Social Cognition & Social Attribution (3) Flashcards
________ - a judgement about what caused someone to behave in a certain way
attribution
example: why did earl give his wife flowers
Possibility 1 - _______ attribution
Because he a romantic dude
Possibility 2 - ________ attribution
Because they had just had a fight (the situation called for it)
Possibility 1 - internal/dispositional
attribution
Possibility 2 - external/situational attribution
The ________ model states that we make causal judgements by determining weather behav correlates with a person, situation or a combination of them
covariation
the covariation model explains how we use social perception to attribute behavior to _______ or _______ factors
to internal or external factors
the covariation model:
1 - _______ information - do other people react the same way in this situation
2 - ___________ information - does this person act the same way in other situations
1 - consensus information - do other people react the same way in this situation
2 - distinctiveness information - does this person act the same why in other situations
the covariation model:
eg. a manager yells at their employee
give an example of high and low consensus information
high consensus: manager might be underpressure
low consensus: manager might just be a hot head
the covariation model:
eg. a manager yells at their employee
give an example of high and low distinctiveness information
low distinctiveness: Manager yells at employees every day
high distinctiveness: Manager usually calm, perhaps just having a bad day
the covariation model:
eg. a manager yells at their employee
with high consensus, ________ attribution can be made
(maybe manager is under pressure)
with low consensus, ________ attribution can be made
(manager might just be a hot head)
with high consensus, situational attribution can be made
with low consensus, dispositional attribution can be made
the covariation model:
eg. a manager yells at their employee
with low distinctiveness, __________ attribution can be made
(Manager yells at employees every day)
with high distinctiveness, _________ attribution can be made
(Manager usually calm, perhaps just having a bad day)
with low distinctiveness, dispositional attribution can be made
(Manager yells at employees every day)
with high distinctiveness, situational attribution can be made
(Manager usually calm, perhaps just having a bad day)
Example: In a comedy show, if most of the audience laughs at a joke, ________ information is high
consensus
Example: If a person only gets nervous during public speaking but not in other situations, __________ information is high
distinctiveness
covariation model:
if there is high distinctiveness or high consensus a _______ atrribution can be made
if there is low distinctiveness or low consensus a _______ atrribution can be made
situational
dispositonal
the covariation model is relevant for inferring behaviour of ______ ______
ie. people we interact with often and can apply this information to
familliar targets
The ______ ______ model is applied when we only have one instance of behaviour (stranger)
The causal schema model is applied when we only have one instance of behaviour (stranger)
In the causal schema model, people infer whether ______ inluences are sufficient to explain ________
People infer whether situational influences are sufficient to explain the behaviour
the causal schema model:
________ principle - inferring whether situational influences are sufficient to explain behaviour, and disregarding an internal cause
Discounting principle - inferring whether situational influences are sufficient to explain behaviour, and disregarding an internal cause
causal schema model:
Eg. kendrick makes a large charitable donation
how would the discounting princeple be applied
infer a situational cause (good PR, tax break)
discount likelihood of internal cause (that hes philanthropic, caring person)
The causal schema model:
_________ principle - If a situational cause exists that should have inhibited the behaviour, we enhance the importance of an internal cause
augmentation princeple
The causal schema model:
kristina bakes cookies for her boss, but you assume its just cause she wanted a raise
what does this exemplify
Discounting principle
The causal schema model:
Eg, homeless person makes donation to charity
We infer they must be exceptionally generous person because his situation doesn’t call for this action
what princeple have we applied
augmentation
what is the problem with the causal schema model
fundamental attribution error
We tend to overestimate dispositional (internal) causes of a person’s behaviour, or fail to adequately take into account situational (external) constraints on his/hers behaviour
give an example of the fundemental attribution error
Eg. assuming that the actor who plays sheldon is smart asf anf a nerd, even though we KNOW they are following a script
Experiment: mock quiz show (FAE)
P’s randomly assigned to generate 10 questions (host), answer 10 questions (contestants), or watch the quiz show (audience)
results?
