Social Psychology 2 - Social Perception Flashcards
What process do we use to help organise the overwhelming amount of information in the world?
Categorical Thinking
We categorize
What is categorical thinking?
A cognitive process
that simplifies and strucutres information into meaningful cognitive structures
that are highly adaptive to everyday functioning
What is a schema?
A mental structure that contains general expectations and knowledge of a particular social object
Mental structures, representations and schemas can all be used interchangably
People, social roles, events and behaviour in specific situations are example of?
Schemas
Particularly schemas that are important in social psychology
A schema is a cognitive structure that consists in part of a ________ of some defined stimulus domain
Representation
What kind of information does a schema contain about a domain?
General knowledge about the domain
Specification of the relationship among its attributes
Specific examples or instances of the stimulus domain
What do we use schemas for?
To provide hypotheses about incoming stimuli
Includes plans for interpreting and gathering schema-related information
Why are schemas useful? (4 reasons)
- Gives us a sense of prediction and control
- Guides what we attend to and what we percieve, remember and infer
- Helps us assimilate new information into existing knowledge
- They are mental shortcuts to simplify reality
Schemas contain both ________ and ______ about a social object
Abstract knowledge and concrete details
What are the 4 schema types?
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)
What is a prototype in categorization?
A member of a category that is most ‘typical’ of that category
A cognitive reference point for the category
How do we use prototypes?
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
Why is social categorization harder than usual categorization?
Social objects are more variable, dynamic and interactive and less predictable
They have more fuzzy boundaries
What is meant by “schemas/categories are theory-driven structures”?
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.
What do schemas and categories lead to biased judgements about an object?
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
The representative heuristic is a schema that does what? (Kahneman & Tversky)
Provides short cuts for processing info
What did Macrae, Milne and Bodenhausen (1994) show in their dual-task experiment?
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)
What did Stangor and McMillian (1992) find relating to categories and memory recall?
Category activation facilitates recall of information
Category-consistant information is recalled to category-inconsistent information
What did Rojahn and Pettigrew (1992) find that contradicts Stangor and McMillans (1992) findings?
Category inconsistent information was more easily remembered because it is novel and distinctive
objects that seem out of place are easier to recall
Because there is inconsistent information regarding categories and information, what does this mean?
Human information processing is flexible and sensitive to the situation demands of percievers
Why do we notice things that are out of place more than things we expect?
Category expectancies sensitize us to unexpected data
What does the duel processing model (Brewer, 1988) suggest about category-based processing?
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
What does the continuum model of processing (Fiske & Neuberg, 1990) argue?
That information processing is not either “fast” or “slow”, but there is a continuum that we use
When people lack the time, cognitive resources or the motivation to think accurately - what type of thinking are they likely to use?
Categorical or stereotypical thinking
Which type of thinking is the ‘default option’ due to it being cognitively efficient?
Categorical thinking
Are schemas just cognitive structures, or are they also evaluative and affective structures?
They are also evaluative and affective
What does the schema-triggered affect suggest?
Some categories (e.g. racial categories) may have a strong affective component so that a specific emotion (e.g. fear) is automatically triggered.
What schemas do we typically use most?
Should we choose gender, race, age, occupation, personality type etc.
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
What are the three categories in Fiske’s (1998) ‘big three’
Gender, race and age
What does Fiske mean when she discusses the “socially pragmatic and motivated nature of social categorization”?
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.
