Week 2: social cognitions and attributions

What are social cognitions?

Cognitive processes and structures that influence and are influenced by social behavior.

What is social encoding?

The way external social stimuli are represented in the mind of the individual, involving four stages: pre-attentive analysis, focal attention, comprehension, and elaborative reasoning.

What are the four stages of social encoding? (Penguins Forget Critical Evidence)

1. Pre-attentive analysis (automatic scanning),

2. Focal attention (conscious identification),

3. Comprehension (giving meaning),

4. Elaborative reasoning (linking to other knowledge).

What is social salience?

The property of a stimulus that makes it stand out and attract attention in relation to other stimuli.

What are the 5 different types of social cognitions?

1. Impression formation 

2. Schemas 

3. Stereotypes 

4. Heuristics 

5. Attributions 

What is impression formation?

The process of forming an initial impression based on central and peripheral traits, where central traits have a disproportionate influence.

What is Asch's configuration model?

A model of impression formation that emphasises the role of central traits in shaping initial impressions, while peripheral traits are often ignored.

What are the biases in impression formation?

Primacy bias (information presented first is more positively evaluated) and recency bias (information presented last may distract from earlier information).

How do positivity and negativity affect impression formation?

Negative information tends to be remembered more and has a stronger impact on impressions due to its potential to signal danger.

What are implicit personality theories?

Idiosyncratic and personal ways of characterising others, where certain traits are assumed to be associated with specific personality types.

What did Heilman and Stopeck (1985) find regarding attractiveness in executives? *

Attractive male executives were perceived as more capable than less attractive ones, while attractive female executives were perceived as less capable.

What did Van der Zanden (2022) discover?

Picture information not sufficient enough to form an impression about physical attraction

What is cognitive consistency?

The motivation to resolve inconsistencies in thoughts, as these inconsistencies cause psychological discomfort.

What did Kelley (1950) discover?

Impressions in a classroom (same person introduced as warm/cold): perceived as unsociable, ruthless and less likely to be asked questions when labelled as ‘cold’. 

What is cognitive algebra in impression formation?

A theory focusing on how people combine positive and negative traits into an overall judgment.

What is summation in relation to forming impressions?

Method of forming positive or negative impressions by combining the positive and negative traits of a person -> overall impression can be averaged or weighted averaging

What are schemas?

Cognitive structures that connect old information with new information, influencing how we encode and remember information.

What are the different types of schemas? Explain what these mean

Person schemas: about individuals - other people

Role schemas: about roles, e.g. pilot

Event schemas: scripts, e.g. going to a football match

Content-free schemas:  limited rules for processing information, e.g. you should like someone if your friend also likes them

Self-schemas: sense of self and identity 

What does social identity theory explain?

Group membership and intergroup relations through self-categorisation, social comparison, and creating a shared ingroup identity.

What are stereotypes?

Widely shared and simplified generalisations about a social group and its members, central to prejudice and discrimination.

What is the accentuation principle in categorisation?

Categorisation highlights similarities within groups and differences between groups based on traits people think are linked to those categories.

→ tendency to exaggerate differences between groups and minimise differences within groups when they are categorised

What is self-categorisation theory?

A theory by Turner and associates that describes how categorising oneself as a group member produces social identity and influences group behaviours.

What is social judgeability?

The perception of whether it is socially acceptable to judge a specific target.

What did Master et al (2021) discover about stereotypes?

–“Children as young as age six (…), across multiple racial/ethnic and gender intersections (Black, Latinx, Asian, and White; girls and boys) endorse steroetypes that girls are less interested than boys in computer science and engineering” 

What did King et al (2021) discover about stereotypes?

“The social and cultural environment plays a large role in defining the cues by which young children classify on the basis of gender”. 

→ found that young children at ages 3-5 are already aware and can apply stereotypes

What is the stereotype content model (SCM) and what does it link?

Social psychology theory that posits that stereotypes are based on two fundamental dimensions: warmth and competence

High warmth, high competence → admiration

High warmth, low competence → pity

Low warmth, high competence → envy

Low warmth, low competence → contempt

It links perceived competition and status to emotions like admiration, contempt, envy, and pity, which influence behaviour.

