Test #2 lecture notes Flashcards
social cognition
the investigation of how people think about others
Accuracy with regards to social cognition
it matters in terms of if one feels correct but not if they are actually correct
cognitive miser
humans tend to conserve our cognitive resources rather than use them
information overload
when there is more information to process than the cognitive resources you have present to do so. often times when this happens people shut down
information sacrificer
someone who uses criteria processes and shortcuts do be good enough, sacrificing information and accuracy
information maximizers
one who maximizes their use of cognitive resources, thinking through everything they can before they come to a decision and moving to the next goal
automatic vs. deliberate processes
6 points a,I,c,e,e,k
automatic does not require awareness, deliberate does.
automatic does not require intention, deliberate does
you can’t control automatic processes, you can control deliberate processes, thus,
deliberate requires more effort, is less efficient
automatic relies on knowledge structures
schemas
shortcuts for the mind, a large amount of information relating to a concept which affects how we process information
what happens when something breaks our schema
we get frustrated, and either try to adjust our schema or make an exception like penguins
stereotypes
person schemas
Kelly study on lecturers
gave students a short bio on a guest lecturer and it either triggered the stereotype for a warm friendly person or a cold distant person. Both groups of students saw the exact same lecture. Those who got the warmer bio rated the lecturer more positively, those who got the colder bio rated the lecturer more negatively.
scripts
schemas but specifically about events, how you expect an event to go. They can be for things like your morning routine, or how you set up a party, or welcome people into your home
priming
check notes
framing
how you present a question
gain framing
when you make a partisan think they are going to benefit by the way your are phrasing your question or comment
loss framing
when you highlight the potential for risk or the potential for loss when it comes to the words you choose
thought suppression
don’t think about white bears
heuristics
like schemas but more specific for decision making
representative heuristic
making decisions based on how typical it is to the average case
prototype
the average use used I the representative heuristic
barnum effect
creating examples that seem really relevant to the people you are talking about, while in reality they are really vague like fortune tellers - tricking people to think you have some internal knowledge by coming up with things that would be representative of most individuals
expectations regarding cause and effect
we expect the proportion of the effect to be the same size as the case. think earthquake and deaths
Availability heuristic
you make decisions based on how easy it is to bring examples to mind shark vs vending machine
simulation heuristic
the more easily you can create the event in your head, the more likely you are to believe it will happen - strictly regarding ease
anchoring heuristic
when we are asked to give a numerical answer, we like to anchor our answer based on information we already have. think of going second in answering how far the moon is from earth vs going first. judges and peoples assessments
attributions
explanations we make for why people do the things they do and why events may occur. essentially our explanations for why things are happening in the world
self serving bias
we take credit for our success and blame others for our failures
Weiner what are the two important pairs when it comes to attributions
internal vs external and stable vs unstable
internal vs external attributions
when what happened is because of the person or the environment. generally external for ourselves and internal for others
stable vs unstable attributions
when the explanation is unlikely to change ie. failing a marathon because the road was paved poorly, roads don;t get paved quickly vs saying I failed the marathon because it was too cold, weather is likely to change
Fundamental attribution error
overemphasizes internal attributions and underestimate external attributions, especially when talking about other people
actor/observer bias
often times we give ourselves a break because we think we know everything going on within ourselves, and have a good grasp on the external factors that are influencing behavior, so we pin things on those external factors. while when looking at others we don’t know how those external factors are affecting them we are more likely to make an internal attribution.
essentially because we know more things about our lives we are better at finding external scapegoats
Covariation model
actions vs intentions
we judge other based on their actions and judge ourselves based on intentions
conformity vs individuality
we assume other people are conforming while we come from a place of individuality
confirmation bias
we pay attention to information that agrees with us an we forget information that disagrees with us
optimistic bias
we think bad things won’t happen to us
overconfidence bias
we are a lot more confident in ourselves and or decisions than we should be
negative bias
when bad things happen to us, we focus on them extensively
optimistic bias vs negative bias
optimistic bias is future oriented negative bias is about the present or the past
illusory correlations
we make connections that we don’t have a reason or foundation to make, may use it to try and understand a chaotic world
one shot illusory correlation
when something so weird happens the through a single exposure you create a correlation
base rate fallacy
we ignore the base rate and do whatever we want. when we are trying tin Justin our behaviors we ignore or underuse base rate information, think lottery players
alternative outcomes effect aka gamblers fallacy
when someone keeps winning they thunk it will continue and when someone keeps losing they think they are due for change. believing that past history has an impact on future random chance
self fulfilling prophecy
when we believe that something will occur, we engage in behaviors that will make it more likely to occur
false consensus
we think more people will agree with you than may actually agree with you. fits will with information has or overconfidence effect. Think behind the curve flat earth’s doc
false uniqueness
we think we are more special than we actually are
perseverance
once we have a belief we are unlikely to change it, we find excuses that explain something we believe. think darley and gross
illusion of control bias
we think that we have more control in the universe than we actually do
counterfactual thinking
we image an alternative to an actual event. sometime upward or downward. usually we are not accurate , its not like if you left the house later you would’ve been in that car wreck
first instinct fallacy
we think that we should not change based on our first instinct.
