As a result of studying the chapter, the student should:
In the process of interaction, people's perception and understanding of each other play a huge role. The results and content of their joint activities depend on how effective they are. Based on their analysis, one can make predictions about their mutual behavior.
Social perception(social perception) is a complex process of: a) perception external signs other people; b) subsequent correlation of the obtained results with their actual ones personal characteristics; c) interpretation and prediction on this basis of their possible actions and behavior. It always involves an assessment of another person and the formation of an attitude towards him in emotional and behavioral terms, as a result of which people build their own strategy for their activities.
Social perception involves perception interpersonal, self-perception and perception intergroup.
In a narrower sense, social perception is considered as interpersonal perception: the process of perceiving a person’s external signs, correlating them with his personal characteristics, interpreting and predicting his actions on this basis.
The social perceptual process has two sides: subjective(the subject of perception is the person who perceives) and objective(the object of perception is the person who is perceived). In interaction and communication, social perception is mutual. People perceive, interpret and evaluate each other, and the accuracy of this assessment is not always accurate.
Features social perception are:
Social perception usually manifests itself as:
There are usually four main functions social perception:
In the course of social perception, images and ideas about oneself and partners are formed, which have their own characteristics. Firstly, their content structure corresponds to the diversity of human properties. It necessarily contains components of external appearance that are firmly associated with the characteristic psychological traits of his personality. For example: “intelligent eyes”, “strong-willed chin”, “kind smile”, etc. This is no coincidence, since the path to inner world The person cognizing him traces the partner through behavioral signals about the states and properties of what is perceived. The constitutional features of external appearance and the originality of its design with clothing and cosmetics play the role of standards and stereotypes for the socio-psychological interpretation of personality.
Secondly, another feature of these images is that mutual cognition is aimed primarily at understanding those qualities of the partner that are most significant at the moment for the participants in the interaction. Therefore, the image-idea of a partner necessarily highlights the dominant qualities of his personality.
Standards and stereotypes of mutual knowledge are formed through communication with a person’s immediate environment in those communities with which he is connected in life. First of all, this is a family and ethnic group, which have their own cultural and historical specifics of people’s activities and behavior. Along with these patterns of behavior, a person learns political-economic, social-age, emotional-aesthetic, professional and other standards and stereotypes of human knowledge by man.
Thirdly, the practical purpose of mutual representations of partners is that understanding the psychological appearance of an individual is the initial information for determining the tactics of one’s behavior in relation to the participants in the interaction. This means that the standards and stereotypes of mutual knowledge between people perform the function of regulating their interaction and communication. A positive and negative image of a partner reinforces an attitude of the same direction, removing or erecting psychological barriers between them. The discrepancies between mutual ideas and the partners’ self-esteem conceal the causes of psychological conflicts of a cognitive nature, which from time to time develop into conflictual relationships between interacting people (Bodalev A. A., 1995).
From the immediate image of a partner, a person, in the process of social perception, rises to knowledge about a person in general, and then returns to self-esteem. By making these circles of mutual knowledge, he clarifies information about himself and the place he can occupy in society.
Usually, a number of universal psychological mechanisms are identified that ensure the very process of perception and evaluation of another person and allow the transition from what is externally perceived to his assessment, attitude and prediction of probable behavior. This:
Perception is a Latin word meaning perception, which is used to describe cognitive processes that are closely related to the display of various life situations, phenomena or objects. In the case where such perception is aimed at social spheres, the term “social perception” is used to characterize this phenomenon. Every person encounters manifestations of social perception every day. Let's look at the various psychological mechanisms of social perception.
Perception, translated from Latin (perceptio), means “perception”
The concept of social perception originates from the times ancient world. Many philosophers and artists of that time made a significant contribution to the formation of this area. It should also be noted that this concept is important in the field of psychology.
