ISSN 2520-6265 (print)

ISSN 2520-6273 (online)


SOCIAL PERCEPTION IN THE CONTEXT OF AN INDIVIDUAL’S MENTALIZATION ABILITIES


Authors:
І. І. Semkiv, PhD. in Psychology,
Associate Professor of the Department of Psychology and Psychotherapy,
Ukrainian Catholic University
ORCID: 0000-0003-4139-2699 Researcher ID: AAZ-6792-2021 Scopus ID: 57195073829
E-mail: semkiv@ucu.edu.ua
А. V. Hertsa, Master in Psychology
ORCID: 0009-0007-6241-6131
E-mail: anna.hertsa@gmail.com

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17721/upj.2024.1(21).9

Article Information
Issue: 1(21) 2024, pages: 138-157
Language: Ukrainian
Received: 17.04.2024
1 st Revision: 21.04.2024
Accepted: 25.04.2024

Abstract


Attribution formation is an inevitable mental phenomenon and a consequence of social perception. Іt serves as a source for constructing holistic judgments about people and relationships, especially in situations of information deficit, and at the same time, creates conditions for prejudices and perception errors. Personality traits of a perceiver, particularly, cognitive complexity and ability to self-regulate, are determined by his/ her mentalization abilities and may be related to the peculiarities of the first impression that he/she forms about another person. The ability to develop a higher level of mentalization is formed in early childhood and is determined by the quality of relationships with a main caregiver. At the same time, there is an innate automatic level of mentalization, which is based on reflex reactions and underlies social prejudices. This article presents the study on the nature of the relationship between the severity of bias and the development of mentalizing abilities. The studied group of perceivers (268 people aged 18 to 80 years, 67 men and 201 women) evaluated photographs of ten people (5 men and 5 women) and provided answers about their first impression of them. In addition, the development of perceivers’ mentalization was measured using the The Mentalization Questionnaire (MZQ). The perceivers’ ability to regulate affect and their score on the scale of the psychic equivalence mode were related to their degree of bias in the attribution process. The more radical judgments a perceiver makes in the process of attribution, the lower is their ability to regulate affect. And on the contrary, the stronger bias resistance a perceiver is endowed with, the better they can regulate affect. The weaker a perceiver’s tendency is to be in the psychic equivalence mode, i.e., to perceive internal states as identical to external reality, the less likely the perceiver identifies the attractiveness of an observed person with the role of a superhero.

Key words:
social perception, attribution, appearance assessment, bias, attractiveness, mentalization.

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