Social Psychology 2 - Social Perception

Question 1

What process do we use to help organise the overwhelming amount of information in the world?

Answer 1

Categorical Thinking

We categorize

Question 2

What is categorical thinking?

Answer 2

A cognitive process

that simplifies and strucutres information into meaningful cognitive structures

that are highly adaptive to everyday functioning

Question 3

What is a schema?

Answer 3

A mental structure that contains general expectations and knowledge of a particular social object

Mental structures, representations and schemas can all be used interchangably

Question 4

People, social roles, events and behaviour in specific situations are example of?

Answer 4

Schemas

Particularly schemas that are important in social psychology

Question 5

A schema is a cognitive structure that consists in part of a ________ of some defined stimulus domain

Answer 5

Representation

Question 6

What kind of information does a schema contain about a domain?

Answer 6

General knowledge about the domain

Specification of the relationship among its attributes

Specific examples or instances of the stimulus domain

Question 7

What do we use schemas for?

Answer 7

To provide hypotheses about incoming stimuli

Includes plans for interpreting and gathering schema-related information

Question 8

Why are schemas useful? (4 reasons)

Answer 8

1. Gives us a sense of prediction and control
2. Guides what we attend to and what we percieve, remember and infer
3. Helps us assimilate new information into existing knowledge
4. They are mental shortcuts to simplify reality

Question 9

Schemas contain both ________ and ______ about a social object

Answer 9

Abstract knowledge and concrete details

Question 10

What are the 4 schema types?

Answer 10

1. Person schemas (person prototypes)

2. Self schemas (what you think of yourself)

3. Role schemas (gender, age, race)

4. Event schemas (event scripts, e.g. how does a restaurant work)

Question 11

What is a prototype in categorization?

Answer 11

A member of a category that is most ‘typical’ of that category

A cognitive reference point for the category

Question 12

How do we use prototypes?

Answer 12

When we find a new instance we compare it to the category prototype

The more features the new instance shares with the prototype the faster and more confidently it is identified as a category member

Question 13

Why is social categorization harder than usual categorization?

Answer 13

Social objects are more variable, dynamic and interactive and less predictable

They have more fuzzy boundaries

Question 14

What is meant by “schemas/categories are theory-driven structures”?

Answer 14

Significant proportion of information processing is theory driven

- It relies on prior expectations, preconceptions and knowledge

Categories provide us with expectations that guide the processing of subsequent info.

Question 15

What do schemas and categories lead to biased judgements about an object?

Answer 15

When information is missing the schema provides the default option or guesses based on previous experience

We fill in missing data based on previous experience

Question 16

The representative heuristic is a schema that does what? (Kahneman & Tversky)

Answer 16

Provides short cuts for processing info

Question 17

What did Macrae, Milne and Bodenhausen (1994) show in their dual-task experiment?

Answer 17

Schemas/categories are energy saving devices (tools we use to process info quickly)

Their task showed

When given a category label we organise information differently in our memory recall

(If told skinhead as category, more likely to retrieve info as a ‘skinhead’ rather than other category)

Question 18

What did Stangor and McMillian (1992) find relating to categories and memory recall?

Answer 18

Category activation facilitates recall of information

Category-consistant information is recalled to category-inconsistent information

Question 19

What did Rojahn and Pettigrew (1992) find that contradicts Stangor and McMillans (1992) findings?

Answer 19

Category inconsistent information was more easily remembered because it is novel and distinctive

objects that seem out of place are easier to recall

Question 20

Because there is inconsistent information regarding categories and information, what does this mean?

Answer 20

Human information processing is flexible and sensitive to the situation demands of percievers

Question 21

Why do we notice things that are out of place more than things we expect?

Answer 21

Category expectancies sensitize us to unexpected data

Question 22

What does the duel processing model (Brewer, 1988) suggest about category-based processing?

Answer 22

If data is unambiguous and/or unimportant we use category-based processing (we think fast)

If data is ambiguous and/or important then a more data-driven / individuating approach is used

Question 23

What does the continuum model of processing (Fiske & Neuberg, 1990) argue?

Answer 23

That information processing is not either “fast” or “slow”, but there is a continuum that we use

Question 24

When people lack the time, cognitive resources or the motivation to think accurately - what type of thinking are they likely to use?

Answer 24

Categorical or stereotypical thinking

Question 25

Which type of thinking is the ‘default option’ due to it being cognitively efficient?

Answer 25

Categorical thinking

Question 26

Are schemas just cognitive structures, or are they also evaluative and affective structures?

Answer 26

They are also evaluative and affective

Question 27

What does the schema-triggered affect suggest?

Answer 27

Some categories (e.g. racial categories) may have a strong affective component so that a specific emotion (e.g. fear) is automatically triggered.

Question 28

What schemas do we typically use most?

Should we choose gender, race, age, occupation, personality type etc.

Answer 28

The ‘big three’ - gender race and age are most commonly used because they are immediately available through visual cues.

Role schemas predominate over trait scemas

e.g. professional identity takes precedence over personal characteristics

Question 29

What are the three categories in Fiske’s (1998) ‘big three’

Answer 29

Gender, race and age

Question 30

What does Fiske mean when she discusses the “socially pragmatic and motivated nature of social categorization”?

Answer 30

People are ‘motivated tacticians’

They may categorize on the basis of overarching category, or to more specific subtypes and subgroups, depending on the perceivers needs and interests.