The Effects of Ratee Characteristics on Rater Performance Appraisal Behavior.
Abstract
Social cognition theory asserts that perceivers (raters) assign stimulus persons (ratees) to social categories. These categories help encode, store, and recall information. In this study, the effects of information about a ratee's category membership on the amount of information that raters collected about ratees and on rating accuracy were explored in a longitudinal design. One hundred fourteen subjects participated in three separate experimental sessions which spanned 3 weeks in time. Among other tasks, subjects were required to rate a subordinate that was described in a manner which either made it difficult or easy to assign the subordinate to a social category. It was predicted and found that raters of rates who were easily categorized spent less time observing the ratee than raters of ratees who were less easily labeled. In addition, as predicted, the amount of time spent observing the ratee was positively related to the accuracy of performance evaluations. However, results were inconclusive with respect to the relationship between category information and rating accuracy. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 1983
- Accession Number
- ADA136715
Entities
People
- D. R. Ilgen
- J. L. Favero
Organizations
- Michigan State University