Social perception: The process by which people come to understand one another.  How we integrate our observations into coherent impressions of other persons; we are both perceiver and target.  Students will write a four to five page paper on how they form impressions of other people. 

            In the first part of this assignment, students will write about a person they met in life, and upon first introduction, made an unfavorable impression.  What was it about this person that did not seem right?  However, over time, as you got to know this person, you started to have a change of heart.  What was it that changed your impression about the individual?  List and describe how your impression changed about that person.

            Second, students will write about how their impression formation relates to chapter three.  Pick three terms and describe how they relate to your change of impression. (Some terms you can use from the textbook are priming, overconfidence, confirmation bias, illusory thinking, belief perseverance, and intuitive judgements).

            Third, students will research one scholarly (peer reviewed) journal article, in order to provide support, your impression formation has been scientifically proven.

            This assignment will provide students with a better understanding toward their cognitive processes in forming an impression and how it could possibly change.  Papers will be written in APA format, and must include abstract, title and reference pages (abstract, title and reference pages are not part of the page count).  Do not forget to cite your sources (in-text citations) in body of paper.

Paper will be written in APA format and must include the following:

I.  Title page (first page)

II.  Abstract (second page)

III. Pages three and four

      A.  Introduction

      B.  Description of person who made an unfavorable impression, and later on, you                                                    changed your impression about them.

      C.  Concluding paragraph                 

IV.  Page five

      A.  Chapter three readings

            1.  Cite three terms from the textbook and explain how they relate to your                                                                  impression formation. 

V.  Page six

      A.  Article summary (peer reviewed; empirically based research)

            1.  Introduction

            2.  Methods

            3.  Results and discussion

            4.  How does this article relate to your impression formation?

VI.  Reference page (page seven)

        A.  The reference page provides information for article retrieval.  In-text citation must be present                in body of paper.

NOTES REGARDING ASSIGNMENT:

Do not forget levels of heading. In other words, structure your paper with headings (i.e. Chapter Three Terms, Article Summary, Methods, Resultsetc).

Keep confidentiality in mind.  You do not have to provide the name of the individual you are writing about.