soc psych chapter 4

social cognition

examines how people make decisions, interpret past events, understand current events, and make predictions for future events

social perception

the process by which we perceive, interpret, think about, and form impressions of other people

disposition

a persons natural state of mind, general attitude, or habitual emotional outlook

first impressions of people

snap judgements on very little information

behavior and situations

we have expectations about the persons behavior (based on appearance, roles, etc.)

scripts

a pre-defined sequence of expected behaviors, actions, and consequences for a specific situation or environment

attribution theory

explains how we explain the causes of someones behavior

personal attribution

attribution to internal characteristics, such as ability, personally, mood, or effort

situational attribution

attribution to external factos

covariation principle

behavior should be attributed to potential causes that occur along with the behavior

consistency

is the behavior consistent overtime- person responds the same way to the situation/stimulation overtime

consensus

do other people respond the same way

distinctiveness

is the stimulus/situation unique

situational attribution

consensus and distinctiveness are high

dispositional attribution

consensus and distinctiveness are low

combined attribution

consensus low and distinctiveness high

correspondent inference theory

behaviors have lots of effects, we try to infer whether an act corresponds to an enduring personal trait

fundamental attribution error

we overemphasize a person’s inner character to explain their behavior while ignoring external situational factors

actor observer bias

the tendency to blame external situations for our own mistakes while blaming the personal character of others for the exact same actions

relational mobility

how much freedom and opportunity a society gives people to choose, change, or leave their interpersonal relationships

discounting principle

reducing the weight of possible attribution when there are multiple plausible causes for the behavior

counterfactual thinking

casual attributions can be informed by comparing real outcomes to imagines alternatives

emotional amplification

increased emotional response when counterfactuals are easy to imagine

wishful seeing

we see what we want to see

self serving bias

people attribute personal successes to internal traits like skill or effort, bad things external

ideological motivation

the driving force that compels individuals or groups to act based on a structured system of beliefs

illusion of objectivity

people believe they perceive the world accurately

belief in a just world

you deserve what you get

order effects

how the sequence of materials influences a participants behavior

framing effects

people react to a particular choice in different ways depending on how it is presented

temporal framing

information, choices, or consequences are presented in relation to time

spin

how something is worded

trait negativity bias

negative impressions carry more weight

schema

influence how we process information

bottom-up processing

the brain builds overall perceptions directly from raw incoming sensory input without relying on past context or expectations

top-down processing

the brain uses prior knowledge, experiences, and expectations to interpret raw incoming sensory information

guide attention

deeply connected to how you process information

priming

exposure to one stimulus unconsciously influences how a person responds to a subsequent, related stimulus

intuitive system

this consists of rapid responses based on associations that come automatically to mind

the intuitive system can lead us to make errors

the rational system

slower and more controlled, and based on rules and deduction; performs its operations one at a time-serially

cognitive heuristics

intuitive mental operations, performed quickly and automatically, that provide efficient answers to common problems of judgement

availability

tendency to assume that things that come quickly and easily to mind are more frequent, important or correct

false consensus effect

tendency to think more people would agree with me or act as I would than actually would/do

fluency

how easy it is to process information

representativeness

if something looks like my prototype for a group I assume it is part of the group

confirmation bias

tendency to seek, interpret, and create information that verifies existing beliefs

belief perseverance

maintain beliefs even after they have been discredited

confirmatory hypothesis testing

look for confirming, not disconfirming information

cognitive confirmation

seeing confirmation in ambiguous information

self fulfilling prophecy

process by which ones expectations about a person eventually lead that person to believe in ways that confirm the expectations