Social Psych Midterm #2

3 online notes to review

Social Cognition

the study of how we interpret, analyze & remember others & our social world:

2 parts:

• how ppl learn about others

• focuses on the cognitive processes used when thinkign abt others

Dual Process Model

a theory that describes two distinct systems for processing information, which often starts with our perception, an automatic reaction , intuitive system and a conscious reaction, analytical system.

motivated tactician model

A framework that suggests people prefer to use a few cognitive resource as possible to reach a conclusion or solve a problem

what are the 2 key moderators needed (in Dual Process Model) to turn on/off deliberate thinking?

motivation and cognitive processing

What is motivation?

The desire to pursue a goal and often times humans are satisficers, meaning they stick with the first best possible choice rather than going through all the exhaustive, options

true or false: our cognitive capacity has a limit/constraint on our working memory?

true - why we can only memorize 7 digit phone #s before we forget

The 4 components of automatic (gut) reactions?

1. efficient: reactions don’t take up much mental effort like being attracted to someone

2. unintentionality: reactions that occur w/o explicit desire or goal to have them, like something catching ur eye even if not seeking for it

3. uncontrollable: reactions that we can’t prevent like reading

4. without awareness: reactions that we are not conscious of having related to subliminal priming

Recency Principle (new) -one of the way that explains how information influence human judgment

tendency to remember information that was recently activated and have a heaveier weight

• good for short term memory

• “scrambled sentence task” experiment -had to unscramble and had to arrange them in a sentence

  • then given a imibgious scenario about a stranger: donald -most ppl interpet him as hostile as later had to rate him on his aggressiveness

  • lesson: our impression of other is often distorted by what we already bring to the table or was doing before

Chronicity Principle

the tendency for some info to be activated on a permanent basis

• A person who is highly focused on health (due to a personal history of illness) will notice healthy or unhealthy food options more quickly than someone who is not, regardless of what they read recently.

• hostile atrribution bias: see ppl through the lens of hostility

What 2 system are invovled with automatic reaction?

Recency + Chronicity Principle

Heuristic

mental shortcuts that help reduce compelx judgements to simple rule of thumb

which heuristic relates to earlier information having a more heavier weight than late rinformation?

primacy heuristic which relates to “anchoring effect” in numbers and stability effect sin impression formation

which heuristic relates to the tendency to judge based off how easy it is to retrieve the event?

availability heuristic which contains anchoring which means there is more bias to the starting value in making numerical jdugment like with car negotiation

stability effect

The stability effect refers to the tendency to over-value initial impressions and under-value new information, maintaining a rigid, stable view

controlled cognition

automatic believing,

Different Theories of Controlled Cognition

pinoza's Argument: Spinoza argued that understanding a statement and believing it are the same initial act. People automatically assume information is true when they first encounter it; only afterward can they engage in the effortful process of re-evaluation to disbelieve it.

Descartes' Argument: Descartes maintained that understanding precedes belief. He believed the mind could initially remain in a state of indecision or uncertainty before the will chooses to affirm or deny the information.

counterfactual thinking

thinking a alternative reality that doesn’t exist and making a comparison. often due to close calls, neg or unexpected events which lead to us to engage in controlled cognition

helps us: with planning for the future or avoiding tragedy again

regret

the negative emotion that is predicted upon an upward self [blaming oneself] focused counterfactual [thinking abt how a situation can be better]

What are the 3 most common things ppl regret?

1) things relevant to our life now

2) inaction > action

3) things they felt they could have

What is an attitude?

An evaluative orientation of something (noun or verb)

What is the main difference between implicit vs explicit attitude?

Explicit attitudes are conscious, deliberate evaluations that people can easily report and needs capcity and motivation while implicit attitudes are automatic, involuntary, and unconscious evaluations formed through past experiences. Explicit attitudes guide conscious decisions, while implicit attitudes influence automatic behaviors and may conflict with stated beliefs