Social Cognition

Unit 2 of Psychology

What is social cognition?

how we perceive and use information to make judgements on ourselves and others in different social situations

Why do we use social cognition?

Because we can’t see people’s intentions, so we must use visible cues to create perceptions

What is personal perception?

the mental processes we use to form impressions and draw conclusions about the personal characteristics of other people

What is the halo effect?

an example of person perception based on physical cues. It is the tendency to perceive physically attractive people more positively (and vice versa)

what is attribution?

the process by which people explain the causes of their own and other people’s behaviour

what is a personal attribution?

an explanation due to the characteristics of the person involved, such as their personality, ability, attitude

what is a situational attribution?

an explanation of behaviour due to factors associated with the situation the person is in (ie, factors external to the individual)

what is a fundamental Attribution Error?

the tendency to overemphasise personal characteristics and ignore situational factors when judging the behaviour of other people

What is an Actor-observer Bias?

the tendency to attribute our own behaviour to situational (external) causes, but to attribute the behaviour of others to their internal factors