What are heuristics in social cognition?

Cognitive shortcuts that simplify decision-making processes.

What is the availability heuristic?

A cognitive shortcut where the frequency of an event is judged based on how quickly instances come to mind.

What is the anchoring and adjustment heuristic?

A cognitive process where inferences are tied to initial standards or schemas, affecting responses based on question order.

What is representativeness in heuristics?

Assigning instances to categories based on their similarity to the stereotype we have in mind.

What is attribution in social psychology?

The process of assigning causes to our own behavior and that of others.

What is the actor-observer effect?

The tendency to attribute one's own behaviour to external factors while attributing others' behaviour to internal factors.

What are the 2 reasons for the actor-observer effect?

1. Perceptual focus: Actor and observer have different perspectives on the behaviour, so interpret accordingly

2. Informational differences: Actor can draw on previous knowledge about their behaviour, observer cannot

What is internal attribution?

Assigning the cause of behavior to internal or dispositional factors.

What is external attribution?

Assigning the cause of behaviour to external or environmental factors.

What does Kelley's attribution theory focus on? (1967, 1973)

It focuses on how people identify the causes of behaviour using consistency, distinctiveness, and consensus.

1. Consistency – Does the person behave this way in similar situations over time? 

2. Distinctiveness – Does the person react this way only to this stimulus or to many? 

3. Consensus – Do others behave the same way in the same situation? 

What occurs to attributions when consistency is low (Kelley’s covariation model)?

Where consistency is low, people discount the potential cause and search for an alternative

What occurs to attributions when consistency, distinctiveness and consensus is high?

Where consistency is high, and distinctiveness and consensus are also high, one can make an external attribution

What occurs to attributions when distinctiveness and consensus is low?

Where distinctiveness and consensus are low, one can make an internal attribution

Name some limitations of Kelley’s covariation model (1967, 1973).

• Requires multiple observations

• Requires observations from other people

• Difficult to understand the cause of certain behaviour

• Correlation not causation

What is self-serving bias?

The tendency to attribute positive outcomes to internal factors and negative outcomes to external factors to protect self-esteem.

Name some researchers and what they suggested about self-serving bias

• To protect self-esteem (Berglas & Jones, 1978); 

• To preserve or enhance self-concept (Leary & Kowalski, 1990); 

• To convince oneself and others that the person is in control and is a good person (Higgins & Snyder, 1990). 

What is self-handicapping?

Creating excuses to protect self-esteem in case of failure, such as staying out late before a test.

What is the belief in a just world phenomenon?

The belief that the world is fair, leading people to think that individuals get what they deserve.

• Belief that individuals have control over outcomes

• Can regain control by taking some responsibility for an event

• → Cognitive consistency achieved

What is the illusion of control in relation to the just world phenomenon?

Belief of more control over our world than is true 

What is the cognitive miser model?

A model of social cognition that suggests people use the least complex and demanding cognitions to produce adaptive behaviours.

What is the motivated tactician model? *

A model that characterises people as having multiple cognitive strategies that they choose based on personal goals and motives.

What is correspondence bias?

The tendency to overestimate the relationship between behaviour and personality, attributing behaviour to stable personality traits.

Name 4 causes of correspondence bias

–Lack of awareness 

–Unrealistic expectations 

–Inflated categorisations of behaviour 

–Incomplete corrections of dispositional interferences 

Lions Under Icy Igloos

What is the fundamental attribution error?

The bias of attributing another's behavior more to internal causes than to situational factors.

What is intergroup attribution?

The process of assigning the cause of behaviour to group membership.

What is the ultimate attribution error?

The tendency to attribute negative outgroup behavior to internal factors and positive outgroup behavior to external factors.

What are attributions in psychology?

How people explain their own and others' behaviour, involving social cognitions.

What are the 3 theories of attribution?

