Textbook Detailed - Flashcards
Section: Foundations of Social Cognition
Q: What is social cognition?
A: Social cognition refers to the cognitive processes and structures that influence and are influenced by social behavior.
Q: Why did Wilhelm Wundt's introspective approach fall out of favor?
A: His self-observation methods were unscientific, idiosyncratic, and not generalisable, making them unsuitable for empirical psychology.
Q: What is behaviorism in psychology?
A: Behaviorism emphasizes explaining observable behavior through reinforcement schedules, ignoring internal mental states.
Q: What is Gestalt psychology’s view of cognition?
A: It emphasizes that the whole influences the parts, meaning our perception of a situation or object is shaped by overall context (Lewin, 1951).
Section: Models of Social Cognition
Q: What is the cognitive consistency model?
A: It suggests people strive to reduce inconsistencies among their thoughts because inconsistency is psychologically uncomfortable (Abelson et al., 1968).
Q: What is the naïve scientist model?
A: It views people as rational analyzers who seek cause-effect relationships in social understanding (1970s).
Q: What is attribution in social cognition?
A: Attribution is the process of assigning causes to behavior—our own and others’.
Q: What is the cognitive miser model?
A: It suggests people use the least effortful cognition possible, relying on mental shortcuts to conserve energy (Nisbett & Ross, 1980).
Q: What is the motivated tactician model?
A: It proposes that people flexibly choose cognitive strategies depending on their goals, motives, and needs (Gollwitzer & Bargh, 1996).
Q: What is social neuroscience?
A: It explores brain activity related to social cognition and psychological processes (Harmon-Jones & Winkielman, 2007).
Section: Impression Formation
Q: What is Asch’s configural model of impression formation?
A: It emphasizes that central traits disproportionately shape our overall impression of others.
Q: What are central and peripheral traits?
A: Central traits heavily influence overall impressions; peripheral traits have minimal impact.
Q: What is the primacy effect in impression formation?
A: Earlier information has more influence than later information in forming impressions.
Q: What is the recency effect?
A: More recently presented information can disproportionately influence social judgments.
Q: Why is negative information often more impactful?
A: It is unusual/distinctive (Skowronski & Carlston, 1989) and signals potential danger.
Section: Implicit Theories and Biases
Q: What are implicit personality theories?
A: Personal, often unspoken beliefs about how certain traits co-occur in people (Bruner & Tagiuri, 1954).
Q: How does physical appearance influence impressions?
A: Attractive people are often assumed to be good, sociable, and morally better (Dion, 1972).
Q: What is social judgeability?
A: It refers to whether it is socially acceptable to judge someone, often influenced by societal norms or political correctness.
Section: Cognitive Algebra
Q: What is cognitive algebra in impression formation?
A: It’s the method by which people combine trait information to form overall impressions using summation, averaging, or weighted averaging.
Q: Describe summation in cognitive algebra.
A: Adding the valence of each trait to form a total impression.
Q: What is weighted averaging?
A: Averaging trait valences with weights based on their importance.
Section: Schemas and Categories
Q: What is a schema?
A: A mental structure representing knowledge about a concept, its attributes, and relationships.
Q: What is a script?
A: A schema for events, e.g., what typically happens in a restaurant.
Q: Name the common types of schemas.
A: Person, role, content-free, event/scripts, and self-schemas.
Q: What is a prototype?
A: A fuzzy, typical representation of category members.
Q: What is family resemblance in categorization?
A: Shared attributes that define category membership despite variation.
Section: Stereotyping and Categorisation
Q: What is perceptual accentuation?
A: Categorization enhances perceived differences between groups and similarities within them (Tajfel, 1957).
Q: What is social identity theory?
A: It explains intergroup behavior through self-categorization and group comparison.
Q: What is self-categorization theory?
A: It describes how identifying as a group member shapes behavior and identity.
Section: Schema Use and Change
Q: What is accessibility in schema use?
A: The ease with which a schema or category comes to mind (Higgins, 1996).
Q: What are three ways schemas change?
