Forming Impressions

Central and Peripheral Traits

Primacy and Recency Effects

Implicit Personality Theories (Including personal constructs, the halo effect, and the effect of names)

Stereotyping

Social Categorisation

Pros/Cons Of Stereotyping

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

In different situations, either the initial impressions (primacy effect) will be the most important in your judgment of a person, or the most recent (recency effect).

The Primacy Effect:

A. Luchins (1957)

Luchins tested the primacy/recency effects by giving information to 4 groups of participants about an imaginary character called Jim. There were 2 sets of information on Jim: One where he acted outgoing, and one where he acted shy. These sets of information made sense in either order given, or as stand-alone units. Each group was given a different combination. (Outgoing then shy, shy then outgoing, only outgoing, or only shy.)

The participants were then asked to give Jim a percentage rating as to how friendly he was. The results showed that Jim was perceived as most friendly by those who had the outgoing description only, followed by those with the originally outgoing descritpion. In third were those with the originally shy description, and last, those with the shy description only.

The margin of difference between outgoing first, then shy, and shy first, then outgoing, was about 60%. This is an example of the primacy affect- the information received first strongly affects the interpretation of information recieved at a later date. The two groups had exactly the same information, with the only difference being the order in which this information was received, and yet rated Jim's friendliness at 18% for those who recieved information implying he was shy first, and at 78% by those who recieved information implying he was shy later.

Luchins also foudn that the primacy effect is strongest when we are given information on a subject that we do not know, because this first information is not modified by previous knowledge.

E. Jones (1968)

Jones study also indicated the strength of the primacy effect. In his study, participants would watch a confederate solve difficult problems. He woudl always get 15/30 correct. However, when he got more correct towards the beginning, he was deemed more capable, than in other groups of participants when he got more correct towards the end.

When he was more succesful to start with, his accuracy was estimated at about 20/30. When he was more succesful towards the end, he was estimated as getting about 12/30 correct.

The reasons given for these estimates were that in case of the successful beginnings, his subsequent failures were interpreted as him getting bored, or becoming tired. While, in comparison, when he originally failed, his later successes were considered to be luck, or the result of guesswork. (I.e. negative interpretation, as compared to positive interpretation of similar events)

The Recency Effect

As said at the beginning, there are certain situations where we consider the most recent information to be the most important. This occurs most often when:

A) We are careful not to make a judgment too early on

B) There is a period of time between receiving the two lots of information.

C) The information is about peopel we already know.

D) The first information we receive is positive, but it is followed by negative information. (I.e. being told that a person is sweet, warm, friendly, and an alcoholic- the last information will be what is most likely tp remain in your memory, resulting in negative impressions)

Overall Conclusion

This type of research is very artificial, and does not neccessarily reflect real-life everyday situations. In real life, we would be registering impressions with many more senses, and there would be other factors to consider, i.e. stereotyping. As a result, the primacy effect may often be negated, or we may simply fail to register initial information, resulting in a complete void where the primacy effect would normally take place.