Unit 2: Social Cognition

Question 1

Social cognition

Answer 1

How we understand and use information about people and social situations

Question 2

Schemas

Answer 2

Mental frameworks that help us organize and interpret information

Question 3

Social categories

Answer 3

Classifying people by shared traits

Question 4

Principle of Accentuation

Answer 4

Emphasizing group differences and similarities

Question 5

Social Identity Theory (Tajfel, 1970)

Answer 5

Belonging to a group shapes behavior and self-perception

Question 6

Prototype

Answer 6

An example of an ideal person within a category

Question 7

Exemplar

Answer 7

A specific person that represents a category (e.g., a successful football player)

Question 8

Order Effect

Answer 8

When the order of information affects what we remember or how we judge it

Question 9

Primacy

Answer 9

The information presented first influences social cognition most

Question 10

Recency

Answer 10

The information presented last has a stronger influence on social cognition

Question 11

Valence Effect

Answer 11

The tendency to expect positive outcomes and underestimate negative ones

Question 12

Shared assumptions

Answer 12

Common beliefs within a group

Question 13

Social Encoding

Answer 13

How we process and store social information

Question 14

Salence

Answer 14

A property of a stimulus that makes it stand out and attract attention (novel, figural, or important)

Question 15

Accessibility

Answer 15

How easily information or ideas come to mind based on recent exposure or frequent use

Question 16

Priming

Answer 16

Triggering a past concept to affect the new information given is processed (e.g., seeing the word “doctor” makes you think of related words like “nurse” or “hospital” faster)

Question 17

Stereotypes

Answer 17

Simplified, shared beliefs about the traits or behaviors of a social group

Question 18

Implicit Personality Theories

Answer 18

General concepts about what kinds of characteristics go together to form certain types of personality (e.g., intelligent = friendly and not self-centered)

Question 19

Appearance

Answer 19

Often biases first impressions

Question 20

Social Inference

Answer 20

How we judge others based on combinations of information we know

Question 21

Top-Down

Answer 21

Automatic model; using prior knowledge or stereotypes to judge others

Question 22

Bottom-Up

Answer 22

Custom model; judging others based on observed behaviors or specific details

Question 23

Data Collection

Answer 23

We often rely on schemas, which can lead us to overlook important information when collecting data

Question 24

Law of Small Numbers

Answer 24

Explains how people can also be overly influenced by
extreme examples and small samples

Question 25

Regression

Answer 25

A tendency for initial examples in a group to be more extreme than later ones

Question 26

Base-rate Information

Answer 26

Statistical information is often replaced by anecdotal evidence, even if it’s more relevant

Question 27

Illusory Correlation

Answer 27

Belief two events are related even though they aren’t

Question 28

Heuristics

Answer 28

Mental shortcuts or rules of thumb that simplify problem-solving (representativeness, availability, anchoring & adjusting)