psych 280 exam 1 - social cognition & emotion/wellbeing

what is social cognition

how we think about people and social events or situations

- how do we make sense of our own behavior or the behavior of others

- how do we use information about the social world to make judgements

current perspective of social cognition

- combination of both people as native scientists and cognitive misers (rational judgments and use shortcuts)

- people can process bast amounts of info quickly but prone to error and biases

- can process info carefully when we can and want to but most processing automatic

fluency

how easy something is to process info

- influences judgments as we have more positive evaluations of things that are easy to process (attitudes)

- respond more positively to messages that are easy to understand (persuasion)

- fluency part of liking familiarity - you like something you have seen many times

error

getting something wrong

- can be random

bias

systematically getting something wrong in a specific way

- tendency to make specific error

bottom up processing

- data driven mental processing, basing judgements on stimuli in environment

- using info about world to make judgements

- start with details to form big picture

top down processing

- theory driven mental processing, use preexisting expectations to filter and interpret information

- start w big picture

schemas

organized network of related information or expectations stored in memory

- how knowledge about world organized

- can be broad or specific

script (type of schema)

schema for how to behave in a situation

- classroom, dating, interviews

stereotype

schema about a group of people

activated schema

brought to mind or set to be used in the moment

accessibility (schema)

how easily something stored in memory can be activated - blatant reminder needed to activate less accessible schema

- highly accessible schema one that comes to mind without much prompting

- accessibility not defined by frequency but being activated easily can make something activated more often

availability

whether something stored in memory

- can be activated if it is available

what schemas do

- direct attention - used to filter relevant information -> when schema activated attention directed to schema consistent info

- shape construals: ppl interpret ambiguous info in schema consistent ways

- influence memory: affects encoding (what info gets filed away for storage - attention and construals)

- affects retrieval (what info gets extracted from memory) - accessing and using meme

how schemas activated

priming or subliminal stimulus

priming

presenting stimulus to activate a concept and increase short term accessibility

- can influence judgement even when schema activation occurs outside of our consious awareness

subliminal stimulus

stimulus presented below threshold of consious awareness

- showing image/word with too little time to know what it was

- caveat: doesn't work for a lot of things

order effects (presentation of info)

order in which info or questions presented change peoples judgements

primacy effet

judgements more heavily influenced by whatever is presented first

- when info/questions are ambiguous or can be interpreted multiple ways (construal)

- what is presented first changes interpretation of whatever follows

recency effect

judgments are more heavily influenced by whatever is presented last

- happens when judgements are based on what info people can recall

- things listed last more recent, fresher in memory and more likely to stand out

dual process model

dual modes of information processing including intuitive system and rational system

intuitive system of DPM

- thinking fast

- frequent, emotional, stereotypical, unconscious

- relies on automatic associations - that you already may have

- can process a lot of things at once

rational system

- thinking slow

- relies on deliberate deductive reasoning

- requires focus, directed at one thing at a time

can have quick automatic response w intuitive system then overwrite w rational system

heuristics

mental shortcut for making quick judgements, cognitively efficient but prone to error

availability heuristic

mental shortcut art how likely something is based on how many examples we can come up with

- judge something as more probable when examples come to mind easily

- originally named in references to availability but really about accessibility

ACCESSIBILITY HEURISTIC

representativeness heuristic

- judgements about how likely something is to belong to a category based on how similar it is to peoples mental representation of that category

- used to classify something as belonging to certain category to extent that it is similar to typical case from that category

illusory correlation

the belief that two variables are correlate when in fact they are not

- can be tied to whether things FEEL related - tied to representativeness

- associating health problems with things that feel related even if getting no info abt this

repetition

people believe information when they see it multiple times

- about fluency: seeing things multiple times makes easier to process which makes seem more correct

confirmation bias

tendency to test a proposition by searching for evidence that would support it

- can lead to false beliefs bc people may fail to attend to disconfirming info

motivated confirmation bias

people seek and/or interpret evidence to support their pre-existing attitudes and beliefs

motivated reasoning

interpreting or processing info w goal of confirming existing beliefs - biased thinking

selective exposure

tendency to consume more attitude consistent info than attitude inconsistent info

- based info selection

attribution

explanation we give for behavior

- perceived cause of behavior - our own or others

internal attribution (dispositional attribution)

something internal to the person is causing the behavior

- attitudes beliefs traits

external attribution (situational attribution)

something external to the person is causing the behavior

- situation, circumstances

Kelleys covariation model

people make internal or external atrributions based on how often the behavior occurs

consensus (KCM)

do other people do this behavior

distinctiveness (KCM)

does the person behave this way only in this situation (situation specific behavior)

consistency (KCM)

does the person always do this in that situation

how covariation leads to attributions

situational: consensus, distinctiveness, consistency

dispositional: consistency

discounting principle

the idea that people will assign reduced weight to a particular cause of behavior if other plausible causes might have produced it

counterfactual thoughts

thoughts of what might have, could have, or should have happened "if only" something had occurred differently

