Chapter 4: Social Cognition

Question 1

Social Cognition

Answer 1

a term that refers to all the processes of perception, interpretation, belief, and memory with which we evaluate and understand ourselves and other people

Question 2

First Impressions

Answer 2

formed very rapidly and they have enormous staying power; they influence our judgements of others for a long time; everybody we meet fits some category of people about whom we already hold stereotyped first impressions (such as pretty or plain)

Question 3

Primary Effects

Answer 3

occur when the first information we obtain about others carries special weight, influencing our interpretations of the later information we encounter (such as social class having an affect on how well people thaught someone would do on an exam)

Question 4

Confirmation Bias

Answer 4

we are more liekly to pursue information that will support our beliefs than to enquire about data that could prove them wrong

Question 5

Overconfidence of our First Impressions

Answer 5

we rarely confront convincing evidence that our first impressions are wrong; there for we tend to be overconfident: we put too much faith in our judgements and think that we are right about others more often than we really are

Question 6

Positive Illusions

Answer 6

we often judge our lovers with positive illusions that portray them in the best possible light, emphasizing their positive qualities and minimizing their faults

Question 7

Attributional Processes

Answer 7

attributions are our explanations of events; they identify the causes of events, emphasizing the impact of some influences and minimizing the role of others

Question 8

We can emphasize influence that are…

Answer 8

internal to a person (such as personality, ability, or effort) or extern (describing the situation that the person faced; stable and lasting or unstable and temporary; controllable (so that we can manage them) or uncontrollable (so there is nothing we can do about them)

Question 9

Actor Slash Observer Effect

Answer 9

people generate different explanation for their own actions than they do for the similar actions they observe in others; basically if you did something bad you would make yourself sound better (normally) but if someone else did the same thing you would make it sound bad

Question 10

Self-Serving Biases

Answer 10

lead people to see themselves as responsible for the good things that happen to them, but relatively blameless when things go wrong; people routinely believe that relationship problems are mostly the other partners fault

Question 11

Relationship-Enhancing Attributions

Answer 11

help maintain relationship satisfaction by giving partners credit for their kindnesses and explaining their misbehavior

Question 12

Distress Maintaining Attributions

Answer 12

unhappy partners use this to explain one anothers behavior in ways that perpetuate their distress; undersirable behaviors seem to be intended with desirable behavior seeming more accidental and temporary

Question 13

Memories

Answer 13

our memories cannot store past facts exactly as they occured

Question 14

Reconstructive Memory

Answer 14

describe the way our memories are continually revised and rewritten as new events occur

Question 15

Romanticism

Answer 15

view that love should be the most important basis for choosing a mate; there is only one “true love” for me; true love will find a way to overcome any obstacle; love is possible at first sight

Question 16

Other Relationship beliefs are dysfunctional and disadvantageous…

Answer 16

disagreements are destructive, “mindreading” is essential, partners cannot change, sex should be perfect every time, men and women are different, great relationships just happen

Question 17

Destiny Beliefs

Answer 17

assume that two people are either well suited for each other and destined to live happily ever after or they are not

Question 18

Growth Beliefs

Answer 18

assume that good relationships develop gradually as a result of hard work

Question 19

Self-Fulfilling Prophecies

Answer 19

are false predictions that come true because they lead people to behave in ways that make the erroneous expectations come true

Question 20

Expectations

Answer 20

when people expected to be liked by a stranger, they were; and when they expected to be disliked they were; even when the stranger knew nothing about them, and the bogus expectations existed only in their minds

Question 21

Self- Concepts

Answer 21

encompass all the beliefs and feelings we have about ourselves

Question 22

Self- Enhancement

Answer 22

motive leads us to seek feedback that makes us look good

Question 23

Self- Verification

Answer 23

motive leads us to seek feedback that supports and verifies our existing concepts

Question 24

Marriage Shift

Answer 24

most of us will be most content with spouses who admire and respect us, but people with negative self concepts will not; they feel better understood by, and closer to, partners who verify their low opinions of themselves

Question 25

Impression Management

Answer 25

involves trying to influence the impressions of us that others form; almost anything we do in public may be strategically regulated to influence what others think of us; how we behave and how we represent ourselves on online platforms

Question 26

What are the strategies of impression management?

Answer 26

ingratiation, self promotion, intimidation, supplication

Question 27

Ingratiation

Answer 27

doing favors, paying compliments, and being charming to get others to like us

Question 28

Self Promotion

Answer 28

recounting accomplishments or displaying skills to elicit respect from others

Question 29

Intimidation

Answer 29

appearing threatning or dangerous to elicit fear and compliance from others

Question 30

Supplication

Answer 30

appearing inept or infirm to elicit help and nuturance from others

Question 31

High Self Monitors

Answer 31

pay close attention to social norms and adeptly adjust thier behavior to fit

Question 32

Low Self Monitors

Answer 32

are less flexibile, and they make more similar impressions from one audience to the next

Question 33

How accurate are our perceptions of our partners?

Answer 33

we misunderstand our partners more than we realize

Question 34

Motivation

Answer 34

long periods of close contact gradually result in less not more, accurate judgements if motivation to understand each other wane; accurate judgements depend in part on the interest and motivation with which two people try to understand each other

Question 35

Partner Legibility

Answer 35

moreover, some people are easier to read than others; extraversion is easy to detect but neuroticism is not

Question 36

Perceiver Ability

Answer 36

some judges are more discerning than others; people who are high in emotional intelligence read others feelings sensitivetly and they enjoy more satisfying and more intimate interactions with others as a result; there are big disadvantages to misreading your partner, but training and practive can help

Question 37

Threatning Perceptions

Answer 37

there may be things that we do not want to know; the closer their relationship, the less accurate people were in judging their partners intersts in other attarctive people unless they had a preoccuppied attachement style

Question 38

Perceiver Influence

Answer 38

if we realize that our partners are not the people we wish they were, we may try to change them; because of perceiver influence, judgements that are initially inaccurate may become more correct as we induce our partners to become the people we want them to be