Perception is one of the important functions in mental perception, which manifests itself as a process with a complex structure. Thanks to this process, a person not only receives various information from the senses, but also transforms it. Impact on various analyzers leads to the formation of integral images in the individual’s mind. Based on the above, we can conclude that perception is characterized as one of the forms of sensory reproduction.
Perception is based on the characteristics of individual features that help generate information based on accurate sensory images.
The cognitive function in question is closely related to skills such as memory, logical thinking and concentration. This concept depends on the strength of influence of life stimuli, which are endowed with an emotional coloring. Perception consists of structures such as meaningfulness and context.
Perception is actively studied by representatives of various fields, including psychologists, cybernetics and physiologists. During differential experiments, various techniques are used, including modeling different situations, experiments and empirical form of analysis. Understanding the mechanism of social perception is important in the field of practical psychology. It is this tool that acts as the foundation for the development of various systems affecting the sphere of human activity.
Social perception studies behaviors between individuals at different levels of development Perceptual factors are divided into two categories: external and internal influences. Among external factors Criteria such as movement, number of repetitions, contrast, size and depth of manifestation should be highlighted. Among the internal factors, experts identify the following:
Social perception in psychology is a term used to describe the process of an individual's assessment and understanding of people around him, his own personality, or social objects. Such objects consist of social societies And various groups. The term in question began to be used in psychology in the forties of the last century. This concept was first used by the American psychologist Jerome Bruner. Thanks to the work of this scientist, researchers were able to consider various problems associated with perceiving the world around us from a different angle.
Every person has inherent sociality. Throughout his life, a person builds communicative connections with the people around him. The formation of interpersonal relationships leads to the formation of separate groups that are connected by the same worldview or similar interests. Based on this, we can say that a person as an individual participates in various types relationships between people. The nature of the attitude towards society depends on the degree of personal perception and how a person evaluates the people around him. On initial stage In order to build a communicative connection, external qualities are assessed. Following appearance, the interlocutor’s behavior model is assessed, which allows the formation of a certain level of relationship.
It is on the basis of the above qualities that the image of perception of the people around us is formed. Social perception has many forms of manifestation. In most cases, this term is used to characterize personal perception. Each person perceives not only his own personality, but also the social group to which he belongs. In addition, there is a form of perception that is characteristic only of participants in such groups. It is perception, based on the framework of a social group, that is the second form of manifestation of perception. The last form of perception is group perception. Each group perceives both its own members and members of other groups.
Behavioral reactions are formed on the basis of social stereotypes, knowledge of which explains communication patterns The function of social perception is to evaluate the activities of surrounding people. Each individual carefully analyzes the individual characteristics of the temperament of those around him, their visual appeal, lifestyle and actions. Based on this analysis, an idea of the people around you and their behavior is formed.
Social perception is a process on the basis of which a forecast of behavior patterns and reactions of society is made in various life conditions. The mechanisms of interpersonal perception presented below allow us to study the subtlety of this process:
The tools used by social perception ensure communication between individuals The above types of knowledge of the personality of others are based not only on the physical characteristics of a person, but also on the nuances of behavior patterns. The building of close communication ties is facilitated by the participation of both partners in the conversation. Social perception depends on the stimuli, feelings and lifestyle of each participant in interpersonal relationships. An important component of this cognitive function is the subjective analysis of surrounding individuals.
An in-depth study of social perception has made it possible to identify key factors that influence the strength of impressions about a person. According to experts, when dating, most people spend increased attention hairstyle, eyes and facial expressions. Based on this, we can say that a friendly smile during acquaintance is perceived as a sign of cordiality and a positive attitude.
There are three main points that are decisive in the process of forming first impressions of a new personality. Experts include such factors as the degree of superiority, attractiveness and attitude.
The primacy effect in social perception manifests itself upon first acquaintance According to the famous psychologist Dale Carnegie, a simple smile is enough to evoke sympathy from others. That is why, if you want to build a strong communication connection with others, you should learn how to smile correctly. Today there are many psychological techniques for the development of facial gestures that help enhance the transmission of experienced emotions. Managing your own facial expressions allows you not only to improve the quality of social perception, but also to gain the opportunity to better understand others.
