VCE Psychology Unit 2 AOS 1 Topic 6: Social Cognition

This set covers key terminology and concepts regarding social cognition, including person perception, attributions, attitudes, cognitive biases, heuristics, prejudice, and methods for reducing prejudice based on the Jacaranda VCE Psychology curriculum.

Social cognition

The mental processes involved in perceiving, thinking about, and using information to understand and make judgments about ourselves and others in social situations.

Person perception

The mental processes used to think about and evaluate other people, which often include quick 'snap judgments' or first impressions.

Halo Effect

A type of cognitive bias where an overall positive impression of a person influences beliefs about their other qualities, based on the idea that 'positive qualities go together'.

Reverse Halo Effect

An incorrect assumption that a positive characteristic indicates the presence of negative characteristics, such as assuming an attractive person is shallow.

Horn Effect

An incorrect assumption that a negative characteristic indicates the presence of other negative characteristics, for example, assuming a disruptive student is a low achiever.

Salience

Any personal characteristic that is distinctive, prominent, or noticeable in its context and therefore attracts attention.

Social categorisation

The routine classification of people into different groups on the basis of common characteristics like gender, age, race, or uniforms.

Ingroup

Any group that an individual belongs to or identifies with, such as a family, school, or friendship group.

Outgroup

Any group that an individual does not belong to or identify with, often viewed with less loyalty than an ingroup.

Attribution

The process by which we explain the cause of our own or another person's behaviour, categorized as internal or external.

Internal Attribution

An explanation of behaviour due to characteristics of the person, such as personality, ability, attitude, motivation, mood, or effort.

External Attribution

An explanation of behaviour due to factors associated with the situation, such as the actions of others, luck, fate, or the environment.

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency to overestimate the influence of personal factors and underestimate the impact of situational factors on other people's behaviour.

Just-World Belief

The belief that the world is a just place where people generally get what they deserve and deserve what they get.

Actor–Observer Bias

The tendency to attribute our own behaviour to external or situational factors while attributing others' behaviour to internal factors.

Self-Serving Bias

The tendency to take credit for successes by attributing them to internal factors and denying responsibility for failures by blaming external factors.

Attitude

An evaluation a person makes about an object, person, group, event, or issue that involves a relatively consistent and lasting judgment.

Affective Component

The emotional reactions or feelings (positive, negative, or neutral) towards an object, person, or issue within the Tri-Component Model of attitudes.

Behavioural Component

The way an attitude is expressed through actions or how a person might behave.

Cognitive Component

The beliefs a person has about an object, person, or issue, which may or may not be verifiable.

LaPiere (1934) Study

A classic study involving travel with a Chinese couple that concluded attitudes do not reliably predict behaviour.

Stereotype

A generalisation about the personal characteristics of the members of a social group, usually involving oversimplified beliefs.

Social Stigma

Negative labels and attitudes associated with disapproval or rejection that can lead to a group being devalued or ignored.

Cognitive Dissonance

An unpleasant psychological state occurring when a person becomes aware of inconsistency among their beliefs, attitudes, or cognitions, or between behaviour and cognitions.

Cognitive bias

A systematic error of judgment and faulty decision-making resulting from a distorted way of thinking.

Anchoring bias

The tendency to over-rely on the first piece of information received when making decisions.

Confirmation bias

The tendency to seek, recall, or interpret information in a way that confirms one's pre-existing beliefs.

Hindsight bias

The tendency to overestimate how predictable an event was after it has already occurred.

False-consensus bias

The tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs, characteristics, or behaviours.

Misinformation effect

When post-event information distorts a person's memory of the original event.

Optimism bias

The tendency to overestimate the likelihood of positive events and underestimate the likelihood of negative events happening to oneself.

Dunning–Kruger Effect

A bias where people with low ability in a domain overestimate their competence because they lack the metacognitive ability to recognise their incompetence.

Heuristics

Practical, experience-based strategies or 'rules of thumb' that help individuals make quick judgments and decisions.

Availability Heuristic

A mental shortcut where the likelihood or frequency of an event is judged based on how easily examples of it come to mind.

Representativeness Heuristic

Categorising things based on how closely they match a mental prototype or stereotype.

Affect Heuristic

When a person's current emotional state influences their judgments of risks and benefits.

Prejudice

A negative attitude toward another person or social group formed in advance of any actual experience with them, based purely on group membership.

Discrimination

Treating a person or group differently, usually unfavourably, because of a personal characteristic.

Direct discrimination

When a person is treated unfavourably because of a protected characteristic like age, sex, race, or disability.

Indirect discrimination

When an unreasonable requirement is imposed that appears neutral but disadvantages people with a protected characteristic.

Contact Hypothesis

The theory that prejudice is more likely to be reduced when groups interact under favourable conditions, such as having superordinate goals and equality of status.

Superordinate goals

Shared goals that require groups to work together and cannot be achieved by any single group alone.

Sherif's Robber's Cave Experiment (1956)

A classic study demonstrating that intergroup conflict and prejudice can be reduced through the introduction of superordinate goals.