- amplifies emotions

- bronze medalists more satisfied than silver bc they imagine receiving no medal as alternative -> opposed to silver imagining gold as alternative

- seen in victim blaming

self serving attributional bias

tendency to attribute failure and other bad events to external circumstances and attribute success and other good events to oneself

fundamental attribution error

tendency to overemphasize internal causes and neglect external causes - focus on things like talent and motivation and less on resources and barriers

- people show this more consistently when explaining other peoples behavior

actor observer difference

tendencies for attributions to differ between the person engaging in a behavior and people observing behavior

- external more common for actor, internal attributions more common for observer -

- situation stands out for actors (aware of situation around us) and person stands out for observers (character of that person stands out)

culture and attributions

westerners attend to dispositions and internal causes where asians attend to situations and contexts

anchoring and adjustment heuristic

mental shortcut where people begin w rough estimation as starting point and adjusts this estimate to take into account unique characteristics of present situation

emotion

tried and specific affective response to a stimulus or event

appraisals

construals of a situation that give rise to emotions

- pleasant - unpleasant

- certain - uncertain

- novel familiar

appraisals and emotions can both cause each other but one must come first

physiological response

bodily response tied to an emotion

expression

facial, vocal, or bodily expressions that communicate specific emotions

action tendency

a behavior that is prompted or motivated by a specific emotion

- emotion not just feeling but also doing

- can have multiple action tendencies for one emotion

features of emotions

brief

specific

unbidden - involuntary onset, happens automatically

emotion vs mood

mood is more longterm and nonspecific

emotion vs affect

broad term for feelings, typically valence positive or neg

- emotions and moods both affective states

expressions and evolution

- serve adaptive functions: commun intent, manage social relationships

- universality of certain expressions supported by commonalities across species and human cultures

social functional theory of emotions

key function of emotions is to coordinate social interactions and manage social relationships

- both emotional states and expressions serve these funcs

- does not mean an emotion is always beneficial or successful for social relationships

- emotions can serve social functions at multiple levels

social functional theory of emotions individual level

guide social judgements and behavior

interpersonal level social functional theory of emotions

emotions help strengthen ties

- gratitude motivates connection

- sadness can prompt social support and comfort

social func theory emotions group level

emotions strengthen a sense of connection to groups, regulate hierarchy, and motivate intergroup conflict

social func theory emotions cultural level

emotions can transmit or reinforce cultural norms

emotions affect attention and perception

- attention directed to emotional content

- emotional states can narrow or broaden our attention: neg emotions can make us more narrowly focus while positive can broaden what we pay attention to

- information that matches our emotional states processed easier

- emotions affect judgements: fear increases perceived likelihood of neg events

broaden and build hypothesis

positive emotions lead us to think and act more broadly

- more creative thinking, gen more solutions and possible actions, more likely to expand social networks

affect as information

the idea that we use emotional states as info abt ourselves and envs

- depends on attributions for emotional states

misattribution of arousal

the process whereby people make mistaken inferences about what is causing them to feel the way they do

affective forecasting

predicting future emotions, people tend to overestimate how unhappy they will be following negative events

immune neglect AFFECTIVE FORECASTING

not thinking about capacity to cope with negative events

focalism AFFECTIVE FORECASTING

a tendency to focus too much on a central aspect of an event while neglecting the possible impact of associated factors or other events (tunnel vision)

peak-end rule

the most intense moment and the end of an emotional experience disproportionately influence recollection of emotions

duration neglect

the length of an emotional experience carries little weight in recollections of the emotion

basic emotions approach

distinct emotions are separate natural categories, signature expressions and physiological responses

- there are distinct emotions that are universal

- originally six basic emotions: happiness sadness fear anger surprise disgust

constructivist emotion approach

distinct emotions shaped by language, social roles, values and insitutions, variability across ppl and cultures

- categorical approach, some emotions evolved as to serve specific adaptive functions

focal emotions

emotions that are especially common within a particular culture

affect valuation theory

emotions tied to cultural ideals and values are more prominent in our social lives

- cultural values can shape ideal affect (what we want to feel)

individualistic culture

tendency toward dispositional explanations

collectivistic culture

tendency toward situational explanations

display rules

culturally specific rule that governs ways and what emotions expressed

emotion regulation

ability to alter ones own emotional state

emotion suppression

minimize outward signs of their emotions