Social Cognition Chapter 5 MCQ Flashcards
Actor/observer bias
The tendency for actors to make external attributions and observers to make internal attributions
Anchoring and adjustment
The tendency to judge the frequency or likelihood of an event by using a starting point (anchor) and then making adjustments up or down
Attribution cube
An attribution theory that uses three types of informations; consensus, consistency, and distinctivneness
Attributions
The causal explanations people give for their own and others behaviour and for events in general
Availability heuristic
The tendency to judge the frequency or likelihood of an event by the ease with which relvant instances come to mind
Base rate falllacy
The tendency to ignore or underuse base rate information and instead to be influenced by the distinctive features of the case being judges
Cognitive miser
A term used to describe peoples reluctance to do much extra thinking
Confirmation bias
The tendency to notice and search for information that confirms ones beliefs and to ignore information that disconfirms ones beliefs
Conjunction fallacy
The tendency to see an event as more likely as it becomes more specific because it is joined with elements that seem similar to events that are likely
Consensus
In attribution theory, whether other people would do the same thing in the same situation
Consistency
In attribution theory, whether the person typically behaves this way in this situation
Contamination
When something becomes impure or unclean
Counterfactual thinking
Imaginging alternatives to past or present events or circumstances
Counterregulation
the “what the heck” effect that occurs when people induldge in behaviour they are trying to regulate after an initial regulation failure
Covariation principle
For something to be the cause of a behaviour, it must be present when the behaviour occurs and absent when the behaviour does not occur
Debiasing
Reducing errors and biases by getting people to use controlled processing rather than automatic processing
Distinctiveness
In attribution theory, whether the person would behave differently in a different situation
Downward counterfactuals
Imagining alternatives that are worse than actuality
False consensus effect
The tendency to overestimate the number of other people who share ones opinions, attitudes, values and beliefs
False uniqueness effect (Luke Wobegon effect)
The tendency to underestimate the number of other people who share ones most prized characteristics and abilities
First instinct fallacy
The false belief that it is better not to chances ones first answer on a test even if one starts to think that a different answer is correct
Framing
Whether messages stress potential gains (positively framed) or potential losses (negatively framed)
Fundamental attribution error (correspondence bias)
The tendency for observers to attributes other peoples behaviour to internal or dispositional causes and to downplay situational causes
Gain-framed apeal
Focuses on the positive, such as how your teeth will be stronger and healthier if you brush and floss them every day
Gamblers fallacy
The tendency to believe that a particular chance event is affected by previous events and that chance events will even out in the short run
Heuristics
Mental shortcuts that provide quick estimates about the likelihood of uncertain events
Hot hand
The tendency for gamblers who get lucky to think they have a hot hand and their luck will continue
Illusion of control
The false belief that one can influence certain events, especially random or chance ones
Illusory correlation
The tendency to overestimate the link between variables that are related only slightly or not at all
Information overload
Having too much information to comprehend or intergrate
Knowledge structures
Organised packets of information that are stored in memory
Loss-framed appeal
Focuses on the negative, such as the potential for getting cavities if you do not brush and floss your teeth every day
Magical thinking
Thinking based on asumptions that don?t hold up to rational scrutiny
Meta-cognition
Reflecting on ones own thought processes
One-shot illusory correlation
An illusory correlation that occurs after exposure to only one unusual behaviour performed by only one member of an unfamiliar group
Priming
Planting or activating an idea in someones mind
Regret
Feeling sorrt for ones misfortunes, limitations, losses, transgressions, shortcomings or mistakes
Representation heuristic
The tendency to judge the frequency or likelihood of an event by the extent to which it resembles the typical case
Schemas
Knowledge structures that prepresent substantion information about a ocncept, its attirbutes and its relationship to other concepts
Scripts
Knowledge structures that define situations and guide behaviour
Self-serving bias
The tendency to take credit for success but deny blame for failure
Simulation heuristic
The tendency to judge the frequency or likelihood of an event by the ease with which you can imagine (or mentally simulate it)
Social cognition
A movement in social psychology that began in the 1970s that focused on thoughts about people and about social relationships
Statistical regression
The statistical tendency for extreme scores or extreme behaviour to be followed by others that are less extreme and closter to the average
Stoop effect
in the Stroop test, the finding that people have difficulty overriding the automatic tendency to read the word rather than name the ink color
Stroop test
A standard measure of effortful control over responses, requires participants to identify the color of a word (which may name a different color)
Ultimate attribution error
The tendency for observers to make internal attributions (fundamental attribution error) about whole groups of people
Upward counterfactuals
Imagining alternatives that are better than actuality
