Social Psych Midterm (all terms)

Social Cognition

The study of how individuals make sense of other people and themselves.

Information Overload

When too much information makes it difficult to make decisions effectively.

Working Memory

The small amount of information that can be held in mind and used in the execution of cognitive tasks such as decision making. It is limited.

Automatic Thinking

Thinking that is nonconscious, unintentional, involuntary, effortless, and uses few cognitive resources (e.g., reflexes, opening a door for someone).

Controlled Thinking

Thinking that is conscious, intentional, voluntary, requires effort, and uses cognitive resources (e.g., parallel parking, approaching someone for help).

What are the three different models for how humans manage cognitive resources?

Cognitive Miser, Motivated Tactician, and Activated Actor.

Cognitive Load

A state that occurs when the sheer volume of social information we are exposed to each day exceeds our limited bandwidth.

Cognitive Miser

The model proposing that we are motivated to take shortcuts in thinking whenever possible to preserve precious cognitive resources, where taking mental shortcuts via automatic thinking often comes at the cost of making a poor decision.

Motivated Tactician

A thinker who shifts back and forth between quick, cognitively economical, yet prone-to-error thinking, and slower, thorough, and effortful thinking, depending on their goals, implying an ability to switch between controlled and automatic thinking at will.

Activated Actor

A model that considers the influence of cues in the social context, where cues prime goals that may not reach conscious awareness but nonetheless affect our social decisions.

Cognitive Biases

Systematic errors in thinking or systematic deviations from rationality in decision-making.

Hyperbolic Discounting

The tendency to place much greater value on rewards available now than rewards available later (e.g., preferring to reheat leftovers in 5 minutes vs. cooking fresh for 1 hour).

Hindsight Bias

The belief that an event is more predictable after it becomes known than it was before it became known; also known as the 'knew-it-all-along' bias.

What are some of the social consequences of hindsight bias?

Victim blaming, increased confidence leading to overconfidence and bad self-perception, and lack of empathy from others.

First Impressions

Judgments made in $33\text{ milliseconds}$ that are very similar to judgements made after a minute's more careful inspection of someone's face.

Primacy Effect

Occurs when the first information we obtain about others carries special weight, influencing our interpretations of the later information we encounter.

Confirmation Bias

Occurs when a person gives extra emphasis to or intentionally seeks evidence that will validate their existing beliefs and, in addition, excuse, downplay, or completely ignore evidence that could refute their beliefs.

How does confirmation bias explain the enduring influence of first impressions?

We require cognitive energy to change our minds.

Disconfirmation Bias

The tendency for individuals to denigrate or downplay arguments that challenge their prior beliefs.

Anchoring

The assimilation of a numerical estimate to a previously considered standard; a process whereby people are influenced by specific information given before a judgement.

What are the mechanisms that underlie the anchoring effect?

Priming, insufficient adjustment processes, and confirmatory hypothesis testing / selective accessibility.

Framing

A decision that is deliberately influenced by changing the way information is presented.

Availability Heuristic

Judging the likelihood or frequency of an event based on how easily an example is brought to mind.

Representativeness Heuristic

Judging the likelihood of an event based on how similar it is to a prototype; judging the probability that object or person A belongs to category B by the degree to which A is representative of B.

Conjunction Fallacy

Occurs when we assume multiple things are more likely to co-occur than a single thing on its own, even though a conjunction (A and B) can statistically never be more likely than A or B alone.

Gambler’s Fallacy

Thinking that an outcome is due to occur when it hasn’t shown up in a while

• E.g. random coin flip

What are the ABCs?

Affective

Behavioral

Cognitive

Affective Dimension

the feelings and emotions evoked by the attitude object (positive or negative appraisals)

Behavioral Dimension

consists of a readiness to respond in specific ways to the attitude object.

Cognitive Dimension

an attitude involves beliefs about the attitude object.

Attitudes as Cognitive Networks

Attitude Valence

positive vs. negative

- for many attitude objects, an individual will have both positive and

negative evaluations

Attitude Extremity

Degree to which an attitude deviates from neutral

• Mildly positive vs. extremely positive / mildly negative vs. extremely

negative

Atttiude Strength

stability over time, vulnerability to persuasion, influence on behavior & information processing

Feeling Thermometer

Pitfalls with neurological & physiological measures?

more distance between measure of attitude, limited by understanding of measure (heart rate, fmri brain scans)

Mere Exposure Effect

the more often people are exposed to stimulus, the more positively they evaluate that stimulus

Morelan & Beach (1992)

Familiarity-safety association

Familiarity reduces uncertainty

Perceptual fluency

ease with which a stimulus is processed

classical conditioning

a learning process where a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a meaningful stimulus, leading to a learned response

Operant Conditioning

a learning process where behavior is influenced by its consequences (rewards or punishments).

observational learning

imitation of the behavior of another person who serves as a model and can occur without any external reinforcement.