A: 1) Bookkeeping (gradual change), 2) Conversion (sudden shift), 3) Subtyping (creating a new category).
Q: What influences schema acquisition?
A: Experience, complexity of information, organization of knowledge, and the ability to accommodate inconsistencies.
Section: Social Encoding
Q: What are the four stages of social encoding (Bargh, 1984)?
A: 1) Pre-attentive analysis, 2) Focal attention, 3) Comprehension, 4) Elaborative meaning.
Q: What makes a stimulus salient?
A: Novelty, violation of expectations, goal relevance, or visual prominence.
Q: How does vividness differ from salience?
A: Vividness is a stimulus's intrinsic attention-grabbing quality (e.g. emotionally intense, concrete, or proximal).
Section: Priming and Memory
Q: What is priming in social cognition?
A: Activation of a schema or category that influences the interpretation of new information, often unconsciously.
Q: When is inconsistent information not well remembered?
A: When impressions are well-established, inconsistencies are descriptive, tasks are complex, or there’s time to reflect.
Q: How are traits stored in memory?
A: Based on causal inferences and organized along dimensions of social desirability and competence.
Section: Social Inference and Errors
Q: What are normative models of inference?
A: Idealized methods for making accurate judgments, e.g., behavioral decision theory.
Q: What is regression in social inference?
A: The tendency for early extreme impressions to average out with more information.
Q: What is base-rate neglect?
A: Ignoring statistical information in favor of vivid or specific instances.
Q: What is an illusory correlation?
A: Perceiving a relationship where none exists, often due to prior expectations or distinctiveness.
Section: Heuristics
Q: What is the representativeness heuristic?
A: Judging likelihood based on resemblance to a typical case.
Q: What is the availability heuristic?
A: Estimating likelihood based on how easily examples come to mind.
Q: What is anchoring and adjustment?
A: Starting from an initial reference point and making adjustments, often insufficiently.
Q: What is "attribution" in psychology?
A: The process of assigning a cause to our behaviour and that of others.
Q: What are the two main types of attributions?
A: Internal (dispositional) and external (situational).
Q: What is Heider's view of people as "naïve psychologists"?
A: People use rational cause-effect reasoning to understand behaviour and seek stable traits or environmental factors to predict it.
Q: What is the "correspondent inference theory" by Jones and Davis (1965)?
A: A theory where people infer that behaviour reflects a person's disposition, especially if the behaviour is freely chosen, has non-common effects, or is socially undesirable.
Q: What are the 5 cues used in correspondent inference theory?
A: 1. Freely chosen behaviour
2. Non-common effects
3. Social desirability
4. Hedonic relevance
5. Personalism
Q: What is Kelley’s covariation model of attribution?
A: A model where people use consistency, distinctiveness, and consensus information to infer the cause of behaviour.
Q: What is the "discounting principle"?
A: If a behaviour doesn’t consistently co-occur with a potential cause, that cause is discounted in favour of another.
Q: What is a "causal schema"?
A: Experience-based beliefs about how certain causes interact to produce effects, used especially when only one observation is available.
Q: What is Bem’s self-perception theory?
A: The idea that we infer our attitudes and internal states by observing our own behaviour.
Q: What three dimensions are used in achievement attribution?
A: Locus (internal/external), Stability (stable/unstable), Controllability (controllable/uncontrollable).
Q: What are "attributional styles"?
A: Individual differences in the habitual ways people explain behaviour, which may relate to personality traits or mental health.
Q: What is the "correspondence bias"?
A: The tendency to infer that behaviour reflects a person's disposition more than the situation.
Q: What is the "fundamental attribution error"?
A: The bias of overestimating internal causes for others’ behaviour and underestimating situational factors.
Q: What is the actor-observer effect?
A: The tendency to attribute our own actions to situations but others’ actions to dispositions.
Q: What is the false consensus effect?
A: The belief that our behaviour and opinions are more common than they really are.
Q: What is self-serving bias?
A: Attributing successes to internal factors and failures to external ones to protect self-esteem.
