Interpersonal accuracy

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In psychology, interpersonal accuracy (IPA) refers to an individual's ability to make correct inferences about others' internal states, traits, or other personal attributes. [1] For example, a person who is able to correctly recognize emotions, motivation, or thoughts in others demonstrates interpersonal accuracy. IPA is an important skill in everyday life and is related to many positive social interaction outcomes. [2]

Contents

Definition

Different terms have been used in the literature in the past (e.g., interpersonal sensitivity, [3] empathic accuracy, [4] mind reading, [5] and judgmental accuracy, [6] to describe the ability to make correct inferences about others. Also, emotion recognition ability (ERA) [7] or emotion perception ability [8] is part of IPA. But, IPA is much broader than just correctly assessing others' emotions. IPA encompasses the accurate assessment of others' traits (e.g., personality, intelligence, or sexual orientation) and states (e.g., thoughts, emotions, or motivations) and accurate assessment of interpersonal relationships (e.g., level of intimacy between two people or hierarchical status among two or more people) as well as social group characteristics (e.g., religion, political orientation, or psychopathology).

The correlations between these different IPA domains are positive but modest, suggesting that IPA is a multifaceted and heterogeneous construct. [9] In some domains, especially personality judgment, researchers measure behavioral and appearance cues to understand how accuracy is achieved and to identify cues that perceivers might miss or use inappropriately. Sometimes, accurately remembering information about others (e.g., their nonverbal behavior or their appearance), called recall accuracy, and remembering one's own nonverbal behavior (nonverbal self-accuracy) is subsumed under the label of IPA. [10] [11] In the social perception field, IPA is mostly conceptualized as a skill as it increases during childhood and adolescence, continues to change across adulthood, and can be trained. [12] [13] [14] When averaged across people, group comparisons can be made (e.g., gender differences or cultural comparisons).

IPA and social interaction outcomes

Research has shown that people who are high in IPA tend to have more socially desirable personality traits (e.g., empathy, extraversion, or tolerance) and fewer socially undesirable personality traits (e.g., neuroticism or shyness) [15] [16] and are generally more mentally healthy. In addition, people who demonstrate IPA are perceived as more cooperative and more likable. [17] People who are high in IPA, therefore, seem better equipped for social interactions than the ones who are low in IPA. Indeed, IPA is linked to positive outcomes in various contexts such as clinical settings (e.g., physicians who are higher in IPA have more satisfied patients), education (e.g., IPA is related to positive learning outcomes on both the teacher and the learner side), or the workplace (e.g., IPA is positively related to work performance) —contexts in which social interactions are omnipresent. [18] [19] [20] [21] [22]

The origins of IPA are not well understood, as little prospective research has been done and most evidence is correlational (i.e., based on cross-sectional data). Research suggests that formative experiences [23] including family environment and attachment [24] could play a role. For instance, dysfunctional parenting is associated with children who have higher IPA. [25] Motivational factors, [26] [27] either short-term or long-term, as well as various requirements of work and social life also play a part. Although IPA shows modest correlations with cognitive intelligence, it is not merely the product of higher overall intelligence.

Related Research Articles

Emotional intelligence (EI) is defined as the ability to perceive, use, understand, manage, and handle emotions. People with high emotional intelligence can recognize their own emotions and those of others, use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior, discern between different feelings and label them appropriately, and adjust emotions to adapt to environments.

A facial expression is one or more motions or positions of the muscles beneath the skin of the face. According to one set of controversial theories, these movements convey the emotional state of an individual to observers. Facial expressions are a form of nonverbal communication. They are a primary means of conveying social information between humans, but they also occur in most other mammals and some other animal species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Job satisfaction</span> Attitude of a person towards work

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nonverbal communication</span> Interpersonal communication through wordless (mostly visual) cues

Nonverbal communication (NVC) is the transmission of messages or signals through a nonverbal platform such as eye contact, facial expressions, gestures, posture, use of objects, body language, social cues, kinesics, distance (proxemics), physical environments/appearance, voice (paralanguage), and touch (haptics). When communicating, we utilize nonverbal channels as means to convey different messages or signals, whereas others can interpret these message. The study of nonverbal communication started in 1872 with the publication of The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin. Darwin began to study nonverbal communication as he noticed the interactions between animals such as lions, tigers, dogs etc. and realized they also communicated by gestures and expressions. For the first time, nonverbal communication was studied and its relevance questioned. Today, scholars argue that nonverbal communication can convey more meaning than verbal communication.

