Chapter 4: Social Cognition and Communication (HIGH MIDTERM PRIORITY)

Question 1

Social cognition

Answer 1

The way we perceive, judge, and make sense of our social world; how we think about our relationships.

Question 2

What helps us think about our social world?

Answer 2

Schemas

Question 3

Schema

Answer 3

Mental structures that people use to organize their knowledge about the world

E.g., expectations, beliefs, scripts & working models

Question 4

Overview of ways to think about schemas in the context of relationships

Answer 4

● General
○ Self
○ Partner
○ Self-in-relation-to partner
○ Relationships
● Specific
○ Self
○ Partner
○ Self-in-relation-to-partner
○ Relationship

Question 5

General schema

Answer 5

What we enter the relationship with e.g., schema of an ideal partner

Question 6

Self schema

Answer 6

What you think about yourself (e.g., what you like and dislike)

Question 7

Other Schema

Answer 7

What you think about partners and friends (e.g., Ideals)

Question 8

Ideal Romantic Partner (Fletcher et al., 1999)

Answer 8

Based on evolutionary perspective, we should have romantic partners that are:
1. Healthy and attractive (vitality-attractiveness)
e.g., repoproductive fitness

2. Responsible and capable of intimacy (warmth-trustworthiness)
   e.g., being attentive to offspring
3. Relatively high status and wealth (status-resources)
   e.g., provide more resources to help raise offspring successfully

Question 9

Ideal Close Friend (e.g., Apostolou et al., 2022)

Answer 9

Based on evolutionary perspective we should have close friends that facilitate:
1. Receiving support (supportive, helpful, kind, available, and empathetic)

2. Social input (available, reliable, similar, and pleasant)
3. Achieving mating (Youth and good looks)
4. Personal advancement goals (Influential, have social status and power)

Question 10

Self-in-relation to others (Schemas)

Answer 10

E.g., attachment styles

E.g., if I’m scared my attachment figure will be there to comfort me

Question 11

Relationships

Answer 11

E.g., Belie

Question 12

Primacy effect

Answer 12

The tendency for intial information about something to carry a special weight. The reason why first impressions are so important.

Question 13

John Darley and Paget Gross (1983)

“Hannah”

Answer 13

IV
Hannahs reported social class

DV
Reported schemas

Results
High social class they thought she played in a big yard and had a big house etc.

Low social class they though she played in a deteriorating schoolyard and lived in a duplex.

They both thought that she was doing well in school