Week 3 Social Psychology

Front 1

What is Social Cognition?

Back 1

The cognitive processes & structures that influence, & areinfluenced by, social behaviour

Front 2

Explain Cognitive Consistency:

Back 2

COGNITIVE CONSISTENCY: people strive for consistency amongcognitions as inconsistency is unpleasant

► BUT... people are remarkably tolerant of cognitive inconsistency

Front 3

Explain Naive Scientist:

Back 3

NAIVE SCIENTIST: people use rational scientific-like cause-effectanalyses to understand the world

► Errors are due to limited or inaccurate information & motivational considerations (e.g. self-interest)

► BUT... even in ideal circumstances, people are not very careful scientists & still make errors

Front 4

Explain Cognitive Miser:

Back 4

COGNITIVE MISER: people use the least complex & demandingcognitions that are able to produce generally adaptivebehaviours

► people are limited in capacity to process information, take numerous cognitive shortcuts

► BUT... what about motivation?

Front 5

Explain Motivated Tactician:

Back 5

MOTIVATED TACTICIAN: people have multiple cognitive strategiesavailable, from which they choose on the basis of personal goals,motives, and needs

► e.g. can use quick, automatic heuristics without deliberating in some contexts & controlled, effortful thinking with carefuldeliberation in others

Front 6

Explain Social Neuroscience:

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SOCIAL NEUROSCIENCE • Explores the neurologicalunderpinnings of processestraditionally examined by socialpsychology

► use of fMRI to study brainphenomena, e.g. during socialrejection/inclusion

Front 7

Define Impression:

Back 7

IMPRESSION: an idea, feeling, or opinion about something orsomeone, especially one formed without conscious thought or onthe basis of little evidence

Front 8

Define Impression Formation:

Back 8

IMPRESSION FORMATION: the way in which we developperceptions of a person

Front 9

Explain Person Perception:

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PERSON PERCEPTION: the process through which people observeother people, interpret information about them, draw inferencesabout them, & develop mental representations of them

► provides the basis for the way we think, feel, and behavetowards others

Front 10

What does Impression Formation involve?

Back 10

Observation of others’...

► traits

► physical characteristics (e.g. clothes, grooming)

► verbal & non-verbal behaviours

Inferences about their...

► other characteristics, traits

► personality

► demographics, social group memberships

► motives, feelings, attitudes, interests

► likely future behaviours

Front 11

What is Algebraic Impression Formation?

Back 11

People combine attributes/traits that have valence into an overall positive or negative impression (Anderson, 1978)

Front 12

List and Describe the Algebraic Impression Formation types:

Back 12

• Summative (additive model): the valence of all traits are summed
  
• Averaging: the valence of all traits are averaged
• Weighted averaging: the valence of all traits are first weighted (based on the importance of the variable within the context) and then averaged – regarded as the best of the algebraic models

Front 13

What is Configural Impression Formation?

Back 13

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Some pieces of information have a disproportionately largeinfluence on the shaping of the whole

► Central traits: traits that have a disproportionate impact on overall impressions

► Peripheral traits: traits that have little impact on overall impressions

Front 14

What is the Sensation vs Perception Bias?

Back 14

SENSATION vs PERCEPTION

• Sensation: the process of taking in information via our senseorgans
• Perception: the process of giving meaning to sensory information
• People may sense the world similarly, but perceive it differently

Front 15

What is the Order Effects Bias?

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ORDER EFFECTS: order in which information about person is presented can have profound impact on impression

Front 16

Describe the Order Effect of Primacy:

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Primacy: information presented first disproportionately influenceimpression (stronger & more common)

► central traits that affect interpretation of later traits?

► more attention given to first trait?

Front 17

Describe the Order Effect of Recency:

Back 17

Personality Recency: information presented later has more impact thanearlier information

► when distracted

► when little motivation to attend

Front 18

What is the Positivity Bias?

Back 18

Positive impressions are typically formed in the absence of any(negative) information

► more easily changed in light of subsequent negative info

Front 19

What is the Negativity Bias?

