Social Psych Chap 3 Key Terms

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SOCIAL COGNITION

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In general how people think about themselves and the social world.

- usually automatic

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SCHEMAS

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Mental structures that help us organize our knowledge about the social world. These structures influence the things we notice, think about and remember / or attention and interpretations

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FUNCTION OF SCHEMAS

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To fill in blanks, help us organize/make sense of the world; can be about objects, people (their roles), groups of people (stereotypes) and events (scripts).

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HYPOTHESIS TESTING BIAS

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People's tendency to seek info that confirms their existing beliefs

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PROS OF SCHEMAS

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Saves time, enhances memory, "fills in the blanks" when info is missing, allows us to make sense of the world, tells us what to expect and guide us in situations.Helps simplify our world.

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CONS OF SCHEMAS

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Over dependent or over confident, lowers awareness of inconsistent info with our schemas, create inaccurate expectations/incorrect information to fill in what's missing, hard to change once created (perseverance effect)

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ACCESSIBILITY

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The extent to which schemas and concepts are at the forefront of our minds and are therefore likely to to be used when making judgments about the social world

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CHRONICALLY ACCESSIBLE SCHEMAS

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exist because of past experiences, relations to a current event, or our current and recent experiences

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PRIMING

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the process by which recent experiences increase the accessibility of a schema, trait or concept. (Self-fulfilling prophecy)

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METHODS OF PRIMING

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Pictures of words, sentence completion tasks, reading stories, writing about a goal, memory tasks; all of prime embedded in each.
Subliminal

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HEURISTICS

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rules that we use to allow us to make social judgments rapidly and with reduced mental effort

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AVAILABILITY HEURISTIC

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a mental shortcut whereby people base a judgment on the ease with which they can bring something to mind.

- affected by mood, recent activation, priming, expectations, motive and context.

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JUDGMENTAL HEURISTIC

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mental shortcuts we use to make judgments quickly and efficiently

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REPRESENTATIVE HEURISTIC

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a mental shortcut whereby people use to classify something accordingly to how similar it is to a typical case

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ILLUSORY CORRELATION

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the perception of a relationship where none exists or the interpretation that a stronger one exists
- consequence of the AVAILABILITY HEURISTIC

"It always rains on the weekends"

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BASE RATE FALLACY

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tendency to ignore info or under use relative frequent (base rate) information and favor concrete examples

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RACIAL PROFILING

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official action toward people based on their race/ethnicity/nationality instead of their behavior

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ANCHORING AND ADJUSTMENT HEURISTIC

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-uses a #/value as a comparison point
-biased sampling: generalize from samples of -info known to be biased/atypical
-most commonly anchored to ourselves

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AUTOMATIC THINKING

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thinking that is unconscious, unintentional, involuntary, and effortless
ex. Counting to 5
PRO- focus on important things, makes a lot of things easier.

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CONTROLLED THINKING

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thinking that is conscious, intentional, deliberate, and effortful
ex. Saying numbers 1-5 in alphabetical order
PRO- some understanding of our experiences, necessary to change biases.

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CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS GOALS

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new goal of eating healthy food = conscious
longtime goal of eating delicious food = non conscious

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THOUGHT SUPPRESSION

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the attempt to avoid thinking about something a person might prefer to forget. Depends on 2 processes:
-monitoring process (automatic): searches for unwanted thought

-operating process (controlled): effortful, conscious attempt to replace it w/ a distracter thought.

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COUNTERFACTUAL REASONING

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mentally challenging some aspect of the past as a way of imaging what might have been, can be Upward or Downward.
-Upward reasoning: imaging how s/t could have been better; to motivate.
-Downward reasoning: imagine how s/t could have been worse; to make us feel better.

**Important because they affect our behavior and actions**

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CONSEQUENCE OF COUNTERFACTUALS

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Affective Consequences: the easier it is to mentally undo an action by generating counterfactual thoughts; the strong the reaction.
ex. Silver medalists less happy than bronze winners

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MOOD & SELF-ESTEEM COUNTERFACTUALS

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Counterfactuals vary as a function of our moods and self-esteem.
ex. Good mood = downward counterfactual
Low S.E people = upward counterfactual
High S.E in bad moods = downward counterfactuals

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RISK AVERSION

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for most... when feeling uncertain avoiding risks is more important than gaining rewards

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OVER CONFIDENCE BARRIER

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the barrier that results when ppl have too much confidence in the accuracy of their judgments; not as correct as they think

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CULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN THINKING

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analytical thinking style (individualistic):properties of object.

holistic thinking style (collectivistic): "big picture"
- can be primed