Social perception is the study of how people form impressions of and make inferences about other people as sovereign personalities. Social perception refers to identifying and utilizing social cues to make judgments about social roles, rules, relationships, context, or the characteristics of others. This domain also includes social knowledge, which refers to one's knowledge of social roles, norms, and schemas surrounding social situations and interactions. People learn about others' feelings and emotions by picking up information they gather from physical appearance, verbal, and nonverbal communication. Facial expressions, tone of voice, hand gestures, and body position or movement are a few examples of ways people communicate without words. A real-world example of social perception is understanding that others disagree with what one said when one sees them roll their eyes. There are four main components of social perception: observation, attribution, integration, and confirmation.

Interpersonal deception theory (IDT) is one of a number of theories that attempts to explain how individuals handle actual deception at the conscious or subconscious level while engaged in face-to-face communication. The theory was put forth by David Buller and Judee Burgoon in 1996 to explore this idea that deception is an engaging process between receiver and deceiver. IDT assumes that communication is not static; it is influenced by personal goals and the meaning of the interaction as it unfolds. IDT is no different from other forms of communication since all forms of communication are adaptive in nature. The sender's overt communications are affected by the overt and covert communications of the receiver, and vice versa. IDT explores the interrelation between the sender's communicative meaning and the receiver's thoughts and behavior in deceptive exchanges.

Thin-slicing is a term used in psychology and philosophy to describe the ability to find patterns in events based only on "thin slices", or narrow windows, of experience. The term refers to the process of making very quick inferences about the state, characteristics or details of an individual or situation with minimal amounts of information. Research has found that brief judgments based on thin-slicing are similar to those judgments based on much more information. Judgments based on thin-slicing can be as accurate, or even more so, than judgments based on much more information.

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Non-verbal leakage is a form of non-verbal behavior that occurs when a person verbalizes one thing, but their body language indicates another, common forms of which include facial movements and hand-to-face gestures. The term "non-verbal leakage" got its origin in literature in 1968, leading to many subsequent studies on the topic throughout the 1970s, with related studies continuing today.

Power and dominance-submission are two key dimensions of relationships, especially close relationships in which parties rely on one another to achieve their goals and as such it is important to be able to identify indicators of dominance.

In psychology, a first impression is the event when one person first encounters another person and forms a mental image of that person. Impression accuracy varies depending on the observer and the target being observed. First impressions are based on a wide range of characteristics: age, race, culture, language, gender, physical appearance, accent, posture, voice, number of people present, economic status, and time allowed to process. The first impressions individuals give to others could greatly influence how they are treated and viewed in many contexts of everyday life.

Social cues are verbal or non-verbal signals expressed through the face, body, voice, motion and guide conversations as well as other social interactions by influencing our impressions of and responses to others. These percepts are important communicative tools as they convey important social and contextual information and therefore facilitate social understanding.

Amy Gene Halberstadt is an American psychologist specializing in the social development of emotion. She is currently Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Professor of Psychology at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina, and is an editor of the journal Social Development.

Personality judgment is the process by which people perceive each other's personalities through acquisition of certain information about others, or meeting others in person. The purpose of studying personality judgment is to understand past behavior exhibited by individuals and predict future behavior. Theories concerning personality judgment focus on the accuracy of personality judgments and the effects of personality judgments on various aspects of social interactions. Determining how people judge personality is important because personality judgments often influence individuals' behaviors.

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The study of the relationship between gender and emotional expression is the study of the differences between men and women in behavior that expresses emotions. These differences in emotional expression may be primarily due to cultural expectations of femininity and masculinity.

A zero-acquaintance situation requires a perceiver to make a judgment about a target with whom the perceiver has had no prior social interaction. These judgments can be made using a variety of cues, including brief interactions with the target, video recordings of the target, photographs of the target, and observations of the target's personal environments, among others. In zero-acquaintance studies, the target's actual personality is determined through the target's self-rating and/or ratings from close acquaintance(s) of that target. Consensus in ratings is determined by how consistently perceivers rate the target's personality when compared to other raters. Accuracy in ratings is determined by how well perceivers' ratings of a target compare to that target's self-ratings on the same scale, or to that target's close acquaintances' ratings of the target. Zero-acquaintance judgments are regularly made in day-to-day life. Given that these judgments tend to remain stable, even as the length of interaction increases, they can influence important interpersonal outcomes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marianne Schmid Mast</span>

Marianne Schmid Mast is a Professor of Organizational Behavior and Dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics (HEC) of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

Social vision is a sub-topic of social psychology that investigates the ways from which individuals extract information and perceive others using their vision alone. The field of social vision is highly interdisciplinary and located at the nexus of social psychology, communication studies, and vision science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nalini Ambady</span> American social psychologist of Indian descent

Nalini Ambady was an Indian-American social psychologist and a leading expert on nonverbal behavior and interpersonal perception. She was born in Calcutta, India and earned her bachelor’s degree at Lady Shri Ram College for women, Delhi University. She furthered her education by moving to the United States for her master’s degree in psychology, from the College of William and Mary, and later received her PhD in social psychology from Harvard. While completing her research at Harvard, she met her husband Raj Marphatia, who was studying at Harvard Law school.

