Social Cognition Flashcards
Causal attributions
Explanations people construct to explain their behaviour, which can be situational, dispositional, or interactive
Age based double standard
Considering an older person’s failure in memory to be more serious than a memory failure observed in a young adult
Cognitive style
A pattern of behaviour one uses when solving a problem
Collaborative cognition
Performance that occurs when 2+ people work together to solve a cognitive task
Communication predicament
A negative feedback loop produced by patronizing talk wherein the target of such communication may begin to enact the stereotyped behaviours ascribed to him or her
Control strategies
Behaviour patterns used to obtain a sense of control over how an outcome or desired goal will be achieved. These can include assimilation activities, accommodations, and immunizing mechanisms
Correspondence bias
Relying more on dispositional information in explaining behaviour and ignoring competing situational information, such as extenuating circumstances
Dispositional attribution
An explanation for someone’s behaviour that resides within the actor
Framing effect
The influence of information just processed on subsequent social judgments
Generative commitment
Investment in the growth and nurturing of future generations
Implicit stereotyping
Stereotyping beliefs that affect one’s judgments of others without one’s knowledge
Impression formation
The way in which people form and revise first impressions of a person
Negativity bias
Bias that occurs when negative information outweighs positive information in a social judgment
Patronizing talk
Includes superficial conversation, slow speech, simple vocabulary, careful enunciation and a demeaning emotional tone
Personal control
The degree to which one believes that one’s performance in a situation depends on something that one personally does. The belief that what one does influences the outcome of an event
Processing capacity
The degree to which processing resources are available to a person during a cognitive task
Situational attribution
An explanation for someone’s behaviour that is external to the actor
Social knowledge
A cognitive structure that represents one’a general knowledge about a given social concept or domain. When we are faced with new situations, we draw on previous experiences, stored in memory.
Stereotype lift
Increased motivation to perform by a privileged group after exposure to an unflattering stereotype of a less advantaged group
Stereotypes
A special type of social knowledge structure or social belief that represents organized prior knowledge about characteristics, attributes, and behaviours of members of certain groups and that affects how we interpret new information
Stereotype threat
An evoked fear of being judged in accordance with a negative stereotype about a group to which one belongs
How do processing capacity limitations influence social judgments in older adults
Ability to make non biased social judgments depends on the cognitive demand accompanying these judgments - have to evaluate all the possible circumstances. This takes processing resources which old have fewer of and use less efficiently
How does negativity bias influence older adults’ thinking
When old first presented with + info and then presented with new - info, they modified their impression of the target from positive to negative. But they were less willing to modify their first impression when the - portrayal was followed by + info.
Young don’t so this. They are more concerned with making sure the new info was consistent with their impressions, regardless of whether it was + or -
Why does the negativity bias occur in older adults
Old ry more on life experiences and social rules of behaviour when making their interpretations, whereas going more concerned with situational consistency of the new info presented. So old don’t correct initial impressions bc - info more striking to them and this affects them more strongly