One of the most effective methods for developing social perception skills is the Ekman practice. The basis of this method is to concentrate attention on three zones human face. These areas include the forehead, chin and nose. It is these zones that best reflect emotional states such as feelings of anger, fear, disgust or sadness.
The ability to analyze facial gestures allows you to decipher the feelings that the interlocutor experiences. This practice has become widespread in the field of psychology, thanks to which a specialist has the opportunity to build a communicative relationship with persons with mental disorders.
Perception is a complex mechanism of human mental perception. The quality of operation of this system depends on many different external and internal factors. Such factors include age, experience and individual personality traits.
Social perception or social perception. Before considering this concept, let us remember what perception is. Perception or Perception- it's complicated mental process reception and transformation of information received through the senses that form the subjective holistic image of the object, influencing analyzers through a set of sensations initiated by a given object. Social perception is largely determined by the concept of image, since the essence of social perception lies in a person’s figurative perception of himself, other people and social phenomena of the world around him.
Term social perception was proposed by Jerome Bruner in 1947 to refer to the phenomena of social determination of perceptual processes. Later, researchers, particularly in social psychology, gave the concept a slightly different meaning: social perception began to be called the process of perceiving so-called social objects, which meant other people, social groups, large social communities.
Social perception includes interpersonal perception, self-perception and intergroup perception, and is characterized by direction, each of which has its own specific characteristics:
· Perception of another individual belonging to the “in” group;
· Perception of another individual belonging to an “out-group”;
· Perception of one's own group;
· Perception of an “out-group”;
· The group's perception of its own member;
· The group’s perception of a representative of another group;
· The group's perception of itself;
· The group's perception of the other group as a whole.
In a narrower sense, social perception is considered as interpersonal perception: the process of perceiving the external signs of a person, correlating them with his personal characteristics, interpreting and predicting his actions on this basis.
The social perceptual process has two sides: subjective and objective.
Subjective social perception in a certain sense is interpretation. But the interpretation of another person or group always depends on the previous social experience of the perceiver, on the behavior of the object of perception at the moment, on the system of value orientations of the perceiver and on many factors of both subjective and objective order.
The processes of social perception differ significantly from the perception of non-social objects in that social objects are not passive and indifferent in relation to the subject of perception.
Mechanisms of social perception– the ways in which people interpret and evaluate another person. The most common mechanisms are:
1. Identification - is a socio-psychological process of cognition by an individual or a group of other people in the course of direct or indirect contacts with them, in which comparison or comparison of internal states or positions of partners, as well as role models with their psychological and other characteristics is carried out. Its psychological meaning lies in expanding the range of experiences, in enriching internal experience. It is known as the earliest manifestation of emotional attachment to another person;
2. Empathy- This emotional empathy for another person. Through emotional response, people perceive the inner state of others. Empathy is based on the ability to correctly imagine what is happening inside another person, what he is experiencing, how he evaluates the world;
3. Attraction– special shape perception and cognition of another person, based on the formation of a stable positive feeling towards him, influencing the depth of people’s knowledge of each other. Attraction as a mechanism of social perception is usually considered in three aspects:
a. the process of forming the attractiveness of another person;
b. the result of this process;
c. quality of relationships;
4. K ausal attribution associated with attributing reasons for behavior to a person. Each person has their own assumptions about why the perceived individual behaves in a certain way. Attribution of causes of behavior can occur taking into account the externality and internality of both the one who attributes and the one to whom it is attributed. If the observer is predominantly external, then the reasons for the behavior of the individual whom he perceives will appear to him in external circumstances. If it is internal, then the interpretation of the behavior of others will be associated with internal, individual and personal reasons.
