Psicologia

Abstract

The main aim in this particular research project was to investigate the effects of central traits on impression. Previous research has found that people are influenced by appearance such as relating attractive people to be having a good impression trait in which an attractive individual to be perceived as incapable of being a bad person.

The independent variables were attractive and unattractive whereas, the dependent variable was the evaluation of the participants. The experimental hypothesis was “participants who receive information about an individual which includes the word (attractive) will form a more favourable general impression than those who receive the word (unattractive).

The method used was field experiment with independent measures design.

The self-selected sample of 20 males and 20 females raging the age between 16 to 25 years old were required to compare whether appearance influences an individual impression about a particular person trait and whether the opinion would may vary from a female/male opinion.

The results of the study were that the mean of the “unattractive” description was higher (2.05) than the “attractive” description (1.75) which suggests that the traits of a person in regards to appearance have an impact when forming an impression.

Method:

1- Design

This piece of research has been carried out as a field experiment. The reason why field experiment was chosen is because it has higher ecological validity. It is difficult to control and it takes place out in the field.

Independent measures were used because it avoids order effects such as (practice or fatigue) as people participate, in one condition only. If a person is involved in several conditions they may become bored, tired and fed up by the time they come to the second condition, or becoming wise to the requirements of the experiment.

The conditions of Independent Variables used were Attractive and unattractive. The measure of the environment were the same.

The ethical considerations taking into account was that the group researchers made sure everyone who took part was between the age of 16-25 and information was kept confidential.

2- Participants

A group of five students who are currently studying HND Social Sciences at North East Scotland College, progress on a research using 20 females and 20 males, within the age range between 16 – 25. Self-selected sampling.

3- Materials

On the research carried out were used:

• Consent forms (appendix 1)

• A Description form

• Debriefing form (appendix 3)

4- Procedure

• A group of 6 Researchers produced 2 descriptions of people, along with a picture, where participants were asked to rate them “unattractive” out of 5. The same was done with “attractive”. The group of researchers split into two groups, where one group decided to proceed this research in the North East College IT centre and the other at Dino’s seating area. The group of researchers