ch 3 and 4

Here’s a comprehensive study guide covering all topics from Chapters 3 & 4 with associations to help you remember them easily.

Study Guide: Chapters 3 & 4

Chapter 3: Social Cognition & Thinking

1. Controlled vs. Automatic Thinking

🧠 Analogy: Driving a car—At first, it's controlled thinking (deliberate), but later it becomes automatic (instinctive).

• Factors Affecting Both: Experience, stress, cognitive load, motivation.

2. Social Cognition & Schemas

📦 Schemas = Mental File Folders

• What are they? Mental structures that help us organize knowledge.

• When are they most useful? In ambiguous situations (meeting new people, first impressions).

• Functions: Help process information quickly but can lead to biases.

3. Counterfactual Thinking

🔄 "What if?" Thinking

• Example: "If I had left 5 minutes earlier, I wouldn’t have been late."

• Silver Medal Study: Silver medalists feel worse than bronze because they imagine what could have been.

• Counterfactual thinking & loss: People who lose loved ones often think, "What if I had done something differently?"

4. Decision Rules & Heuristics

⚡ Heuristics = Mental Shortcuts

• Availability heuristic: Judging likelihood by how easily examples come to mind (ex: fearing plane crashes over car accidents).

• Representativeness heuristic: Stereotyping (ex: A man in a suit must be a lawyer).

5. Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

🔮 Expectations Shape Reality

• Rosenthal & Jacobson (1968) "Bloomers" Study: Teachers expected certain students to improve → students actually performed better.

6. Harold Kelley (1950) Study

🌡 Warm vs. Cold Lecturer

• Students expected a lecturer to be either warm or cold → this expectation influenced how they rated him.

7. Base Rate Information

📊 Base rates = Actual probabilities

• Example: More truck drivers than Ivy League professors exist, so if someone "looks like a professor," we should still assume they’re a truck driver.

8. Priming & Accessibility

🎯 Exposure Shapes Thoughts

• Priming Example: After watching a scary movie, you’re more likely to interpret noises as threats.

• Factors Affecting Priming: Frequency, recency, relevance.

9. Analytic vs. Holistic Thinking

🌎 East vs. West

• Western (Analytic Thinking): Focuses on individual objects (separate things).

• Eastern (Holistic Thinking): Focuses on context & relationships between objects.

• Nisbett's Study: Found that culture shapes how people perceive their surroundings.

10. Factors Necessary for Controlled Thinking

🛑 Controlled Thinking Requires:

• Time

• Motivation

• Cognitive Resources

11. Metaphors & Automatic Thinking

📜 Clipboard Study:

• Heavy clipboard = People judged things as more important.

• Physical sensations shape thoughts (ex: warm drink = warm personality).

12. Judgmental Heuristics & Decision-Making

🔍 Schwarz et al. (1991) Assertiveness Study:

• People who listed 6 examples of being assertive rated themselves as more assertive than those who had to list 12 (because 12 felt harder).

13. Barnum Effect

🎭 Horoscope Effect

• People believe vague personality descriptions apply specifically to them.

14. Culture & Schemas

🌍 Impact of Culture on Thinking:

• Different cultures = different schemas (ex: Americans emphasize individuality, East Asians emphasize relationships).

15. Facilitated Communication Discredited

❌ Why? Studies showed that facilitators, not clients, controlled responses.

16. Korsakov's Syndrome

🧠 Memory Disorder = No Schemas

• People with Korsakov's Syndrome can’t form new memories and must constantly make sense of things from scratch.

17. Rumination

🔄 Overthinking in Circles

• Repeatedly focusing on negative thoughts, making depression worse.

18. Research on Automatic Goal Pursuit

🎯 Example: Priming people with words related to money made them act more selfishly in an economic game.

Chapter 4: Social Perception

1. Why Is Understanding Behavior Hard?

🔍 Mismatch Between Encoding & Decoding

• People express emotions differently and others misinterpret them.

2. Darwin (1872) & Universal Facial Expressions

😃 6 Universal Emotions: Happy, Sad, Angry, Surprised, Fearful, Disgusted.

• Evolutionary Purpose: Help with survival.

3. Susskind et al. (2008) Study

😨 Fear Expressions = Eyes Widen (Better Perception), Disgust = Nose Wrinkles (Blocks Bad Smells).

4. Cultural Display Rules & Nonverbal Behavior

🌏 Different Cultures, Different Rules

• Asian Cultures: Suppress emotions in public.

• Western Cultures: Express emotions more freely.

5. Space & Cultural Norms

🚶 Personal Space is Cultural

• Example: Americans prefer more space than people from Middle Eastern cultures.

6. Emblems

✌ Gestures With Specific Meanings

• Example: Thumbs-up in the U.S. = Good, but offensive in some cultures.

7. Thin-Slicing & First Impressions

⚡ Quick Judgments Can Be Accurate

• Ambady et al. (1993) Study: Students’ first impressions of professors in 10 seconds matched actual semester ratings.

8. Primacy Effect in Impression Formation

📜 First Impressions Matter Most

• Example: If you hear "smart, hardworking, rude," you remember smart first and view them as intelligent despite rudeness.

9. Carney, Cuddy, & Yap (2010) Power Posing Study

💪 "Fake It Till You Make It"

• Power posing increases confidence & dominance.

10. Two-Step Attribution Process

🧠 How We Judge Others:
1⃣ Automatic: "It’s their personality."
2⃣ Controlled: "Wait, maybe there’s another explanation?"

11. Self-Serving Attributions

🏆 Success? "I’m Amazing!" Failure? "Not My Fault!"

12. Fundamental Attribution Error

⚖ Blaming People, Not Situations

• Example: Assuming a rude cashier is a mean person instead of thinking they had a bad day.

13. Belief Perseverance

🔄 Holding Onto Beliefs Despite Contradictory Evidence

Final Exam Tips:

🃏 Make Flashcards! (Use images, colors, & examples).
📖 Use Mnemonics: ("Happy Sad Angry Surprised Fear Disgust" for universal emotions).
🔄 Quiz Yourself: Repetition strengthens memory.

This guide covers everything with associations to make it easier to remember. Let me know if you need any refinements! 🚀