Psych 201 - Chapter 3

Social Cognition

The study of how info about people and the social world is processed and stored; more specifically it is the study of how people select, interpret, remember, and use social info to make judgements and decisions

Two basic motives that underlie human information processing

1) to perceive the world accurately
2) to view the self positively

Schemas

elementary "building blocks" of the mind; mental representations of objects or categories that people use to organize their knowledge about the social world; contain the central features of the object or category as well as assumptions about how the object or category works

the basic function of schemas

to categorize objects in ways that impose meaning and predictability

True/False:
Schemas allow us to infer nonvisible characteristics about an object based on our categorization

True

Self-Schemas

schemas about one's own personality traits, social roles, social groups, and social events

True/False:
Schemas don't influence what info people notice, think about, and remember

False

True/False:
When prompted about a lady's occupation (waitress/librarian), people were more accurate in their answers that coincided with their given occupation label than about things that did not fit the label they'd been given. WHY/WHY NOT?

True; if one is given a schema with which to categorize a person, that schema will influence what is noticed about the person and his/her environment (which in this case contained both stereotypical "librarian" things and "waitress" things)

List the 5 functions/consequences of using a schema

1) categorization
2) information gain (assumptions)
3) rapid, efficient decisions about how to behave/respond
4) selective attention
5) selective interpretation

selective attention

with a given schema in mind, one is more likely to notice information that is either consistent with the schema OR totally inconsistent with the schema (ignoring other seemingly non-relevant info)

selective interpretation

with a given schema in mind, one is more likely to find a way to interpret ambiguous information in a way that is consistent with the schema (even though it could be that way for other reasons)

associative network

large network of schemas that are linked together on basis of shared meaning and/or shared experience

spreading activation

the process by which the use of one schema increases the likelihood that other, related schemas in memory will also be used

encoding

getting info INTO memory; included attention, comprehension, and storage

retrieval

getting info OUT OF memory

accessibility

the ease with which a schema comes to awareness

2 things affect the accessibility of a schema

1) priming
2) chronic accessibility

priming

process by which the activation of a schema increases the likelihood that the schema will be activated again in the future

chronic accessibility

degree to which schemas are easily activated for an individual across time and situations
(ex: if a given schema is in a person's career/major domain, it will be more readily accessible)

how do eastern and western cultures differ in regards to interdependence and independence?

WESTERN --> emphasize individuality, freedom, and independence
EASTERN --> emphasize harmony, obedience, and interdependence within their social system

does chronic accessibility vary by culture? why/why not?

yes; if one values independence more, schemas related to that value will be more readily available; if one values interdependence more, related schemas will be more readily available to him/her

stereotype

a set of characteristics that a perceiver associates with members of a group; it is a cognitive structure containing the perceiver's beliefs that members of a group share particular attributes

True or False:
Stereotypes rarely affect our perceptions and impressions of people we meet

False... stereotypes guide our perceptions/impressions of other people!

ingroup

group to which perceiver belongs; stereotypes of this group are generally positive

outgroup

group to which perceiver does not belong; stereotypes of this group are sometimes negative

outgroup homogeneity effect

the tendency for people to overestimate the similarity within groups to which they do not belong (especially if they dislike or don't understand/know about that particular outgroup)

automatic process

a judgement or thought that's out of our control; occurs involuntarily (without intention), efficiently (with minimal cognitive resources or mental effort), and are sometimes unconscious in nature

give some examples of automatic mental processes

categorization, use of schemas, stereotypes, heuristics

controlled process

a judgement or thought that's within our control; occurs voluntarily (intentionally), uses lots of cognitive resources (mental effort), and occurs consciously

controlled mental processes often serve this purpose

to correct errors made by automatic processes

reconstructive memory

the process of trying to cognitively rebuild the past based on cues and estimates

True or False:
reconstructive memory is used for less concrete, less verifiable questions that cannot be answered solely by by direct access to objective memories

True

what can influence the reconstruction of a memory?

active schemas, goals, and expectations during retrieval of pertinent information can influence the outcome of the reconstructed memory

True or False:
Reconstructive Memory provides very accurate recounts of memories

False; it's common that, during reconstruction, memories become skewed and distorted to support active schemas/goals/expectations, etc

autobiographical memory

stored info about the self, such as goals, personality traits, past experience, and other qualities

True or False:
reconstructive memories are estimates of what occurred in the past

True

True or False:
autobiographical memory is based on reconstruction and false memories can implant into people's autobiographical minds

True

Why do people generally rate their current self more positively than their past self?

this occurs because of humans' innate desire to view the current self positively (i.e., having improved over time)

what is the single largest cause of false convictions?

erroneous eyewitness testimonies

True or False:
People can identify other people in a lineup, regardless of race

False; people are better at identifying others from their own racial group

In regards to eyewitness testimony:
_____ is a strong indicator of accuracy.
_____ is not a strong indicator of accuracy.

