Social Perception

Question 1

what are the four ways we make sense of the world?

Answer 1

1. we rely on our ability to recall past events (memory)
2. we make causal attributions
3. we engage in counterfactual thinking
4. we form impressions of other on the basis of limited information

Question 2

how are memories formed?

Answer 2

encode –> reherse –> Consolidate –> retrieve

Question 3

what is short-term memory?

Answer 3

Information and input that is currently activated

Question 4

what is long term memory?

Answer 4

information from past experience that may or may not be currently activated

Question 5

does social media impact memory? why? (3)

Answer 5

yes
1. distraction
2. cognitive offloading
3. point-of-view

Question 6

how do we remember? (3)

Answer 6

• information retrieval is influenced by biases, schemas, motives, and goals
• it is easier to remeber schema-consistent information
• information that is highly inconsistent with schemas may be processes more thoroughly

Question 7

what is the general rosy collection bias?

Answer 7

people have a general tendency to remember things more positively than they actually experienced them

Question 8

what is mood-congruent memory?

Answer 8

people are more likely to remember positive information when in a positive mood and negative information when theyre in a negative mood

Question 9

what is the misinformation effect?

Answer 9

the process by which cues that are given after an event can plant false information into memory

Question 10

what is availability heuristics?

Answer 10

the tendency to assume information that comes easily to mind is more frequent or common. it has the power to distort many of our judgments

Question 11

what is the ease of retrieval effect?

Answer 11

the process whereby people judge how frequently an event occurs on the basis of how easily they can retrieve examples of the event

Question 12

do people tend to percieve actions in the world in terms of cause and effect?

Answer 12

yes

Question 13

what are basic dimensions of causal attributions?

Answer 13

people tend to explain events in terms of particular causes

Question 14

what are the two dimensions of causal attributions?

Answer 14

1. locus of causality: internal or external
2. stability: stable or unstable

Question 15

what is causal attribution?

Answer 15

The explanation that people use for what caused a particular event or behaviour.

Question 16

what is locus of causality?

Answer 16

The attribution of behavior to either an aspect of the actor (internal) or to some aspect of the situation (external).

Question 17

what is a entity (fixed) mindset

Answer 17

attributes cannot be controlled or changed

Question 18

what is incremental (growth) mindset?

Answer 18

attributes are malleable

Question 19

what two primary sources do causal schemas come from?

Answer 19

• personal experience
• general cultural knowledge

Question 20

what occurs when events dont readily fit a causal schema?

Answer 20

• rely on what is salient or highly accessible
• “top of the head phenomenon

Question 21

what is correspondent inference?

Answer 21

when people observe an action, people tend to attribute to the actor an attitude, desire, or trait that corresponds to the action

Question 22

under what three conditions is correspondent inference is to occur?

Answer 22

1. choice in taking action
2. choice between two courses of action and only one difference between one choice and the other
3. when someone acts inconsistently with a particular social role

Question 23

what is fundamental attribution error?

Answer 23

The tendency to attribute behavior to internal or dispositional qualities of the actor and consequently underestimate the causal role of situational factors.

Question 24

what is the actor-observer effect?

Answer 24

the tendency to make internal attributions for the behaviour of others and external attributions for our own behaviour

Question 25

what are the 2 qualifications to an actor-observer effect?

Answer 25

1. internal attributions more likely made for our successes 2. actor-observer difference stronger for negative behaviour

Question 26

what is consistency

Answer 26

across time

Question 27

what is distinctiveness

Answer 27

across situations

Question 28

what is consensus

Answer 28

across people

Question 29

what is the discounting principle?

Answer 29

the tendency to reduce the importance of any potential cause of anothers behaviour to the extent that other potential causes exist

Question 30

why are causal attributions so important? (3)

Answer 30

1. they play a large role in the judgments and decisions people make about others and themselves 2. they are derived from complex and ambiguous circumstances that encourage a variety of motivations 3. they help us maintain our preferred view of the world

Question 31

what is an upward counterfactual?

Answer 31

an imagined alternative where the outcome is better than what actually happened

Question 32

what is a downward counterfactual?

Answer 32

an imagined alternative where the outcome is worse than what actually happened

Question 33

what are 3 physical characteristics of people that are noticed quickly?

Answer 33

- age - sex - relatedness

Question 34

what is bottom up impression?

Answer 34

gathering individual observations of a person in order to form an overall impression - negativity bias - thin slices - theory of mind

Question 35

what is a negativity bias?

Answer 35

a tendency to weigh instances of negative behaviour more heavily then instances of positive behaviour

Question 36

what is thin slices?

Answer 36

reasonably accurate impression formation in only 30 seconds

Question 37

what is theory of mind?

Answer 37

evolved propensity to develop set of ideas about thoughts, desires, feelings, and intentions of others

Question 38

what is a mirror neuron

Answer 38

certain neurons that activated both when one performs an action themself and when one observes another person performs that action

Question 39

what is top down impression

Answer 39

using preconceived ideas and schemas as the basis for impression formation - transference - false consensus - implicit personality theories

Question 40

what is transference?

Answer 40

Forming an impression of and feelings for an unfamiliar person using the schema one has for a familiar person who resembles him or her in some way.

Question 41

what is implicit personality theory?

Answer 41

theories that we have about which traits go together and why they do

Question 42

what is the halo effect?

Answer 42

the tendency of social percievers assessments of an individual on a given trait to be biased by the pereivers more general impression of the individual

Question 43

stereotyping is what type of shortcut

Answer 43

mental

Question 44

what is representative heuristics?

Answer 44

the tendency to overestimate the likelihood that a target is part of a category if the person has features that seem representative of that category

Question 45

when are we most likely to use bottom up processing instead of stereotyping?

Answer 45

- when highly motivated to get to know someone - need to work with someone - feel similar to someone

Question 46

what is the primacy effect?

Answer 46

the idea that what we learn early on colors how we judge subsequent information