Accuracy in interpersonal perception: A social relations analysis.

For the past 30 years, the study of accuracy in person perception has been a neglected topic in social and personality psychology. Research in this area was stopped by a critique of global accuracy scores by Cronbach and Gage. They argued that accuracy should be measured in terms of components. Currently, interest in the topic of accuracy is rekindling. This interest is motivated, in part, by a reaction to the bias literature. We argue that modern accuracy research should (a) focus on measuring when and how people are accurate and not on who is accurate, (b) use each person as both judge and target, and (c) partition accuracy into components. The social relations model (Kenny & La Voie, 1984) can be used as a paradigm to meet these requirements. According to this model, there are four types of accuracy, only two of which are generally conceptually interesting. The first, called individual accuracy, measures the degree to which people's judgments of an individual correspond to how that individual tends to behave across interaction partners. The second, called dyadic accuracy, measures the degree to which people can uniquely judge how a specific individual will behave with them. We present an example that shows high levels of individual accuracy and lower levels of dyadic accuracy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Enhanced co-orientation in the perception of friends: A social relations analysis.

Newcomb's (1953) idea of co-orientation (interdependence between two persons' attitudes or perceptions) is used as a framework within which interpersonal perception between friends and acquaintances is examined. The principal question is whether co-orientation effects are stronger for friendship dyads than for acquaintance dyads. More specifically, the study examines the degree to which consensus, assimilation, self–other agreement, and assumed similarity differ. The social relations model is used to analyze a data set that included 16 living groups with 119 friend dyads and 1,668 acquaintance dyads. Results indicate that co-orientation effects are more pronounced in friendship dyads. The increment in co-orientation effects is largely due to similarities in the unique or idiosyncratic perceptions that people have of friendship pairs as well as the unique agreement about others that friends have with one another. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Agreement and accuracy in children's interpersonal perception: A social relations analysis.

Agreement and accuracy in children's interpersonal perceptions during middle childhood were studied in the school environment. Sociocultural and ecological theories led to the prediction that, in middle childhood, peers' interpersonal perceptions would show high levels of agreement with those of teachers and would be accurate. A social relations analysis of data from a 3-year, cross-sequential study revealed that throughout middle childhood, peer perceptions of cognitive ability, observable behavior and characteristics, popularity, and affect correlated reliably with teacher perceptions. In addition, peer and teacher perceptions of targets' cognitive ability correlated with standardized test scores. Self-other agreement lagged behind teacher-peer agreement. The conceptual and statistical advantages of the social relations analysis of children's interpersonal perceptions were also considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpersonal perception in a social context.

Interpersonal perception among well-acquainted individuals in a social context was studied. High acquaintance was expected to provide perceivers with a large sample of target behaviors across situations. In turn, memory for acquaintances should be organized by social group and personality characteristics, as predicted by the social context-personality index theory. Differentiation of the target's traits in memory should produce a target effect on perception that is stronger than the perceiver effect. Furthermore, evidence for accuracy, meta-accuracy, independence of self- and other-perception, and reciprocity of affect were anticipated. A social relations analysis of data from a multiple-interaction, reciprocal design was used to study these phenomena. At the individual level, analyses indicated that perceptions of targets were determined primarily by target characteristics and secondarily by perceiver construction of the judgment. Also, perceivers judged targets as targets judged themselves, and targets knew in general how perceivers viewed them. Self- and other-perceptions were largely independent. Surprisingly, we did not observe dyadic meta-accuracy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Meta-accuracy among acquainted individuals: A social relations analysis of interpersonal perception and metaperception.

Meta-accuracy, knowing how others view the self, was examined using the Social Relations Model. 15 groups of 4–6 acquainted individuals gave self-ratings, perceptions of other group members, and estimated others' perceptions of self (metaperceptions) on the Big Five and Interesting. Individuals also rated liking and metaperceptions of liking. Trait perceptions were consensual, and self–other agreement emerged for most traits. Affect judgments were entirely relational; individuals differentiated among targets. Trait metaperceptions were dominated by perceiver variance. Individuals differed in the impression they believed others generally held about them. Affect metaperceptions, however, were relational in nature. Correlations between perceptions and metaperceptions assessed 2 types of meta-accuracy. Generalized meta-accuracy was obtained for some trait ratings. Affect judgments revealed significant dyadic meta-accuracy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Central relationship themes in group psychotherapy: A social relations model analysis of transference.

