Some of the ways in which we evaluate people are impression formations, attributions, and our attitudes. Impression formations are often formed through our first impressions. These include their clothes, gestures, manner and tone of speaking, appearance, gender, and often many other things (Morris & Maisto, 2005). Physical appearance often gives a hint of what and who the person is. The way a person talks and relate to others is another strong criteria often used in evaluating a person. The way a person speaks can tell you about their confidence and what their personality is about. What we know about a person before we meet them plays a role because we have a preconceived concept of what we might be expecting from that person. Attributions focus on why we interpret behaviour as reflecting personal traits or social situations (Morris & Maisto, 2005). Why a person behaves a certain way is what we ask ourselves and we come to our own conclusions which are attribution. Our attitudes are already set through our beliefs and feelings about things and people.
How do these factors play a role in our expectations of other people? Our expectations of other people are affected by how we have evaluated them. A well dressed person who speaks very well may give us the impression that the person may be scholarly or a professional. An athletic looking person may give us the impression they like to work out and stay in shape. We could determine that a person who is always late is just lazy (Morris & Maisto, 2005). How we judge people from our first impressions to the attitudes we have all help us form impressions and expectations of what we see in others. Our background of what we expect to see ripples over into what we expect. When what we have determined we expect is not what we see then we definitely apply attributions in the situation. Most people do have expectations of what they see in a person based on how they