Social Cognition Flashcards
Social psychology
The study of how people influence, and are influenced by other people
Social cognition 
Mental processes, through which people, perceive and react to individuals and groups 
Downward social comparison 
Comparing to those who are worse off to protect self-esteem 
Relative deprivation 
The belief that a person will feel deprived, or entitled to something based off of others

Social identity theory 
Beliefs about which social group we belong to 
Social comparison 
People evaluate themselves in relation to other people 
Schemas 
Background knowledge based on past experiences that help us understand and process new info 
Attribution theory
Processes we go through to explain the causes of behavior, including our own

Dispositional/internal attributions 
Something about the person is the cause of their behaviour 
Situational/external attributions 
Something about the environment is the cause of someone’s behaviour 
Actor-observer bias
Attributing other peoples behaviour as internal while your own as external 
Attitudes 
The tendency to think, feel or act positively/negatively towards someone or something 
Dissonance

Anxiety or discomfort that is felt when behaviour is inconsistent with beliefs 
Cognitive dissonance theory 
We will change our beliefs to be consistent/align with our behaviour 
Stereotypes

The perceptions beliefs and expectations Individual have about groups. 
Prejudice

A positive/negative attitude towards an individual based on their membership in social groups 
Discrimination 
Different treatment of individuals who belong to different “groups”
Scapegoat theory of prejudice 
A person sense of social identity based on their group. A person in the “in group” sees the “out group” as worse and treats them badly 
Cognitive theory of prejudice 
People naturally use schemes to interpret information, if schema is negative —> prejudice 
Learning theory of prejudice
People learn stereotypes from media, and observations that can lead to prejudice of people who don’t fit in with that 
Mere-exposure effect
Repeated exposure to something increases the liking of it 
(attraction) proximity
The geographical nearness to someone increases the liking of them 
(Attraction) similarity
The matching hypothesis —> people will seek out others who are similar to them 
(Attraction) reciprocity
Tendency to like those who like us back 
