Object Vs. Person Perception

1134 Words5 Pages
In Social Cognition psychology, perception is often times separated into two main but arguably equal categories; object perception and person perception. In order to properly understand the concepts of each form of perception, one must first fully understand the differences that set the two apart. As social cognition theorist Heider discusses, the fundamental difference in the two is a transition from analysis purely based on physical properties as with object perception to an incorporation of behaviors and emotions leading to person perception. For this reason, person perception proves to be a much more involved process citing emotional patterns as a key element in inference. To begin, simply stating that person perception is more complex than object perception solely based on the inclusion of emotional factors does not do the thought justice. It is vital to comprehend just what factors of emotion and behavior are present in order to understand to what extent they influence the perception. For instance, Kenny discusses the importance of stability in the distinction between object and person perception. Simply stated, "an individual's behavior changes when he or she is with different interaction partners," (18). In essence this means that a person's perception of another person tends to be more stable and involved based on our instinctual analysis of a person's behavior. Kenny's ideas are consistent with Heider's earlier notions citing that due to the fact that people are so often changing whether in action, behavior, or demeanor, we accordingly seek out the stable factors in a person that aid us in predicting their personality as well as future behaviors and such (18). The prediction occuring in these moments is an example of trait inference, the basic assumption that a person's actions are based on their personality, and will therefore remain consistent and
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