Integrative and dynamic impression formation process Essay Example

individual better, their initial impression as part of the group persisted. However, there are those who argue that impression formation can vary among individuals.

The effect of stereotypes on a person's initial perception is likely to have little impact on someone who is open and agreeable, but can be more enduring for those who are dogmatic and stubborn. Despite the significant role that stereotypes play in shaping our first impressions of others, individuals strive to integrate information in order to form a holistic understanding. Asch (1946) proposed the concept of "Gestalt formulation," which suggests that during impression formation, characteristics are assessed in relation to other traits and may interact with one another.

This demonstrates the dynamic nature of the impression formation process, wherein the impression continuously evolves with the acquisition of new information. However, the impression is anchored to the primary traits despite any alterations made to it in a particular direction. Asch's proposal for a different approach to impression formation, in addition to stereotype and gestalt formulation, is also intriguing.

The summative approach defines impression as the total of all observed characteristics, expressed as impression = a+b+c+d+e. This perspective does not align with either the integrative or dynamic approaches and proposes a novel interpretation of the impression formation process.

In this text, we will discuss the primacy effect and the recency effect as demonstrated by Luchins (1957) in a classic study on impression formation. Luchins found that the initial information played a dominant role in impression formation, which is known as the primacy effect. This supports the attention decrement hypothesis. However, Luchins' paragraph reading tasks also supported the recency effect, which occurs when there is a time delay

between reading the paragraphs and it is filled with a distracting task. The primacy effect was more obvious when reading two paragraphs immediately after each other. Luchins' findings helped to balance the debate between dynamic and cognitive processes.

The Pygmalion in the Classroom study (Rosenthal ; Jacobson, 1968) illustrates the self-fulfilling prophecy phenomenon and its integrative processes. The study reveals that one's expectations of a person can mold their behavior to correspond with those expectations. Despite no observable difference in IQ scores, teachers rated students with higher IQ scores as more curious, interested, and happier than those with lower IQ scores. These evaluations based on expectations demonstrate how our impressions can be swayed by previous information we believe is valid. However, it remains unclear how teachers would react if they were aware that there was no actual disparity between students' IQ scores.

Modifying impressions is a dynamic process that could potentially result by changing the attitudes of teachers towards pupils with varying IQ levels. When it comes to impression formation, negative information is more influential than positive information, as per the study conducted by Skowronski and Carlston in 1989. Negative data often gets interpreted as a sign of potential danger, which makes it crucial for individuals to pay attention to it. Thus, negative information gets assigned more importance as compared to other types of information, which highlights the fact that new information can bring about changes in one's impressions.

The research suggested that the cognitive process of encoding information includes prioritizing negative information. Furthermore, an individual’s preferred encoding method tends to remain consistent over a significant period of time, impacting how they perceive others. Despite this, further

changes and developments are possible as the process is continuously dynamic and integrative.