Q: What is "self-handicapping"?
A: Making external excuses in advance to protect the self from anticipated failure.
Q: What is "illusion of control"?
A: Believing we have more control over events than we actually do.
Q: What is the "belief in a just world"?
A: The belief that people get what they deserve, and deserve what they get.
Q: What is intergroup attribution?
A: Assigning causes of behaviour based on group membership, often involving bias and stereotypes.
Q: What is the "ultimate attribution error"?
A: Attributing negative outgroup behaviour internally and positive behaviour externally, while doing the opposite for the ingroup.
Q: What are social representations?
A: Shared group beliefs that simplify complex phenomena into familiar explanations.
Q: What are the three processes in rumour transmission (Allport & Postman, 1947)?
A: Levelling, sharpening, and assimilation.
Q: What is a conspiracy theory in social psychology?
A: An explanation of events through the idea of secret plots by powerful groups, often serving group identity functions.
Constructs & Historical Context
Q: What is a construct in psychology?
A: An abstract or theoretical concept not directly observable, used to explain phenomena.
Q: What effect did secularisation have on views of the self?
A: It shifted focus from fulfilment in the afterlife to personal fulfilment in this life.
Q: How did industrialisation influence identity?
A: It encouraged portable personal identities not tied to static social structures.
Q: What did the Enlightenment contribute to ideas of the self?
A: It fostered belief in constructing better identities by challenging orthodox systems.
Q: What role did psychoanalysis play in the understanding of self?
A: Freud’s theory suggested the self is partly unconscious and hidden from awareness.
🧠 Models of the Self
Q: According to Freud, how is the self controlled?
A: The id is repressed by the superego, which enforces internalised societal norms.
Q: What is the symbolic interactionist view of the self?
A: The self emerges from social interactions using shared symbols (Mead, 1934).
Q: What is the "looking-glass self"?
A: Seeing oneself based on how one thinks others perceive them (Mead, Shrauger & Schoeneman, 1979).
👤 Public & Private Selves
Q: What happens when people publicly act out a trait (e.g. emotional responsiveness)?
A: Their private self-perception shifts to match that public behaviour (Tice, 1992).
Q: What are the two types of self-awareness (Carver & Scheier, 1981)?
A: Private self (thoughts, feelings) and public self (how others see us).
Q: What can reduced self-awareness lead to?
A: Deindividuation – loss of personal identity, often linked to antisocial behaviour.
💡 Self-Knowledge & Schemas
Q: What is a self-schema?
A: A cognitive structure representing knowledge about oneself in specific contexts.
Q: What are the three types of self in self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987)?
A: Actual self, ideal self, and ought self.
Q: What emotional outcome results from an actual-ideal discrepancy?
A: Dejection (e.g., disappointment or sadness).
Q: What is regulatory focus theory (Higgins, 1997)?
A: A theory describing promotion focus (striving for ideals) vs. prevention focus (avoiding failures).
🔄 Behaviour & Social Comparison
Q: What is self-perception theory?
A: We infer our attitudes by observing our behaviour (Bem, 1967).
Q: What is the overjustification effect?
A: External rewards reduce intrinsic motivation.
Q: What is social comparison theory?
A: We compare ourselves with others to evaluate our opinions and abilities (Festinger, 1954).
Q: What is BIRGing?
A: Basking in reflected glory—associating with successful others to boost self-image.
🔁 Multiple Selves & Identities
Q: What are the three types of self according to Brewer and Gardner (1996)?
A: Individual, relational, and collective self.
Q: What are person-based, relational, and group-based identities?
A: Forms of social identity differing in focus on the individual, interpersonal, or group level.
Q: What helps people maintain a coherent sense of self?
A: Strategies like limiting contexts, revising autobiographies, and attributing change to external causes.
👥 Social Identity Theory (SIT)
Q: What is Social Identity Theory (SIT)?
A: A theory explaining group membership through categorisation, comparison, and self-definition.
Q: What is depersonalisation in SIT?
