Social Cognition and Emotion

A comprehensive set of flashcards covering key vocabulary from the lecture on social cognition and emotion.

Social Cognition

The investigation of how people think about others.

Cognitive Miser

A term describing our preference to conserve cognitive resources.

Information overload

When our cognitive demands exceed available resources.

Maximizer

A person who spends more cognitive resources to make optimal decisions.

Sacrificer

A person who makes decisions based on criteria that are good enough.

Automatic processing

A type of cognitive processing that occurs without awareness or intention.

Deliberate processing

A type of cognitive processing that requires intention and control.

Schema

Cognitive shortcuts that help fill in gaps in information.

Violation of expectation

A situation that generates discomfort because it doesn't fit existing schemas.

Stereotype

A generalized belief about a particular group.

Priming

The process of activating a stereotype to influence thoughts and behaviors.

Framing

The way a question is asked influences the activated knowledge structure.

Thought Suppression

The attempt to avoid thinking about a particular topic.

Heuristics

Mental shortcuts that simplify decision making.

Barnum Effect

The tendency to see vague generalities as personally applicable.

Cause to Effect

The assumption that the cause and effect have a similar magnitude.

Affective forecasting

The prediction of future emotional states based on current decisions.

Attribution

The explanation of the reasons behind behaviors and events. Can be influenced by various factors such as personal beliefs and situational context.

Self-serving bias

The tendency to take credit for successes and blame failures on external factors.

Internal attribution

Assigning the cause of an event to a person's characteristics.

External attribution

Assigning the cause of an event to external factors.

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency to emphasize internal factors when judging others, while attributing our own actions to external factors.

Actor/Observer Bias

Refers to the differences between how we view ourselves and how we view others; we often excuse our own actions while critiquing others.

Cognitive Dissonance

The discomfort experienced when holding conflicting thoughts or beliefs.

Confirmation bias

The tendency to favor information that confirms existing beliefs.

Optimistic bias

The belief that negative outcomes are unlikely to affect oneself.

Overconfidence bias

Having more confidence in one's abilities than is warranted.

Negative bias

Tendency to remember negative experiences more than positive ones.

Illusory correlations

Belief that a relationship exists between two variables when no such relationship exists.

Person-who reasoning

Questioning a widely accepted finding because of a personal anecdote.

Base-rate fallacy

Ignoring statistical information in favor of specific cases.

Alternative outcomes effect

Believing past random events could influence future random outcomes.

Hot hand effect

The belief that a person who has experienced success in a random event is likely to continue to do so.

Counterfactual thinking

Imagining alternative scenarios and outcomes that didn't happen. This type of thinking often involves reflecting on how different choices could have led to different results, influencing emotions such as regret or relief.

First instinct fallacy

Belief that one should stick with their first response or answer.

Deliberate processing

Intentionally analyzing decisions to avoid biases.

Emotion

A conscious reaction to external stimuli.

Mood

A state of mind not necessarily linked to an external event.

Affect

The positive or negative feelings that occur in response to stimuli.

Emodiversity

The range of emotions a person experiences.

James-Lange theory

The theory that physiological arousal precedes emotional experience.

Schachter-Singer theory

The theory that both physiological arousal and cognitive appraisal contribute to emotion.

Yerkes-Dodson Law

Suggests there is an optimal level of arousal for peak performance.

Misattribution of Arousal

When physiological arousal is incorrectly attributed to the wrong cause.

Catharsis

The process of releasing strong or repressed emotions.

Anger superiority effect

The tendency to recognize anger more quickly than other emotions.

Disgust

An emotional response that leads to avoiding certain stimuli.

Gender differences in emotions

Differences in how men and women experience and express emotions.

Ekman’s universal emotions

Six basic emotions recognized across cultures: happiness, sadness, fear, disgust, anger, and surprise.

Display norms

Cultural regulations about when and how to express emotions.

Jealousy

An emotional response involving fear of losing a relationship.

Empathy

The ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

Survivor’s Guilt

Guilt felt by a survivor of a traumatic event who feels undeserving of survival.

Pride

A positive emotional response linked to accomplishments.

Guilt

An emotional state that arises from the recognition of having violated a moral standard.

Shame

A self-focused emotion that relates to self-worth. It often arises from perceived failures or shortcomings, leading to feelings of humiliation and inadequacy.

Benign envy

Desire for something another person has without harmful intent.

Malicious envy

Desire to harm another person because they have something desirable.

Emotional Intelligence

The ability to recognize and manage our own and others’ emotions.

Mood congruence

The tendency to recall experiences that match our current mood.

