S2 Topic 3 - Social Cognition

Question 1

What is social cognition?

Answer 1

how we process and store info about people and how this info affects how we perceive and interact with others

Question 2

Give 3 characteristics of cognition

Answer 2

• involves mental processing
• automatic
• we are unaware of it

Question 3

Explain Asch’s Configural Model (2)

Answer 3

People have central traits and peripheral traits

central traits have a disproportionate influence on the final configuration of impressions - e.g., warm, cold

peripheral traits have an insignificant influence on the final configuration of impressions e.g., polite, blunt

Question 4

What are biases that affect the impressions we form? (5)

Answer 4

Primacy and recency effects
Negative info
Personal constructs
Physical appearance
Stereotypes

Question 5

What is a schema?

Answer 5

a cognitive structure that represents knowledge about a concept/stimulus, including its attributes and the relationships among those attributes

Question 6

Name 5 types of schemas

Answer 6

Person schemas
Role schemas
Scripts
Content-free schemas
Self-schemas

Question 7

What is a prototype? (2)

Answer 7

• mental representation that serves as a cognitive reference point for the category
• the most salient features of the prototype are the first features that come to mind when the category is mentioned

Question 8

How do we form more accurate schemas? (3)

Answer 8

• probing for more info
• attending more closely to data
• attending to others more carefully

Question 9

In what case do we form more accurate schemas?

Answer 9

when the cost of being wrong are higher

Question 10

In what cases do schemas change?

Answer 10

if after accumulating evidence and finding a sub-category that contrast the schema, the schema is found really inaccurate

Question 11

What are social representations?

Answer 11

• shared understandings of the world between group members
• common-sense framework for interpreting everyday experiences
• cognitive systems with a logic and language of their own and a pattern of implication relevant to both values and concepts

Question 12

Name the characteristics of social representations (6)

Answer 12

• common sense
• widely shared
• enable communication
• persist over time
• agreed upon
• dynamic nature

Question 13

What is anchoring? (2)

Answer 13

we classify new things by comparing them to what we already know about prototypes

incorporating the new/strange into existing representations

Question 14

What is objectification?

Answer 14

what is new is transformed into concrete/objective common sense reality

Question 15

What is the core (3) of social representations and what is the periphery? (3)

Answer 15

Core: overall meaning, stable, shared

Periphery: stereotypes, dynamic, adds relevance to specific realities