speed,
confidence

what two types of line-ups can reduce eyewitness errors?

blank lineup
sequential lineup

heuristics

informal rules or shortcuts that are used to make everyday (common) judgements

True or False:
The use of heuristics involves in-depth thought processing to make a decision

False; heuristics allow you to "bypass" in-depth thought processes while making everyday decisions

Cognitive Miser Model

a view of info processing that assumes people usually rely on heuristics to make judgements and only engage in careful, thoughtful processing when necessary

availability heuristic

the tendency to base a judgement on how easily one can generate relevant examples

are availability heuristics sensible? why/why not?

yes; because the actual frequency of an event's occurance will usually be related to the ease with which it's brought to mind.

representativeness heuristic

the tendency to judge the likelihood that a target belongs to a category based on how similar the target is to the typical features of the category

how are representativeness heuristics and schemas inter-related?

we use our schemas as tools/guides when making judgements about something by the process of represenativeness heuristics

illusory correlations

the belief that two variables are related to one another when, in fact, they are not related

what's a common example of an illusory correlation in sports?

the "hot hand".... it's not usually that this person is making every shot; instead you "see what you want to see".... so if you want him/her to be "on fire", the shots made are the ones that will be remembered

hindsight bias

the tendency for people to overestimate the predictability of known outcomes

what are two reasons why the hindsight bias occurs?

1) people reinterpret pre-outcome info based on their knowledge of the outcome
2) people generate explanations that would not have occurred to them if they hadn't known the outcome

Perseverance Effect

the tendency for people to make self-evaluations that are consistent with given info, even after it has been discredited

what in-class example of the perseverance effect did we witness?

among those who were asked to list 12 assertive actions, people who struggled to list 12 naturally felt less assertive than their peers who easily provided 6 assertive actions for which they'd been asked

How does a researcher reduce the perseverance effect in study participants?

Inform participants of this effect, and ask them to consider the opposite outcome (what if they'd been in the group that was only asked to list 6 assertive events...)

Counterfactual Thoughts

reflections on how past events might have turned out differently

True or False:
Counterfactual thoughts don't have much affect on emotions, beliefs, or behaviors

False

Upward Counterfactual Thoughts

reflections on how past events might have turned out better; occur out of a desire to improve

Downward Counterfactual Thoughts

reflections on how past events might have turned out worse; make people feel fortunate

what is the most common type of counterfactual thoughts?

upward counterfactual thoughts

True or False:
Upward Counterfactual Thoughts can be adaptive (positive) or maladaptive (negative)

True

Upward or Downward Counterfactual Thought:
"I was supposed to work at the WTC on 9/11 but called in sick"

Downward Counterfactual Thought

Upward or Downward Counterfactual Thought:
"If I would have brought my child to the ER sooner, he'd still be alive"

Upward Counterfactual Thought

Upward or Downward Counterfactual Thought:
"I could have won the gold if I'd gotten more sleep before the race"

Upward Counterfactual Thought

Upward or Downward Counterfactual Thought:
"I am thrilled to have earned the bronze medal amongst these amazing athletes"

Downward Counterfactual Thought

Self-Serving Judgements

Perceptions or comparison that enhance the perceived worth of the self

choose one:
We put (high/low) value on positive labels that apply to us.

high (this is a self-serving judgement that helps maintain & protect our self-worth and positive self-image)

choose one:
We put (high/low) value on negative labels that apply to us.

low (this is a self-serving judgement that downplays the importance of a particular trait to protect our self-worth and positive self-image)

choose one:
We put (high/low) value on positive labels that don't apply to us.

low (this is a self-serving judgement that downplays the importance of a particular trait to protect our self-worth and positive self-image)

choose one:
We put (high/low) value on negative labels that don't apply to us.

high (this is a self-serving judgement that helps boost or maintain & protect our self-worth and positive self-image)

Self-Serving Perceptions of Others

when people believe that they will interact with or be dependent on another individual, they tend to view that individual more positively than someone with whom they don't expect to interact

Self-Serving Activation of Stereotypes

People selectively activate stereotypes to enhance or protect their own self-worth

What is this an example of?:
When a man receives negative feedback from his female supervisor, he questions her ability/credentials to assess his work... maybe he thinks she's just a "power-hungry feminist"

This is an example of self-serving activation of stereotypes

True or False:
Negative moods (i.e. sad, depressed) evoke more negative stereotypes of minority groups.

True

Mood-Congruent Recall

Positive feelings/mood activate positive memories;
Negative feelings/mood activate negative memories

True or False:
Positive moods increase the tendency to use detailed info when making decisions

False; people tend to use heuristics (with little thought processing) when they are in a positive mood; example: manic-depressive (bipolar) individuals struggle to make good decisions when in a manic state.

True or False:
People use their mood as a relevant piece of info for judgements of satisfaction or evaluation (ARE THERE EXCEPTIONS?)

True; EXCEPT when there is an obvious external cause of their mood (i.e. just returned from a funeral)