Lecture 15: Social Cognition

Question 1

How do people behave in social settings and during social interactions?

Answer 1

Depends on individuals character/personality and situational.

Question 2

Actor-observer bias

Answer 2

ppl tend to explain their own behaviors in terms of situational causes but others behaviors in terms of dispositional (internal) causes. We intend to find excuses for our own behavior but when others do something unpleasant we tend to blame it on their personality. social perceptions are based on subjective interpretations.

Question 3

Self vs. Other ratings

Answer 3

some evidence that descriptive cognitive processes are similar for the self and others.

1. High self-observer correlations on traits.
2. More likely to ascribe desirable traits to both self and other.
3. Not clear that there is a “special” brain area devoted to the self.
4. frequent use of assumed similarity heuristic

Question 4

What are the three components of Moral cognition

Answer 4

Theory of mind, abstract moral reasoning and moral emotion.

Question 5

Moral cognition: examples of moral emotions

Answer 5

There is a lot of emotion tied in with moral cognition. Common moral emotions are Guilt, embarrassment and shame. Guilt is the common moral emotion with various definitions. Guilt was more associated with sadness. Both activated the temporal lobe but shame activated the medial and inferior frontal lobe to a greater degree then guilt. Shame= self Guilt = multi layered

Question 6

Political Cognition: Cognitive differences in liberal and conservatives.

Answer 6

Actor- observer bias
Liberals: Situational stance, approach-motivated,
Conservatives: dispositional, withdrawal-motivated. less tolerant of ambiguity, exhibit higher mortality salience, avoid change more and react more strongly to threats.

Question 7

Political Cognition: Anatomical differences in liberal and conservatives.

Answer 7

Amygdala is larger in liberals= more emotions

ACC is larger in Conservatives= more conflict monitor system.

Question 8

What is social cognition?

Answer 8

is the encoding, storage, retrieval, and processing, of information about humans.

Question 9

What does the Self-monitoring scale inform you?

Answer 9

Depending on your level of self monitoring reveals some aspects of your character.
High: More likely to modify behavior based on situations, date more frequently, more sexual partners, and take on more leadership positions.
Low: less likely to modify behaviors based on situations, more likely to ignore social norms, date less, less sexual partners, and are the worst at detecting deception.

Question 10

What is the Better than average effect?

Answer 10

all ppl rate their skills highly when in reality they’re not.

Question 11

What is theory of mind?

Answer 11

is the ability to attribute mental states—beliefs, intents, desires, pretending, knowledge, etc.—to oneself and others and to understand that others have beliefs, desires, intentions, and perspectives that are different from one’s own.

Question 12

what is moral cognition?

Answer 12

Any cognitive act that helps an individual decide what he or she should do

Question 13

Is political ideology heritable?

Answer 13

Yes. highly. Ideology later in life can be fairly well predicted by childhood personality traits