Unit 2 Psychology, Area of Study 1 and 2

All areas of study UNIT 2

Person Perception

The mental process we use to think about and evaluate other people. It is a common and vital part of our lives as it guides how we develop relationships with others.

Internal Attributes

When we deem a persons behaviour to be caused by their personal characteristics

External Attributes

When we deem a persons behaviour to be caused by situational factors.

Tri-Component Model of Attributes

Affect, Behavioural and Cognitive

Affective Component

Refers to the emotional reactions/feelings a person has toward a things. It can either result in a positive response (I like that) or a negative response (I dislike that).

Behavioural Component

Refers to how an attitude is expressed or how we may behave under particular circumstances.

Cognitive Component

Refers to the beliefs we hold about a thing. This develops as a result of lived experience and can be true or false.

Stereotypes

Are generalisations made about the personal characteristics of members of a social group.

Stereotype’s Strength

Makes person perception more efficient and reduces mental effort.

Stereotype’s Limitation

Can be inaccurate, fixed and resistant to change, leads to social stigmas and discrimination

Cognitive Dissonance

is an unpleasant psychological state that occurs when people become aware of an inconsistency among their beliefs, attitude or other ‘cognitions’, or that their behaviour conflicts with their cognitions.

Cognitive Biases

Are systematic errors of judgement and faulty decision making. It is a distorted or mistaken way of thinking that usually leads to inaccurate or unreasonable conclusions.

How can we avoid Cognitive Dissonance using Cognitive Biases

The brain naturally filters and twists reality to maintain inner harmony and protect our self image using CBs.

Heuristics

Kind of mental shortcut we use to make judgements quickly and efficiently. Practical and experience based, working well with problem-solving and decision making. May lead to Cognitive Biases.

Affect Heuristic

involves making a judgement based on our emotions are the time. When we are in a positive mood we tend to see ricks as low and benefits as high, and vice versa for a negative mood.

Availability Heuristic

involves decision making based on how easy or difficult information is to retrieve. We prefer to use information we can recall quickly.

Representative Heuristic

involves categorising a thing by how it matches our idea of a typical member in that category. Based on the assumption “like goes with like.”

Anchoring Heuristic

when people rely heavily on the first piece of information they recieve.

Positive aspects of Heuristics

Speed, conserving energy, providing a baseline for reasoning

Negative aspects of Heuristics

Can lead to cognitive biases, does not guarantee accuracy, makes it difficult to view alternate modes of thinking

Predjudice

a pre-judgement made on something, usually people.

Discrimination

takes place when a person or social group is treated differently than others. Discrimination is the result of prejudice.

Difference between Prejudice and Discrimination

Prejudice is the attitude, discrimination is the behaviour arising from prejudice.

Stigma

refers to the disapproval, disgrace or shame placed on a thing because of a specific attribute by society or a group of people.

Stigma’s impact on an individual

Mental health issues, economic and social limitations

Stigma’s impact on a group

erodes social cohesion, limits a collective’s potential

Factors that reduce prejudice and discrimination

intergroup contact, mutual dependence, superordinate goals and equal status.

Intergroup contact

increases close and ongoing contact between two groups

Mutual dependence

two rivaling groups placed in a situation where they are dependent on each other

Superordinate goals

Goal that cannot be achieved by any one group, and overrides existing goals. Required to be done over multiple days.

Equal Status

both groups are put on the same level to reduce feelings of superiority and an in-group out-group mentality.

Social group

refers to two or more people who interact and influence each other and share a common objective.

In-group

A group you belong to or identify with

Out-Group

A group you don’t belong to or identify with

Social Identity theory

Belonging to a social group can enhance one’s sense of self, contributing to their social belonging and providing them with a strong concept of who they are.

What may Social Identity theory lead to?

Higher levels of conformity, out-group homogeneity affect (they are all the same), in-group favouritism and out-group prejudice and discrimination.

Social loafing

Refers to an individuals work reduction when in a group compared to individually because they think others will pick up the slack.

Culture

refers to a particular way of life of a society or community that sets them apart from others. This may invlude music, language, norms, art and food.

Individual Cultures

prioritise autonomy, personal rights and self-reliance.

Collective Cultures

priorities social harmony, shared responsibility, and interdependence.

Effects of status and power

often linked to the role each individual has in the group, A role is the behaviour adopted by an individual or assigned to them that influences how they function or act in different group situations, carries expectations of how to behave in the group or on behalf of the group.

Factors that effect obedience

Status of an authority figure, Proximity of an authority figure and Group pressure

Factors that affect conformity

the size of the group, if the group members are unanimous, if group is viewed as a valuable source of information, awareness of accepted behaviour standards (normative influence), cultural background, social loafing.

Anti-Conformity

deliberate refusal to comply with accepted standards in society.

The development of independence

refers to the process of thinking, feeling and behaving autonomously, specifically withstanding undue pressure to conform or obey

Independence

refers to a person’s ability to resist social pressure from a majority group

Difference between conformity and obedience

Obedience is following direct demands from a legitimate authority figure, whereas Conformity is is adjusting your behaviour to match the norms and standers of your peers or society.

Factors that Influence Anti-Conformity

Desire for uniqueness, lack of value placed on the group, other anti-conformers, cultural background and internal attributes

Sustained Attention

Maintaining focus on one task over a long period.

