2 - Social Cognition and Social Thinking

Question 1

Social Cognition?

Answer 1

Cognitive processes and structures that influence and are influenced by social behaviour

Question 2

Gestalt Psychology?

Answer 2

perspective in which the whole influences constituent parts rather than vice versa

Question 3

Cognitive Consistency?

Answer 3

A model of social cognition in which people try to reduce inconsistency among their cognitions, because they find inconsistency unpleasant

Question 4

Naive Psychologist?

Answer 4

Model of social cognition that characterises people as using rational, scientific-like, cause– effect analyses to understand their world

Question 5

Attribution?

Answer 5

The process of assigning a cause to our own behaviour, and that of others

Question 6

Cognitive Miser?

Answer 6

A model of social cognition that characterises people as using the least complex and demanding cognitions that generally produce adaptive behaviours

Question 7

Motivated Tactician?

Answer 7

A model of social cognition that characterises people as having multiple cognitive strategies available, which they choose from based on personal goals, motives and needs

Question 8

Social Neuroscience?

Answer 8

the exploration of brain activity associated with social cognition and social psychological processes and phenomena (most recent development)

Question 9

Configuration Model?

Answer 9

Asch’s gestalt-based model of impression formation, in which central traits play a disproportionate role in configuring the final impression

Question 10

Central Traits?

Answer 10

Traits that have a disproportionate influence on the configuration of final impressions, in Asch’s configural model of impression formation

Question 11

Peripheral Traits?

Answer 11

Traits that have an insignificant influence on the configuration of final impressions, in Asch’s configural model of impression formation

Question 12

Primacy?

Answer 12

An order of presentation effect in which earlier presented information has a disproportionate influence on social cognition

Question 13

Recency?

Answer 13

An order of presentation effect in which later-presented information has a disproportionate influence on social cognition

Question 14

Personal Constructs?

Answer 14

Idiosyncratic and personal ways of characterising other people (Kelly)

Question 15

Schema?

Answer 15

Cognitive structure that represents knowledge about a concept or type of stimulus, including its attributes and the relations among those attributes

Question 16

Script?

Answer 16

Schema about an event

Question 17

Roles?

Answer 17

Patterns of behaviour that distinguish between different activities within the group, and that interrelate to one another for the greater good of the group

Question 18

Fuzzy Sets?

Answer 18

Categories are considered to be fuzzy sets of features organised around a prototype

Question 19

Prototype?

Answer 19

Cognitive representation of the typical/ideal defining features of a category

Question 20

Family Resemblance?

Answer 20

Defining property of category membership

Question 21

Exemplars?

Answer 21

Specific instances of a member of a category

Question 22

Associative Network?

Answer 22

Model of memory in which nodes or ideas are connected by associative links along which cognitive activation can spread

Question 23

Social Identity Theory?

Answer 23

Theory of group membership and intergroup relations based on self-categorisation, social comparison and the construction of a shared self-definition in terms of ingroup-defining properties

Question 24

Self-Categorisation Theory?

Answer 24

Turner and associates’ theory of how the process of categorising oneself as a group member produces social identity and group and intergroup behaviours

Question 25

Accessibility?

Answer 25

Ease of recall of categories or schemas that we already have in mind

Question 26

Bookkeeping? (Rothbart)

Answer 26

Gradual schema change through the accumulation of bits of schema-inconsistent information

Question 27

Conversion? (Rothbart)

Answer 27

Sudden schema change as a consequence of gradual accumulation of schema- inconsistent information

Question 27

Subtyping? (Rothbart)

Answer 27

Schema change arising from schema-inconsistent information, causing the formation of subcategories

Question 28

Salience?

Answer 28

Property of a stimulus that makes it stand out in relation to other stimuli and attract attention

Question 29

Vividness?

Answer 29

An intrinsic property of a stimulus on its own that makes it stand out and attract attention

Question 30

Priming?

Answer 30

Activation of accessible categories or schemas in memory that influence how we process new information

Question 31

Behavioural Decision Theory?

Answer 31

set of normative models (ideal processes) for making accurate social inferences

Question 32

Normative Models?

Answer 32

Ideal processes for making accurate social inferences

Question 33

Heuristics?

Answer 33

Cognitive shortcuts that provide adequately accurate inferences for most of us most of the time

Question 34

Representative Heuristic?

Answer 34

a cognitive shortcut in which instances are assigned to categories or types based on overall similarity or resemblance to the category

Question 35

Availability Heuristic?

Answer 35

cognitive shortcut in which the frequency or likelihood of an event is based in how quickly instances or association come to mind

Question 36

Anchoring and Adjustment?

Answer 36

heuristic in which inferences are tied to initial standards or schemas