5. The results of attribution can become material for the formation of a social mechanism stereotyping. Stereotyping perception leads to two different consequences. Firstly, to simplification of knowledge other person(s). Secondly, to formation of prejudices in relation to representatives of various social groups (professional, socio-economic, ethnic, etc.)
6. Reflection, as a form of self-knowledge through society, and knowledge of society through the prism of subjectivity. How a person understands himself, his feelings and motives greatly influences his perception of other people.
Social perception is characterized by some special manifestations of inaccuracy of perception, called laws, effects or errors of perception.
I. Effects of stereotyping. Our perception of other people also depends on how we “classify” them: teenagers, women, teachers, unemployed, politicians etc. Such stereotypical perception makes it very easy to navigate in life, but at the same time it makes us a little short-sighted: a particular teenager may turn out to be completely different from what we used to expect.
i. Prejudice effect. We see what we are convinced of, and point blank do not notice what contradicts our beliefs.
ii. Halo effect: a general favorable or unfavorable opinion about a person is transferred to all his other traits. We think only good things about a person who has been presented to us with dignity and embellish all his features. This also includes:
i. Beauty effect- a more attractive person is attributed more positive traits.
ii. Advance effect- the absence of previously attributed non-existent advantages leads to disappointment.
iii. Causal attribution effect: the less we know about a person, the more inclined we are to make things up about him.
v. Similarity effect- a person believes that “friends” treat other people the same way as he does.
II. Interest Effects. People are more likely to believe in what is beneficial to them, and are ready to argue with evidence if it does not suit them.
i. Self-persuasion effect. People are always more willing to strengthen own installations and stereotypes rather than changing them. We tend to take into account only information that is consistent with our attitudes, and ignore what does not correspond to them. If we already have a belief, we tend to interpret what is happening in a way that confirms our belief.
ii.The effect of cognitive dissonance. When we have to make a choice between two things that are equally attractive to us (to continue smoking or to quit) or are in conflict (to love someone whose beliefs or behavior differs from our own), we will do our best to reduce the resulting dissonance. and we will find a thousand reasons to convince ourselves that the choice we are about to make is the best. For example, if a person decides to continue smoking, he will put forward, for example, the following arguments: “Quitting smoking means getting fat”; or “When I don’t smoke, I become so irritable that it will be better for others if I don’t quit smoking”; or “Is it worth depriving yourself of this pleasure for the sake of just two or three extra years of life?” On the contrary, if a person decides to quit smoking, he will become increasingly interested in lung cancer statistics, participate in anti-smoking campaigns, be proud of being “non-smoker,” etc.
iii. Cognitive Balance Effect. Heider (1958) proposed a theory based on the human tendency to seek attitudes that would support high level harmonious relationships and “balance” between him and other people, and, conversely, to avoid such attitudes that could lead to a violation of this harmony. A young man with a homosexual brother will maintain the same relationship with him as before, systematically avoiding, for example, discussing a sore point with him or telling himself that his brother must be suffering terribly because he is with him. happened, and that he will certainly do everything possible to change his orientation.
iv. In-group favoritism- “ours” seem better.
III. Sequence Effects. We perceive any new information based on the information that preceded it. The first information colors the subsequent one, strengthens or weakens it.
i. Primacy effect(first impression effect, familiarity effect): the first information is overestimated in relation to the subsequent one.
ii. Novelty effect: new information about the unexpected behavior of a well-known person, loved one given higher value than all the information previously received about him.
iii. Repetition effect. The more often a message is repeated and from all sides, the more people are inclined to believe it. “Everyone says it means it’s true!” If a message is repeated frequently on radio and television, almost everyone believes it.
iv. Role effect- behavior determined by role functions is taken as a personal characteristic.
v. Effect of physiognomic reduction- the conclusion about the presence of a psychological characteristic is made on the basis of appearance features.