Impressionable Years Hypothesis

young adulthood is an especially important period for the formation of attitudes and that after this period, attitudes remain more stable

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Causal Attitude Networks (CANs)

• one of several network models used to represent attitudes

  • Includes nodes (specific items), edges (links between the nodes)

dispositional approach

views attitudes as something that a person “has” and that influences their actions (not supported by research)

attitude construction

views attitudes as evaluative judgments that are formed on the spot Influenced by level of activation and social context

expectancy-value theory

incorporating a person’s perceptions about the likelihood that engaging in the target behavior will result in a positive outcome

theory of planned behavior

the best predictor of a person’s behavior is their intention to act

• I.e., individuals generally act in ways that are planned and thought-out

subjective norms

a person’s perceptions of the social pressures to perform the behavior

perceived control

a person’s belief about their ability to perform the behavior

3 Dissonance-Reducing Strategies:

1. Change the behavior to be consistent with the attitude

2. Change the attitude to be consistent with the behavior

   1. Justify the behavior and retain the attitude

self-perception theory

individuals come to know their attitudes by observing and interpreting their own behavior

Self Concept

an individual's description and evaluation of themselves

Introspection

the process where a person looks inward and examines their own thoughts, feelings, and motives

Self-perception

individuals determine attitudes and preferences by observing and interpreting their own behaviors

Personal Identity

portion of the self-concept that is based on idiosyncratic personal attributes and/or personal relationships with specific other people

Social Identity

portion of the self-concept that is derived from group memberships

Social Identity Theory

Social psychological theory of the role of self and identity in group and intergroup phenomenon.

Self and Social Categorization:

We categorize ourselves and others into groups

Uncertainty-identity Theory

Feelings of uncertainty, especially about the self, are generally aversive

Optimal Distinctiveness Theory

people strive to balance two conflicting motives, one for inclusion/sameness, and one for distinctiveness/uniqueness.

Ingroup Favoritism

Each of a person's social identities creates ingroups and outgroups

Social Comparison Theory

individuals have a drive to look to outside images and exemplars to evaluate their own opinions and abilities

Upward Social Comparison

When individuals compare themselves to others whom they perceive as better or

more successful

Downward Social Comparison

A defensive tendency to evaluate oneself with a comparison group of

lower status or whose problems are worse than our own

Self-Expansion Model

Individuals are fundamentally motivated to grow & improve the self by acquiring new identities, enhancing skills and abilities, developing new perspectives, and gaining new resources

False-Consensus Effect

tendency to overestimate how common one's own behavior and attitudes are among other people

False-uniqueness Effect

tendency to underestimate how common one's desirable behaviors and characteristics are

self-verification process

when a particular aspect of self-concept is threatened, we engage in psychological processes that help re-affirm our original self-concept

self-fulfilling prophecy

a belief that leads to its own fulfillment

sociometer

an internal monitor of the degree to which one is valued or devalued—like a barometer of the likelihood of social rejection

social comparison orientation

the degree to which an individual tends to compare themselves to others

self-efficacy

 a person’s “judgments of their capabilities to organize and execute courses of action required to attain designated types of performance”

identity salience

how prominent, significant, and important an identity is to oneself

chronically salient

almost always at the front of your mind, especially if one of your identities is in the minority in the social context in which you live

possible selves

future-oriented component of self-concept, including the ideal selves we would like to become and the selves we fear we could become

self-regulation

the ability to control one’s behavior, emotions, and thoughts in the pursuit of long-term goals

contrast effect

comparing too unrealistically; leads to feelings of inferiority

looking-glass self

how we imagine others see us

interdependent self-construal

the extent to which a person perceives their self-concept as being fundamentally connected to other people

metaperceptions

a person’s beliefs about how they come across to others

illusions of transparency

the tendency for people to overestimate the extent to which others can read their internal states

Bias

systematic patterns of beliefs, feelings, and actions toward individuals based on their actual or perceived group membership.

Stereotypes-biased beliefs

stereotypes are overgeneralized sets of beliefs about members of a particular social group (females and being scientists).

In-groups

an individual identifies as belonging

Out group

a group to which an individual does not belong.

Salient feature of a stereotype

shared across cultural contexts.

Stereotype awareness

knowing the shared beliefs about the traits and characteristics of a particular group.

Stereotype endorsement

when an individual is aware of a stereotype and believes it to be true. Stereotypes begin to be internalized when group members are aware of the stereotype and endorse it.

Stereotype content model

universally, group stereotypes are situated along two dimensions: warmth and competence. Based on this, anytime we encounter people, we evaluate them on the warmth dimension to see if they can harm us, whether they are nice,

Stereotype threat

being at risk of acting in a manner consistent with a negative stereotype about one's group.

stigma

an attribute that discredits an individual, reducing them from a regular person in a given social context to a tainted and devalued one.

Stereotype activation

the process of bringing stereotypical associations to the front of our minds.

Stereotype application

the extent to which we use a stereotype to judge or act toward a member of the stereotyped group.

Prejudice- biased attitude

when stereotypes are activated and applied they form the basis of prejudiced attitudes and discriminatory actions.

Old-fashioned prejudice

what we typically think when we think about racism. It is open and explicit and involves emotions such as contempt, hostility, anger, and oftentimes fear

Egalitarian beliefs

people should be treated equally, and society has a responsibility for taking care of those who are disadvantaged