Social Cognition

Social Cognition

Cognition in which people perceive, interpret, categorize, and

judge their own social behaviors and those of others

Schema

an organized knowledge structure about a particular concept

Script

an organized knowledge structure including a sequence of actions

Classical (Associational) conditioning

People learn when a neutral stimulus is repetitively associated with an
unconditioned stimulus

Neutral stimulus (classic condition)

a stimulus that initially has no specific response

Unconditioned stimulus (classic condition) 

a stimulus that unconditionally, naturally, or automatically triggers a response

Operant conditioning

• People learn positive attitudes toward behaviors that have been rewarded

• People learn negative attitudes toward behaviors that have been punished

Observational learning (i.e., modeling)

• People learn by observing other people

• People learn positive attitudes toward behaviors if they have seen others

rewarded and learn negative attitude toward behaviors if they have seen others

punished.

Accommodation

Change our own belief system (schema) in order to ‘accommodate’ new

knowledge

Assimilation

Change our interpretation of the new knowledge in order to ‘fit’ with our existing

belief system (schema)

Self-fulfilling prophecy

Our belief system (expectation about others) leads us to behave in

ways that make those expectation come true

Confirmation bias

We interpret information in a manner that is consistent with our belief

system

• Selectively focus on information that confirms our schema

• Ignore disconfirming information

Representativeness Heuristic

We make assumptions about others based on how

representative (i.e., typical, prototypical) they seem to be of a

given category.

Availability Heuristic

We make assumptions about others based on how easily they can

be retrieved from memory (cognitive accessibility)

False Consensus Effect

Tendency to overestimate the extent to which our opinions or beliefs are

shared by others

False Uniqueness Effect

Tendency to underestimate the extent to which our positive qualities are

not shared by others

Anchor and adjustment

• We assign a number or value to an event, which serves as an “anchor.

• We then “adjust” that value based on information about the situation.