this is considered a fallacy because we are doing a selective memory, we remember instances where if we had changed we would have ended up in a worse place, but not ll the times we did change and were right
bodenhausen
people are more likely to show their biases in their off times - morning people at night or night people in the morning
how not to fail
use deliberate rather than automatic processing; less likely to fall pray to these biases
meta cognition; thinking about your thinking to identify your biases
be more humble; if we are humble enough to recognize we can be wrong, it can set us up to avoid these biases
emotion
a conscious state that is in reaction to some external event or stimulus. a specific reaction
mood
a state that is not connected to o in reaction to any external stimulus. specific but not a reaction
affect
a positive or negative state that is a reflexive reaction. not specific but a reaction, just positive or negative - very general
emodiversity
the degree to which you ca experience a wide range of emotions. A wide range bet
elements of emotion
stimulus, arousal, appraisal
James lang
ES-PA-CA.
one problem is that this model assumes every emotion has a different pa which isn’t always true. Anger and fear have very similar PA’s but are very different
facial feedback hypothesis proves pa-ca
schacter-singer
(es - PA - ES (that we attribute blame to) - CA - emotion
I sweat, attribute anxiety to the test tomorrow, then feel stress.
misattribution of arousal, we often want to understand the pa so we label it, but we can label it incorrectly. also excitation transfer
why do negative emotions matter more strongly than positive emotions
we feel them more strongly, they last longer, and we care about them more
emotions as a monolith?
one of the things that can lead us astray when thinking about emotions is when we try to isolate them, it is helpful to think about them in the larger picture
yerkes Dotson law
there is an optimal level of arousal for an optimal level of performance
happiness: what matters, what’s the exception,
happiness is largely determined on what your culture determines as success as well as your biological needs
one large exception is that children don’t make you happier
how to increase happiness
increase social interactions, increase money, some people are just born happy
Why is anger unique
it is one of the few negative approach emotions, and it is one of the hardest emotions to regulate
anger superiority effect
people are quicker to identify anger than other emotions, and they are slower to look away from displays of anger
what are two bad ways we tend to deal with anger
one of the ways we try to deal with anger is to conceal I, we are very bad at that
catharsis - taking it out on some other stimulus, we are bad at that too and it often leads us to experience anger for longer
what are effective ways to deal with anger
leave, reappraise, agrees the stimulus
disgust
women feel more strongly than men, it is the prime avoidance emotions
ekman
went to 37 different countries across five different continents and showed people pictures of people experiencing emotions and took pictures of people experiencing emotions. cross culturally people were able to label 6 emotions at a very high rate; happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, and surprise. they later added contempt to this list
Matsumoto and willingham
compared athletes who were born blind to sighted athletes and found little difference in how they expressed emotions after performing athletic feats
display norms
when, how and to whom we should display emotions to, differs widely compared ton which cultures you are from
Larson and pleck
gave adults beepers and when they went off they had people fill a survey about their emotional state. there was no gender difference between men and women, if anything, men seemed to be more emotional - experienced emotions more strongly and reported feeling more emotions
love and gender difference
men are more emotional when they feel love, feel love first, feel happier when they feel love, stay in love longer, and feel more distressed when love ends
self-conscious emotions
central to motivation and regulation
when do we start experiencing self - conscious emotions
in order to feel the you need to have a good sense of self to be able to compare yourself to others which happens later in life
they don’t have a distance facial expression
self conscious emotions regarding ourself vs others
universal emotions (like fear) are more about keeping ourselves alive, self conscious emotions are more about how we are fitting with others and how we present ourselves to others
envy
requires two people. the person feeling envy and the subject of that envy. means you want what they have
benign envy
riding you to be better - is motivational, and is self focused. I want to get that sub 7 minute mile like him so I will run harder
malicious envy
when you are angry that this person has what you want, you feel like you want to destroy the object of your envy. If I can’t have it nobody can have it. is other focused
jealousy
specifically about relationships and feeling there is a threat in a relationship. require three people, you, the person you are in a relationship with, and the imagine or real threat
men are more jealous to a sexual threat to a realtionship, women are more jealous of an emotional threat to a relationship
guilt
feeling bad about an acton. when we feel guilt we want to remedy that guilt. sone way is to be pro social
survivors guilt
most of the time it is a shorter emotional experience for change, the exception is survivors guilt, they can feel it for a longer period of time
cleanliness
if someone cheats on. their partner they sometimes clean their apartment to resolve guilt they try and feel cleanliness elsewhere
empathy
people who feel guilt show an increase in empathy. People who feel bad for a specific actin that they did increase empathy. People who feel shame feel a decrease in empathy, shame is more self focused, so the resources feel bad for others are spent feeling bad for yourself