IV. Other effects
i. Expectation effect- expecting a certain reaction from a person, we provoke him to it.
ii. The effect of negative asymmetry of initial self-esteem- over time there is a tendency towards the opposite of in-group favoritism.
iii. Presumption of reciprocity- a person believes that the “other” treats him the way he treats the “other.”
iv. Projection effect- a person assumes that others have the same qualities as him.
v. The effect of ignoring the information value of something that didn’t happen- information about what could have happened, but did not happen, is ignored.
vi. Presence effect- how better person owns something, the better he does it in front of others than in solitude.
vii. The leniency effect- the leader exaggerates the positive traits of his subordinates and underestimates the negative ones (typical for a leader of a permissive and, to some extent, democratic style).
viii. The effect of hyper-demandingness- the leader exaggerates the negative traits of his subordinates and underestimates the positive ones (typical for a leader of an authoritarian style).
Social cognition. Cognition- a process of human activity, the main content of which is reflection objective reality in his mind, and the result is the acquisition of new knowledge about the world around him. Cognition as such is carried out through higher mental functions, which include the process of perception, introducing subjectivity and the consequences of its effects into the process of cognition. This is especially true during periods of social instability. An individual in an unstable society often has and displays the following perceptual characteristics:
These and other manifestations of people’s perception of an unstable social world have very serious consequences, primarily due to the fact that the individual does not feel like a subject of actions and deeds in society. At best, he cannot, and sometimes does not want or refuses to see and understand (cognize) social problems. At worst, it cognizes, interprets, and transmits social phenomena to others, relying on subjective experience, provoking a chain reaction. Therefore, the process of social cognition occupies an extremely important place in a person’s life, in his interaction with other people.
Social cognition differs from the cognition of other (non-social) objects and has following features:
1. Dynamics. Society is the most complex object of knowledge in its structure and is in constant development, influenced by both objective and subjective factors. Therefore, the essence of social phenomena and processes, the natural connections between them are discovered much more difficult than what happens when studying inorganic and organic nature within the framework of the natural sciences;
2. Item. Social cognition involves the study of not only material, but also ideal, spiritual relationships. These relationships are not only integral part material life of society, but also by its nature much more complex and contradictory than connections in nature;
3. Self-formation. Society stands both as an object and as a subject of knowledge, since people are the creators of their history, but they also know it. Consequently, the subject and object of knowledge coincide. This identity cannot be assessed unambiguously. On the one hand, it has a positive meaning, since the processes occurring in society are closest to the cognizing subject and his direct, personal and acquired life experience, which contributes to a deep understanding and correct knowledge of these processes. On the other hand, the total object of knowledge represents different, sometimes diametrically opposed wills, interests, and goals. As a result, a certain element of subjectivism is introduced into the historical processes themselves and into their knowledge;
4. Method. Limited possibilities of methods for studying social reality. A social experiment is of a specific historical nature and can lead to different (often opposite) results in different societies. Therefore, the most common method of social research is scientific abstraction against the background of historical experience and observation of social practice.
Social cognition includes not only a description of social phenomena, but also their explanation and identification of their essence. The successful solution of this difficult task is associated with the use of a specific historical approach to social phenomena, which involves the study of social phenomena in their diverse connections, interdependence and historical development. This approach makes it possible to understand a separate social event, identifying both its unique individuality associated with specific historical conditions, and something common to similar events occurring in different time, - their objective laws. Identification of such patterns based on the study of specific social processes in specific societies in a certain historical period and constitutes the essence of the specific historical approach and ultimately is one of the goals of social cognition.
Another goal of social cognition is social forecasting, i.e., obtaining knowledge about the future of society, about what does not yet exist in reality, but what is potentially contained in the present in the form of objective and subjective prerequisites for the expected course of development.
From this follows a more global goal - the regulation of social processes and social activities.
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The processes of social perception differ significantly from the perception of non-social objects. This difference also lies in the fact that social objects are not passive and indifferent to the subject of perception. In addition, social images always have semantic and evaluative interpretations. In a certain sense, perception is interpretation. But the interpretation of another person or group always depends on the previous social experience of the perceiver, on the behavior of the object of perception at the moment, on the system of value orientations of the perceiver and on many factors of both subjective and objective order..