A: Viewing oneself and others as prototypes of a group rather than unique individuals.
Q: What is the meta-contrast principle?
A: A prototype is the position in a group that best contrasts with outgroup positions.
🎯 Self-Motives & Self-Esteem
Q: What are the three key self-motives?
A: Self-assessment, self-verification, and self-enhancement.
Q: What is self-affirmation theory?
A: The idea that people protect their self-concept by focusing on strengths in other areas (Steele, 1988).
Q: What is the self-enhancing triad (Gregg, 2007)?
A: Overestimating good points, control over events, and unrealistic optimism.
Q: What is self-handicapping?
A: Making excuses in advance to protect self-esteem from failure.
🧍 Self-Esteem & Identity
Q: What is the sociometer theory of self-esteem?
A: Self-esteem reflects perceived social acceptance (Baumeister & Leary, 1995).
Q: What does terror management theory propose?
A: Self-esteem helps buffer against fear of death.
Q: How do people with high vs. low self-esteem differ?
A: High self-esteem: stable, resilient, confident; Low: malleable, anxious, easily influenced.
🎭 Impression Management
Q: What are the five strategies of strategic self-presentation (Jones, 1964)?
A: Self-promotion, ingratiation, intimidation, exemplification, and supplication.
Q: What is self-monitoring?
A: Regulating how one presents oneself based on situational or personal tendencies.
🌍 Culture & Identity
Q: What’s the difference between independent and interdependent selves (Markus & Kitayama, 1991)?
A: Independent: unique, autonomous; Interdependent: relational, context-bound.
Q: How do self-activities differ in individualist vs collectivist cultures?
A: Individualist: express uniqueness; Collectivist: fit into group and maintain harmony.
1. Q: What is an attitude in social psychology?
A: A relatively enduring organisation of beliefs, feelings, and behavioural tendencies toward socially significant objects, groups, events, or symbols.
2. Q: What are the three historical phases of attitude research according to McGuire (1986)?
A: (1) Measurement and behaviour link, (2) Attitude change dynamics, (3) Cognitive/social structure and function.
3. Q: What does the Latin root of "attitude," aptus, mean?
A: Fit and ready for action.
4. Q: What are the components of the three-component model of attitude?
A: Cognitive, affective, and behavioural components.
5. Q: What is the main function of attitudes according to Fazio (1989)?
A: Object appraisal – providing an orientation toward objects.
6. Q: Name Katz’s (1960) four attitude functions.
A: Knowledge, instrumentality, ego-defence, value-expressiveness.
7. Q: What do cognitive consistency theories propose?
A: People strive to maintain internal consistency among their beliefs and attitudes.
8. Q: What is Heider’s balance theory?
A: People prefer balanced, consistent attitudes and relationships over unbalanced ones.
9. Q: What is the sociocognitive model of attitudes?
A: It views attitudes as stored evaluations in memory, combining object knowledge with an appraisal.
10. Q: What is information integration theory?
A: Attitudes are estimated by averaging positive and negative evaluations.
11. Q: What did Devine (1989) propose about implicit attitudes?
A: Attitudes can be automatic and unconscious, influencing behaviour beyond awareness.
12. Q: When are attitudes more likely to predict behaviour?
A: When attitudes are accessible, expressed privately, or supported by group norms.
13. Q: What is the theory of reasoned action?
A: Specific attitudes with normative support predict intentions, which predict behaviour.
14. Q: What is the theory of planned behaviour?
A: It adds perceived behavioural control to the theory of reasoned action.
15. Q: What is protection motivation theory?
A: Health behaviour adoption is based on balancing threat perception and coping ability.
16. Q: What is automatic activation (Fazio)?
A: When strong attitude-object links cause attitudes to be activated quickly and automatically.
17. Q: What strengthens the attitude-behaviour link?
A: Accessibility, stability, direct experience, frequent reporting.
18. Q: What are moderator variables?
A: Variables that influence the strength/direction of the attitude-behaviour link (e.g., mood, habits, social norms).
