weeks 1-6 Flashcards
what is social cognition?
“Social cognition is not a content area, but rather is an approach to understanding social psychology. It is a level of analysis that aims to understand social psychological phenomena by investigating the cognitive processes that underlie them. The major concerns of the approach are the processes involved in the perception, judgment, and memory of social stimuli; the effects of social and affective factors on information processing; and the behavioral and interpersonal consequences of cognitive processes. This level of analysis may be applied to any content area within social psychology, including research on intrapersonal, interpersonal, intragroup, and intergroup processes.”
International Social Cognition Network (http://www.socialcognition.info/)
“Social cognition is the study of how people make sense of other people and themselves. It focuses on how ordinary people think and feel about people – and on how they think they think and feel about people.” (Fiske & Taylor, 2013, p.1)
what is mentalism?
importance of cognitive representations
eg. general knowledge, memory of experiences
what is the cognitive process in social settings?
the internal process that goes from stimulus to response
- attention & encoding
- information processing
- memory & retrieval
- information use
what is the behaviourist approach?
objective, observable stimulus produces objective, observable response
what is the social cognition approach?
- a social decision works from stimulus through the person to response
- each step is cognitively mediated
- stimulus
Beyond objective description of stimulus, people’s interpretations of the stimulus matters
- person
The person is a social thinker that engages in thinking processes (e.g., evaluation of the situation, personal goals and values)
- response
Beyond observable behaviours, thoughts are important responses
what are the models of social thinker?
Consistency seeker (1950-1960s)
Naïve scientist (1970s)
Cognitive miser (1980s)
Motivated tactician (1990s)
Activated actor (2000s)
what is the motivation in consistency seeker?
Drive to reduce discomfort from cognitive discrepancy
what is the role of cognition in consistency seeker?
- Cognitions about behaviours and beliefs
- Perceptions of inconsistency
examples of consistency seeker
- Festinger’s (1957) dissonance theory:
- change cognition so behaviour & cognition align - Heider’s (1958) balance theory:
- idea that social relationships need to be consistent in a balanced state
- Balanced if all 3 people like each other
- Balanced if A & B like each other but both hate C because they both think the same way
- Unbalanced if only A hates B, but B & C are good friends. To bring balance, either C must hate B too or A must like B
what is the motivation in naïve scientist?
- prediction & control
- motivation’s role is secondary to cognition (cognition assumed to be the primary force in human behaviour while motivation is not so important)
what is the role of cognition in naïve scientist?
- Rational analysis (assumes that humans are able to engage in rational behaviour)
- Cognition plays primary role
examples of naïve scientist
Kelley’s (1967) covariation model of attribution:
- Causal attributions are based on the pattern of association between
~ Presence/absence of possible causal factors
~ Presence/absence of behavior
3 factors:
- Consensus (if others do the same thing in the same situation)
- Distinctiveness (if the same person does the same thing in all situations)
- Consistency (if the same person does the same thing repeatedly in the same situation)
internal attribution: low consensus & distinctiveness + high consistency
VS
external attribution: high consensus, distinctiveness & consistency
what is the motivation in cognitive miser?
- Rapid, adequate understanding (no need perfect understanding)
- Efficiency in problem solving
what is the role of cognition in cognitive miser?
- Cognition system is limited in capacity
- Use of shortcuts to conserve limited cognitive capacity
examples of cognitive miser
heuristics in decision making:
- availability heuristics
~ make judgements on what’s readily available in our minds
- representativeness heuristics
~ whether the thing is a representative example of a category
what is the motivation in motivated tactician?
someone who shifts between quick-and-dirty cognitively economical tactics and more thoughtful, thorough strategies when processing information, depending on the type and degree of motivation.
- Multiple goals, motives & needs could moderate the cognitive process
what is the role of cognition in motivated tactician?
- Interaction goals organise cognitive strategies
- Choice of strategy is not necessarily conscious
examples of motivated tactician
dual process models like Elaboration Likelihood Model (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986):
- Central route – in-depth, thoughtful analysis of the central message
~ high motivation, high ability
~ Attitude change depends on strength of argument
~ More permanent change
- Peripheral route – does not pay attention to the message content, heuristic processing
~ low motivation, low ability
~ Attitude change depends on presence of persuasion cues
~ Temporary change
what is the motivation in activated actor?
- Cognition serves social survival and thriving purposes
- Social environment contains cues that primes goals that may not reach conscious awareness but nonetheless affects the way we respond to the world
what is the role of cognition in activated actor?
- Social environment cues associated cognitions, affect, motivation, behaviour
- Fast, automatic process often not under volitional control
examples of activated actor
Implicit associations
- stereotypes
- prejudice
- social tuning