Social Perception and Cognition

Question 1

We’re often swayed most by infomration received early in an interaction - this is known as the __________________.

Answer 1

Primacy effect.

Question 2

We tend to weigh negative information more heavily than positive information - this is known as ____________________________.

Answer 2

Trait negativity bias.

Question 3

_______________________ are organized, interconnected mental networks of information that are basd on our previous personal and social experiences and help us process and organize information.

Answer 3

Schemata (or Schemas).

Question 4

___________________ are more abstract than schemata and consist of knowledge about the most representative or ideal example of a particular category of people, objects, or events.

Answer 4

Prototypes.

Question 5

_________________ are also known as event schemas and provide knowledge about the appropriate sequence of behaviors in specific social situations.

Answer 5

Scripts.

Question 6

Some of the earliest research on impression formation was conducted by Asch (1946), who conceptualized the idea of ___________________: these are ____________ that provide unique information, are associated with a large number of other characteristics, and - as a result - carry more weight than other attributes.

Answer 6

• Central traits
• Traits

Question 7

____________________ (1973) demonstrated the impact of social context on impression formation with his studies on ____________________, who admitted to mental health clinics complaining of psychosis, subsequently acted normally, and were nevertheless (all but one) diagnosed as having schizophrenia.

Answer 7

• Rosenhan
• Pseudopatients

Bonus: I.e., this showed that behaviors tend to be perceived in a manner that is consistent with the social environment in which they occur.

Question 8

___________________ vs. __________________: Behavior may be attributed to the actor’s internal attributes vs. external factors.

Answer 8

Dispositional vs. Situational.

Question 9

_________________ vs. _________________: Behavior may be assumed to be the result of enduring factors (e.g., intelligence) or temporary factors.

Answer 9

Stable vs. Unstable.

Question 10

______________ vs. _______________: Behavior may be viewed as involving ______________ behaviors (restricted to a limited number of events or circumstances), while ___________ behaviors occur in many different situations.

Answer 10

• Specific
• Global
• Specific
• Global

Question 11

Research has indicated that ____________ tend to attribute their own success to high levels of ability and failure to a lack of effort or unfair treatment, while ______________ attribute their own success to high effort or outside help and failure to a lack of ability.

Answer 11

• Men
• Women

Question 12

The _____________________________ occurs when we overestimate the role of dispositional factors and underestimate the role of situational factors.

Answer 12

Fundamental Attribution Bias.

Bonus: This has been used to explain the “belief in a just world” phenomenon, which is the tendency for people to view victims as the cause of their own misfortune.

Question 13

_____________________________: We’re more likely to attribute our own behavior to situational factors, as opposed to others.

Answer 13

Actor-observer effect.

Question 14

___________________________: The tendency to blame external factors for our failures and take credit for our successes.

Answer 14

Self-serving bias.

Bonus: Depressed people exhibit learned helplessness, attributing their failures to internal, stable, and global factors.

Question 15

___________________ are mental shortcuts or rules-of-thumb that people use when making attributions and other social judgments. Although they allow us to reach conclusions quickly, they may result in errors.

Answer 15

Heuristics.

Question 16

The ______________________ heuristic involves basing your judgment about the likelihood that a person, object, or event belongs to a particular category on how representative (similar) the person, object, or event is to that category while ignoring probability (base rate) data.

Answer 16

Representativeness.

Question 17

The ______________________ heuristic involves judging the likelihood or frequency of an event based on how easy it is to retrieve information about the event from long-term memory. I.e., you’ll predict that an event is more likely to occur if you’re able to recall many examples of its occurence than if you’re only able to recall one example.

Answer 17

Availability.

Question 18

The _________________ heuristic involves using mental simulations of an event to determine the likelihood that the event will happen - i.e., if you can easily imagine that the event will happen, you’re more likely to predict that it will happen.

Answer 18

Simulation.

Question 19

The _______________________ heuristic involves using an initial value (anchor) as the basis for making a judgment or estimate.

Answer 19

Anchoring and Adjustment.

Question 20

The ______________________ is the tendency to rely on case-specific information and ignore or underuse base rate data when estimating the likelihood of an event or characteristic.

Answer 20

Base rate fallacy.

Question 21

The ____________________ is the tendency to pay attention to information that confirms one’s beliefs and ignore or invalidate information that does not.

Answer 21

Confirmation bias.

Question 22

The __________________ is the belief that two characteristics, events, or other variables are related when they actually are not.

Answer 22

Illusory correlation.

Question 23

The _____________________ occurs when we overestimate the degree to which the beliefs, opinions, and behaviors of others are similar to our own.

Answer 23

False Consensus Effect.

Question 24

The ______________________ is the tendency to believe that the likelihood of a particular chance event is affected by the occurrence of previous events when there is actually no relationship between the events.

Answer 24

Gambler’s Fallacy.