A Demonstration of Undergraduate Students' First Impressions and Their Ratings of Pathology

An interactive team exercise based in the dual topic areas of social and abnormal psychology is described that employs videotaped case studies to sensitize students to the processes by which they form first impressions of other people, and to various issues regarding assessments of mental disorders. Each of three case studies is presented in two parts: Part I simulates a "first impression" condition--involving students' ratings of perceived pathology--by briefly showing only a patient (no soundtrack present), and Part 2 constitutes a "further disclosure" condition by giving more exposure-involving therapists' diagnoses and assessments-of the same patient with both sight and soundtrack presented. Data are reported from 12 introductory psychology classes in which students (N=367) rated the three patients on psychopathology as perceived severity of disorder as compared to the actual assessments (also contained on the videotapes) made by clinical psychologists and psychiatrists. The demonstration is useful in eliciting consistent and predictable first impressions from students, in stimulating classroom discussion about the value and accuracy of person perceptions and first impressions, and in alerting students to problems related to the identification of mental disorders

Abnormal psychology · Identification (biology · Medical diagnosis · Medical education · Pathology · Perception · Psychopathology · Sight · Value (mathematics · Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology · Applied Psychology · Clinical Psychology · Medicine · Mental Health and Psychiatry · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications

• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

  American Psychiatric Association American Psychiatric Association, American…•Diagnostic and Statistical Manual…•2022

  Incluir item

• Averaging versus adding as a stimulus-combination rule in impression formation.

  Norman H Anderson•Journal of Experimental…•1965

  Incluir item

• On Being Sane in Insane Places

  Open Access•David Rosenhan, D L Rosenhan•Science•1973

  Incluir item

• A Continuum of Impression Formation, from Category-Based to Individuating Processes

  Susan T Fiske, Steven L Neuberg•Advances in Experimental Social…•1990

  Incluir item

• On the Dominance of Moral Categories in Impression Formation

  Open Access•Bogdan Wojciszke, Róża Bazińska et al.•Personality and Social Psychology…•1998

  Incluir item

• Negativity and extremity biases in impression formation

  John J Skowronski, Donal E Carlston•Psychological Bulletin•1989

  Incluir item

• The concept of mental disorder

  Jerome C Wakefield•American Psychologist•1992

  Incluir item

• The need to evaluate

  W Blair G Jarvis, Richard E Petty•Journal of Personality and Social…•1996

  Incluir item

• Forming impressions of personality

  E Asch, S E Asch•Journal of Abnormal & Social…•1946

  Incluir item