The mechanisms of social perception are the ways in which people interpret, understand and evaluate another person. The most common mechanisms are the following: empathy, attraction, causal attribution, identification, social reflection.
1. Empathy- understanding the emotional state of another person, understanding his emotions, feelings and experiences. In many psychological sources, empathy is identified with sympathy, empathy, and sympathy. This is not entirely true, since one can understand emotional condition another person, but not treat him with sympathy and sympathy. Well understanding the views and associated feelings of other people that he does not like, a person often acts contrary to them. A student in class, annoying an unloved teacher, can perfectly understand the latter’s emotional state and use the power of his empathy against the teacher. People we call manipulators very often have well-developed empathy and use it for their own, often selfish, purposes.
Women are believed to be more empathetic than men. This is most clearly manifested in their tendency to more demonstratively express outwardly their understanding of others and empathy. Empathy can be learned. The experience of men who work with people - psychotherapists, psychologists, etc. - shows that, as a result of training and practice, they achieve a high ability to empathize and express it. Anyone can achieve this with desire and practice.
The ability to “read” facial expressions, gestures, postures, glances, handshakes, and gait of the perceived person can be of great help in teaching empathic understanding. You should pay attention to the words he uses that reflect feelings: “unpleasant,” “insidious,” “unexpected,” etc. It is necessary to imagine as clearly as possible what we ourselves would feel in the speaker’s place in such situations.
To comprehend the true meaning of another's feelings, it is not enough to have cognitive representations. Necessary and personal experience. That's why empathy as the ability to understand the emotional state of another person develops throughout life and may be more pronounced in older people. It is quite natural that close people have more developed empathy towards each other than people who have known each other relatively recently. People from different cultures may have little empathy for each other. At the same time, there are people who have special insight and are able to understand the experiences of another person even if he tries to carefully hide them. There are some types of professional activities that require developed empathy, for example, medical practice, teaching, and theater. Almost any professional activity in the “person-to-person” sphere requires the development of this perception mechanism.
2. The mechanism of causal attribution associated with attributing reasons for behavior to a person. Each person has their own assumptions about why the perceived individual behaves in a certain way. Attributing to another certain reasons for behavior, the observer does this either on the basis of the similarity of his behavior with some familiar person or known image of a person, or on the basis of an analysis of his own motives assumed in similar situation. The principle of analogy, similarity with something already familiar or the same applies here.
The mechanism of causal attribution is associated with certain aspects of the self-perception of an individual who perceives and evaluates another. Thus, if a subject has attributed negative traits and the reasons for their manifestation to another, then he will most likely evaluate himself by contrast as a bearer of positive traits. Sometimes people with low self-esteem show excessive criticality towards others, thereby creating a certain negative subjectively perceived social background, against which, as it seems to them, they look quite decent.
3. Social perception includes reflection . As a mechanism of social perception, social reflection means the subject's understanding of his own individual characteristics and how they manifest themselves in external behavior; awareness of how he is perceived by other people. One should not think that people are able to perceive themselves more adequately than those around them. Thus, in a situation where there is an opportunity to look at oneself from the outside - in a photograph or film, many remain very dissatisfied with the impression made by their own image. This happens because people have a somewhat distorted self-image. Distorted ideas even concern the appearance of the perceiver, not to mention the social manifestations of the internal state.
It is possible to optimize the process of reflective understanding of another person through effective listening techniques:
Clarification - turning to the speaker for clarification (“Explain again...”);
Paraphrasing - repeating the interlocutor’s thoughts in your own words (“In other words, you think that...”);
Summarizing - summing up the main thoughts of the partner (“If I summarize what you said...”);
Reflections of feelings - the desire to reflect in your own words the feelings of the speaker (“It seems to me that you feel...”).