shame
feeling bad about who you are
embarrassment
unique because of the blush component, most self conscious emotions don;t have a such distinct facial expression, but embarrassment does
main goal is to apologize for a cultural or personal transgression and repair the relationship from that transgression
embarrassment requires other people
tends to come from trivial actions compared to guilt or shame
pride/ hubris paradigm
similar to the guilt and shame paradigm,
where pride is specifically about an accomplishment the same way guilt I aboutt an action.
hubris is more about a violation of expectations as In I am so much better than you that I can violate
hubris and shame refer to who you are as a person
pride and guilt refer to a specific action of accomplishment
pride and guilt increase social behavior, shame and hubris decrease social behavior or at least hubris generally leads to aggression and hostility
what are the 7 purposes of emotion
group formation, group control, share information, makes behavioral actions easier, guides cognition, guides decision making, cushions us
pe group formation
we will feel connected to others that are experiencing the same emotion as us, thus emotions help us form groups
pe group control
helps to keep members in line, if you violate our expectations we can induce a negative emotion in you
pe share information
we understand what certain emotions mean in other people. if someone displays fear we can know there its a threat coming to us, if they display joy we know there is no threat
pe behavioral
makes our behavioral actions easier, emotions usually come with some sort of motivation and guide us to do certain behaviors.
pe guide cognition
helps with shortcuts, oftentimes we have emotional schemas. the schema you have for happiness is different than sadness so when you feel happy certain things follow suit automatically
pe affective forecasting
we predict the emotion we will feel after we make a decision. we are really bad at this. it does strongly influence our decision making. think, we might feel regret from this decision so we don’t make it in the first place. this is an example of a potential future emotion affecting our current decision
pe cushion us
positive emotions help protect us from negative events. if you never experience positive emotions negative events will be more damaging on your psyche. if you can think back to positive emotions, it helps make those negative events less impactful. the downside is post emotions make us less logical and they cause worse memory
what is emotional intelligence
the ability to perceive, generate, understand, and regulate emotions.
some people have high ei some have low ei
what are two factors when it comes to perceiving emotions and ei
affect blends: we often feel a few different emotions at the same time, people who are really good at perceiving emotions perceive the variance in those blends better
context matters: approach emotions are quickest perceived when someone is facing you, avoidance emotions are quickest perceived when someone is facing away from you
facilitating thoughts
you will be able to make those cognitive connections and schemas happen if you have higher levels of emotional intelligence
understanding thoughts
people will higher level of emotional intelligence are better at affective forecasting, but still not good
managing emotions
people with higher intelligence are better at mananging emotions which leads into other parts of life, they are less likely to engage in drug abuse and are more lilkely to have successful romantic partnership
emotional cognition
mood congruence, state dependent retrieval, mood and attributions
mood congruence
we process information that matches our current mood better; can result in mood cycles
state-dependent retrieval
we are better at remembering information that matches our current mood
mood and attributions
if you are in a positive mood you will likely make more positive attributions
affect regulation
we have specific goals on how to manage our emotions and we cover the goals into three different types, get in, get out, or prolong
relationship between ei and affect regulation
people with higher ei are better at this because they understand which stimuli to expose themselves to in order to get into. specific state and what to remove to get to of it, they are largely situational and don’t have specific steps
how to create a positive affect
do good feeling things, reach out for social support, exercise
how to create a negative affect
rumination(more likely for women) distract yourself (men are more likely) overconsumption (women are more likely to turn to food, mean are more likely to turn to alcohol
beliefs
facts or opinions toward something
attitudes
your evaluations toward something which are usually more global
dual attitudes
when you hold multiple attitudes towards something, general the split comes when one is more deliberate and one is more automatic
attitudes vs beliefs when it comes to a choice
attitudes are generally used to make a choice, while beliefs are used to explain something
what are the three components of an attitude
cognitive: what you thinkabout the thing
affective: what you feel about the thing
behavioral: how you want to respond to that thing - can be implicit or explicit
how do we use attitudes
assessing good vs bad when it comes to something, can be used for nonsense words, makes our coin ition easier, we make faster and better decisions when we have an attitude to a choice we are making
cultural differences when it comes to attitudes
western cultures put more of their identity into attitudes than eastern cultures
western cultures are more stable and last longer, the attitudes in eastern culture fluctuate more
mere exposure effect (Zajonc)
as long as something start neutral or positive, repeated exposure causes a more positive attitude
learning
we can earn to form a positive attitude about something through repeated pairing. think big and snoop,
how does an attitude become strong?
