Chapter 3 Notes

Question 1

social cognition

Answer 1

how people think about themselves and the social world.

Question 2

most of how we move through the world is through _____ thinking

Answer 2

automatic

Question 3

schema

Answer 3

how we organize the world and make sense of it. Brain concept. not a brain structure.

Question 4

Automatic thinking

Answer 4

a thought that is non-concious, unintentional, involuntary and effortless.

Question 5

T/F automatic thinking takes up part of the cognitive load

Answer 5

false.

Question 6

pros of autonomatic thinking

Answer 6

allows us to do things quickly and act rationally in new situations. helps us not to feel overwhelmed.

Question 7

automatic thinking utilizes __

Answer 7

schemas. mental concepts.

Question 8

everytime you activate a schema, that link becomes ___

Answer 8

stronger.

Question 9

cons of schematic thinking

Answer 9

you have a hard time to understand things that aren’t apart of your schema. It can also influence peoples motives and you may mis perceive things due to inaccurate schemas.

Question 10

T/F: you are less likely to remember things if they are outside a schema

Answer 10

true.

Question 11

describe the research study on priming and memory

Answer 11

when a word was flshed that related to the first word that was originally seen, there was a quick reaction time to make the decision about which words were presented. “ex. can recal “doctor” faster if you were primed with “nurse” rather than “bread”)

Question 12

what is an interpersonal script

Answer 12

like a schema, but for how to interact in a specific situation.

Question 13

explain a situation/research how we are committed to our schemas

Answer 13

students were told they were going to have a guest lecture. some students were told the guest lecture was “colder,” others were told he was not.

Results: more likely to say lecturer was cold if told by the researcher that the guest lecturer was cold.

Question 14

accessibility schema

Answer 14

the extent to which schemas and conceptrs are at the forefront of peoples minds are there likely to be used when making a judgement about the social world

Question 15

3 types of accessibility

Answer 15

1) chronically accessibile; always there due to a lot of experience
2) when it is related to a current goal (ex// you were just studying for a psych class and so you think the person acting strangely on the bus is mentally ill)
3) recently primed: process by which RECENT experiences increase a schema’s accessibility. (ex/ watching a commercial and then going out 10 minutes later and buyig the pop you just saw)

Question 16

Explain the water priming experiment

Answer 16

DV= how much water was drank after the experiment
IV= priming words showed to participants.

-results; participants drank more water if primed with words related to thirds.

Question 17

Explain the effects of + and - word priming on a person’s perception of another

Answer 17

DV= how the participants ranked "BOB" after reading a paragraph about him
IV= words that were showed to the participants prior to them reading the prompt (either + or - or neutral)

results: people were more likely to rank bob poorly if they were primed with negative attributes

Question 18

terror management theory

Answer 18

when primed with words related to death (ex/ coffin), people align themselves much more with groups they belong to (ex/ culture)

Question 19

embodied cognition. Provide an example

Answer 19

bodily sensations can influence the particular schema being primed. Ex/ people holding warm coffee are described are more warm and friendly)

Question 20

self schemas

Answer 20

knowledge of ourselves: personalities preferences etc.

Question 21

person schemas

Answer 21

knowledge of what someone else is like (peers, friends etc)

Question 22

relational schema

Answer 22

knowledge you have about how you relate to another person.

Question 23

example of a relational schema seen in couples

Answer 23

the demand-withdraw pattern: a relational schema seen in couples in which the wife wants a change in a relationship, and she voices that concern, and the husband reacts by withdrawing.

Question 24

Do Low or high SES couples suffer negative consequences with the demand withdrawal pattern?

Answer 24

low ses. the wife often wants a necessity that cannot be provided, leading to feelings of inadequacy in males.

high ses already have necessities and the wife often voices emotional needs “spend more time with me,” which is easier to do.

Question 25

script schema

Answer 25

a body of knowledge about a sequence of events.

Question 26

what types of schemas are what contributes to culture shocks?

Answer 26

script schemas.

Question 27

3 cons of schemas

Answer 27

1) selective memory: we remember only confirming information
2) we SEE only confirming info
3) confirming hypothesis testing

Question 28

T/F we are more likely to remember info that confirms our schemas

Answer 28

true. this is selective memory.

Question 29

Describe the librarian and waitress study of selective memory by Claudia Cohen (1981)

Answer 29

Participants saw vid of normal woman. when she came home from work, she listened to music, watched TV, drank some beer. Half are told she is a librarian. the other half is told she is a waitress. Gave participants a memory test about what music she listened to, what she drank etc.

participants remembered info that was consistent in their schemas of librarians or waitresses.

If told she was a librarian, they recalled she listened to classical music and drank wine (incorrect). If told she was a waitress, they remembered she drank beer, but forgot the classical music.

