The influence of social context on the perception of faces.

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Bibliographic Details
Title:	The influence of social context on the perception of faces.
Authors:	Cline, Marvin G., CLINE, M G (AUTHOR)
Source:	Journal of Personality. Dec56, Vol. 25 Issue 2, p142-157. 16p.
Subjects:	Face perception, Visual perception, Cognition, Intellect, Face perception testing, Social psychology, Prejudices, Social structure
Abstract:	The article focuses on the influence of social context on the perception of faces. Drawing from the history of the psychology of perception, sociologist R.B. MacLeod, has identified three potentially misleading biases relevant to social psychology, of which the researchers are interested only in the atomistic-reductive bias. This involves the belief in the necessity of reducing complex phenomena to their elemental components in order to explain them. More recent work in the psychology of social organization reflects this bias as well, when group organization is explained in terms of individual behavior or the expression of individual motives. One of the significant contributions of Gestalt-oriented psychology is its insistence on the suspension of the reductive bias and willingness to accept phenomenal data in whatever unit size they are presented. It has been demonstrated that explanation in terms of physical variables must be coordinated with the organized properties of the phenomenal world and not developed without them.
Database:	Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection

Description
Abstract:	The article focuses on the influence of social context on the perception of faces. Drawing from the history of the psychology of perception, sociologist R.B. MacLeod, has identified three potentially misleading biases relevant to social psychology, of which the researchers are interested only in the atomistic-reductive bias. This involves the belief in the necessity of reducing complex phenomena to their elemental components in order to explain them. More recent work in the psychology of social organization reflects this bias as well, when group organization is explained in terms of individual behavior or the expression of individual motives. One of the significant contributions of Gestalt-oriented psychology is its insistence on the suspension of the reductive bias and willingness to accept phenomenal data in whatever unit size they are presented. It has been demonstrated that explanation in terms of physical variables must be coordinated with the organized properties of the phenomenal world and not developed without them.
ISSN:	00223506
DOI:	10.1111/j.1467-6494.1956.tb01294.x