References

  1. ↑ Hall, Judith A.; Mast, Marianne Schmid; West, Tessa V. (2016). "Accurate interpersonal perception". In Hall, Judith A.; Schmid Mast, Marianne; West, Tessa V. (eds.). The Social Psychology of Perceiving Others Accurately. Cambridge,United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. pp. 3–22. doi:10.1017/CBO9781316181959.001. ISBN   978-1-107-49907-2.
  2. ↑ Hall, Judith A.; Andrzejewski, Susan A.; Yopchick, Jennelle E. (September 1, 2009). "Psychosocial correlates of interpersonal sensitivity: A meta-analysis". Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 33 (3): 149–180. doi:10.1007/s10919-009-0070-5. S2CID   145537716.
  3. ↑ Hall, Judith A.; Bernieri, Frank J. (June 2001). Interpersonal Sensitivity: Theory and Measurement. Psychology Press. ISBN   978-1-135-67188-4.
  4. ↑ Ickes, William John (1997). Empathic Accuracy. New York: Guilford Press. ISBN   978-1-57230-161-0.
  5. ↑ Ickes, William (2003). Everyday mind reading : understanding what other people think and feel. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books. ISBN   1-59102-119-7.
  6. ↑ Vogt, Dawne S.; Colvin, C. Randall (2003). "Interpersonal orientation and the accuracy of personality judgments". Journal of Personality. 71 (2): 267–295. doi:10.1111/1467-6494.7102005. PMID   12693518.
  7. ↑ Schlegel, Katja; Palese, Tristan; Mast, Marianne Schmid; Rammsayer, Thomas H.; Hall, Judith A.; Murphy, Nora A. (February 17, 2020). "A meta-analysis of the relationship between emotion recognition ability and intelligence". Cognition and Emotion. 34 (2): 329–351. doi:10.1080/02699931.2019.1632801. PMID   31221021. S2CID   195191825.
  8. ↑ Kohler, Christian G.; Walker, Jeffrey B.; Martin, Elizabeth A.; Healey, Kristin M.; Moberg, Paul J. (September 1, 2010). "Facial emotion perception in schizophrenia: A meta-analytic review". Schizophrenia Bulletin. 36 (5): 1009–1019. doi:10.1093/schbul/sbn192. PMC   2930336 . PMID   19329561.
  9. ↑ Schlegel, Katja; Boone, R. Thomas; Hall, Judith A. (June 1, 2017). "Individual differences in interpersonal accuracy: A multi-level meta-analysis to assess whether judging other people is one skill or many" (PDF). Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 41 (2): 103–137. doi:10.1007/s10919-017-0249-0. S2CID   151795700.
  10. ↑ Murphy, Nora A.; Schmid Mast, Marianne; Hall, Judith A. (October 1, 2016). "Nonverbal self-accuracy: Individual differences in knowing one's own social interaction behavior". Personality and Individual Differences. 101: 30–34. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2016.05.023.
  11. ↑ Hall, Judith A.; Murphy, Nora A.; Mast, Marianne Schmid (October 11, 2006). "Recall of nonverbal cues: Exploring a new definition of interpersonal sensitivity". Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 30 (4): 141–155. doi:10.1007/s10919-006-0013-3. S2CID   143429158.
  12. ↑ Blanch-Hartigan, Danielle; Andrzejewski, Susan A.; Hill, Krista M. (November 1, 2012). "The effectiveness of training to improve person perception accuracy: A meta-analysis". Basic and Applied Social Psychology. 34 (6): 483–498. doi:10.1080/01973533.2012.728122. S2CID   145591226.
  13. ↑ Isaacowitz, Derek M.; Vicaria, Ishabel M.; Murry, Matthew W. E. (2016). "A lifespan developmental perspective on interpersonal accuracy". In Hall, Judith; Schmid Mast, Marianne; West, Tessa (eds.). The Social Psychology of Perceiving Others Accurately. Cambridge University Press. pp. 206–229. doi:10.1017/CBO9781316181959.010. ISBN   978-1-107-49907-2.
  14. ↑ Castro, Vanessa; Isaacowitz, Derek (2019). "The same with age: Evidence for age-related similarities in interpersonal accuracy". Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. 148 (9): 1517–1537. doi:10.1037/xge0000540. PMC   6682457 . PMID   30550339.