19. Q: What are four behavioural approaches to attitude formation?
A: Direct experience, classical conditioning, instrumental conditioning, observational learning.
20. Q: What is the mere exposure effect (Zajonc, 1968)?
A: Repeated exposure to an object increases its attractiveness.
21. Q: What is evaluative conditioning?
A: Attitudes change through consistent pairing of a neutral stimulus with a valenced one.
22. Q: What is self-perception theory (Bem)?
A: People infer attitudes from observing their own behaviour.
23. Q: What are common sources of attitude learning?
A: Parents, peers, mass media, and the internet.
24. Q: What are values, and how do they relate to attitudes?
A: Higher-order principles that organise attitudes; measured by importance, not favourability.
25. Q: What is an ideology?
A: A coherent set of interrelated beliefs that explain the world and guide thinking.
26. Q: What is terror management theory?
A: The idea that self-esteem helps buffer fear of death and supports ideological beliefs.
27. Q: What are social representations?
A: Shared explanations of complex phenomena that shape and reflect group attitudes.
28. Q: What is a Likert scale?
A: A scale measuring agreement with statements to evaluate attitudes.
29. Q: What is a Guttman scale?
A: A unidimensional, cumulative scale where agreeing with a strong item implies agreement with weaker ones.
30. Q: What is the semantic differential technique?
A: A rating scale using bipolar adjectives to measure connotative meaning.
31. Q: What is a major issue with physiological measures of attitude?
A: They can be affected by unrelated variables like novelty or task difficulty.
32. Q: What is the relative homogeneity effect?
A: The tendency to see outgroup members as all the same and ingroup members as diverse.
Chapter 6: Attitude Change
1. Q: What are the main models of attitude change?
A: Message learning approach, cognitive response approach, dual-process models.
2. Q: What is the Yale attitude change approach?
A: Emphasises source, message, audience, and channel in persuasion.
3. Q: What are source factors in persuasion?
A: Characteristics like credibility, attractiveness, and likability.
4. Q: What are message factors in persuasion?
A: Features like length, clarity, one- vs. two-sided arguments, and emotional appeal.
5. Q: What is the primacy-recency effect?
A: Earlier or later messages can be more persuasive depending on the delay between exposure and decision.
6. Q: What are audience factors in persuasion?
A: Individual differences like intelligence, self-esteem, and mood.
7. Q: What is the elaboration likelihood model (ELM)?
A: Proposes two routes to persuasion: central (deliberate) and peripheral (superficial).
8. Q: When is the central route in ELM used?
A: When motivation and ability to process the message are high.
9. Q: What is the heuristic-systematic model (HSM)?
A: Like ELM, but emphasises heuristic shortcuts vs. deep processing.
10. Q: What is cognitive dissonance?
A: Psychological discomfort from holding inconsistent cognitions or attitudes and behaviours.
11. Q: What reduces cognitive dissonance?
A: Changing attitudes, behaviours, or adding consonant beliefs.
12. Q: What is the foot-in-the-door technique?
A: Persuading someone to agree to a small request increases the likelihood of agreeing to a larger one.
13. Q: What is the door-in-the-face technique?
A: A large, unreasonable request is made first, making a smaller request more likely to be accepted.
14. Q: What is resistance to persuasion called?
A: Inoculation – pre-exposure to weak arguments can strengthen resistance.
15. Q: What role does forewarning play in resistance to persuasion?
A: Forewarning increases resistance by encouraging counter-arguing.
16. Q: What is reactance theory?
A: When people feel their freedom to choose is threatened, they may resist persuasion.
17. Q: What are subliminal messages?
A: Messages presented below the threshold of awareness; their persuasive power is debated.
18. Q: What are implicit attitudes?
A: Attitudes we are unaware of, but which influence behaviour.
19. Q: How are implicit attitudes measured?
A: Through techniques like the Implicit Association Test (IAT).
20. Q: What factors increase resistance to attitude change?
A: Strong prior attitudes, high involvement, personal relevance, and forewarning.