Lecture: Social Cognition and Automatic Thinking (Chapter 3)

Vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts from the lecture on social cognition, automatic thinking, schemas, heuristics, biases, and cultural influences.

Social cognition

The study of how people think about themselves and the social world, including how we select, interpret, remember, and use social information to form judgments and decisions.

Automatic thinking

Nonconscious, unintentional, involuntary, and effortless thought processes that form impressions quickly based on past learning and knowledge.

Controlled thinking

Slow, deliberate, conscious, and effortful thinking.

Schemas

Mental structures that organize knowledge about the social world and guide attention, interpretation, memory, and inference, especially in ambiguous situations.

Korsakoff syndrome

A neurological disorder causing an inability to form new memories; individuals may treat each situation as if it were new.

Kelley 1950 impression formation study

Classic experiment showing impressions of a guest lecturer were shaped by a biographical note, demonstrating the power of schemas in filling in missing information.

Priming

The process by which recent experiences increase the accessibility of a schema, trait, or concept, influencing later judgments.

Accessibility

The extent to which schemas or concepts are at the forefront of the mind and likely to influence judgments; can be chronic, goal-related, or primed.

Self-fulfilling prophecy

Expectations about others influence our behavior toward them, causing them to behave in ways that confirm those expectations.

Bloomers study (Rosenthal & Jacobson)

Demonstrated that teachers’ expectations can affect student performance through altered treatment and opportunities.

Availability heuristic

Judging likelihood or frequency based on how easily examples come to mind, which can lead to biased conclusions.

Representativeness heuristic

Classifying something according to its similarity to a typical case, which can ignore base rate information.

Base rate information

Statistical information about the relative frequency of categories in a population used to calibrate judgments.

Barnum effect

The tendency to rate vague personality descriptions as highly accurate; statements are general enough to apply to many people.

Analytic thinking style

Tendency to focus on properties of objects without considering surrounding context; common in Western cultures.

Holistic thinking style

Tendency to focus on context and relationships among elements; common in East Asian cultures.

Facilitated communication

Controversial method in which a facilitator communicates for a person with impairments, illustrating overestimation of control.

Counterfactual thinking

Mentally simulating alternative outcomes; easier undoing leads to stronger emotional reactions.

Rumination

Repetitive, negative focus on aspects of one’s life, difficult to turn off.

Planning fallacy

Tendency to underestimate how long a task will take, despite past experience with similar tasks.

Statistical reasoning education

Teaching basic statistics and research methods can improve reasoning and reduce biases.

Culture as a toolbox

The idea that culture provides cognitive tools; people have the same tools, but culture influences which are used more.

Culture-specific thinking styles

Western cultures favor analytic thinking; East Asian cultures favor holistic thinking, influenced by environment and priming.