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2: Social cognition Flashcards

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1
Q

What is social cognition?

A

How people think about themselves and the social world.

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2
Q

What is social cognition used for?

A

To select, interpret, remember and use social information to make judgments and decisions.

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3
Q

What are inferences often marked by?

A

Systematic biases.

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4
Q

What are the two types of social cognition?

A
  1. Automatic thinking.

2. Controlled thinking.

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5
Q

What are the two main qualities of automatic thinking?

A
  1. Quick.

2. Unconscious.

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6
Q

What are the three main qualities of controlled thinking?

A
  1. Effortful and deliberate.
  2. Actively thinking about oneself and surrounding environment.
  3. Carefully choosing the right course of action.
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7
Q

When we are on ‘automatic pilot’, we often use ___ _____ thinking. Often these conclusions are _______.

A

When we are on ‘automatic pilot’, we often use low level thinking. Often these conclusions are correct.

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8
Q

In automatic thinking, we engage in automatic analysis of our environments based on what two things?

A
  1. Past experiences.

2. Knowledge of the world.

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9
Q

What is the cognitive model used to describe the structure of automatic thoughts?

A

Schemas.

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10
Q

What are schemas? What do they influence?

A

Mental structures people use to organise their knowledge about the social world using themes or subjects.

Schemas influences what we notice, think about and remember.

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11
Q

What is the organisation structure of schemas?

A

Hierarchical.

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12
Q

Describe the three hierarchical levels of schemas.

A
  1. Higher level: abstract and general elements.
  2. Lower level: subcategories containing specific examples.
  3. Lowest level: associations within each schema, representing a tangled web.
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13
Q

The term schema encompasses our knowledge and impression of what 4 things?

A
  1. Ourselves.
  2. Other people.
  3. Social roles.
  4. Specific events (scripts).
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14
Q

When we apply schemas to members of social groups, such as gender or ethnicity, these are called:

A

Stereotypes.

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15
Q

What are the two main functions of schemas in social cognition?

A
  1. Organise what we know.

2. Interpret new situations.

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16
Q

When trying to remember something, schemas help us ‘fill in the blanks’ by doing what 2 things?

A
  1. Remember some information that was there.

2. Remember information that was never there, by adding this information unknowingly (e.g. hindsight bias).

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17
Q

Give an example of when schemas cause us to remember information that was never there, and some info that was actually present.

A

People who read a story about a marriage proposal later inset incorrect details, such as future plans or roses, but the details they provided were consistent with a marriage proposal schema.

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18
Q

Over time, schemas become:
1.
2.

A
  1. Stronger.

2. More resistant to change.

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19
Q

Schemas in action:

What do we call when one selectively seeks information that already supports one’s pre-existing beliefs?

(Hint: CHT)

A

Confirmatory Hypothesis Testing

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20
Q

Give an example of an experiment used to demonstrate Confirmatory Hypothesis Testing. Explain the procedure and results.

Hint: Snyder and Swann (1978)

A

Procedure:

Snyder and Swann (1978) asked half of participants to find out if the other person was an introvert, and asked the other half of participants to find out if the other person was an extrovert.

Results:
People selected questions that confirmed their hypothesis.

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21
Q

What two methods can we use to reduce Confirmatory Hypothesis Testing?

A
  1. Holding an opposite hypothesis.

2. Requiring valid information.

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22
Q

When a perceiver’s false expectations about another person leads that individual to adopt those expected attributes and behaviours, this is called the:

A

self-fulfilling prophecy.

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23
Q

What are the two main factors that influence which schemas are applied?

A
  1. Accessibility of schema.

2. Priming.

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24
Q

Define ‘accessibility’ in the context of schemas.

A

The extent to which schemas and concepts are at the forefront of people’s minds.

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25
Q

Define ‘priming’ in the context of schemas.

A

The process by which recent experiences increase the accessibility of a schema, trait or concept.

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26
Q

What are the 3 main factors causing a schema to be more easily accessible?

A
  1. Past experiences.
  2. Relates to current goals.
  3. Temporarily accessible due to recent experiences.
27
Q

Describe the procedure and results used by Higgins, Rholes & Jones (1977) two-part experiment to demonstrate priming and accessibility of schemas.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Results:

A

Part 1:

Participants were asked to memorise a set of words that were either positive or negative.

Part 2:

Participants were asked to read a description of Donald and form an impression of him.

Results:

Participants impression of Donald correlated with the positive or negative words they had been primed with earlier.

28
Q

Why is priming a good example of automatic thinking?

A

Because it occurs quickly, unintentionally and unconsciously.

29
Q

Describe Bargh et al. (1996) experiment demonstrating how automatic thinking (priming) can influence subsequent behaviours.

Procedure:

Results:

A

Procedure:

Bargh et al. primed stereotypes about the aged via a word-find puzzle.

Results:

Those primed subsequently walked more slowly.

30
Q

Describe a simple experiment that can be used to demonstrate how physical sensations can prime metaphors.

Procedure:
Results:

A

Procedure:

Give a person a hot or iced coffee and ask them to rate the friendliness of a stranger.

Results:
Hot coffee rated as ‘warm and friendly’.
Iced coffee rated as ‘cold and unfriendly’.

31
Q

Advantages of schemas:

What 7 things do schemas aid or speed up?

