Cognition I

Question 1

Cognitive development

Answer 1

Piaget’s stages of cognitive development emphasize the impact of a child’s increasing ability to think in terms of schemas.

Schemas = ways of interacting with objects in the world and ideas about those objects.

Accommodation = when new information causes children to modify their schemas.

Question 2

Piaget accomodation

Answer 2

when new information causes children to modify their schemas.

Question 3

Paiget’s schemas

Answer 3

think= mental categories

Question 4

Sensorimotor

Stage 1

Answer 4

Sensorimotor

Age: 0–2

Characteristics

No schemas; the contents of infants’ thoughts are related exclusively to their current sensations; out-of- sight, out-of-mind.

Related concepts

Object permanence: After ~8 months, infants begin to understand that an object does not cease to exist when out-of-sight.

Question 5

Preoperational

Stage 2

Answer 5

Preoperational

Age: 2–7

Characteristics-

Child learns to use language and ideas/schemas to represent objects in the world but cannot yet relate these ideas to one another.

EGOCENTRIC= kids are super egocntric self centered, tjey maintain an egocentric world view adn have difficuty taking the persepctive of otehrs!

Related concepts-

Conservation: A child may not understand that matter is conserved when it is moved into big or small containers.

Conservation definition= Before a certain age, two kids want glass of milk can pour into two glasses and say look now we have twice as much and
they will not blink becuase they do not understand conservation of matter! an older kid could get on bard of sharing the choclate milk becuase they will
know it is less chocolate milk usually by age of 5 or so kids do NOT make conservation errors they understand that if you pour the
chocolate milk into two glasses they wil be getting half, understanding conservation of matter!

SAY STOPS AT AGE 5***

Question 6

Concrete Operational

Answer 6

Concrete Operational

Age: 7-12

Characteristics-

Children learn to think logically about representations of concrete objects but not abstract ideas.

Related Concepts-

No more conservation errors.

inductive reasoning is developed, kids become more lgoical in concrete thinking. deductive reasonign the reverse is not developed yet. They now understand conservation= quantiity remains the same despite changes in its shape or container

Question 7

Formal Operational

Answer 7

Formal Operational

Age: 12+

Characteristics-

Adolescents can think logically about both concrete and abstract representations.

Related concepts-

Can now think about hypothetical situations.

Question 8

Theory of mind

Answer 8

Refers to a child’s developing capacity for social cognition—for understanding the motivation for his own behavior and intuiting others’ mental states.

• Preferences:* understanding that people’s preferences vary; “My favorite dessert is a chocolate chip cookie, but Sally prefers ice cream.” Begins at 18 months.
• Beliefs:* understanding that people act based not only on what they can observe but also on what they believe; “You told me that Sally thinks her favorite toy is in the backyard. Therefore, Sally will look for that toy in the backyard, not in the playroom.” Begins at 3 years.
• False beliefs:* understanding that different people may have different beliefs, and that beliefs can be true or false; “I saw you move the toy from the shelf to the box under the bed, but Sally didn’t. Therefore, Sally will look for the toy on the shelf, not under the bed.” Begins at 4 years.

Question 9

Theory of mind 2

Answer 9

• kids understanding other kids have preferences, sally likes ice cream I like chocolate chip
• next step is understanding that people act not only on what they are directly observing in teh moment but also what they believe STARTS AT 3 years old
• ex. sally will look for toy in backyard not playroom, developing concept of sally being anohter person this is what is going on in her mind, her beliefs
• around 4 yrs of age other ppl have beliefs dont have ot be true, can hold beliefs that re faluse and act on false beleifs ex. I saw you move box of toy
  from shelf to bed, but sally didnt so she will look for htetoy on the shelf where she thinks the toy is

all of this is called theory o fmind, the basis for understanding other people’s point of view. ohter people have a point of view and trying to figure out
what it might be

Question 10

Cultural influences shape which skills a child learns and how fast she learns them.

Answer 10

Examples:

• Different cultures have different number systems.
• Some cultures have many different words for a concept while others have just one.
• Different cultures encourage different conversational styles, and this affects children’s memory development; e.g., studies suggest that relative to Asian parents, American parents may talk more with their children about past events, and on average, autobiographical memory may develop earlier in American children, while other cognitive processes may develop later.

Question 11

Zone of proximal development

Answer 11

= refers to the range of cognitive accomplishments that are within reach for a child but that cannot be achieved without guidance from an adult.

-different cultures have different styles of monitoring a child’s progress and frustration and teaching accordingly.

• cognitive tasks challenging for kids but not so challenging that they could never master is the ideal way for a kid to progress
• series of challenges things aren’t too easy but they are not too hard
• refers to range of challenges where kid could struggle for a while, but ultimately solve the puzzle from hints from an adult which would enable them to move to the next stage of whatever that kind of skill set is**

Question 12

Parenting styles

Answer 12

Parenting styles: can influence cognitive and social development; four types:

Authoritarian: highly demanding and controlling of children’s behavior; not very responsive to their needs.

Permissive: not very demanding/controlling but highly responsive; few rules.

• think kourtney kardashian, highly responsive to what kid wants but no rules anything goes

Authoritative: highly demanding/controlling but also highly responsive to children’s opinions and requests.

• think has a v, v for love so parents were responsive** diffrence btw this and authoritarian

Disengaged: undemanding, few rules, but also unresponsive; overwhelmed.