how much it affects the rest of your life; the more certain you are the stronger it is
polarization and attitudes
when you think about your attitude it makes your belief in it stronger
theory of planned behavior
spontaneous behavior
how accessible the attitude is, if you are currently thinking about the attitude it will be likely to indluence the behavior, if not it will be unlikely ton influence the behavior
what is the relationship between behaviors and attitudes
bidirectional, usually our attitudes influence our behaviors more
the a-b problem
the disconnect between attitudes and behaviors, see notes for more
social influences
if we can limit our social influences our attitudes will be more in line with our behaviors.
principal of aggregation
if you are looking at an aggregate of behaviors you often time see a stronger correlation to your behaviors,k our attitudes may more correspond to a specific behavior, but if we look at a group of behaviors it can make a difference, think religiosity and church attendance
experience
attitudes buildt on expreicne tend ton be more strongly correlated to experience , think zionism and living in Israel
cognitive disonance
when we have conflicting thoughts with other thoughts or behaviors this makes us feel uncomfortable and we are compelled to resolve this through change
counterattidunal action
a behavior that goes against an attitude that you hold will cause you to change that attitude if there is no justification
the new look of cognitive dissonance
four things need to be present for cognitive dissonance to occur. 1, a negative consequence from this behavior 2. personal responsibility 3. physiological arousal 4. attributing that discomfort to yourself
effort justification
if something is really difficult to achieve we want too justify the effort we put into it
post decisional dissonance
when we try and make a decision between two similar options, after making that decision we elevate the options we chose and denigrate what we did not choose
trivialization
when we try to trivialize the behavior our the action we did and say it is not important
social desirability bias
threat of rejection can serve as the justification, other people would do the same thus we resist ostracism
why is consistency so important
inconsistency makes us feel uncomfortable, there is some variability when it comes to how people relate to consistency, people with a very high level for a preference of consistency are likely to feel cognitive dissonance very strongly and are less likely to engage in counter attitudinal action, people are also influenced by social aspects - others don’t like when we lie, salience of inconsistency is also impactful we are often inconsistent in motor ways that are not conscious however if someone points out this ways we may feel that dissonance and we certainly feel them when they are salient
beliefs and understanding
we can believe things we don’t understnad
belief perseverance
one we have a belief we are unlikely to abandon it. confirmation Bias among other topics found in social cognition, can be threatening to change a belief and takes a lot of cognitive reasources to change. making someone play devils advocate can help them change
assumptive world
people have three specific beliefs that often times go along with how they process the world.
benevolence; generally people I the world are nice
fair and just: good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people
goodness: I am good
when something bad happens we process that according to this world which leads us to…
victim blame: in order to avoid dilating these three assumptions we say something bad happened to me because I am a bad person or to someone else.
it isn’t too bad if you blame it on an action but can hurt if you blame it on who you are as a person
cognitive coping
upward coping: comparing yourself to someone who has it better than you, usually is not effective, but sometimes an help motivate us to create plans to get us in a better place when we see someone in a better place
downward coping: comparing ourselves to someone who has it worse than you, this helps with emotional issues, think, oh I don’t have it that bad
religious beliefs and trauma
trauma does some interesting things when it comes to religious beliefs, it generally polarizes people religious beliefs. When you experience trauma or catastrophe you may see movements in religious beliefs in either direction. The direction depends on the person and the trauma.
