Impression formation and management involves how individuals form impressions of others based on certain traits and characteristics. People pay attention to central traits to help form overall impressions, though various sources of information are used unequally. Initial impressions, even if unsupported by facts, can affect future interactions. Additionally, people seek to influence how others perceive them through impression management techniques like self-presentation and regulation of social interactions.

1. IMPRESSION FORMATION AND MANAGEMENT

3.  It is a process through which an individual forms
impressions about others. Every individual organises
information about another person to form an overall
impression of that person.
 Impression formation focuses on the way in which people
pay particular attention to certain unusually important
traits known as central traits to help them to form an
overall impression of others.
 Various sources of information are available in forming an
impression of someone however its not all of this
information which will be used and this information does
not hold equal value e.g. We may notice how the person
acts or we may hear something about him or her from
someone.

4.  Initial impressions though not supported by facts affect
how we interact with others and how we perceive them in
future.
 Impression formation is sometimes referred to as person
perception and this refers to the process people go through
in forming an impression of another person.
 In forming impressions perceivers prefer simple well
structured impressions and they achieve this coherence by
regularly constructing and using categorical
representations such as stereotypes in their attempts to
understand others (Representative Heuristic).

5.  Studies on stereotyping indicate that from an ethnic
level a number of perceptions follow which are
culturally determined.
 American culture consider those with bulging eyes as
extroverted and outgoing.
 Physical characteristics can affect the first impressions
and every other behaviour will be stereotyped and
linked to the personality of that person e.g. Lombroso
said that those with big jaws, big head, large ears are
criminals.

6.  This is a goal directed conscious and unconscious
process in which people attempt to influence the
perceptions of other people about a person, object or
event.
 They do so by regulating and controlling information
in social interaction (Winger & Burt 2001).
 Research on impression management was started by E.
Jones in the 1960s.
 It is usually used synonymously with self presentation
(the art of looking good) in which a person tries to
influence the perception of their own image.

7.  The notion of impression management also applies in
some practises in professional communication and
public relations where the term is used to describe the
process of formation of a company’s or organisation’s
public image.
 The desire to avoid embarrassment, to look good, to
seem sometimes better than we are results in our
managing the impression others make of us.
 Sometimes we do this by our clothing, our cars and our
houses.
 Actors and lawyers are best impression managers.

8.  At one extreme, there are many individuals who
consistently act the same way in every situation even
when doing so might not be appropriate (these are
termed low self monitors).
 At the other extreme are people who modify their
behaviour to fit each situation showing little
consistency across context (high self monitors a.k.a.
social chameleons.
 Self monitoring refers to the extent to which an
individual is aware of an ability to control the
impressions that he/she conveys to others.

9.  Experiments have found out that high self monitoring
individuals suffer little or no shyness. Soon after
meeting another person, they take an active and
controlling role in the conversation, they are inclined
to talk first and initiate subsequent conversations.
Perhaps these qualities may help high self monitoring
individuals to emerge as leaders in groups and
organisations.

10. Instrumental Motive
Expressive Motive
Affection Seeking Motive
Credibility Seeking Motive
Self Handicapping Motive
Help Seeking Motive
Leadership Seeking Motive

11.  We want to influence others and gain rewards.
 Conveying the right impression adds to the acquisition
of desired social and material outcomes.
 Social outcomes can include approval, friendship,
assistance or power while conveying an impression of
competence at the workplace can bring about positive
material rewards such as higher salaries or better
working conditions.

12.  We construct an image of ourselves to claim personal
identity and present ourselves in a manner that is
consistent with that image.
 If one feels this may restrict how one may be defined,
he or she tries to assert his or her freedom against
those who seek to curtail one’s self presentation
(expressiveness).
 A classic example is the idea of a preacher or pastor’s
daughter whose suppressed personal identity and
emotions cause an eventual backlash at her family and
community.

13.  If one wants to be liked he or she is likely to use what
are called affinity seeking strategies e.g. One might
display out help to others or show respect for the other
person.

14.  For example if one is a politician seeking people to vote
for him or her to support a particular proposal one is
advancing. In this case one will probably use
credibility strategy and seek to establish one’s
competent character for charisma e.g. to establish
one’s competence he or she might mention his or her
great educational background or the courses one took
that qualify him or her as an expert.
 To establish that one is of good character, he or she
might mention how fair and honest he or she is, his or
her concern for enduring values or his or her concern
for others.

15.  If one is about to tackle a difficult task and is
concerned that he o r she might fail, he or she might
use what are called self handicapping strategies e.g.
one might set up barriers or obstacles to make the task
impossible and so when one fails he or she will not be
blamed basing on the fact that the task would
regarded impossible given the circumstances.

