Social Psychology CH. 4

Social Cognition & Person Perception

social cognition

the way we interpret, analyze, remember and use information about our social world

explicit cognition

deliberate judgements or decisions that we are consciously aware of

implicit cognition

judgements or decisions that are under the control of automatically activated evaluations that occur without our awareness I

Is implicit or explicit cognition a faster process and why?

implicit is faster because its unintentional and using only a few cognitive resources

social categorization

the process of forming categories of people based on their common attributes

prototype

mental model that is most representative of a group

what allows us to group objects, ideas and events into categories & also develop theories about those categories?

implicit cognition

schema

organized structure of knowledge about stimulus that is built up from experience which then speeds up the processing of information

gender schema

the cognitive structure for processing information based on perceived female or male qualities

script

a schema that describes how a series of events is likely to occur in a well known situation

priming

(way of activating schema) - the process by which recent exposure to certain stimuli of events increase the accessibility of certain memories, categories or schemas; situationally activated

heuristics

time saving, mental short cuts that reduce complex judgements to simple rules; very little thought

representativeness heuristic

the tendency to judge the category membership of things based on how closely they match the prototype of the category

base rate

the frequency with which same event or pattern occurs in that general population

base rate fallacy

the tendency to ignore or underuse base rate information and to overuse personal descriptions of the individual being judged

availability heuristic

tendency to judge the frequency of an event in terms of how easy it comes to mind

anchoring & adjustment heuristic

the tendency to be biased towards the starting value in making quantitative judgements

condition that we are to use heuristics (6)

1. we do not have time to engage in a analysis

2. we are overloaded with information

3. we considered the issues in question to not be very important

4. we have little knowledge/information to make a decision

5. something calls to mind a given heuristic, making it cognitively available

6. we are in a positive mood, singling everything is fine and no effort needed

hindsight bias

after-the-fact, overestimation of our ability to have foreseen the outcome

counterfactual thinking

the tendency to evaluate events by imaging alternative outcomes/versions

upward counterfactual thinking

imagining how something that already happened could have turned out better

downward counterfactual thinking

imagining how something that already happened could have turned out worse

is upward or downward counterfactual thinking better for our psychological health?

downward

person perception

the process of trying to detect other peoples temporary states and their enduring dispositions

survival value hypothesis

Darwin- we should be most attentive to facial expression that signal potential danger

nonconsious mimicry

the tendency to adopt the behaviors, postures or mannerisms of interaction partners without conscious awareness or intention

social role

a cluster of socially defined expectations that individuals in a given situation are expected to fill

social role theory

Eagly - the different social roles occupied by women and mean lead to difference in the perception of their behavior

extravagant expressiveness

women’s most publicly acceptable emotional style - an open style of experiencing and communicating emotion associated with nurturing and intimate relationships

manly emotion

mens most publicly acceptable emotional style - intense emotion under control

implicit personality theories

a schema we use to organize and make sense of which personality traits and behaviors go together

attribution

the process of using information to make inferences about the causes of behavior or events

internal attribution

any explanation the locates that the cause is internal to the person (traits, moods, abilities etc.)

external attribution

any explanation that locates that the cause is external to the person ( action of others, situation, luck, etc.)

stable causes

permanent and lasting

unstable causes

temporary and fluctuating

dispositional causes

both internal and stable

covariation model

Kelley - when making attributions, people use the covariation principle

covariation principle

assuming that for something to be the cause of a particular behavior, it must be present when the behavior occurs and absent when it does not

what 3 kinds of information do people rely on?

1. consensus

2. consistency

3. distinctiveness

consensus

the extent to which others react the same way to some stimulus or entity

consistency

the extent to which the person reacts to the stimulus or entity in the same way at different occasions

distinctiveness

the extent to which the person reacts the same way to other, different stimuli or entities

entity

the object toward which the actors behavior is directed and can be another person or thing

fundamental attribution error

the tendency to overestimate the impact of internal causes and underestimate the impact of external causes on other peoples behavior

actor observer effect

the tendency to attribute our own behaviors to external causes but other peoples behaviors to internal factors

dual process models of attribution

automatic and simple attributional assessments usually happen first and then sometimes followed by more deliberate and effortful analysis