Week 3: Social Cognition Flashcards
What is social cognition?
- How people think about themselves and the social world
- specifically, how they select, interpret, remember, and use social information to make judgments and decisions
What 2 thinking processes make up social cognition?
- Automatic
- controlled
What is automatic thinking? provide an example
thought that is…
- nonconscious,
- unintentional
- involuntary
- effortless (low-effort)
ex: if you see a picture of sunglasses, from past info you have gathered in your life you can automatically analyze the object in the photo and be able to recognize that in the photo there is a pair of sunglasses
We form impressions of people quickly and effortlessly based on past experiences and knowledge of the world, without much conscious analysis of what we are doing. this is called automatic anaylsis
true or false
true
What are mental structures called that organize our knowledge about the world?
Schemas
what are schemas helpful for?
- helps us “fill in the blanks” –> when we are trying to figure out what is going on in confusing or ambiguous situations
ex: Ex: “warm” vs “cold” instructor was rated differently by students
- warm –> gave a better rating and participated more
-cold –> less likely to engage in the course, and rated prof power
Overall, they used what they were told (schemas) to decide what that person is like
What does it mean when our schemas are affected by “accessiblity”?
extent to which schemas are at the forefront of the mind and are therefore likely to be used when making judgments about the social world.
What are 3 reasons that schemas become accessible?
- They are CHRONICALLY accessible because of past experience
- They are TEMPORARILY accessible because they are related to a current goal
- They are TEMPORARILY accessible because recent experiences (aka PRIMING)
What does reason 1:” They are CHRONICALLY accessible because of past experience” mean with an example.
- schemas are constantly active and ready to use to interpret ambiguous situations
ex: a sketch guy sits beside you on the bus and tries talking to you. Because of your schema of family experience with mental illness you are able to make a decision on how to interact with them
What does reason 2:” They are TEMPORARILY accessible because they are related to a current goal” mean with an example.
ex: studying for an abnormal psych course exam
What does reason 3:” They are TEMPORARILY accessible because of recent experience” mean with an example.
ex: saw or read something recently that was applicable to the event and so you were able to use that schema
What does it mean when our schemas are affected by “priming”?
process by which recent experiences increase the accessibility of a schema, trait, or concept.
- increases the accessibility of a schema
We interpret ambiguous situations differently depending on accessibility and priming.
true or false
true
Our schemas can inadvertly come true by the way we treat others. This is the “self-fulfilling prophecy”. What is this concept?
- expectations about another person influence your behaviour towards that person, causing the person’s behaviour to become consistent with your original expectation.
-ex: Met someone and decided they are not a nice person and so you are not nice to them –> so the person will then to continue with not-nice behaviour because you are not nice to them.
What are the 4 steps of the Self fullfilling Prophecy?
(1) You have an expectancy or theory about the target person
Ex: you (a police officer) believe a suspect is lying because…
(2) You behave towards the target in a way that is consistent with that expectancy/theory
Ex: you treat them like a criminal
(3) The target responds to the behaviour in a similar manner
Ex: the suspect might call for a lawyer, be apprehensive to tell you things
(4) You see the target’s behaviour as proof that you were right – Not seeing how you played a role in their behaviour
Ex: “only guilty people would ask for a lawyer”
The self-fulfilling prophecy cannot make schemas more resistant to change. true or false
false –> they do!
How can we reduce the self-fulfilling prophecy?
pay attention and form an accurate impression of someone.
What are two other types of automatic thinking?
- Embodied Cognition
- Heuristics
What is Embodied cognition?
- bodily sensations (smells, feelings, physical sensations) activate mental structures such as schemas.
ex: : temperature of coffee can influence your impression of a stranger (warm= triggered schema of a warm friendly person, cold=triggered the schema of having a colder or more negative view of someone)
What are the 3 types of heuristics?
- judgemental
- Availability
- representative
What are judgemental heuristics of automatic thinking?
“mental shortcuts” used to make judgements and decisions quickly and effectively
ex: deciding what uni to go to in canada (well I know uottawa is better than carelton so rule out carelton, Dal feels like home more than UBC s orule out UBC, etc..)
What is one downside to using judgemental heuristics?
do not always lead to accurate conclusions
What is availability heuristic?
mental rule of thumb whereby people base a judgment on the ease with which they can bring something to mind
ex: how assertive is your friend? –> do you have a schema? , No? You might try to think about their behaviour and base it on that (“well i remember this one time…”)
What was the study done by Schwarz et al., on availability heuristic?
- wanted to see if people used availability heuristic to make judgements about themselves
- IV –> seeing how easy it was to bring to mind examples of their own past behaviours (based on either recalling 6 or 12 examples) , and type of act to recall (levels of assertive vs unassertive)
DV–> self-rated assertiveness