1. Theory of Naive Psychology – Heider (1958) 

2. Covariation Model – Kelley (1967) 

3. Attributional Theory – Weiner (1979, 1984, 1985) 

What is the Theory of Naive Psychology?

Heider's theory that views people as 'naive scientists' interested in attributions, based on three principles: behaviour is motivated, stable properties help make sense of behaviour, and differentiation between personal and environmental causalities.

→ ordinary people try to seek causes for behaviour

Heider (1958) 

What are the two types of causalities in the Theory of Naive Psychology?

Internal (dispositional attribution) and external (situational attribution).

What does the Covariation Model by Kelley propose?

People assess consistency, distinctiveness, and consensus to determine the cause of behaviour.

Kelley (1967) 

What is consistency, distinctiveness and consensus in the Covariation Model?

Consistency = Whether a person behaves the same way in similar situations over time.

→ high/low consistency

Distinctiveness = Does the person react this way only to this stimulus or to many?

→ respond similarly to similar stimuli

Consensus = Whether others behave the same way in the same situation.

→ similar responses from others

What is Attribution Theory according to Weiner?

A theory that explains attributions based on three performance dimensions: stability, locus of causality, and controllability.

Weiner (1979, 1984, 1985)

What does stability refer to in Attribution Theory?

Whether success or failure is perceived as a permanent or unstable factor.

What does locus of causality refer to in Attribution Theory?

Whether the cause is internal (within the individual) or external (outside the individual).

What does controllability refer to in Attribution Theory?

Whether the factor is under the individual's control or not.

What is the Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE)?

The tendency to overemphasise personal factors and underestimate situational factors when making attributions about others.

What did Napolitan and Goathals (1979) demonstrate about FAE?

Students attributed a friendly graduate's behaviour to her personality rather than the situational context.

What did Ross et al (1977) find in their study on FAE?

Pps assigned to 3 groups: questioners, pps and observers

Participants rated questioners as more knowledgeable despite knowing they had an advantage.

What are some reasons why FAE occurs?

Focus of attention, differential forgetting, cultural differences, and linguistic factors.

What is correspondence bias?

The tendency to draw inferences about a person's enduring dispositions from behaviors that can be explained by situational factors.

Summarise the Napolitan and Goathals (1979) study

- Students talked with psych graduate who acted either warm and friendly, or cold and critical

- ½ of the students were told that the graduate's behaviour would either be spontaneous of instructed

-> when the graduate acted friendly, students believed she was friendly etc

Summarise the Ross et al (1977) study

•Students were randomly assigned to 3 groups: questioners, participants, and observers;

•Questioners were asked to come up with difficult questions which were then used to test the participants' knowledge;

•Even though everybody knew that the questioners had the advantage, they were rated as more knowledgeable than the contestants.

What is the ultimate FAE?

The application of FAE to group-level processes, explaining group behaviour.

•Prejudiced individuals explain:

-Negative outgroup behaviour as dispositional: internal factors

-Positive outgroup behaviour as situational

-Positive outgroup behaviour as anomalous

What is intergroup attribution?

Attribution of causes of behavior depending on group membership, such as in-group vs. out-group differences.

→ refers to the way people explain the behaviour of members of their own group (ingroup) and other groups (outgroups) in biased ways that favour their own group.

What societal factors influence attributions for unemployment?

Wider beliefs and values, such as poor government and economic recession.

What did Martin and Carron (2021) find about team-oriented attributions?

• Meta-analysis of 21 studies

• Athletes emphasised internal factors for wins and downplayed them for losses.

What criticism exists regarding the internal-external distinction in attributions?

The distinction has been questioned for its empirical validity and cultural specificity.

How do cultural differences affect attribution processes?

Different cultures may make different attributions, with Western cultures often favoring dispositional explanations.

What are some criticisms about attributions?

•Internal - external distinction has been questioned

•Concerns over empirical studies on attribution (unrealistic) confined to psych lab

•Research on FAE was found to be culturally specific rather than universal: focussed on Western cultures

•Questions raised about the way attributions are conceptualised as private mental events - shared aspects of attributions within a society or group?