  15. ↑ Griffiths, Phillip; Ashwin, Christopher (2016). "Accuracy in perceiving facial expressions of emotion in psychopathology". In Hall, Judith; Schmid Mast, Marianne; West, Tessa (eds.). The social psychology of perceiving others accurately. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. pp. 185–205. ISBN   9781107101517.
  16. ↑ Hall, Judith A.; Mast, Marianne Schmid; West, Tessa V. (2016). "Accurate interpersonal perception". In Hall, Judith A.; Schmid Mast, Marianne; West, Tessa V. (eds.). The Social Psychology of Perceiving Others Accurately. Cambridge,United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. pp. 3–22. doi:10.1017/CBO9781316181959.001. ISBN   978-1-107-49907-2.
  17. ↑ Schlegel, Katja; Mehu, Marc; van Peer, Jacobien M.; Scherer, Klaus R. (2018). "Sense and sensibility: The role of cognitive and emotional intelligence in negotiation" (PDF). Journal of Research in Personality. 74: 6–15. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2017.12.003. S2CID   148652852.
  18. ↑ Byron, Kristin; Terranova, Sophia; Nowicki, Stephen (2007). "Nonverbal emotion recognition and salespersons: Linking ability to perceived and actual success". Journal of Applied Social Psychology. 37 (11): 2600–2619. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2007.00272.x.
  19. ↑ Palese, Tristan; Mast, Marianne Schmid (2020). "Interpersonal accuracy and interaction outcomes: Why and how reading others correctly has adaptive advantages in social interactions". In Sternberg, R.; Kostić, A. (eds.). Social Intelligence and Nonverbal Communication. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. pp. 305–331. ISBN   978-3-030-34964-6.
  20. ↑ Livingston, Samuel A. (1981). "Nonverbal communication tests as predictors of success in psychology and counseling". Applied Psychological Measurement. 5 (3): 325–331. doi:10.1177/014662168100500305. S2CID   145496285.
  21. ↑ Bernieri, Frank J. (1991). "Interpersonal sensitivity in teaching interactions". Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 17: 98–103. doi:10.1177/0146167291171015. S2CID   143785196.
  22. ↑ Puccinelli, Nancy M.; Andrzejewski, Susan A.; Markos, Ereni; Noga, Tracy; Motyka, Scott (2013). "The value of knowing what customers really want: The impact of salesperson ability to read non-verbal cues of affect on service quality". Journal of Marketing Management. 29 (3–4): 356–373. doi:10.1080/0267257X.2013.766631. S2CID   144792814.
  23. ↑ Hall, Judith A.; Andrzejewski, Susan A.; Yopchick, Jennelle E. (September 1, 2009). "Psychosocial correlates of interpersonal sensitivity: A meta-analysis". Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 33 (3): 149–180. doi:10.1007/s10919-009-0070-5. S2CID   145537716.
  24. ↑ Simpson, Jeffry A.; Kim, John S.; Fillo, Jennifer; Ickes, William; Rholes, W. Steven; Oriña, M. Minda; Winterheld, Heike A. (2011). "Attachment and the Management of Empathic Accuracy in Relationship-Threatening Situations". Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 37 (2): 242–54. doi:10.1177/0146167210394368. PMC   6022365 . PMID   21239597.
  25. ↑ Otani, Koichi; Suzuki, Akihito; Shibuya, Naoshi; Matsumoto, Yoshihiko; Kamata, Mitsuhiro (2009). "Dysfunctional parenting styles increase interpersonal sensitivity in healthy subjects". The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. 197 (12): 938–941. doi:10.1097/NMD.0b013e3181c29a4c. PMID   20010031. S2CID   27345027.
  26. ↑ Hall, Judith A.; Blanch, Danielle C.; Horgan, Terrence G.; Murphy, Nora A.; Rosip, Janelle C.; Schmid Mast, Marianne (2009). "Motivation and interpersonal sensitivity: Does it matter how hard you try?". Motivation and Emotion. 33 (3): 291–302. doi:10.1007/s11031-009-9128-2. S2CID   145556088.
  27. ↑ Smith, Jessi; Ickes, William; Hall, Judith; Hodges, Sara (2011). Managing interpersonal sensitivity : knowing when--and when not--to understand others. New York, N.Y.: Nova Science Publisher's. ISBN   978-1-61728-691-9.
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