social cognition Flashcards
social psychology
studies how our behavior is influenced by others
social cognition
how we judge our own behavior and others behavior in a social setting
person perception
process of making judgements about individuals based on their apparent characteristics. is quick but is sometimes inaccurate.
attributions
attaching meaning to our own and other peoples behaviours. can be influenced by internal or external factors
example of internal attributions
personality, mood etc
example of external attributions
school, work etc
attitudes
learned perspectives we hold about individuals, issues, events, etc
the tri-component model
proposes that attributions contain affective (emotional), behavioural (actions) and cognitive (reasoning) components.
stereotyping
placing people in categories because of perceived similarities. flawed as it doesn’t consider factors beyond the stereotype
cognitive dissonance
experienced when there is a misalignment between our behaviours and attitudes.
cognitive biases
systematic errors in judgement that occur when we try to simplify the info we are processing. reduce experience of cognitive dissonance.
Heuristics
mental shortcuts that help decision making. useful in reducing cognitive load as they save time and effort by making snap judgements. susceptible to bias.
availability heuristic
using info that first comes to mind to make a judgement
representative heuristic
decision making where we estimate the likelihood of something occurring or being true based on its similarity to our existing understanding/ expectations
affect heuristic
decision making is influenced by individuals current state or mood
prejudice
negative preconceived notion held towards individuals due to them being in a certain group.
discrimination
being prejudiced/ treating others unfairly based on a negative attitude towards them
direct discrimination
person or a group is treated unfairly because of their background or personal characteristics
indirect discrimination
unreasonable policy that is the same for everyone but has an unfair affect on a particular group
intergroup contact
can be used to reduce prejudice. must be sustained contact
superordinate goals
shared goals that individuals or groups cannot achieve without the cooperation of others. can reduce prejudice as members of in and out groups are dependent on each other to achieve a shared goal.
equality of status
social interaction that occurs at the same level without obvious differences of power or status. one group doesn’t exert power or dominance over the other.