Back 19

Negative impressions are formed when there is any sign ofnegative information

► difficult to change in light of subsequent positive information

► we are biased towards negativity – WHY? > unusual & distinctive – attracts our attention> signifies potential danger – detection has survival value

Front 20

Describe Implicit Personality Theories:

Back 20

IMPLICIT PERSONALITY THEORIES

• We develop our own theories about people
• What sort of characteristics go together to form certain types of personality?
• Widely shared within cultures, but differ between cultures
• Can be based on personal experience Resistant to change
  

Front 21

Describe the Attractiveness Bias:

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ATTRACTIVENESS

• We typically assume that physically attractive people are “good”
• They are interesting, warm, outgoing, socially skilled
• Halo effect: our overall impression of a person colours ourperception of that person’s specific traits
  

Front 22

Define a Schema:

Back 22

Schema: cognitive structure that represents knowledge andbeliefs about a specific category (e.g. concept, type of stimulus).

• Allow us to quickly make sense of person, situation, event or placeon basis of limited information
  

► schemas “fill in” missing details

• Based on past experience, preconceptions
  
• Guide our thoughts, feelings, and behaviours towards things
  

Front 23

What is a Prototype Schema?

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CATEGORY

Prototype: abstract, cognitive representation of the typical/idealcategory member (with all the category’s defining features)

Front 24

What is a Exemplar Schema?

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CATEGORY

Exemplars: specific, concrete example of a category member

► can vary in how prototypical they are (i.e. how many defining category features they have)

Front 25

Explain Self Schema:

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Self schema: individualised knowledge structures about the self

Front 26

Explain Person Schema:

Back 26

Person schema: individualised knowledge structures aboutspecific people (e.g. partner, friend, parent, celebrities)

Front 27

Explain Role Schema:

Back 27

Role schema: knowledge structures about role occupants(e.g. doctor, waitress, lecturer)

Front 28

Explain Social Group Schema/Stereotypes:

Back 28

Social group schemas/stereotypes: knowledge structures aboutsocial groups (e.g. women, gay people, Asians)

Front 29

Explain Event Schema/Scripts:

Back 29

Event schemas/scripts: knowledge structures about events(e.g. attending a lecture, going to a restaurant, plane trips)

Front 30

Explain Content-free Schema:

Back 30

PSYC1030: Personality Content-free schema: rules for processing information

Front 31

What causes change to a Schema?

Back 31

Change occurs via exposure to schema-inconsistent evidence:

► book-keeping: change is gradual, as evidence accumulates

► conversion: change is sudden, after critical mass of evidence

► sub-typing: sub-categories to accommodate evidence

Front 32

What is a Heuristic?

Back 32

Cognitive shortcuts that provide adequately accurate inferences formost of us, most of the time

• Less time consuming & less effortful, yield quick solutions
• Most of the time, they serve us well
• Sometimes inaccurate, misapplied, inadequate
  

Front 33

Describe a Representative Heuristic:

Back 33

REPRESENTATIVE HEURISTIC

• Instances are assigned to categories or types on basis of overallsimilarity to the category
• As a result, we sometimes ignore base-rate information
• Example:Tom likes reading the newspaper, is interested in politics, and canusually be seen in a business suit.Is Tom more likely to work in Queensland or Canberra?
  

Front 34

Describe an Availability Heuristic:

Back 34

AVAILABILITY HEURISTIC

• Judgement about the likelihood of an event is based on howquickly or easily instances come to mind
• Frequency of event is not the only thing that influences the easewith which events come to mind (how impacting/recent was the event?)
• Example:In a typical sample of English text, is it more likely that a word startswith the letter ‘r’ or that ‘r’ is its third letter?
  

Front 35

Describe Anchoring & Adjustment Heuristic:

Back 35

ANCHORING & ADJUSTMENT HEURISTIC

• Inferences are tied to initial standards or schemas (i.e. “anchors”)
• We have a tendency to judge frequency or likelihood of something by staying close to a an “anchor”
• We are better at relative than absolute thinking
• Sometimes, “anchors” may be inappropriate
• Example:Real-estate house pricing

Front 36

Describe Confirmation Bias:

Back 36

CONFIRMATION BIAS

• Tendency to seek out & attend to information that confirms one’sbeliefs & ignore information that is inconsistent with one’s beliefs
• Avoid cognitive disequilibrium
• Beliefs/schemas become resilient this way
• Sometimes leads us to hold on to incorrect and negativebeliefs/schemas.