Part 2 Of Social Exam 1

Front 1

social cognition

Back 1

the study of how people process social information, especially its encoding, storage, retrieval and application

Front 2

Two types of Social Cognition

Back 2

Automatic

Controlled

Front 3

Automatic Social Cognition

Back 3

thinking that is unconscious, unintentional, involuntary and effortless
-no effort, little or no control
-most of our social cognition occurs automatically (95%)

Front 4

Schemas

Back 4

theories we use to organize our information about the social world
-help us to understand, interpret and recall social events,
-influence our expectations of what will happen and our interpretations of the social info we receive
-time and effort saving
-applied automatically

Front 5

Stereotypes

Back 5

schemas about social groups

Front 6

Schemas are good because

Back 6

they help us process info efficiently

compensate for knowledge gaps

Front 7

Schemas are bad because

Back 7

they change our memories

we mayh form stereotypes

Front 8

Schemas are used when?

Back 8

-cognitive overload
-uncertainty and confusion
-physiologically aroused
-when attention is decreased and low

Front 9

Schemas affect reality by

Back 9

perseverance- we continue to believe things even after we learn they're not true
-self fulfilling prophecy- our expectations become reality

Front 10

Heuristics

Back 10

the mental rule of thumb which helps us determine which schema to use

Front 11

Accessibility

Back 11

a schema comes readily to mind
-chronically accessible
* you typically use it a lot
-current goal
*right now you are using it a lot
-temporarily accessible
*something in your environment made you use it

Front 12

Examples of heuristics

Back 12

1. availability
2. representativeness
3. anchoring and adjustment

Front 13

Availibitlity

Back 13

we believe something is true if we can easily recall evidence to support our point
-meta-cognition

Front 14

Representativeness

Back 14

Classify things according to how closely they resemble a typical instance
-base rate information

Front 15

anchoring and adjustment

Back 15

we begin with an arbitrary starting value and fail to adjust far enough away from it

Front 16

Unconcsious Thought Theory

Back 16

people are capable of thinking and solving a problem without being aware that they are thinking at all
-people experience this later as their "instinct"

Front 17

Problem of Will

Back 17

we don't have much control over what's going on in our heads MOST OF THE TIME
-feeling of control is different from the reality of control

Front 18

Controlled Social Cognition

Back 18

thinking that is conscious, intentional, voluntary and effortful
-ex. counterfactual thinking

Front 19

Counterfactual Thinking

Back 19

imagining alternative scenarios in which an outcome is changed
-stronger emotional reaction if the alternative scenario is easy to imagine

Front 20

Thought suppression

Back 20

trying not to think certain things
-included monitoring(am i thinking a bad thing)
-and suppression (think about something else)

Front 21

When you get tired or distracted from controlling cognition...

Back 21

you think about those repressed thoughts!

Front 22

Macrae et al.

Back 22

suppression experiment about skinheads
- when you are told to repress thoughts, you actually use them more strongly later (influences subsequent thoughts and behavior)

Front 23

Overconfidence bias

Back 23

we believe our thinking is just fine

Front 24

Implicit Personality Theories

Back 24

schemas of "personality types"- a set of traits our culture says go together
-different cultures of sub-cultures hold different implicit personality theories

Front 25

attribution theoory

Back 25

how do we determine why people do what they do
- causes can be internal or external
-not always correct
-we ascribe too many behaviors to internal causes

Front 26

Correspondence bias

Back 26

we ascribe other pepole's behaviors to internal causes and our own to external causes

Front 27

We commit the correspondence bias...

Back 27

when something is salient (we pay more attention to it)
ex. the person is more salient to us if we are in the same environment for a while, while the environment is more salient when thinking of ourselves because that is the new thing swe are paying attention too

Front 28

actor/observoer difference

Back 28

we attribute others' behavior to personality, and our own to the situation
- our own situation is salient
-we have more info about ourselves

Front 29

Self-serving attributions

Back 29

-take credit for success
-blame failure on outside causes
*Depressed indiciduals tend to show the opposite pattern

Front 30

False Consensus effect

Back 30

we exaggerate how common our own behavior and opinions are

Front 31

False uniqueness Effet

Back 31

opposite or false consensus effect
-if we are doing something good, we tend to think that are unique

Front 32

Egocentric Bias

Back 32

we exaggerate our own contributions to group success

Front 33

Strengths of self-serving attributions

Back 33

they may not always be accurate, but they do contribute to mental health when used in moderation

Front 34

Defensive Attributions

Back 34

-explanations for behaviors/outcomes that avoid feelings of vulnerability
-unrealistic optimism-good things more likely for self than others
-belief in a just world- bad things happen to bad people; good things happen to good people; blaming the victime