Group members (N = 55) in 11 therapy groups reported central relationship themes (CRTs) (wishes, responses of others, and responses of self) with other group members and with a romantic partner. Social relations model analyses were used to partition the variance in group member CRT ratings with other members into perceiver, target, and relationship plus error variance components. Significant perceiver variance in member CRT ratings was proposed to serve as a proxy for transference. Overall, significant perceiver variance and mostly insignificant target variance was found, and the perceiver effect accounted for substantially more variance than the target effect. As an exploratory question, the authors wondered to what extent relationship variance accounted for the total variance in member ratings of their CRT. Unfortunately, relationship variance could not be separated from error in this study. Relationship plus error variance accounted for, on average, 42% of the variance in scores. In addition, as a test of the social microcosm of the group theory, it was hypothesized that group member CRTs within the group would relate to member CRTs with a romantic partner outside of the group. Contrary to expectation, this hypothesis was not supported. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpersonal problems: Variables influencing participants' perception of group climate.

The relationship between group members' interpersonal problems and their perception of group climate was explored. 61 group participants, fulfilling a class requirement for group participation, completed the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems and repeated administrations of the Group Climate Questionnaire—Short Form. Hypotheses linking these 2 sets of variables were formulated from interpersonal theory. A canonical analysis showed that as hypothesized, group members who perceived themselves as too dominant experienced the group climate as more avoiding and tense. Moreover, those who perceived themselves as too cold, also as hypothesized, and as not having problems with assertiveness, contrary to the hypothesis, perceived the group climate as less engaged, conflictual, and anxious. Implications of the results are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpersonal perception and metaperception in nonoverlapping social groups

Consensus, self-other agreement, and meta-accuracy were studied within and across nonoverlapping social groups. Thirty-one target persons were judged on the Big Five factors by 9 informants: 3 family members, 3 friends, and 3 coworkers. Although well acquainted within groups, informants were unacquainted between groups. A social relations analysis conducted within each social group showed reliable consensus on the Big Five personality factors. A model specified to estimate the consistency of a target person's effect on perceptions by others across social groups showed weaker agreement across groups. That is, targets were perceived consensually within groups, but these consensual perceptions differed between groups. The data suggest that personality and identity are context specific; however, there was some evidence of agreement in perceptions across groups.     

The social relations model: A tool for group psychotherapy research.

The social relations model presented in this article provides a solution to some of the problems that plague group psychotherapy research. The model was designed to analyze nonindependent data and can be used to study the ways in which group members interrelate and influence one another. The components of the social relations model are the constant (i.e., group effect), the perceiver effect, the target effect, the relationship effect, and error. By providing estimates of the magnitude of these 5 factors and by examining the relationships among these factors, the social relations model allows investigators to examine a host of research questions that have been inaccessible. Examples of applications of the social relations model to issues of group leadership, interpersonal feedback, and process and outcome research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpersonal consequences of person perception processes in two social contexts.

Examined whether perceiver-based perceptual processes affect social behavior. Approximately 1,100 undergraduates were exposed to a videotape that portrayed a male or female child interacting with an adult in a playroom. In Study 1, Ss who "saw" the child emit (a) primarily positive behaviors (i.e., Ss who were positively biased), (b) about equal numbers of positive and negative behaviors (i.e., Ss who were accurate), or (c) primarily negative behaviors (i.e., Ss who were negatively biased) then engaged in cooperative task activities with a 7-yr-old child. In Study 2, a subset of these Ss engaged in a discussion with another undergraduate about 3 issues on which they apparently disagreed. Systematic analyses of these interactions suggested that perceptual processes affected social behavior—negatively biased Ss tended to act in a more authoritarian manner in their encounters with the child, whereas positively biased Ss were the least effective in the discussion task. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intergroup perception in naturally occurring groups of differential status: A social relations perspective.

This study investigated intergroup perception in well-acquainted groups. Also of interest were the effects of a naturally occurring status differential on these perceptions. The study is framed within the social relations model, which provided a measure of in-group bias as well as 3 innovative measures of out-group homogeneity. Results indicated that low-status groups consistently displayed out-group favoritism. High-status groups displayed in-group bias, but only on ratings of leadership ability. The results also provided consistent evidence of out-group homogeneity. In instances when group status moderated out-group homogeneity effects, members of the high-status groups perceived their in-group as more variable than the out-group, whereas members of the low-status groups tended to see the in-group and out-group as equally variable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpersonal engagement in social perception: The consequences of getting into the action.

Examined the effects on person perception of varying levels of observer-actor engagement using 60 undergraduates. Ss observed a male actor (confederate) responding to interview questions on a prerecorded videotape under 3 conditions of interpersonal engagement: Ss in a detachment condition knew that they were simply observing a tape; Ss in an anticipated-interaction condition knew that they were observing a tape but expected to interact subsequently with the actor; Ss in an actual-interaction condition thought that they were interacting with the actor over a video hook-up. Half of the Ss observed the actor preface his responses with a positive comment regarding the interviewer's question (positive actor); the other half observed the actor preface his responses with a negative comment (negative actor). It was predicted that anticipated-interaction Ss would demonstrate hopefulness by attributing the positive actor's behavior dispositionally and the negative actor's behavior situationally but that actual-interaction Ss would show the opposite causal attribution pattern in an attempt to protect or enhance their own self-esteem. Results confirm these predictions. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The looking-glass self in family context: A social relations analysis.

