social cognition Flashcards
Social cognition (3)
Cognition
–> Perceptions, thoughts, memories, decisions
Non social cognition
–> How we understand the physical world
Social cognition
–> How we understand what others think, feel, believe
–> How we solve interpersonal problems
–> How we develop values ,beliefs, attitudes, norms, and definitions
Moral development (self regulated)
Occurs in upward fashion
Each state is prerequisite for the next
Moral growth occurs when we interact w/ others of a higher reasoning
Kohlberg’s theory of moral development
–> Preconventional level: learning morals (avoiding punishment or gaining a reward)
-stage 1: avoiding punishment
-stage 2: aiming at a reward
–> Conventional level: internalizing morals
-stage 3: good boy and good girl
-stage 4: loyalty to law and order
–>Postconventional level: stands by own beliefs
-stage 5: justice and spirit of the law
-stage 6: universal principles of ethics
Moral development and crime
-Delinquent youth at preconventional level
-Low morality level not a risk factor for crime, but encourages self-serving behav
-Risk low, pay off is high
-Conventional and postconventional reasoning can prevent crime
Moral disengagement
Psychological mechanisms to avoid negative feelings from violating our own morals
-Minimize disgraceful nature of the behav
-Minimize responsibility for behav
-Minimize consequences of the behav
-Minimize the worth of the victim or shift blame to the victim
Situational Factors
Situation more important than internal states
Behav influences the situation, and situation influences behav
Deindividuation theory
-Phillip zombardo
-When in a crowd or disguise, people lose sense of individuality, remove self-imposed controls and neutralize moral restraints
-Explains collective violence
-Effect can also be achieved with a disguise, mask, uniform, or darkness
Stanford prison experiment
Simulated prison environment
Volunteers randomly assigned as guards or prisoners
Guards given uniforms (deindividuation) and symbols of power and were permitted to make up rules
Prisoners were arrested and required permission from guards for routine things
⅓ of guards abused their power; many prisoners experienced depression
Guards and prisoners absorbed in their roles within 6 days, when project was terminated early
SPE FAKED?
Bbc prison experiment could not replicate result
Evidence of fraud in original experiment
Guards coached and experimenters intervened giving instructions
Prisoners responded to demand characteristics
Zimbardo wrote the conclusions before the experiment ended
Now recognized as a thought piece on deindividuation, not pivotal experiment
Bystander effect
Effect of bystanders ignoring a victim
Fear of harm, risk of getting involved, difficulty of assessing best course of action
Presence of other people inhibits one from taking responsibility
Most likely to occur in non-life threatening emergency situations
Obedience
Classic experiment conducted by stanley milgram
Test how far a participant will go under the orders of an authority figure
Despite hesitation, most participants shocked at increasing high levels
Milgram experiment
Dissociation between word (“i wanted to stop”) and action (not stopping)
Agentic state: acting on behalf of an agent rather than on their own accord
moral justification + ex
convincing oneself that harmful actions serve a noble purpose
ex. a person might believe that lying is acceptable if it protects their family
reconstructing immoral behav
euphemistic labelling
using mild/ neutral language to downplay harmful actions
ex. civilian deaths referred to as “collateral dmg” instead of acknowledging the loss of their innocent lives
reconstructing immoral behav
advantageous consequences
comparing one’s actions to worse behav to make their own seem less harmful
reconstructing immoral behav
displacement of responsibility
shifting responsibility for harmful actions onto a authority figure or group
-a soldier’s unethical actions as “following orders from military”
-obscuring personal responsibility
