mall where everyone indulged in shopping, a smile was an adequate response to the glances people were sending her way. In addition, strangers in the wall were indulging in little conversations. The fact that the context was informal allowed people to perceive that a stranger would not take offense if one indulged them in little conversation. In addition, a different concept became evident. Self-presentation influenced the social perception. The ways in which an individual presents the self is very crucial because it gives the society cues that determine the perception of people. Although the cases described above do not involve any verbal presentation, the images they project to the society affect the perception of people and present them with information from which they can infer. The self-presentation of the female attendant in the mall had potential influence on the customers. In addition, the self-presentation of the young man handled discourteously by the security officer projected a self-image leading to categorization (Jussim, 2012). Self-presentation is a crucial concept in the social psychological theory. This aspect of the self portrays the ways in which an individual perceives himself or herself. When the society gets cues on how an individual defines his or her self-identity, they are likely to replicate attitude in their perception and behavior they project towards an individual. People project different images depending on the context. For example, the celebrity mentioned in the above mall setting was aware that a specific self-representation was necessary in public setting. Although one may project the ideal image and keep the real image undercover, the fact is that self-presentation affects social perception. However, there exist socially determined rules and expected conduct that determined the expected behavior in a social setting. These predetermined codes of conduct determine self-presentation of an individual. In addition, such codes also direct the perception of others in the each setting. People adopted a casual and easy attitude being a Saturday. This affected presentation of the self and the perception of others (Delameter, 2006). It is evident that different factors affect social perception. The context in question determines how people will perceive an individual. In addition, the purpose of the perceiver will determine the conceptions that will rise. Stereotypes influence the perceptions of people concerning a subject and hence guide their behavior. Stereotypes may have a basis on gender or ethnicity. However, it is worth noting that perceptions are often wrong and may persist until proven wrong by facts. Social perception often determines the expected response from people because it enables one to infer beyond the available information. On the other hand, self-presentation determines the perception of others about the individual. However, people can present their ideal image leading to wrong impressions. References Delamater, J. (2006). Handbook of social psychology. Berlin: Springer. Jussim, L. J. (2012). Social perception and social reality: Why accuracy dominates bias and self-fulfilling prophesy. New York: Oxford University Press. Zebrowski, J. A. (2007). New research on social perception. New York: Nova Science Publishers. Read More