Hint: PIICARA

A
  1. Providing expectations.
  2. Information processing.
  3. Interpretation.
  4. Contain affect.
  5. Automatic inferences.
  6. Recall.
  7. Adding new information.
32
Q

What are the 5 limitations of schemas?

A
  1. Overly accepting of info.
  2. Fill in gaps where info doesn’t belong.
  3. Ignores information that does belong.
  4. Applies ill-fitting schemas.
  5. People unwilling to change schemas.
33
Q

What are the two main positive reasons we use mental shortcuts when making decisions?

A
  1. They are efficient when we don’t have the time to fully search all options.
  2. These quick decisions are usually good.
34
Q

What mental strategy do we use when deciding to use the appropriate schema?

A

Judgmental heuristics.

35
Q

What mental strategy do we use when selecting a schema based on the similarity between the stimulus an schema.

A

The Representativeness Heuristic.

36
Q

The belief that a combination of events is more likely to occur than only one of the events separately is called the:

A

Conjunction Error.

37
Q

What mental strategy do we use when selecting information based on how easily examples spring to mind?

A

Availability Heuristic.

38
Q

Availability heuristics affect our perceptions of ____.

A

Availability heuristics affect our perceptions of risk.

39
Q

What mental strategy do we use when selecting a schema based on how easily particular endings to scenarios spring to mind?

A

Simulation Heuristic.

40
Q

Simulation heuristics are used to:

1.
2.
3.

A
  1. Make predictions.
  2. Infer causality.
  3. Determine effective responses.
41
Q

What mental strategies do we used when selecting a schema by choosing a reference value, and then changing this value up or down to reach a conclusion?

A

Anchoring and Adjustment Heuristic.

42
Q

What is a common anchor in the anchoring heuristic?

A

The self.

43
Q 
Controlled thinking is: (Hint: VICE)
1.
2.
3.
4.
A
  1. Voluntary.
  2. Intentional.
  3. Conscious.
  4. Effortful.
44
Q

The association between conscious thought and behaviour creates the perception of ___ ___. But forces outside of our awareness may lead us to false conclusions about our ____ __ _____.

A

The association between conscious thought and behaviour creates the perception of free will. But forces outside of our awareness may lead us to false conclusions about our level of control.

45
Q

Belief in free will predicts behaviours such as ______ and ______.

A

Belief in free will predicts behaviours such as cheating and helping.

46
Q

Suppressing thoughts and emotions can lead to a ______ _____ because we _________ monitor our environment for cues to ______.

A

Suppressing thoughts and emotions can lead to a rebound effect because we automatically monitor our environment for cues to suppress.

47
Q

When unwanted thoughts are detected, we try to ______ ourselves. This is a ________ ______.

A

When unwanted thoughts are detected, we try to distract ourselves. This is a controlled process.

48
Q

The effort required to suppress thoughts and emotions leads to __________ ______ and may have negative effects on our ______ ______.

A

The effort required to suppress thoughts and emotions leads to physiological arousal and may have negative effects on our immune system.

49
Q

When we experience unexpected or negative events, we often imagine alternative outcomes to make us feel better and prepare for the future. What is this mental strategy called?

A

Counterfactual Reasoning.

50
Q

The easier it is to mentally undo an outcome, the stronger the _______ ______ to it.

A

The easier it is to mentally undo an outcome, the stronger the emotional reaction to it.

51
Q

Silver medal winners often express greater dissatisfaction than bronze winners. What mental strategy is this an example of and what could have lead the silver and bronze winners to their conclusions?

A

Counterfactual reasoning.

Silver winners:
May imagine ways they could have placed first and won gold. “I was so close!”

Bronze winners:
May imagine ways they could have not won any medal at all. “At least I won something!”

52
Q

What is a positive consequence of counterfactual reasoning?

A

Motivates us to improve in the future and not give up.

53
Q

What is a negative consequence of counterfactual reasoning?

A

Often leads to rumination and repeatedly focusing on negative things. This can lead to depression.

54
Q

Name two ways we can improve human thinking:

A
  1. Make people more humble.

2. Teach basic statistical principles.

55
Q

Explain how making people more humble will improve human thinking.

A

Asking people to consider viewpoints opposite to their own will lead them to realise there are other ways to look at the world. This will lead to fewer judgment errors.

56
Q

Explain how teaching basic statistical principles will improve human thinking.

A

Facilitates the application of logical principles to everyday life.

57
Q

Describe how Nisbett, Fong, Lehman & Cheng (1987) demonstrated in their study that teaching basic statistical principles improves human thinking.

A

After two years of graduate study, students in psychology and medicine showed significantly more improvement in statical reasoning than students in law and chemistry.

58
Q

Can goals ever be unconsciously motivated?

A

Yes.

59
Q

What are the cultural differences (East vs. West) in social cognition?

A
  1. Western cultures: analytic thinking style.

2. Eastern cultures: holistic thinking style.

60
Q

Describe the Western analytic thinking style:

A

People focus on properties of objects without considering their surrounding context.

61
Q

Describe the East Asian holistic thinking style:

A

People focus on the overall context, particularly the ways in which objects relate to one another.

62
Q

Who first proposed the ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’?

A

John B. Watson.

63
Q

Name three East Asian cultures that engage in holistic style thinking:

A
  1. China
  2. Japan
  3. Korea
64
Q

People usually have too much confidence in the accuracy of their judgments, this is called the:

A

overconfidence barrier.

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