Lecture 1 - Social Cognition Flashcards
Define Social Psychology
“The scientific study of the way individuals think, feel and behave in social situations”
What are the stages of the scientific method employed by social psychologists?
1) Hunches based of background knowledge/ previous experience
2) theory about social behaviour
3) Predictions derived from theory (hypothesis)
4) Empirical research to test predictions
5) Predictions either confirmed/ disconfirmed
6) Confidence in theory increased/reduced
7) Theory is rejected/ modified (if modified go back to stage 3)
What concept was invented by Gustave LeBon, and what year?
The group mind (1896)
What year was Wund’ts lab established?
1879
What school of psychology did Freud pioneer?
The Psychoanalytic School of Psychology
What book did Freud publish in 1899?
The interpretation of Dreams? - looking at the science of unconcious
What did early classical psychology shift to? In terms of looking at social psychology?
Cognitive approahces
Who proposed ordinary peoples ideas about causality?
Jones and Davis, 1965
Who proposed a cognitive model of how people interpret emergency situations?
Latane and Darley (1965)
Who proposed a cognitive model of persuasion?
Petty and Cacioppo (1986)
What method did JAnis (1972) use when studying group decision making during the Bay of Pigs disaster?
Archival research - biographical/ autobiographical media accounts
Define Social Cognition
The study of the cognitive processes and structures that influence and are influenced by social behaviour
What invention led to the creation of a new paradigm, exploring information processing?
The computer
What is the basis of cognitive categorisation
Schemas
Define the availability heuristic
The more available information is, the higher our estimations of its frequency are. E.g. the more crime we see on the tv, the more dangerous we think our neighbourhood is