It is always desirable to understand your partner, but it is not always useful to say it out loud. If we let's understand the person deeper than he wanted, and let's say it directly, the result may turn out to be the opposite - the person will “close down”. Sometimes understanding and remaining silent is more valuable than “getting into your soul” with your “understanding.”
4. Social perception is accompanied attraction (attraction) - a special form of knowing another person, which is based on the formation of a stable positive feeling towards him. A communication partner is understood better if the perceiver experiences sympathy, affection, a friendly or intimate-personal relationship with him.
Emotional attachment can arise based on common views, interests, value orientations or as a selective attitude towards a person’s special appearance, his behavior, character traits, etc. The interesting thing is that such relationships allow you to better understand the other person. With a certain degree of convention, we can say that the more we like a person, the more we know him and the better we understand his actions (unless, of course, we are talking about pathological forms attachment).
Attraction is also significant in business relationships. Therefore, most psychologists working in business, recommend that interpersonal communication professionals express the most positive attitude towards clients even if they do not actually like them.
However, it should be remembered that Excessive and artificial expression of joy does not so much create attraction as destroy people's trust. A friendly attitude cannot always be expressed through a smile, especially if it looks fake and too stable. Thus, a television presenter smiling for an hour and a half is unlikely to attract the sympathy of viewers.
5. A person’s perception also depends on his ability to put himself in the place of another, to identify himself with him. In this case, the process of cognition of the other will go more successfully (if there are significant grounds for appropriate identification). The process and result of such identification is called identification. Identification how a socio-psychological phenomenon is considered modern science very often and in such different contexts that it is necessary to specifically stipulate the features of this phenomenon as a mechanism of social perception. In this aspect, identification is similar to empathy, but empathy can be considered as an emotional identification of the subject of observation, which is possible on the basis of past or present experience of similar experiences. As for identification, what happens here to a greater extent is intellectual identification, the results of which are more successful the more accurately the observer has determined the intellectual level of the one he perceives. In one of E. Poe's stories main character, a certain Dupin, in a conversation with his friend, analyzes the line of reasoning little boy, which he had been watching for some time. The conversation is precisely about one person’s understanding of another on the basis of the mechanism of intellectual identification.
“...I know an eight-year-old boy whose ability to guess correctly in the game of odd and even won him the admiration of everyone. This is very simple game: one of the players clutches several pebbles in his fist and asks the other whether he is holding an even number or an odd number. If the second player guesses correctly, then he wins the pebble, but if he guesses incorrectly, then he loses the pebble. The boy I mentioned beat all his school friends. Of course, he based his guesses on some principles, and these latter consisted only in the fact that he carefully watched his opponent and correctly assessed the degree of his cunning. For example, his obviously stupid opponent raises his fist and asks: “Even or odd?” Our student answers “odd” and loses. However, in the next attempt he wins, because he says to himself: “This fool took an even number of pebbles last time and, of course, thinks that he will cheat very well if he now takes an odd number. So I will say “odd” again!” He says “odd.” !" and wins. With a slightly smarter opponent, he would have reasoned like this: “This boy noticed that I just said “odd,” and now he will first want to change the even number of pebbles to an odd one, but he will immediately realize that this is too simple, and will leave their number the same. So I'll say "even!" He says "even!" and wins. This is the logical reasoning of a little boy whom his comrades dubbed "lucky." But, in essence, what is it? Just,” I answered, “the ability to completely identify one’s intellect with the intellect of the enemy.”
That's it, said Dupin. - And when I asked the boy how he achieves such complete identification, ensuring his constant success, he answered the following: “When I want to find out how smart, or stupid, or angry this boy is, or what he is thinking about now, I try to give my face exactly the same expression that I see in his face, and then I wait to find out what thoughts or feelings arise in me in accordance with this expression..." (According to E. Stories. - M., 1980 . -P. 334). As we can see, this passage illustrates the action of the mechanisms of identification and empathy in a boy’s knowledge of his peer in order to win the game. Identification mechanism in in this case clearly prevails over empathy, which also occurs here.
