New Directions in Person Perception Research
MGMT 9710: Advanced Seminar in Organizational Behavior and Theory
PSYC G9350: Seminar in Social and Personality Psychology

Professor Daniel Ames, Spring 2006
Thursdays 10 a.m. - 1 p.m., 305 Uris

This goal of this course is to stimulate students to engage in new theorizing and empirical work in person perception and impression formation. While the past century of scholarship has revealed important aspects of person perception, much remains to be discovered. We'll begin by developing a foundational understanding of past and contemporary social psychological work on person perception. We'll also consider fundamental questions such as "what do impressions do" and "how/when is it meaningful to speak of impression accuracy."

After these initial sessions, we'll branch into a series of topics that hold substantial opportunities for new thinking. For instance, we'll consider conversational processes and the role of listening and speaking behavior in initial impressions. We will discuss the dynamics of impression change over time. We'll also explore social and organizational contexts, including social networks and interview settings. Several sessions will feature emergent topics chosen by participants, with potential subjects such as impressions during conflict and impressions of non-human objects (including robots/agents, animals, and organizations).

Grading revolves around class participation, several short assignments, a collective research project, and a paper. Throughout the course, students will be encouraged to think about gaps in the research literature and unanswered questions, and to formulate their own predictions and plans of research.

Click here to download a preliminary syllabus.

last modified on February 1, 2006 by lep1