ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a research in psychology that explains the accuracy of interpersonal perceptions. It explores the cognitive processes of how people encode, store, and decode information prior to giving feedback. The chapter describes the case study of Katherine Settler who is the director of student services in a private girl's high school. She admits that she does not give her staff much performance feedback. The chapter examines the meaning of person perception and exploring what people know about how they evaluate others. The idea that person perception is embedded within a larger social context means that judgments go beyond the eye of the beholder to include the beholders interactions with, and influence on, the person evaluated. People who are high in empathy can take the perspective of others and understand the situations in which they find themselves while remaining at a social distance from those observed.