The professional activities of some specialists are associated with the need for identification, such as the work of an investigator or teacher, which has been repeatedly described in legal and educational psychology. Misidentification when misjudging the intellectual level of another person can lead to negative professional results. Thus, a teacher who overestimates or underestimates the intellectual level of his students will not be able to correctly assess the connection between the students’ real and potential abilities during the learning process.
It was found that the perception of social objects has a number of specific features that qualitatively distinguish it from the perception of inanimate objects:
1. The social object (individual, group, etc.) is not passive and not indifferent in relation to the perceiving subject, as is the case with the perception of inanimate objects. By influencing the subject of perception, the perceived person seeks to transform the idea of himself in a direction favorable for his goals.
2. The attention of the subject of social perception is focused primarily not on the moments of image generation as a result of the reflection of perceived reality, but on semantic and evaluative interpretations of the object of perception, including causal ones.
3. The perception of social objects is characterized by greater fusion of cognitive components with emotional (affective) components, greater dependence on the motivational and semantic structure of the activity of the perceiving subject. In this regard, the term “perception” acquires an expanded interpretation in social psychology.
In modern psychology, two main areas of study of interpersonal perception can be distinguished. The first is aimed at studying social and psychological characteristics object and subject of perception, the second is associated with the study of the mechanisms and effects of interpersonal reflection.
When analyzing these two areas, we can highlight individual, gender, age, social, and professional differences in people’s perceptions and assessments of each other. It has been established that children first learn to recognize expression by facial expressions, and subsequently, as they grow older, they become able to recognize emotions by gestures. Thus, in the course of research, it was established that pupils and students perceive their teachers primarily by their appearance, and teachers, on the contrary, primarily perceive and evaluate their students by their internal qualities. Similar differences in identification and evaluation occur between managers and subordinates. Also great importance in the process of perception, there is also a professional affiliation, for example, teachers perceive their students, primarily by speech and manner of conversation; choreographers, sports coaches, pay attention mainly to the anatomical structure of a person, the nature and sequence of movements performed.
For interpersonal perception, it is characteristic that the mechanism of perception depends on the psycho-emotional and social attitudes of the subject of perception. The study of the psychological properties of the object of perception is mainly aimed at studying the influence of the properties of the object of perception in the process of its perception by the subject. In the course of various studies, it has been established that people in the process of getting to know each other, first of all, reflexively evaluate a partner by the manner and nature of communication, while paying attention to the emotional expression of the face, ways of expressing internal feelings, manifestations of feelings, gestures and postures, appearance, features of voice and speech. Psychologists V.N. Panferov and A.A. Bodalev especially carefully studied in experimental conditions which factors make the most vivid impression during the process of people’s first acquaintance. It turned out that attention is most often paid, first of all, to the hairstyle (hairstyle can significantly change the appearance), then attention turns to the person’s eyes (eyes reflect the character of a person, and can be evil, kind, cunning, simple-minded, cold, sincere). Eyes communicate intentions and can either win or reject a person. Facial expression plays a significant role when people communicate, for example, if you smile sincerely and cordially at your new acquaintance when you first meet, then naturally he will perceive you as a friend and will be disposed towards you. The famous American psychologist Dale Cornegy argued that the first commandment of good friendly communication and mutual sympathy is a smile. Cornegy invites us to learn how to smile correctly, for which we need to perform special exercises in front of a mirror. In general, a person’s facial expression is determined by his facial expressions, which are developed differently for everyone; for some, when communicating, facial expressions are very diverse and dynamic, for others, on the contrary, facial expressions are not developed, and the person creates the impression of secrecy and unfriendlyness. In order to somehow streamline emotional manifestations, many psychologists developed scientific methods for describing psychological expressions, for example, P. Ekman proposed a technique called FAST - Facial Affect Scoring Technique.