The contestants did badly
People rated the intelligence of the host as superior to the contestants
hosts rated themselves more equally to contestants
Contestant and audience failed to see that the role of host just made them seem smarter
the ____-_____ model of attribution asserts that internal attributions are made more commonly than external attributions
two-step model
why does the two-step model of attribution say that we make internal attribution effortlessly
People make internal attribution effortlessly - requires more mental effort to take external causes into account
what is the actor-observer bias
the tendency to make external attributions to our own behaviours while making internal attributions for the identical behaviour of others
______ attribution - The tendency to blame victims for their misfortune (associated with karma)
Defensive attribution - The tendency to blame victims for their misfortune (associated with karma)
according to devensive attribution, why to we tend to blame victims for their misfortune
We want to believe that the world is just and we will be given good things for our efforts and not be vulnerable to bad things despite our good actions
Eg. homeless individual responsible for ending up this way
experiment : attribution in news papers
American news papers placed more emphasis on _______ factors (bad temper, mentally unstable)
Chinese papers placed more emphasis on _______ factors (fired recently, bad relationships)
American news papers placed more emphasis on internal factors
Chinese paper placed more emphasis on external factors
experiment : attribution in news papers
Individualistic cultures view behaviour in __________ terms
Collectivist cultures view behaviour in ________ terms
Individualistic cultures view behaviour in dispositional terms
Collectivist cultures view behaviour in situational terms
when making attributions for behaviour when are we more likely to use the covariation model? how about the causal schema?
we know people we use covariation model to make attribution for behaviour
Strangers or when we have one instance of behaviour, we use causal schema
______ ______ - the process by which information about people/social events is processed and stored
social cognition
_________- mental structures that organise knowledge about the social world (people, social roles, events)
schemas
schemas are prone to ________
erros
Shemas aids in:
___________ of objects and events (which aids in →)
________ of objects and events (and reacting efficiently)
Categorization of objects and events (which aids in →)
Predictability of objects and events (and react efficiently)
Shemas guide our social _______
behaviour
Although it seems like we immediately understand social situations, we really rely on _________ to make sense of them
schemas
Eg. someone raised in a contained environment going to a sit-down restaurant
how might they behave? what are they lacking?
Might smell something good, walk into the kitchen and grab whatever they want
Lacks the schemas related to sit-down restaurant operation
_________ - the ease which a schema becomes activated
accessibility
how is accessibility increased
priming
explain priming
Process of what event activated what schema
produces greater accessibility increasing likelihood that schema will be activated again in the future
You see a picture of a fat juicy burger
Later, when deciding what for dinner you’re more likely to go get a burger
The picture _______ you
primed
how does the punch buggy game involve schemas and priming
You learn of the punch buggy game
Primes you to notice them everywhere and give hoes bruises
learning about it (priming) activates schemas that make you notice them everywhere
________ bias - Noticing and interpreting information consistent with a schema you hold
confirmation
Ie. “we see what we wanna see” and we don’t look for evidence that will contradict our held schema
explain consiracies in terms of the confirmation bias
We see govvy officials denying something and just say “yeah you’re just saying that so cover it up”
Belief: when the moon is full, crimes and admissions to psychiatric institutions increase
explain in terms of confirmation bias
Been linked to dogs biting people increase calls to 911, teens going cray cray
Relates to legends about werewolves bruv
No such evidence exists
________ _______ - believing that two variables are related to one another when in fact they are not
illusory correlation
illusionary correlations are often caused by our ________
_______ ________ promotes illusory correlation as we do not see the contradictory information only the supporting information
expecations
confirmation bias
Eg. believing the full moon related to odd behaviour
explain in terms of the illusonary correlation
Might not take into account the nights when the moon is full and less crimes are committed, or the night when moon is not full and a ton of crimes are committed
Experiment : Elementary students IQ test (bloomers)
explain
Gave students IQ test
Told teachers some of their student were “bloomers”, students were acc randomly selected
At end of year, the student given another IQ test and those who were told to be bloomers had a higher IQ test
Teachers challenged and nurtured the students that were told would do better, which in fact made them better
Experiment : Elementary students IQ test (bloomers)
suggests that confirmation bias of teachers can lead to ______-______ _______
self-fufilling prophecies
what are the Two Methods of Information Processing
Automatic processing (System 1 Processing)
Controlled processing (System 2 Processing)
