Ch6 Flashcards
(28 cards)
social cognition
how we percieve/think about and use the information collected to make judgements about us and others in social situations.
this includes:
how we form impressions
how we explain others behavious
how we form attitudes about people (stereotyping -> prejudice/discrimination)
person perception
refers to the mental processes we use to think about and evaluate others.
includes:
physical cues
salience detection
social categorisation
physical cues/halo effect
attractive people are seen as more interesting, intelligent, independent, socially skilled, less neurodivergent and more popular than “unattractive” people
halo effect
we develop the cognitive bias of the halo effect, which means a persons physical appearance effects our expectations and beliefs
body language
non-verbal communication (facial expressions, eye contact,
posture, ETC)
(anything that is NOT verbally communicated)
salience detection
means any obvious characteristics you notice about another person, these “obvious” characteristics can therefore lead us to make assumptions about the person
social categorisation
categorising people into different groups based on common characteristics
advantage: helps us form quick impressions
disadvantage: can stop us seeing individuality
self categorisation
determining your “ingroups” and “outgroups”
ingroup: any group you belong to or identify with (cultural, friends, family)
outgroup: any group you do NOT belong to or identify with
attributions
how you explain your own an others behaviour, can be:
internal (personal) - an explanation due to the characteristics of the person involved (personality, ability, motivation, mood, effort, attitude, etc)
external (situational) - an explanation due to factors not in control of the person involved (another persons actions, environment, the task itself, luck/fate, etc)
there are three biases that affect our attributions
the fundemental attribution error
one of the biases that affect our attributions
it is the tendency to overestimate the influence of personal factors and underestimate the impact of situational factors on other people’s behaviour
more INTERNAL than EXTERNAL
we may do this because of saliency bias, the person is more noticeable than the situation, therefore we blame it on them
actor-observer bias
one of the biases that affects our attributions
it is the tendency to attribute our behaviours as more external, but others as more internal, (e.g. i failed because the test was hard, she failed because she didn’t study enough)
self-serving bias
one of the biases that affects our attributions
it is the tendency to make our successes more personal, but out failures more external
just world hypothesis
the tendency to believe the world is a just and fair place, therefore people get what they deserve
attitude
the evaluation someone makes about something, whether positive, neutral, or negative, that is consistent, lasting, and involves reactions (likes/dislikes, for/against, preferences/aversions, etc)
tri-component model of attitudes
affective - feeling
behavioural - action
cognitive - belief
this model suggests that all three components must be present before an attitude can be formed
sometimes all three components are consistent, sometimes they are not
consistency/inconsistency (tri-component model of attitudes)
consistency:
you might avoid a spider (behavioural component) because you are scared of spiders (affective component) and believe spiders can harm you (cognitive component).
inconsistency:
a person may know that dental hygiene is important and agrees that six-monthly dental visits are vital (cognitive component), but refuses to go to the dentist (behavioural component) because the sound of a dental drill makes them feel anxious (affective component).
(LaPiere’s study on the ppt)
stereotypes
a collection of beliefs we have about people who belong to a certain group, regardless of individual differences
this, of course, can cause many negative beliefs
cognitive dissonance
the guilt that someone feels when there is an inconsistency in their attitude (affective, behavioural, cognitive)
e.g. you know cheating is wrong, but you do it anyway, even if you feel guilty afterwards
3 ways to remove cognitive dissonance
- change your cognition or reduce the importance of it e.g. I didn’t really want the job I applied for so I won’t feel bad about missing out
- change the behaviour to suit the cognition e.g. take up jogging because I feel guilty about not exercising
- Add new cognitions or elements to the situation to support our beliefs e.g. it was okay to cheat because I didn’t have time to study
cognitive bias
a systematic error of judgement and faulty decision making, or, a mistaken way of thinking that typically leads to inaccurate/unreasonable conclusions
heuristics
a strategy for solving a problem or making a decision that is based on experience with similar types of problems but cannot guarantee a correct outcome
e.g. a heuristic learnt through experience in playing classic Monopoly is to purchase as many properties as possible, particularly those that enable hotel rental payments. This heuristic will not ensure winning, but using it does increase one’s chance of doing so
heuristics are used:
1. When one is faced with too much information.
2. When the time to make a decision is limited.
3. When the decision to be made is unimportant.
4. When there is access to very little information to use in decision-making.
5. When an appropriate heuristics happens to come to mind in the same moment.
prejudice
negative emotional attitude held towards members of a specific social group
typically majority (in group) holding prejudice against minority (out group)
this is an attitude
explicit and implicit prejudice
explicit: the person is AWARE they have the prejudice
implicit: the person is NOT aware they have the prejudice
discrimination
discrimination is the act of treating out-groups different due to your in-groups (or your own) prejudice
this can be negative OR positve!
(keep that in mind)
this is a behaviour
