ABSTRACT
This chapter begins the exploration of the means through which personality processes influence social behavior. Although the complexity of any human event makes the selection of a starting point somewhat arbitrary, we begin by imposing a much more discrete sequence of steps than actually appears when a real event is structured. This methodical approach has the merit of permitting the systematic examination of many major factors that undoubtedly play a simultaneous role in the early stages of a social encounter. It is useful to assume that the chain of events that underlies social behavior begins when we see another person and respond in some way to the configuration of stimuli that the person presents to us. However, this apparently simple act of perceiving another person is in fact a highly complex one built upon many of the elements discussed earlier. Although we devote a good deal of attention to some of the mechanisms through which personality variables affect our construal of another person, we also expect to identify a set of key principles, together with enough empirical evidence to make them plausible, which can be used productively in later explorations of even more complicated social events.
