10.02 Social cognition Flashcards
field of social psychology that focuses on how we think about other people and how those cognitions influence our behavior toward them
social cognition
a tendency to respond positively or negatively to a certain idea, person, object, or situation
attitude
three components of an attitude
affective, behavioral, cognitive
component of an attitude: how a person feels toward something; the emotional component
affective component
component of an attitude: the action a person takes toward something
behavioral component
component of an attitude: how a person thinks about something
cognitive component
factors that determine the match between attitudes and behaviors
attitude specificity, strength, and salience
forms of learning that contribute to an attitude
- direct contact
- direct instruction
- interaction with others
- vicarious conditioning / observational learning
the process of changing a person’s beliefs or actions through argument, pleading or explanation
persuasion
factors that contribute to the effectiveness of a persuasive effort
- source
- message
- target audience
- medium
hypothesis that states that people respond to the facts of a message by central-route or by peripheral-route processing
elaboration likelihood model
processing of a persuasive message that attends to the content of the message
central-route processing
processing of a persuasive message that attends to clues outside the message of the content
peripheral-route processing
a sense of discomfort or tension that occurs when a person’s behavior does not correspond with her attitudes
cognitive dissonance
three ways to reduce cognitive dissonance
- change attitude
- change behavior
- form new attitudes
he famously studied and described cognitive dissonance by paying people different amounts of money to lie about an experiment
Leon Festinger
area of the brain that is activated when people make a decision to reduce cognitive dissonance
left frontal cortex
the forming of the first knowledge that someone has about another person; it includes assigning the person to categories and drawing conclusions from that about what a person is likely to do
impression formation
a belief that one set of characteristics is shared by all members of a particular categor
stereotype
the basis for which we place people into categories; the personality traits that we assign to certain groups
implicit personality theories
a test that measures the implicit attitudes that makes up each person’s implicit personality theory
Implicit Association Test (IAT)
our tendency to come up with possible explanations when we see someone performing an action that we don’t understand
attribution
type of attribution in which we assume that the cause of the behavior comes from external sources
situational cause
type of attribution in which we assume that the cause of the behavior comes from within the individual
dispositional cause
our tendency to overestimate the influence of a person’s internal characteristics on her behavior, and to underestimate the influence of the situation
fundamental attribution error
cognitive bias that involves attributing our own successes to internal characteristics, and blaming our failures on outside forces; allows us to protect our self-esteem
self-serving bias
