Week 4: Cognition & Emotions: Social Cognition Flashcards
Essentially how we think about and understand the social world around us.
It includes things like:
- How we perceive others
- Understanding others
- Interacting with others
Social Cognition
An area of psychology that is located on the intersection of social psychology and cognitive psychology.
Social Cognition
The study of psychological processes in the presence of others
Social Psychology
The study of mental processes, such as attention, perception, and memory
Cognitive Psychology
An inconsistency between one’s beliefs and one’s actions.
Cognitive Dissonance
People who were performing behaviour that is inconsistent with their beliefs simply changed their beliefs to accommodate their inconsistency.
Festinger’s Findings on Cognitive Dissonance
3 Psychological Assumptions (Social Cognition)
1) People are consistency seekers (cognitive dissonance)
2) People are accuracy seekers or naive scientists
3) People are cognitive misers (heuristics)
We draw conclusions about others based on limited information, often relying on past experiences, stereotypes, and personal biases.
Social Inferences
When we interact with people, we go beyond physical attributes and make judgments about their personality, trustworthiness, and likability.
Subjective Attributions about Social Targets
People’s ability to understand what goes on in another person’s mind.
It is an essential process to understanding empathic behaviour, such as perspective taking and
understanding another person’s emotions.
Theory of Mind
What attributions we make when we see another person
Person Perception
The ease with which information comes to mind.
For example, something you recently experienced is more accessible than something from the distant past.
Accessibility
The degree to which something stands out in the environment.
Ex. A brightly colored object is more salient than a plain one.
Salience
Explanations we give for people’s behavior (e.g., internal vs. external factors).
The process of assigning causes to behavior.
Attributions
The tendency to attribute our successes to internal factors and failures to external factors.
Self-Serving Bias
In order for people to make social judgments of others– for example, judging how trustworthy, likable, competent, or friendly they are - they need to, first of all, understand that these other people are independent from themselves and have their own wishes, motives, desires, beliefs, etc.
Theory of Mind
Is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person.
It involves putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and experiencing the world from their perspective.
Empathy
Is a feeling of pity or sorrow for someone else’s misfortune.
It is more about acknowledging someone’s suffering than actually sharing their feeling.
Sympathy
Was a Swiss psychologist known for his work on child development.
He observed and studied children to understand how they think and learn.
His theory suggests that children go through different stages of cognitive development, from infancy to adolescence.
Jean Piaget (1896 - 1980)
These are specialized brain cells that activate both when performing an action and when observing someone else perform the same action.
Primarily found in the premotor cortex of the brain.
They seem to help us understand and imitate the actions of others.
Mirror Neurons
Are fascinating brain cells because they provide a potential neural basis for empathy and social understanding.
By firing both when we act and when we observe, they create a bridge between our own experiences and the experiences of others.
Mirror Neurons
Causal Evidence in 2 Areas (Mirror Neurons)
1) Action Perception: process other people’s actions
2) Imitation: copying observed actions
The act of copying someone else’s behavior.
Imitation
The ability to understand and interpret the actions of others.
Action Perception
Challenges in Mirror Neurons
1) Mirroring Actions VS Mirroring Emotions
2) Mirroring may be learned through experience
3) Self-other Distinction
Are nerve cells that carry signals from the brain or spinal cord to muscles, causing them to contract and produce movement.
Motor Neurons
Regions of the brain involved in planning, controlling, and executing movements.
Motor Area (action)
Brain regions involved in processing and regulating emotions.
Emotional Area
The activation of brain areas involved in performing an action when observing someone else perform that action.
Action Mirroring
The sharing of emotional states with others, often through facial expressions or bodily cues.
Emotional Mirroring
The process of learning through interaction with the environment, involving both sensory input and motor output.
Sensory Motor Experience
The ability to differentiate between one’s own thoughts, feelings, and actions and those of others.
Self-Other Distinction
Information related to people, their interactions, and social contexts.
Social Information
A set of psychological models that describe how people infer causal relations and the dispositional characteristics of others.
Social Attribution Theory
The tendency to overemphasize personal factors and underestimate situational factors when explaining others’ behavior.
Fundamental Attribution Error
People tend to explain other people’s behaviours as due to dispositional factors, but their own
behaviours as due to situational factors.
Actor-Observer Effect
The degree to which someone fits a stereotype can affect how we perceive and explain their behavior.
Example: A highly creative and unconventional person fitting the prototype of an artist.
Prototypicality
Explaining behavior based on internal factors like personality or ability.
Example: Attributing a friend’s success to intelligence.
Dispositional Attributions
Explaining behavior based on external factors like the environment or circumstances.
Example: Blaming traffic for being late to an appointment.
Situational Attributions
The tendency to form a positive overall impression of someone based on one positive characteristic.
Example: Assuming a person is intelligent, kind, and successful based on their attractive appearance.
Halo Effect
Is a Neurodevelopmental Disorder characterized by social communication difficulties, restricted interests, and repetitive behaviors.
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
A disorder that affects brain development and function.
Neurodevelopmental Condition
The simultaneous occurrence of multiple disorders or diseases in an individual.
Comorbity
Triad of Impairments (ASD)
1) Social Impairments
2) Communication Impairments
3) Rigid, repetitive behavior
The back-and-forth interaction involved in social communication.
Example: Sharing interests, taking turns in conversation.
Social Reciprocity
Communication without words, including facial expressions, body language, and gestures.
Example: Using eye contact to indicate interest or attention.
Non-Verbal Communication
The ability to share a focus on an object or event with another person.
Example: Pointing at an object to show it to someone.
Joint Attention
Individuals with ASD often struggle with peer interactions, making friends, understanding nonverbal cues, and adapting behavior to social contexts.
Primary Non-Social Deficit (ASD)
3 Theories on ASD Core Impairment
1) Social Motivation Account
2) Broken Mirror Neuron Theory
3) Theory of Mind Account
Suggests that individuals with autism have reduced interest in social stimuli, leading to developmental delays in social skills.
Social Motivation Account (ASD)
Proposes that impairments in the mirror neuron system contribute to difficulties in understanding and imitating others.
Broken Mirror Neuron Theory (ASD)
Suggests that individuals with autism struggle to understand the mental states of others.
Theory of Mind Account (ASD)
The intrinsic drive to seek social interactions and rewards.
Social Motivation
A term used to describe difficulties in understanding others’ mental states in individuals with autism.
Mind Blindness
A pattern of prolonged focus on a particular stimulus, often at the expense of attending to other information.
Example: A child fixating on a spinning object for an extended period, ignoring other stimuli.
Sticky Attention
Decreased attention to social stimuli, such as faces, in infants later diagnosed with autism.
Reduced Social Interest
A set of cognitive processes involved in planning, organizing, and regulating behavior.
Example: Inhibiting impulsive responses, maintaining focus, and shifting between tasks.
Executive Function
Criticisms to Theory of Mind (ASD)
1) Not primary (core origin)
2) Mind tests not specific to autism
3) Non-universal
Simple animations of moving shapes used to assess theory of mind abilities.
Frith-Happe Animations
2 Kinds of Mentalizing
1) Unconscious/Implicit
2) Conscious/Deliberate
An unconscious and automatic ability to infer others’ intentions and emotions, present from infancy.
Implicit Mentalizing (Theory of Mind)
A personality disorder characterized by a lack of empathy, remorse, and impulsivity.
Psychopathy
A conscious and deliberate understanding of others’ mental states, developing around age three to five.
Explicit Theory of Mind (Theory of Mind)
Challenges in social communication, interaction, and understanding others’ perspectives.
Social Deficits
