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The effects of variance on personality impression formation 1
Author(s) -
Levy Leon H.
Publication year - 1967
Publication title -
journal of personality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.082
H-Index - 144
eISSN - 1467-6494
pISSN - 0022-3506
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6494.1967.tb01423.x
Subject(s) - impression formation , psychology , personality , pleasure , variance (accounting) , curiosity , order (exchange) , social psychology , perception , psychotherapist , social perception , business , accounting , finance , neuroscience , economics
In personality impression formation, the array of information from which impressions are formed represents a sample of all the mformation which m its totality may be conceived of as constitutmg the other person as a stimulus Impressions are based upon stimulus samples Personahty impression formation bemg a cognitive task, it would be expected that impressions would be determmed by the mteraction between the information processing capacities of the judge and various stimulus sample parameters, as well as by the content of the information itself The present study IS one of a senes of mvestigations of the effects upon personality impression formation of one of these parametersvariation m judged favorableness of information, or vanance Regardless of the nature of the sample, whether it be a list of adjectives, behavioral observations, facial photographs, or what have you, it is unlikely to be of a smgle piece with respect to any particular dimension of personality The elements may be expected to vary somewhat m their value with respect to the dimension upon which judgments are to be made For example, a person's tone of voice may suggest warmth but his facial expressions and social mteraction may imply just the opposite It IS also likely that two different stimulus samples representmg the same person may themselves differ m variance, as may two samples representmg two different persons The frequency with which people are characterized m everyday parlance as more or less consistent, confusmg, and changeable seems sufficient to document this pomt This would suggest that vanance itself may be an important parameter m personahty impression formation, and that its mvestigation may contribute to further understanding of the processes mvolved m personahty impression