State-Dependent Retrieval

The improved recall of specific information when in the same emotional state as when the memory was encoded.

Cognitive Coping

Maintaining beliefs that help us cope with difficult circumstances.

Dual attitudes

Simultaneous positive and negative evaluations of the same object or idea.

Mere Exposure Effect

The phenomenon whereby repeated exposure increases liking.

Social Desirability Bias

The tendency to respond in a manner that will be viewed favorably by others.

Cognitive dissonance theory

The theory that inconsistencies in belief lead to discomfort and subsequent change.

Effort justification

When we increase our liking for something because we invested a lot of effort into it.

Post-decision dissonance

Regret or discomfort regarding the choice made after a decision has been made.

Belief perseverance

The tendency to cling to one's initial beliefs even when faced with contrary evidence.

Devil’s Advocate

A strategy where one argues against their own beliefs to explore contradictory points.

Benevolence

The belief that people are generally good.

Assumptive world

The belief that the world is orderly and just.

Victim Blaming

The tendency to hold victims responsible for the harm that befell them.

Accuracy

We want to be proven right about how we think and of ourselves and others. The driving motivation behind the social cognition we experience.

Script

Cognitive frameworks that guide understanding of social situations based on past experiences. Schema for a specific social event.

Representative

An example of a heuristic in which people rely on stereotypes to evaluate situations. It involves making judgments based on how much something resembles a typical case.

Prototype

A cognitive representation that exemplifies the most typical characteristics of a category, used in social cognition to classify and interpret social stimuli.

Available

Make a decision based on how easily something comes to mind. This heuristic leads individuals to judge the probability of events based on their availability in memory.

Stimulation

Going to make a decision based on how easy it is to stimulate the event in your head. This heuristic involves evaluating the likelihood of events based on the ease with which examples or scenarios can be imagined or brought to mind.

Anchoring

Using others' statements or opinions as a reference point in forming one's own opinion.

Covariation Model

A framework for determining whether attributions should be internal or external based on three criteria:

• Consensus: Do others react similarly in the same situation?

• Distinctiveness: Is the behavior consistent across different situations?

• Consistency: Does the behavior occur consistently in this situation?

One Shot

Evolved from unusual experiences leading to a stereotype.

Self-Fufilling Prophecy

A phenomenon where an individual's belief or expectation about another person leads to behaviors that confirm that belief, thereby fulfilling the prophecy.

False Consensus

We assume that more people agree with us than they do.

False Uniqueness

We think that we’re special, we assume that we’re more unique than we actually are.

Perserverance

Once we have a belief or expectation, we don’t want to abandon it. We’ll do what we need to maintain that belief.

Illusion of Control

Believing we can influence outcomes that we actually have no control over. We have more control than we actually do. Can be about ourselves, the world, etc.

Upward Thinking

Better instance than what actually occurred. “If I hadn’t spent $10 on dinner last night, I could've spent $10 on coffee today.”

Downward Thinking

Can think of a worse outcome. “If I had left 5 minutes earlier, I would've been in the car wreck.”

Bodenhausen (1980)

When we are going to have a lot of errors and biases, it’s likely to happen during our off times. If you’re a night person, you’re more likely to fall prey to these errors and biases during the morning.

Meta-Cognition

Thinking about our thinking. If we ask ourselves why we’re making this decision or have this belief, we’re a lot more likely to overcome these errors or biases.

Stimulus (ES)

External stimulus or event. The thing that is causing the emotional reaction.

Arousal (PA)

Physical arousal. What is happening internally in your body? The physiological and psychological state of being awake or responsive to stimuli, characterized by changes such as increased heart rate and heightened alertness.

Appraisal (CA)

What's happening during this reaction in your brain or cognition? It refers to the evaluation of a situation or stimulus that influences emotional responses. This process determines how we interpret events and feelings, impacting our emotional reactions.

Facial Feedback Hypothesis

The theory that facial expressions can influence emotional experiences. It suggests that changes in facial expressions can lead to corresponding changes in feelings. Predisposing yourself to that arousal which predisposes you to that emotion.

Excitation Transfer

When you’re experiencing a high amount of PA, sometimes we end up transferring that arousal to a different stimulus than the one that actually caused it. 

Self-Conscious Emotions

Requires some perception of self, comparing yourself to others.

Social Comparison Emotions

Comparing yourself to someone else.

Self-Evalutative Emotions

You are evaluating how you are in comparison to a social or cultural rule. These emotions often arise from societal standards and norms, leading to feelings such as shame, guilt, or pride.

Act vs Person

Feel guilt because of a bad action, we feel shame because we’re a bad person.