Factors Influencing Person Perceptions: An Analysis Essay

Person perceptions refer to the mental processes that allow people to have impressions of others (Betancourt, 2018). Notably, people make different judgments about others based on their perceptions. In some cases, attitudes may be right or wrong. How people perceive others, as Betancourt (2018) argued, could help in the formation of decisions and judgments. Such opinions could be biased or could result in stereotyping. Therefore, this paper analyzes some of the factors that influence a person's perception of others.

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Accordingly, Jin and Martin (2015) asserted that person perception is subjective. On that note, factors such as the traits exhibited by a person under observation, situation, personal characteristics, and experiences influence the way people perceive others. When judging others, most individuals use minimal information. One might already anticipate the behavior of a teacher, for instance, based on individual traits, which shows the influence of personal expression on the perception of others. Culture provides a structure and guidelines that allow people to understand and interpret behavior. For instance, eastern traditions believe that success is a factor driven by group efforts, while western cultures believe that success is attributed to individual elements. Such cultural beliefs influence perceptions and eventually could dictate how people interact with each other. Considering that there are different cultures in existence, one can understand that the opinion of others could vary from one culture to another.

Consequently, physical cues could be essential in the formation of perceptions. Betancourt (2018) stipulated that one might assume that a person dressed in suits work in a formal setting such as banks or other like institutions. From this, it is clear that the most obvious points are frequently used when judging others. More so, it is articulate that the background information of an individual rarely influences the impression that a person has on others. Betancourt (2018) argued that cognitive accessibility of a person, which refers to the extent in which a characteristic of a person that comes to the mind of a receiver, influences one's perception of others. Differences in cognitive accessibility influence the varying viewpoints of others. Some people notice how attractive another is because they are concerned about the physical outlook. Betancourt (2018) asserted that appearance is one of the highly accessible characteristics that define perception. Others may focus on race and religion of an individual, or in other instances, height and weight could be essential influences. All these factors concerning cognitive accessibility are physical cues influencing one's perception of others.

Social categorization is one of the shortcuts frequently utilized when making perceptions. According to Bodenhausen et al. (2012), social classification is a process where individuals are placed into social groups. The process occurs when people are grouped as men versus women, old versus young, blacks versus whites, and different other forms of classifications. During the procedure, individuals group people based on outward characteristics. The method of social grouping is often unconscious (Thornton & Mitchell, 2017). The prevalent groups include gender, race, occupation, and gender. The process has both positive and adverse effects. One of the strengths of this process is that it allows the formation of judgments fast, having in mind that knowing each individual that a person interacts with often could be challenging. Thus, this process allows for easy decision-making based on behavior and the surrounding circumstances.

Similarly, Bodenhausen et al. (2012) claimed that social categories have a substantial role to play in serving the purposes of basic knowledge. Social classes vary from perceptions based on demographic features to social functions and kinship ties. Importantly, these forms of classification enable an individual to make inferences about ranges of critical and relevant issues. Through social categories, a person can infer what the intentions of another are likely to be, the skills they are likely to possess, and the general traits they are likely to have as well. All these factors form the foundation for critical relationship formation. By placing individuals in categories, it is essential to understand that people making these classifications categorize people based on their status in society. From these, one can see that it allows for the connection between people of the same social groups.

Notably, Bodenhausen et al. (2012) stipulated that humans vary in their perceptions for others. Noticing and interpreting the behavior of others could be challenging for some persons. From the sections above, some people make inferences based on physical cues or cognitive accessibility, social categorization, and based on subjective opinions as well. Mainly, this is enough proof to show that how people perceive others differs from one person to another. Some people feel that they are excellent in their skills in observing other people. In most cases, those people overestimate their capabilities and end up making incorrect inferences. The primary reason why deductions made about others might be wrong is the fact that no feedback is usually given after such conclusions have been made. Most people use their perceptions of others to determine whether to interact with them or not (Jin & Martin, 2015). As such, they are hardly going to receive any feedback to ascertain that they made the right perception. When inferences made are wrong, interactions could prove futile and short-lasting.

In conclusion, people perceive others differently. Various factors contribute to one's perceptions of others. Such factors include culture, physical cues or cognitive accessibility, and social categorization. All these elements lead to the conclusion that how people perceive others is a subjective process. As outlined, culture contains structures, guidelines, and beliefs that influence perception. Similarly, people judge others based on physical behavior and appearance. Lastly, people have the tendency to group people to social categories, which is another factor influencing perception.

References

Betancourt, J. R. (2018). Perception is reality, and reality drives perception: No time to celebrate yet. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 33(3), 241-242. doi: 10.1007/s11606-017-4263-z

Bodenhausen, G. V., Kang, S. K., & Peery, D. (2012). Social categorization and the perception of social groups. The SAGE Handbook of Social Cognition, 311-329. doi: 10.4135/9781446247631.n16

Jin, S. V., & Martin, C. (2015). "A match made...online?" The effects of user-generated online dater profile types (free-spirited versus uptight) on other users' perception of trustworthiness, interpersonal attraction, and personality. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 18(6), 320-327. doi: 10.1089/cyber.2014.0564

Thornton, M. A., & Mitchell, J. P. (2017). Theories of person perception predict patterns of neural activity during mentalizing. Cerebral Cortex, 28(10), 3505-3520. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhx216