Comprehensive Notes on Social Psychology and Social Cognition

Social Psychology

• Albert Bandura Quote:
• "Psychology cannot tell people how they ought to live their lives. It can however, provide them with the means for effecting personal and social change."

Chapter 2: Social Learning & Social Cognition

Definition of Learning

• Learning: A relatively permanent change in behavior or mental processes due to experience.
• Important note: What is learned can also be unlearned.

Social Learning Theory

• Social Learning Theory: People learn by observing others. Examples of models include:
• Teachers
• Parents
• Siblings
• Peers
• Influencers, athletes, celebrities
• Learning is a process of mimicking behavior observed in others, also known as social-cognitive theory.

Classical Conditioning

• Definition: A form of learning where a neutral stimulus acquires the ability to evoke a reaction after being paired with another stimulus.
• Key Terms:
• Unconditioned Stimulus (US): Evokes a response without prior learning.
• Conditioned Stimulus (CS): A previously neutral stimulus that gains significance through association with the US.

Subliminal Conditioning

• Occurs without conscious awareness; may affect attitudes subtly (e.g., Alzheimer’s patients showing attitude changes without recalling stimuli).
• Illusion of Truth Effect: Repetition creates familiarity, leading to positive attitudes (used in advertising).

Operant Conditioning

• Definition: Learning based on consequences which either increase or decrease the likelihood of a behavior being repeated.

Instrumental Conditioning

• Law of Effect: Responses followed by positive outcomes become reinforced; negative outcomes reduce the likelihood.
• Example: Children rewarded for expressing “right” views.

Associational Learning

• Occurs when an object/event is linked to an automatic behavior or emotion.
• Important in understanding biases, such as racial prejudices formed by media portrayals.

Observational Learning (Bandura's Research)

• Children exposed to aggressive behavior in videos displayed more aggression in their play.
• Demonstrates how behavior can be learned through modeling (i.e., learning through observation).
• Examples:
• Yoga students learn postures by observing instructors.
• Symbolic modeling: behaviors learned through media.

Social Comparison and Reference Groups

• Social Comparison: Assessing oneself concerning others to validate perceptions of reality.
• Reference Groups: Groups whose opinions and behaviors we identify with, influencing our own attitudes.

Schema Theory

• Schema: Cognitive frameworks that help organize and interpret information.
• Two key processes:
• Assimilation: Incorporating new information into existing schemas.
• Accommodation: Changing schemas to fit new information.
• Characteristics:
  • Low-effort and non-conscious, accessed based on relevance.

Cognitive Biases

• Confirmation Bias: Preference for information that confirms existing beliefs.
• Pygmalion Effect: Expectations influence others’ behaviors, fostering a self-fulfilling prophecy.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: When expectations lead to behaviors that cause those expectations to come true.
• Example: Teacher’s expectations affecting student performance.

The Perseverance Effect

• Beliefs persist despite contradictory evidence, often reinforcing self-fulfilling schemas.
• Influences social expectations and behaviors in various contexts (work, friendships).

Cognitive Processing

Automatic vs Controlled Cognition

• Automatic Processing: Quick, out-of-awareness thought processes (e.g., driving a familiar route).
• Controlled Processing: Reflective and deliberate thinking, requiring conscious effort.

Automatic Processing Risks

• While it aids efficiency, it can lead to errors and biases, such as stereotypes and misjudgments.

Priming

• Definition: Exposure to one stimulus influences responses to another; affects accessibility in memory.
• Moods can prime memory retrieval, coloring emotional interpretations of situations.

Heuristics

• Definition: Mental shortcuts that simplify decision-making but can lead to errors.
• Types:
  • Representativeness Heuristic: Judging based on perceived similarities.
  • Availability Heuristic: Assessing probabilities based on ease of recall.
  • Anchoring and Adjustment: Initial values unduly influence final estimates
  • False Consensus Bias: Overestimating the extent of shared beliefs among others.

Overconfidence Bias

• Tendency to overestimate one’s accuracy in judgments, with implications for decision-making in various critical situations (e.g., legal matters, personal forecasts).
• Notable consequences in historical failures (e.g., Titanic sinking).