Chapter 3+4 Social Psych

System 1

The intuitive, automatic, unconscious, and fast way of thinking. (AKA automatic processing)

System 2

The deliberate, controlled conscious, and slower way of thinking. (AKA controlled processing)

Priming

Activating particular associations in memory

Embodied Cognition

The mutual influence of bodily sensations on cognitive preferences and social demands

Automatic Thinking

“Implicit” thinking that is effortless, habitual, and without awareness; roughly correspond to “intuition.” (AKA system 1)

Controlled Thinking

“Explicit” thinking that is delibrate, reflective, and conscious. (AKA system 2)

Blindsight

Phenomenon where individuals with damage to primary visual cortex can respond to visual stimuli without consciously perceiving them.

Overconfidence Phenomenon

The tendency to be more confident than correct - to overestimate the accuracy of one’s beliefs

Dunning-Kruger Effect

A cognitive bias where people with low ability or limited knowledge in a specific area greatly overestimate their own competence

Confirmation Bias

A tendency to search for information that confirms one’s preconceptions

Heuristic

A thinking strategy that enables quick, efficient judgements

Representative Heuristic

The tendency to presume, sometimes despite the contrary odds, that someone or something belongs to a particular group if resembling (representing) a typical member.

Availability Heuristic

A cognitive rule that judges the likelihood of things in terms of their availability in memory. If instances of something come readily to mind, we presume it to be a common place.

Counterfactual Thinking

Imagining alternative scenarios and outcomes that might have happened, but didn’t.

Illusory Correlation

Perception of a relationship where none exists, or perception of a stronger relationship than actually exists

Regression toward the average

The statistical tendency for extreme scores or extreme behavior to return toward their average

Belief Perseverance

Persistence of one’s initial conceptions, such as when the basis for one’s belief is discredited but an explanation of why the belief might be true survives.

Attitude

feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond favorably or unfavorably to objects, people, and events

ABC’s of Attitude

Affect (feelings), Behavior Tendency, and Cognition (thoughts)

Implicit Association Test (IAT)

A computer driven assessment of implicit attitudes. The test uses reaction times to measure people’s automatic associations between attitude, objects, and evaluative words. Easier pairings (and faster responses) are taken to indicate stronger unconscious associations.

Role

A set of norms that defines how people in a given social position ought to behave

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Tension that arises when one is simultaneously aware of two inconsistent cognitions. For example, dissonance may occur when we realize that we have, with little justification, acted contrary to our attitudes or made a decision favoring one alternative despite reasons favoring another.

Self-Perception Theory

The theory that when we are unsure of our attitudes, we infer them much as would someone observing us - by looking at our behavior and the circumstances under which it occurs.