ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at person perception as something that happens during social interaction, and which is a very important part of interaction. The process of perception also varies with the kind of social interaction which is taking place. Motivation will affect the perceptual activity that takes place. Different perceivers will handle incoming perceptual data in widely differing ways. The process of person perception can be characterised as a search process, directed towards making certain decisions. Between the perception of physical cues and the interpretations which are made of other people lie various cognitive processes. In the case of emotions, the order in which stimuli are received affects the interpretation made: a smiling face following a tense one is seen as 'relief', while a sudden smile after a period without expression is seen perhaps as 'pleasant surprise'. In practice people take some account of the situation when making inferences about personality.
