Edward E. Jones - US grants

This research is designed to extend what we now know about what people see, think about, and experience while interacting with others. We know that people see things differently when they are responding or concerned about responding to others than when they are passive observers. For example, people are very poor at realizing how much the reactions of others are distincly influenced by their own actions. To an important extent we create our own social reality by affecting others and, unfortunately, we then interpret the reactions of others without realizing the extent to which we have caused them. This research focuses on several aspects of this process of creating social reality. One aspect is the specific role that our prior expectations play in acting toward and perceiving others. Another aspect is the effects of various social goals on how people present themselves. A special interest lies in one person's evaluation of another's abilities when the former has some degree of control over the latter's level of performance. With this research, we will have a richer understanding of the thinking processes that accompany and affect social interactions. In practical terms this will bring us closer to understanding how initial false impressions can be sustained in any social interaction, and what determines whether interactions that get off on the wrong foot can be resolved in friendships and mutual understanding .. or drift into further conflict and acrimony.

ABSTRACT How do teachers, coaches, counselors, and parents reach conclusions about the abilities of those whose skills and performances they are attempting to influence? If a student does well only when assisted or clued by the teacher, will the teacher rate the student's intelligence higher or lower than the intelligence of a student who is relatively unresponsive to help, but does quite well without it? These questions have been addressed in an unsystematic and inconclusive way in previous studies. This research is designed to pose these and similar questions, looking at such factors as (1) the degree of convariation between clues chosen by the teacher, and successes registered by the student and (2) the particular goal or orientation of the teachers. Preliminary studies show that intellectual ability is evaluated very differently when the purpose of instruction is raised. Such appraisals (in the form of teacher expectancies) can be extremely important in guiding teacher behavior and, often, creating self-fulfilling prophecies.