Family relationships provide the most valid context for studying a key hypothesis of Symbolic Interaction Theory (SIT), that how one is perceived by significant others determines one's view of the self (C. H. Cooley, 1902). Implicit in this hypothesis is another hypothesis, that people are accurate in perceiving how they are perceived by others. This study investigated the accuracy of young people's perceptions of how they are viewed by their parents (i.e., metaperception accuracy). Social relations analysis (D. A. Kenny & L. La Voie, 1984) was applied to data from 51 2-parent, 2-child families. College students were accurate in their metaperceptions of father but only for perceived assertiveness. Adolescents demonstrated generalized accuracy in their metaperceptions of cooperation. The results partially support a modified version of SIT. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A social relations analysis of agreement in liking judgments.

Using a round-robin design in which every subject served both as judge and target, subjects made liking judgments, trait ratings, and physical attractiveness ratings of each other on each of 4 days. Although there was some agreement in the liking judgments, most of the variance was due to idiosyncratic preferences for different targets. Differences in evaluations were due to at least 2 factors: disagreements in how targets were perceived (is this person honest?) and disagreements in how to weight the trait attributes that predicted liking (is honesty more important than friendliness?) When evaluating the targets in specific roles (as a study partner), judgments showed much greater agreement, as did the weights of the trait attributes. A 2nd study confirmed the differential weighting of trait attributes when rating liking in general and the increased agreement when rating specific roles. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Studying group dynamics with the social relations model.

Although the interdependence of group members is one of the defining characteristics of group dynamics, most traditional statistical methods require each observation to be independent. D. Kenny's (1994) social relations model (SRM) provides a statistical technique for studying interdependence in groups. The components of the SRM (e.g., actor, partner, relationship) and the ways in which this model can be used to study interpersonal behavior and perception in groups are reviewed. Findings from social relations analyses of leadership and group therapy are discussed to demonstrate the ways in which the SRM can contribute to the study of group dynamics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accuracy of behavioral predictions at zero acquaintance: A social relations analysis.

The accuracy of behavioral predictions based on minimal information was assessed using the Social Relations Model (D. A. Kenny and L. Albright; see record 1988-07424-001). 80 women in unacquainted groups of 4 completed round robin trait ratings and predictions about extraversion-related behaviors. Each S then had a 5-min videotaped 1-on-1 interaction with each of the other group members. Behaviors corresponding to those predicted were coded from the videotapes. Significant consensus was obtained for ratings of Extraversion and for behavioral predictions. Cross-partner consistency emerged for all coded behaviors. Although predictions of behavior were not accurate at the dyadic level, significant generalized accuracy did emerge. Thus, if a person was consensually predicted to be talkative, for example, that person tended to be talkative across partners. Results are discussed in relation to the accuracy of interpersonal perception and W. B. Swann's (see record 1985-04030-001) theory of pragmatic accuracy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpersonal perception: Cognitive complexity and trait implication.

Demonstrated that the evaluative connotations of personality characteristics have a more pervasive effect on interpersonal judgment for persons low rather than high in cognitive complexity. It was found that low-complexity Ss saw equally desirable traits as going together more often, and unequally desirable traits as going together less often than did high-complexity Ss. The need for conceptualizing interpersonal judgment as partly a function of the interaction between cognitive complexity and the evaluative requirements of the task was stressed. (19 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intergroup relations and group solidarity: Effects of group identification and social beliefs on depersonalized attraction.

An intergroup extension of M. A. Hogg's (1992, 1993) social attraction hypothesis is proposed. Netball teams were investigated with measures assessing the relationship between (a) objective status; (b) "social beliefs" about intergroup status, stability, legitimacy, and permeability; (c) group identification, self-categorization, and prototypicality; (d) interpersonal relations and similarity; (e) depersonalized social attraction; and (f) true personal attraction. As predicted, group-membership based social attraction was directly influenced by self-categorization; indirectly influenced, through self-categorization, by intergroup status and stability beliefs; and uninfluenced by interpersonal relations. Social attraction (related to prototypicality and group identification) was relatively independent of personal attraction (related to similarity and interpersonal variables). Legitimacy, permeability, and the empirical co-occurrence of social and personal attraction in cohesive groups are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)