Factors Influencing Person Perception and Impression Formation

1. Characteristics of the Perceiver

Several characteristics of the perceiver can affect perception. When an individual looks at a target and attempts to interpret what he or she, that interpretation is heavily influenced by personal characteristics of individual perceiver. The major characteristics of the perceiver influencing perception are;

1. Attitude

2. Mood

3. Motives

4. Self-concept

5. Interest

6. Expectations

7. Cognitive structure

2. Characteristics of the Target

Characteristics in the target that is being observed can affect what is perceived. Physical appearance plays a big role in our perception of others. Extremely attractive or unattractive individuals are more likely to be noticed in group than ordinary liking individuals. Motion, sound, size and other attributes of a target shape the way we see it.

3. Characteristics of the Situation

The situation in which the interaction between the perceiver and the target takes place has an influence on the perceiver's impression of the target .Example; always seeing a man in a beer pallor will give a perceiver (the person seeing) the impression that such person is a drunker.

Attributing Causes to Others’ Behavior

1. Goals: Our goals and feelings about other people also influence the information that we gather about them. people form more organized impressions of others than when their goal is simply to remember the information

2. Affective Cues: Sometimes we use our internal state as a basis for judging other people, and this can lead to systematic errors. When people are emotional, they are more likely to attend to emotional information and use that in their impression. 

3. Mood: Is another factor that can influence how another person is perceived. When we are in a good mood, we tend to see another person more positively, and when we are in a bad mood, we tend to view that person more negatively. 

Behavior

Behavior can be defined as the way in which one acts or conducts oneself, especially towards others.

Types of Behavior

1. Overt Behavior: This behavior is such an obvious act or behavior. It is a behavior that is observable by people. Overt Behavior may include walking, singing and other examples of bodily actions.

2. Covert Behavior: Opposite of overt behavior, covert behavior is a type of behavior that is an unobvious manner and a type of behavior that is being disguised and secret. It is any kind of action that can't be easily observed by other people. This behavior includes lying, praying, thinking and dreaming as an example of covert behavior.

3. Conscious Behavior: This type of behavior is conscious or aware. It is an action you do from what you really wanted to do. Example of this is making breakfast. You make and eat breakfast because you are hungry. It is like you know what you're doing or action with purposive conduct.

4. Unconscious Behavior: A type of behavior where the person is unaware of what he's doing. It is because of the automatic response of the body such as breathing and the beating of our hearts. Unconscious behavior is doing anything without thinking of any motivation because it is automatically done. Screaming because of cockroaches, spiders of females are like examples of unconscious behavior.

5. Rational Behavior: A type of behavior that is reasonable due to the choices that people make with regards to achieving satisfaction.

6. Irrational Behavior: It is defined as unreasonable behavior or having no clear objective or meaning. Example you want to have a good result yet you ignored constant reading. It is senseless.

7. Voluntary Behavior: Behavior that a person is naturally contributed to an action. It also means that you have a free will and able to make a decision to take a specific action. Taking a walk down the street is an example of voluntary behavior.

8. Involuntary Behavior: Behavior that can't be controlled over. Example of this is when being emerged into bright sunlight from a dark place; we usually blink several times often without even knowing it.

Deviant Behavior

Deviant behavior refers to a behavior that does not conform to social norms and values. A deviant behavior elicits negative response. Deviant behavior can be voluntary or involuntary. An involuntary violation of an informal norm is far less offensive than a voluntary violation of a formal norm.