L. Jussim, ACCURACY IN INTERPERSONAL EXPECTATIONS - A REFLECTION-CONSTRUCTION ANALYSIS OF CURRENT AND CLASSIC RESEARCH, Journal of personality, 61(4), 1993, pp. 637-668
Research and theory on interpersonal expectations have been dominated
by a strong social constructivist perspective arguing that expectancie
s are often inaccurate and a major force in the creation of social rea
lity. The reflection-construction model is an attempt to examine these
strong claims conceptually and empirically. This model assumes that s
ocial perception includes both constructivist phenomena and accuracy.
When this model is used as a framework for interpreting research on te
acher expectations and on the role of stereotypes in person perception
, it shows that interpersonal expectancies are often accurate, and usu
ally lead only to relatively small biases and self-fulfilling propheci
es. The model also is used to interpret research on expectancies that
has provided some of the foundations for the strong constructivist per
spective. This reflection-construction analysis shows that even those
studies strongly suggest that people's expectations generally will be
highly accurate.