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).