describe automatic vs controlled processing
auatomatic
- efficient, doesnt require many cognitive resources
- unintentional, often unware of them
controlled
- require more cognitive resources, so might not occur if we are distracted or thinking of something else
- intentional use of judgements we are aware of
Examples:
Seeing stranger and instantly processing their gender, appearance, race, etc
this is _______ processing
automatic
Examples
Maths problems like 14 x 21 in head
Parking in a narrow space
Comparing three smartphones for overall value
these are examples of ________ processing
automatic
___________ __________ - the tendency to imagine alternative events or outcomes that might have occurred, but did not
counterfactual thinking
identify and describe the two types on counterfactual thinking
Upward Counterfactual Thinking - Reflect on how things could have turned out differently/better, especially when one falls short of desired goal
Downward Counterfactual Thinking - reflecting on how things could have turned out worse
pros and con of upward counterfactual thinking
Can be good cause they provide ideas as to how we can avoid negative outcomes in the future
Not helpful when improvement is not possible and we dwell on how outcome could have been diff
pros and con of downward counterfactual thinking
Usually evoke positive emotions
not rlly any cons (hah! gotcha)
give an example of upward counterfactual thinking
Eg. thinking of how friends death could have been prevented
Eg. examining an alternate universe
Eg. if only i had studied harder, i would have passed the test
give an example of downward counterfactual thinking
Eg. flight got cancelled, but at least I was able to catch the bus home
Eg. I didnt focus well in class, at least i didnt sleep through it
Experiment: Olympic medal winners
- judges saw olympic medalists on podiums, only their faces, not which medal they had won
- rated their emotional expression
results? what do they suggest about counterfactual thinking
Results - gold happy asf obvi, bronze medal winners happier than silver medal winners
- Second place had more upward counterfactual thinking
- bronze had more downwards counterfactual thinking
system _____ can override system _____
system _____ generates immediate impressions, intuitions, feelings
system ______ decides whether or not to endorse suggestions of system _____ (deliberates)
2 can override 1
system 1 generates immediate impressions, intuitions, feelings
system 2 decides whether or not to endorse suggestions of system 1 (deliberates)
David’s father has three sons: snap, crackle and?
how might system 1 and 2 engage with this riddle
System 1 - would assume pop
System 2 - would deliberate and realise the third son has to be David
People act as _____ ______ - conserve mental resources by following simple rules when making judgements
cognitive misers
when acting as cognitive misers _______ is often used to make mental shortcuts and speed up informaiton processing
heuristics
Eg. which is more likely to cause death in North America - choking on food or being attacked by a bear?
Our system 1 would guess death by bear because it is reported on the news more
Answer is actually choking on food by a long shot
this is an example of using an ______ heuristic, explain
example of using an availibility heuristics
Events that are more available in memory (like fatal bear attacks) are judged as being more likely to occur
define availitibity heuristic
the tendency to base a judgement on how quickly or easily examples come to mind
___________ heuristic - The tendency to assume that someone/something belongs to a certain group if they resembles a prototypical member
representativeness
when using representativeness heuristics we often fail to take rules of _______ into account
probability
Eg. which sequence of coin tosses more likely
A - HHHHH
B - HTTHHT
how might the representative heuristic assume A as the correct answer
They have the exact same probability (1/64) but at first glance the second sequence seems more likely because it seems more representative of a random sequence
________ Heuristic - tendency for our moods, emotional states, and desires to bias perceptions and judgements
affect
Experiment: Movie’s effects on mood
- Asked people leaving either a happy or sad movie to evaluate current romantic relationship
how might the affect heuristic explain the results? are they for sure correct?
Sad movie - less favourable evaluations
Careful on causality - people already upset about relationship could have gone to see sad movie to relate
___________ _____ - the tendency to overestimate the accuracy of one’s beliefs
overconfidence bias
How does overconfidence bias show up when taking a quiz?
might make you believe you’ll get a perfect score, but then you make more mistakes than you anticipated.
_______ _______- the tendency for people to underestimate how long it will take to complete task
planning fallacy
Experiment: Asked psych student to predict when they would have tasks completed
-predicted, best case scenerio, realistic scenario and worst case scenario for completing project and other things
results? what do they reflect?
Actual time results - thesis completed on avg 6 days later than worst case scenario
reflects planning fallacy - underestimating time to complete a task
give an example of planning fallacy
thinking i had enough time to do the readings for this midterm lol
how can we overcome the overconfidence and planning fallacy
1 - break task into subcomponents & estimate time requires for each
2 - think of one good reason why judgement might be wrong
