SOCIAL COGNITION

Unit 2

Social cognition

Involves how we perceive, think about and use information to understand and make judgements about ourselves and others in different situations

Person perception

refers to the mental processes we use to think about and evaluate other people

What influences person perception

Physical cues
Halo effect
Behaviour
Body language

Physical cues

The way people look and the way they act

What is the Halo effect:

The tendency to allow our overall positive impression of a person, or our positive impression of a specific quality, to influence our beliefs and expectations about the person in other qualities.

How do people communicate through body language?

We often communicate inner aspects of ourselves through facial expression, eye gaze, posture, gestures, and other bodily movements.

One of the most influential forms of nonverbal communication is

Eye contact

How does behaviour form impresssions

Behaviour forms impressions through what we observe in ourselves and also what we hear about others, including verbal communication

What is salience detection?

Refers to any personal characteristic that is distinctive, prominent, conspicuous, or noteable it its context and therefore attracts attention.

Examples of salience detection

age
gender

race
physical appearance in general
Specific features

When may perceptions differ

Situationally

What is social categorisation

When a person perceives, we routinely classify each other into different groups on the basis of common characteristics

What is the ingroup

Allport (1954) described ingroup as any group you belong to or identify with

What is outgroup

Allport (1954) described the outgroup as any group you do not belong to or identify with