Social Perception Flashcards
what are the four ways we make sense of the world?
- we rely on our ability to recall past events (memory)
- we make causal attributions
- we engage in counterfactual thinking
- we form impressions of other on the basis of limited information
how are memories formed?
encode –> reherse –> Consolidate –> retrieve
what is short-term memory?
Information and input that is currently activated
what is long term memory?
information from past experience that may or may not be currently activated
does social media impact memory? why? (3)
yes
1. distraction
2. cognitive offloading
3. point-of-view
how do we remember? (3)
- 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
what is the general rosy collection bias?
people have a general tendency to remember things more positively than they actually experienced them
what is mood-congruent memory?
people are more likely to remember positive information when in a positive mood and negative information when theyre in a negative mood
what is the misinformation effect?
the process by which cues that are given after an event can plant false information into memory
what is availability heuristics?
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
what is the ease of retrieval effect?
the process whereby people judge how frequently an event occurs on the basis of how easily they can retrieve examples of the event
do people tend to percieve actions in the world in terms of cause and effect?
yes
what are basic dimensions of causal attributions?
people tend to explain events in terms of particular causes
what are the two dimensions of causal attributions?
- locus of causality: internal or external
- stability: stable or unstable
what is causal attribution?
The explanation that people use for what caused a particular event or behaviour.
what is locus of causality?
The attribution of behavior to either an aspect of the actor (internal) or to some aspect of the situation (external).
what is a entity (fixed) mindset
attributes cannot be controlled or changed
what is incremental (growth) mindset?
attributes are malleable
what two primary sources do causal schemas come from?
- personal experience
- general cultural knowledge
what occurs when events dont readily fit a causal schema?
- rely on what is salient or highly accessible
- “top of the head phenomenon
what is correspondent inference?
when people observe an action, people tend to attribute to the actor an attitude, desire, or trait that corresponds to the action
under what three conditions is correspondent inference is to occur?
- choice in taking action
- choice between two courses of action and only one difference between one choice and the other
- when someone acts inconsistently with a particular social role
what is fundamental attribution error?
The tendency to attribute behavior to internal or dispositional qualities of the actor and consequently underestimate the causal role of situational factors.
what is the actor-observer effect?
the tendency to make internal attributions for the behaviour of others and external attributions for our own behaviour
what are the 2 qualifications to an actor-observer effect?
- internal attributions more likely made for our successes
- actor-observer difference stronger for negative behaviour
what is consistency
across time
what is distinctiveness
across situations
what is consensus
across people
what is the discounting principle?
the tendency to reduce the importance of any potential cause of anothers behaviour to the extent that other potential causes exist
why are causal attributions so important? (3)
- they play a large role in the judgments and decisions people make about others and themselves
- they are derived from complex and ambiguous circumstances that encourage a variety of motivations
- they help us maintain our preferred view of the world
what is an upward counterfactual?
an imagined alternative where the outcome is better than what actually happened
what is a downward counterfactual?
an imagined alternative where the outcome is worse than what actually happened
what are 3 physical characteristics of people that are noticed quickly?
- age
- sex
- relatedness
what is bottom up impression?
gathering individual observations of a person in order to form an overall impression
- negativity bias
- thin slices
- theory of mind
what is a negativity bias?
a tendency to weigh instances of negative behaviour more heavily then instances of positive behaviour
what is thin slices?
reasonably accurate impression formation in only 30 seconds
what is theory of mind?
evolved propensity to develop set of ideas about thoughts, desires, feelings, and intentions of others
what is a mirror neuron
certain neurons that activated both when one performs an action themself and when one observes another person performs that action
what is top down impression
using preconceived ideas and schemas as the basis for impression formation
- transference
- false consensus
- implicit personality theories
what is transference?
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.
what is implicit personality theory?
theories that we have about which traits go together and why they do
what is the halo effect?
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
stereotyping is what type of shortcut
mental
what is representative heuristics?
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
when are we most likely to use bottom up processing instead of stereotyping?
- when highly motivated to get to know someone
- need to work with someone
- feel similar to someone
what is the primacy effect?
the idea that what we learn early on colors how we judge subsequent information