Question 30

Describe the selective seeing bias study conducted by Abbey (1982)

Answer 30

• this experiment tested the sexual schema men have that drives how they interact with females.

heterosexual men often are primed by thinking sexually like 24/7 and so they misperceive female friendliness as flirting.

study: -had male and female students who didn’t know each other
- made them have a normal convo
- in a one way mirror, there was another male and female watching the interaction

findings: - male in convo was sexually attracted AND thought the female in convo was flirting
- female in convo thought male in convo was normal
- male in window thought female in convo was flirting with male in convo, compared to female observer.
- male in window reports being more sexually attracted to female in convo than the female is to the conversing male.

therefore, men have a sexual schema towards women that biases them towards seeing suggestive themes, even if they aren’t there.

Question 31

3 downsides of schemas

Answer 31

1) selective memory
2) selective seeing
3) confirmation hypothesis testing.

Question 32

Explain the study done by snyder and swann (1978) about confirmation hypothesis testing

Answer 32

method: participants had convo with confederate. half were told TO FIND OUT IF he was an extrovert, half were told TO FIND OUT IF he was an introvert,

findings;
people who were told to see if confederate was an extrovert, they concluded he was an extrovert, and same with introversion.

• people ASKED BIASED questions in the direction of their expectation/schema of extroverts or introverts. Ex/ if the person thought the confederate was an extrovert, they asked –> what do you enjoy about loud parties? they already assumed the confederate enjoyed the loud party.

therefore, even if we think we are being OPEN MINDED, we still tend to go about questioning in a biased way that CONFIRMS our hypothesis.

Question 33

confirmation bias

Answer 33

favoring info that confirms our schemas

Question 34

what is the “ who am I “ task and what does it test?

Answer 34

a task where you write out 10 blank spaces which you fill out. Top 10 things you list are your schemas.

Question 35

Markus postulated that we have advanced self schemas, in which we have future schemas about who we want to be and what we don’t want to be. What are the 3 advanced self schemas?

Answer 35

1) hoped for self: who we want to be in the future
2) possible selves: who we might be in the future if we follow our current trajectory
3) feared selves: who you don’t want to be in the future.

Question 36

Why are our possible future selves important?

Answer 36

because they reflect our LARGEST wants and our LARGEST fears.

Question 37

How did Markus and Nurius (1986) Test the presence of possible selves. How did possible and current selves relate? Did people have more possible selves or more current selves?

Answer 37

• asked about current self schema: who are you right now
• asked about possible selves: who you might be in the future

hypothesis: if we don’t have the ability to project ahead, our future selves would probability just be characterized as current self.
findings: current self schemas and possible selves had LITTLE OVERLAP. we are using 2 different bodies of knowledge (current state vs wants). People reported MORE possible selves, and they tended to be POSITIVE.

Question 38

According to the possible selves theory, why do lottery tickets have such appeal?

Answer 38

because by buying a ticket, you envision a whole array of possible selves. Rationally, you know the odds are so slim. But we are still so drawn to it because we are buying POSSIBLE SELVES that may occur if you win the ticket.

Question 39

How did Markus and Cross (1991) study CHANGING possible selves. What kind of study was this?

Answer 39

studied how possible selves changed with age

• had people of a range of ages and asked them their dreaded and hoped for self. (CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY)
• both positive and negative possible selves DECREASED WITH AGE.
  in late adolecence, there were a bunch of possible selves
  in late adulthood, you envisioned less and less possibilties for yourself.

May be the reason behind the MIDLIFE CRISES: realizations that possible selves are not going to be fulfilled.

Question 40

Discuss the findings of Knox and Colleages (2000) about the gender differences in Possible Cues

Answer 40

they interviewed teenagers and realized that:

1) females possible selves tend to revolve more about relationships. Feared selves often have to deal with relationships not working out
2) males possible selves tend to revolve around achievements and careers. Feared selves often involve unemployment and career failures.

Question 41

2 sources of possible selves

Answer 41

1) social bias: observing other people’s experiences and successes and comparing ourselves. other people’s experiences could be our future selves
2) own past experiences: any self that you’ve been in the past can be a possibility for the future (ex/ social rejection from childhood serving as a persistent worry of a possible feared self

Question 42

Why do we have possible selves?

Answer 42

to serve to motivate us to achieve hoped for selves in the future

• current actions to achieve/connect a higher-order goal
• current actions to prevent/avoid negative/dreaded possible selves.

Question 43

Outline the Porter and Markus (1984) study involving how positive and negative possible selves influenced self schemas

Answer 43

• they studied adutls who suffered a life crisis, and asked “do you feel you’re recovering?.”
• split participants into two groups: recovered people and those who thought they weren’t recovering.
• they then assessed the current and possible self schemas

outcome: there were no major differences between either group for CURRENT self schemas, both had neg self current schemas.
but: recovered people had a more POSITIVE self schema in the future, where as non-recovered people had a NEGATIVE self schema in the future.

The positive future selves may make you feel like you can recover, but negative future selves make you STUCK and UNLIKELY to recover.

Question 44

Explain Oyserman’s (2004) study about the possible selves in children with LOW SES. Describe the follow up

Answer 44

they assessed positive possible selves with respect to academic achievement. Students who had positive possible selves in terms of academic success actually spent more time doing homework than low SES students who had negative possible selves in terms of academic achievement.

follow up: 2 years later, it was still seen that children with a positive possible self were doing better in school and maintaining grades.