16.  If one wants to be taken care of and protected or
simply want someone to come to one’s aid, one might
use self depreciating strategies e.g. confessing of
incompetence and inability often brings assistance
from others.

17.  In many instances people want others to see them as
leaders and wish to be followed in thoughts and
perhaps in behaviour.
 In this case one may use a variety of influencing
strategies e.g. one may stress his or her knowledge
(information power), or his or her expertise (expert
power), or his or her right to lead by virtue of one’s
position as either doctor, lawyer, manager e.t.c.
(legitimate power).
 Other strategies include intimidation strategy and
assertiveness strategy

18. SELF ENHANCEMENT
INGRATIATION (OTHER ENHANCEMENT)

19.  This includes efforts to improve our own appearance. This
can be accomplished through alterations in dress or
through personal grooming e.g. use of cosmetics, hairstyle,
dressing e.t.c.
 Research findings indicate that all these tactics work at
least under some conditions e.g women who dress in a
professional manner (formal suits or dress, expensive
jewellery) are often evaluated more favourably for
management positions than women who dress in a more
traditional feminine manner.
 Similarly eye glasses have been found to encourage
impressions of intelligence while long hair for women or
beards for men tend to reduce such impression. All these
would work provided they are not overdone.

20.  Individuals use many different tactics to induce positive
moods and reactions in others.
 Among the most important of these tactics is flattering i.e
heaping praise on target persons even if they do not
deserve it.
 Expressive agreement with their views, showing a high
degree of interest in them, doing some favours for them,
asking for their advice and feedback and expressing liking
for them either verbally or non verbally. All these tactics do
work at least to a degree.
 They cause target people to experience positive reactions
and these in turn can elevate liking for and impressions of
the person who use such tactics. However if they are
overdone they may backfire.

21.  Social perception may be accurate or may
not be accurate. How a person perceives
another person is influenced by :
i. Characteristics of the person being
perceived.
ii. Characteristics of the perceiver.
iii. The situation or context within which
the perception takes place

22.  Several factors lead us to form inaccurate impressions.
This leads to barriers in perception which are
inaccurate impressions of others. These barriers to
perception are :
1. Selective perception
2. Stereotype
3. Halo effect
4. First impression error
5. Contrast effect
6. Projection
7. Implicit theories
8. Self-fulfilling prophecies

23.  This is our tendency to choose information that
supports our viewpoints. Individuals often ignore
information that makes them feel uncomfortable or
threatens their viewpoints

24. Stereotype
 A generalisation about a group people.
Halo effect
 This is similar to stereotype but whereas in
stereotyping the person is perceived according to a
single category, under the halo effect, the person is
perceived on the basis of one trait e.g. Intelligence,
sociability or appearance.
 e.g. An extremely attractive secretary who is perceived
by her male boss as being intelligent and a good
performer, when in fact, she is a poor typist.

25.  This means the tendency to form lasting opinions
about an individual based on initial perceptions.

26.  This is the evaluation of a person’s characteristics that
are affected by comparisons with other people recently
encountered that rank higher or lower on the same
characteristics e.g. in interviews.

27.  It is easy to judge others if we assume they are similar
to us. This tendency to attribute one’s own
characteristics to others is called projection.
 Projection can distort perceptions made by others.

28.  We tend to have our own mini-theories about how
people look and behave. These theories help us
organise our perceptions and make shortcuts instead
of integrating new information all the time.
 Implicit theories are opinions formed about other
people that are based on our own mini-theories about
how people behave.
 They barriers because they limit our ability to take in
new information when it is available.

29.  These are situations in which our expectations about
people affect our interaction with them in such a way
that our expectations are fulfilled. It is also known as
Pygmalion Effect named after the Greek sculptor in
Greek mythology who carved a statue of a girl that
came to life when he prayed for this boon and it was
granted.

31.  Impression formation
 Asch was interested in how humans form impressions of other human beings.
He was intrigued how we are able to easily form impressions of humans even
though we have such complex structures. He specifically was interested in how
impressions of other people were established and if there were any principles
that regulated these impressions. Asch concluded “to know a person is to have
a grasp of a particular structure.” He demonstrated through his experiments
that forming an impression has the following elements:
 1) it is an organized process,
 2) the characteristics are perceived differently in relation to other
characteristics,
 3) central qualities are discovered, causing a distinction between them and
peripheral qualities,
 4) relations of harmony and contradiction are observed.[5]