Sustained Attention Example

Studying for an exam without distraction.

Divided Attention

Focusing on multiple tasks or stimuli at once.

Divided Attention Example

Talking on the phone while reading a menu.

Selective Attention

Focusing on one specific stimulus while ignoring others.

Selective Attention Example

Listening to one conversation in a noisy room.

Top-Down Processing

Processing information by utilizing pre-existing knowledge, expectations, and context to interpret sensory data.

Bottom-Up Processing

Processing information by starting with the raw sensory data and building it up into a complete perception.

Visual/Gustatory Perception Process in order

Reception, Transduction, Transmission, Selection, Organisation, Interpretation.

Sensation

The passive process of detecting physical stimuli through the sense organs (reception, transduction, transmission).

Perception

The active process of selecting, organising, and interpreting sensory information to give it meaning.

Monocular Depth Cues

Depth cues that require the use of only one eye, which include accommodation and pictorial depth cues.

Accommodation

A physiological monocular depth cue where the ciliary muscles adjust the shape of the lens to focus on near or far objects.

Pictorial Depth Cues

Monocular visual clues in 2D images that help perceive depth and distance (includes linear perspective, interposition, texture gradient, relative size, and height in the visual field).

Linear Perspective

A pictorial depth cue where parallel lines appear to converge as they move into the distance.

Interposition

A pictorial depth cue where an overlapping object is perceived as closer than the object it partially blocks.

Texture Gradient

A pictorial depth cue where textures become finer, denser, and less detailed as distance increases.

Relative Size

A pictorial depth cue where smaller images on the retina are perceived as farther away if the objects are known to be similar in size.

Height in Visual Field

A pictorial depth cue where objects positioned higher and closer to the horizon are perceived as farther away.

Binocular Depth Cues

Depth cues that require the use of both eyes working together to perceive distance.

Retinal Disparity

A binocular depth cue where each eye receives a slightly different image due to their physical distance apart; greater differences mean the object is closer.

Convergence

A binocular depth cue where the eyes turn inward to focus on nearby objects; greater muscle strain indicates the object is closer.

Gestalt Principles

Psychological rules that describe how the brain organises individual visual elements into meaningful groups or wholes.

Closure

A Gestalt principle where the brain mentally fills in missing parts of an incomplete image to perceive a whole shape.

Similarity

A Gestalt principle where elements that look alike in colour, shape, size, or pattern are grouped together.

Proximity

A Gestalt principle where objects that are physically close to one another are perceived as belonging together.

Figure-Ground

A Gestalt principle where visual information is separated into a prominent main object (figure) and a receding background (ground).

Perceptual Constancies

The tendency to perceive an object as remaining stable and unchanging despite alterations in the image cast on the retina (includes size, shape, and brightness constancy).

Perceptual Set

A psychological predisposition to perceive something in a specific way based on expectations, context, motivation, emotional state, past experience, or culture.

Context

A psychological factor where the setting or environment alters how a stimulus is perceived.

Motivation

A psychological factor where internal drives, desires, or needs direct perception toward a specific outcome.

Past Experience

A psychological factor where unique personal memories and prior learning shape how current stimuli are interpreted.

Cultural Norms

A social factor where the shared beliefs, values, and traditions of a community influence the way sensory stimuli are perceived.

Taste Reception

Chemical molecules (tastants) dissolve in saliva and bind to taste receptors in the taste buds.

Taste Transduction

Taste receptors convert chemical energy from tastants into electrochemical energy (electrical impulses).

Taste Transmission

Electrochemical impulses travel from the tongue along cranial nerves to the thalamus and gustatory cortex in the brain.

Taste Selection

The brain filters incoming taste signals, focusing on specific taste qualities while ignoring background sensory noise.

Taste Organisation

The brain groups neural signals into the five primary tastes

Taste Interpretation

The gustatory cortex combines taste signals with olfaction (smell) and past memories to identify the specific flavour.

Visual Reception

Light enters the eye through the cornea and lens, and is focused onto the photoreceptors (rods and cones) in the retina.

Visual Transduction

Photoreceptors convert electromagnetic energy (light) into electrochemical energy (electrical impulses).

Visual Transmission

Electrochemical impulses travel from the retina along the optic nerve to the primary visual cortex in the brain.

Visual Selection

The brain's visual cortex filters the massive amount of incoming visual data to focus on key features like lines, edges, and movement.

Visual Organisation

The brain arranges the selected visual elements into meaningful forms and patterns using principles like Gestalt and depth cues.

Visual Interpretation

The brain assigns meaning to the organised visual information by comparing it to past experiences, memories, and context.

Aim

A statement outlining the purpose of the investigation.

Hypothesis

A testable prediction about the outcome of an investigation, which must include the population, IV, DV, and expected direction.

Independent Variable (IV)

The variable that is systematically manipulated or changed by the researcher to observe its effect on the dependent variable.

Dependent Variable (DV)

The variable that is measured to assess the effect of the independent variable.

Within-Subjects Design

An experimental design where the same group of participants experiences every experimental condition.

Between-Subjects Design

An experimental design where separate groups of participants are assigned to different experimental conditions.

Mixed Design

An experimental design that combines elements of both within-subjects and between-subjects designs.