schemas

Question 1

what is a schema?

Answer 1

cognitive structure that represents knowledge about a concept or type of stimulus, including its attributes and relations among those attributes (Fiske and Taylor, 1991)

Question 2

what is a person schema?

Answer 2

Schemas about people

Question 3

what is a role schema?

Answer 3

Schemas about roles people take on, the norms for that role (schemas of social groups)

Question 4

what is a self schema?

Answer 4

Schemas about ourselves (self-concept and identity)

Question 5

what is an event schema?

Answer 5

Schemas about events. Expectations about what should happen and appropriate behaviours at an event

Question 6

what are the 3 types of categories?

Answer 6

Superordinate: Umbrella for the basic categories. e.g mammal, furniture

Basic: prompts the most common answer (the most salient). e.g dog, chair

Subordinate: below the basic level (more specific). e.g. spaniel, rocking chair

Question 7

what is a prototype?

Answer 7

the cognitive representation of the category average or typical member of the group

Question 8

what ways do we acquire schemas?

Answer 8

personal experience

second hand

Question 9

what ways do we use schemas?

Answer 9

based on obvious and readily available features
contextually distinctive
important to the person
Cost of being wrong is high
One has to be accountable for their decisions

Question 10

what are the 3 ways of changing schemas by Rothbart (1981)?

Answer 10

Bookkeeping – Slow change through evidence accumulated over time, Gradual process, minor change

Conversion – Sudden change following a critical mass of evidence that contradicts the schema, Quick process, large amount of disconfirming evidence

Subtyping – Formation of a subcategory to fit disconfirming evidence into

Question 11

what is a stereotype?

Answer 11

widely shared generalisations about members of a social group (Hogg and Vaughan, 2014).

Question 12

what are the 2 types of biases?

Answer 12

Cognitive biases – errors in thinking based on biases that effect our decision making and judgment

Confirmation bias – We avoid information that disproves what we believe and seek out evidence that supports what we believe

Question 13

what are the 2 types of cognitive biases? (Thorndike 1920)

Answer 13

Halo Effect
A positive global evaluation about a person based on one characteristic or experience e.g attractiveness (perceived as more intelligent even though not true)

Horns Effect
A negative global evaluation about a person based on one characteristic or experience e.g obesity (overweight people are irresponsible even though not true)

Question 14

what are heuristics?

Answer 14

cognitive short cuts that provide adequately accurate inferences for most of us for most of the time’ (Hogg and Vaughan, 2014, p71)

Question 15

what are the 3 types of heuristics?

Answer 15

A cognitive short-cut in which instances are assigned to categories or types on the basis of overall similarity or resemblance to the category (Hogg and Vaughan, 2014)

A cognitive short-cut in which the frequency or likelihood of an event is based on how quickly instances or associations come to mind (Hogg and Vaughan, 2014)

A cognitive short-cut in which inferences are tied to initial standards or schemas (Hogg and Vaughan, 2014)

Question 16

what are the 2 types of illusory thinking?

Answer 16

Illusory correlations
Perception of a relationship where none exists or perception of a stronger relationship than actually exists (Myers, 2010)

Illusion of control
The perception that events beyond our control are subject to our control or that we have more control than we in fact do have