Social cognition

Question 1

What types of social cognition can we have?

Answer 1

1. Automatic thinking

2. Controlled thinking

Question 2

What are the features of automatic thinking?

Answer 2

• fast
• non-conscious
• unintentional
• uncontrollable
• effortless

Question 3

What are the features of controlled thinking?

Answer 3

• slow
• conscious
• intentional
• controllable
• effortful

Question 4

What is social categorisation?

Answer 4

Grouping people based on shared characteristics common to all of them

Question 5

What is out-group homogeneity?

Answer 5

The tendency to perceive out-group members as similar to one another

Question 6

What do schemas allow us to do?

Answer 6

• let us quickly make sense of a person/event/place on the basis on limited info
• help us understand the word
• help us reduce ambiguity

Question 7

What do we tend to do more - seek info from the context/environment or fill in gaps with prior knowledge?

Answer 7

We tend to fill in gaps with prior knowledge & preconceptions rather than seek info from the immediate context

Question 8

Once schemas are evoked, what kind of processing do they facilitate?

Answer 8

Top-down, cognitive-driven or theory-driven processing

Question 9

What types of schemas are there?

Answer 9

• person schemas
• role schemas
• scripts
• content-free schemas
• self-schemas

Question 10

What are person schemas?

Answer 10

Knowledge structures about certain people

Question 11

What are role schemas?

Answer 11

Knowledge structures about role occupants (types of behaviours/function)

Question 12

What are content-free schemas?

Answer 12

They don’t contain rich info about a category but rather a limited number of roles for processing info

Question 13

What are self-schemas?

Answer 13

Schemas about yourself

They form part of the self-concept

Question 14

What are scripts?

Answer 14

Schemas about events

Question 15

When schemas are incorrect, what can it lead to?

Answer 15

Stereotypes

Question 16

What are stereotypes?

Answer 16

Generalisations about a group where certain traits are assigned to all members, regardless of actual variation

Question 17

What are some characteristics of stereotypes?

Answer 17

• slow to change
• hard to change
• applied quickly & automatically
• acquired at an early age
• more pronounced & hostile when social tension & conflict exists between groups
• not always wrong

Question 18

Why/when do stereotypes change?

Answer 18

They usually change in response to wider social/political/economic changes

Question 19

When are stereotypes typically acquired?

Answer 19

At a young age, often before the child has much knowledge about the groups being stereotyped

Question 20

What do stereotypes serve to help us do, in relation to groups?

Answer 20

They serve to make sense of intergroup relations (& aren’t always wrong)

Question 21

Where do stereotypes come from?

Answer 21

• cultural learning

- illusionary correlations

Question 22

What are ‘illusionary correlations’?

Answer 22

Perceiving a relationship between variables, if even if there isn’t one

Question 23

Which research investigated illusionary correlations & what did they find?

Answer 23

Hamilton & Gifford (1976)

Pps read sentences describing undesirable or desirable behaviours that were attributed to group A or B (most were associated with A = majority group)

Desirable behaviours weren’t seen as distinctive, so pps were accurate in their associations (allocating them to each group)
Pps overestimated how much the minority group displayed undesirable behaviours

Question 24

Correll et al. (2002) used a videogame to simulate encounters with potentially hostile targets

Their 3 studies tested whether a racial bias in shoot/don’t-shoot decisions reflected accessibility of the stereotype linking Black people to danger

What did they find in each study?

Answer 24

Study 1: pps read stories about Black criminals –> this increased their bias in the decision to shoot Black targets in the game

Study 3: changed the number of White & Black targets with & without guns in the game –> frequent presentation of stereotype targets (Black targets with guns) increased bias (to shoot) (2) & made stereotypes more accessible (3)

Question 25

What can activate schemas?

Answer 25

Schema-related cues, e.g.:

• readily detected features (skin colour, appearance)
• contextually distinctive features (e.g. a single man in a group of women)

Question 26

How accessible are schemas?

Answer 26

Schemas can be chronically accessible &/or temporarily accessible

Question 27

Why are schemas accessible chronically/temporarily?

Answer 27

As a result of our motivations/goals/expectations

Because of our recent experiences (e.g. priming)

Question 28

What sort of categories to we tend to use to access subtypes, stereotypes & role schemas?

Answer 28

We tend to use basic-level categories to access subtypes, stereotypes & role schemas

Question 29

What types of schemas are we most likely to use?

Answer 29

Accessible schemas (ones that are habitually used/salient in memory)

Question 30

When we need to use more accurate schemas, we shift from ______ cognition to ________ cognition.

Answer 30

When we need to use more accurate schemas, we shift from theory-driven cognition to data-driven cognition.

Question 31

Who studied how our behaviours change when the costs of being wrong/indecisive are high?

Answer 31

Vaughn & Hogg (2013)

Question 32

What did Vaughn & Hogg (2013) find we do if the costs of being wrong are high?

Answer 32

• pay more attention
• may use more accurate schemas
• probe for more info
• attend more carefully to others

Question 33

What did Vaughn & Hogg (2013) find we do if the costs of being indecisive are high?

Answer 33

• tend to make quick decisions
• form quick impressions
• become more reliant on schematic processing

Question 34

What is ‘priming’?

Answer 34

An unobtrusive & momentary environmental influence on a person’s experiences & behaviours

Question 35

What types of concepts do environmental features temporarily activate?

Answer 35

Environmental features temporarily activate (prime) mentally-represented concepts (e.g. attitudes)

Question 36

What happens once primed concepts are activated?

Answer 36

Once activated, primed concepts are more likely to influence our immediate cognitions, feelings & behaviour

Question 37

Priming effects occur automatically. True/false?

Answer 37

True - concepts can be activated without awareness & bias responses in ways that people don’t intend & can’t control

Question 38

What is supraliminal priming?

Answer 38

When we are aware of an environmental cue but not of its influence on us

Question 39

What is subliminal priming?

Answer 39

When we are unaware of an environmental cue but it still influences us

Question 40

Pps were primed (saw sentences including different forms of ‘help’) OR not primed (control condition) & experimenters recorded whether pps picked up a pen that the experimenter dropped.

Who did this study & what did they find?

Answer 40

Macrae & Johnstone (1998)

93. 7% of pps in the primed group picked up the pen
94. 7% of pps in the control group picked up the pen

Question 41

How did Macrae & Johnstone’s (1998) results change when the pen was leaking?

What did they conclude?

Answer 41

6. 2% of pps in the primed group picked up the pen
7. 5% of pps in the control group picked up the pen

–> priming doesn’t work for all situations

Question 42

What happens when we are exposed to a prime?

Answer 42

1. We are exposed to a prime (object/person/thought; real/imaginary; visual/haptic/olfactory)
2. The primed concept is activated (automatic process)
3. It influences our judgements/behaviour/motivations (depends on the task)