social cognition Flashcards
what is social cognition
-how our thoughts, feelings and behaviours influence and are influenced by others (Hogg and Vaughan 2014)
-also known as thinking, can occur rapidly and automatically without cognition
-how social info is acquired, organised and used
what is a metaphor for social cognition
computer model- there are things happening in our brains/cognition that we are not aware of, alike being unaware of the processes used by a computer
is social cog. conscious or unconscious
- our thoughts are usually conscious
- whether it’s conscious or unconscious, cog. allows us to acquire, organise and use information
how are we able to adapt our behaviour to meet the demands and social expectations of the environment
our brains infer and prime us to behave in a way appropriate to the situation we are in e.g cafe vs restaurant
what happens if our STM is overloaded
we attend to salient (most important) features and categorise the info
categorisation
-we categorise stimuli based on their salient features meaning we can infer info without processing the full info (Rumelhart and Otorny 1977)
-cognitivists state categories are instances grouped as they share a family resemblance (Mervis and Rosch 1981, Rosch 1978)
-we rely on prototypes for categorisation
prototypes
-cog. representations of a category
-average in a set of stimuli (sometimes people view the extreme versions)
-categories are hierarchical, most rely on middling level
what is another term for category
fuzzy set (varying instances centred on a prototype)
exemplars
representing categories with a specific instance they encounter (real life experience)
Brewer 1988
the more familiar we are with the category, we shift from representing with prototypes to exemplars
Judd and Park 1988
we use prototypes and exemplars for representing in-groups but only exemplars for out-groups
schemas
-set of related categories or cog. allowing us to make sense of a person/situation/place based on limited info
-fill in the blanks and use generalisations
what type of processing are schemas used for
top down (Rumelhart and Otorny 1977)
-use of cog. short cuts by filling gaps with preconceptions and prior knowledge, no need to reconstruct relationships
what are the schema types
person schemas
role schemas
scripts
what are person schemas and who supports it
-knowledge on specific individuals e.g family
-Asch’s configural model: is a kind of person schema where we categorise info according to a central trait and inferences are made about the rest
what are role schemas
-knowledge structures about role occupants and what they do, roles are socially defined and shared between people
-e.g accepting medication from a doctor or an academic
what are scripts
-a type of schema for events
-gives us a shortcut for how to behave in certain situations
-schemas are different for each event e.g cafe vs cinema
-without schemas it is difficult to know how to behave
weakness of schemas
-we can be led astray due to stereotypes
what are stereotypes
widely shared simple generalisations about members of a social group
schemas of social groups are…
-slow to change
-readily available
-more pronounced/ derogatory with group hostility
how do stereotypes arise and describe study
-perceptual accentuation theory (Tajfel)
-when making a judgement on a focal dimension we recruit any peripheral dimensions that may be helpful
-pp shown A lines (longer) and B line (shorter)
-asked to estimate length of line and told if it’s A or B
-pp tended to overestimate length of A lines and underestimate B lines
-categorisation into A or B led to accentuation of similarities within groups, also emphasised differences between groups
support for tajfel accentuation theory
corneille 2002: accentuation effect greater when encountering unfamiliar stimuli
what are the social cog. models of info processing
consistency seeker
naive scientist
heider’s attribution theory
cognitive misers
motivated tacticians
consistency seeker (rationalising mind)
-cog. dissonance (Festinger 1957)
-we are motivated to avoid discrepancies in cognitions
-people can hold two opposing cog. but this causes distress, they want to reduce tensions by rejecting or changing one cog.
naive scientist
-we are ok with opposing cog.
-people hold theories about how the world works and we fit info into this theory
Heider’s attribution theory 1958
- our own behaviour is motivated so we look for motivations in behaviour of other people
- we make causal theories to predict the environment
- we attribute causality based on internal (trait) factors or external (situational) factors
cognitive misers
-people use heuristics to solve problems e.g low effort
-even in ideal conditions we use of such broad shortcuts
-features which stand out are attended to and processed, less salient info is ignored
motivated tacticians
-Fiske and Taylor 1991
-people have multiple cog. strategies and they choose which one depending on personal goals (Hogg and Vaughan 2014)
-when we have time/motivation we process info according to our own motivations
-when time/cog. resources do not permit, we resort to heuristics
what are the criticisms of social cog.
reductionist
-just cog. in social situations
-little focus on lang. and communication
-most of field now focuses on social neuroscience
neglect of developmental approaches
-assumes behaviour learnt through observations and reinforcement
-behavioural patterns can and do change through life with little environment change
ignores biology
-ignores hormonal or genetic influences
completely un-unified
-vast series pf explanations e.g categories, prototypes, exemplars
-Occam’s razor: there should be a unifying theme that explains these behaviours
evolutionary social psych.
-cog. must show adaptive benefit to be selected
-Schaller 2010 suggests ancestrally outgroups pose a danger so we associate them w. danger
-Hutchinson and Martin 2015 suggest stereotypes are adaptive (energy saving)