Question 13

Nature versus nurture fallacy:

Answer 13

Nature versus nurture fallacy: Cognitive development and intelligence are always influenced by genetics (heredity), environmental factors, and interactions between the two.

cannot separate the two, always a combination

Question 14

Heredity

Answer 14

Studies suggest that intelligence—especially fluid intelligence—is strongly influenced by genetics.

Twin studies: compare IQ scores for identical (monozygotic) twins and fraternal (dizygotic) twins.

-Both types of twins share similar environments but identical twins share 100% of their DNA vs. 50% for fraternal twins; IQ scores are much more similar in identical twins.

Adoption studies: compare IQ scores for identical twins who were adopted by different families vs. twins who grew up together with their biological parents.

-IQ scores are still closely related whether or not the twins grew up together.

Question 15

cognitive changes in late adulthood

Answer 15

Sensory decline (e.g., speed and accuracy in identifying spoken words or letters on an optometrist’s chart) occurs relatively late in life (70+) but can occur rapidly thereafter.

Crystallized intelligence—knowledge accumulated over a lifetime—usually does not decline with age.

Fluid intelligence—strategies for solving novel problems—declines steadily beginning around age 30.

Question 16

Sensory decline

Answer 16

Sensory decline (e.g., speed and accuracy in identifying spoken words or letters on an optometrist’s chart) occurs relatively late in life (70+) but can occur rapidly thereafter.

Question 17

Crystallized intelligence

Answer 17

Crystallized intelligence—knowledge accumulated over a lifetime—usually does not decline with age.

• Implicit memory: e.g., how to ride a bike., think nonverbal, also called nondeclarative
• Semantic memory: e.g., knowledge about history, “book learning.”

“crystallized form” not going anywhere

Question 18

Fluid intelligence

Answer 18

Fluid intelligence—strategies for solving novel problems—declines steadily beginning around age 30.

• Reaction time tests
• Reasoning ability tests
• Memory tests

Question 19

selective attention

Answer 19

• Attending to some inputs and not others can involve at least two processes:

Orienting: selects for particular sensory inputs by physically adjusting the sensory machinery, e.g., turning your head or rolling your eyes toward the source of a loud bang.

Priming: selects for particular inputs through mental adjustments of how the mind perceives; can be bottom-up or top-down.

Question 20

bottom up priming

Answer 20

• Bottom-up priming: “data-driven” and unconscious.
• If you see a list of words related to cats, you will be able to locate an image of a cat in a complex visual scene more quickly.

priming someone tells you list of words whiskers, milk etc then given visual scene to look at and asked to find the cat, you will be
primed* to pick up the cats- THINK HOLT THRASHER****

top-down priming= expecting to see the most beautiful watermellons at the supermarket in your life, you will pay more attention to the
water mellons*

Question 21

top-down priming

Answer 21

Top-down priming: driven by expectations and usually conscious and intentional.

If you are expecting to see an image of a cat, you will locate it more quickly in a complex visual scene, but this comes with a cost—you may be slower to locate an image of a car.

Spatial priming: an example of top-down priming; you can attend to a particular location in space and you will be faster to respond when a change occurs in that location.

Question 22

Divided attention

Answer 22

Simultaneously attending to two aspects of visual scene comes with a cost:

•

•

Feature selection vs. conjunction selection: e.g., If you are shown a series of images containing many colored horizontal or vertical lines, it is easier to attend to just one feature (orientation: “respond when you see a vertical line”) than to a conjunction of features (orientation and color: “respond when you see a vertical line that is also red”).

Feature selection feels effortless and occurs just as quickly when there are 100 lines as when there are just four lines.

Conjunction selection is effortful and performance declines when there are more items to attend to.

Many studies have documented the costs of divided attention.

• Examples: Laws against texting and cell phone use while driving were motivated by studies that showed drivers were slower to respond when they were simultaneously attending to a conversation.

Question 23

Divided attention 2

Answer 23

in grammer conjunctions are linker words like and, so for conjeunction task
you are asked to find shapes that are RED AND X, so as soon has have to sort for two things
we are MUHC MUCH Slower, as soon as two critera get much slower*

this has morphed into research on why we are terrible at multitasking* like driving
and talking on a cell phone, very bad at divided attention* b/c we have to do two things*

Feature selection vs. conjunction selection: e.g., If you are shown a series of images containing many colored horizontal or vertical lines, it is easier to attend to just one feature (orientation: “respond when you see a vertical line”) than to a conjunction of features (orientation and color: “respond when you see a vertical line that is also red”).

Feature selection feels effortless and occurs just as quickly when there are 100 lines as when there are just four lines.

Conjunction selection is effortful and performance declines when there are more items to attend to.

Question 24

Kinds of problems

Answer 24

Well-defined problems: The goal is clear and so are the options that are available for accomplishing that goal. • E.g., solving an anagram.

no ambiguiuty

• Ill-defined problems: The exact goal and the options for achieving it are unclear, although characteristics of the goal may be known.
• E.g., goal = world peace, characteristics = no war, but what else?- need to make it more actionable, has to be more specific than that

Impediments to problem solving:

• Incorrect assumptions.
• Bad habits.

Question 25

PROBLEM-SOLVING STRATEGIES:

Answer 25

PROBLEM-SOLVING STRATEGIES:

1. Means-end analysis
2. Hierarchical organization
3. Automaticity
4. Analogy
5. Restructuring

Question 26

Means-end analysis

Answer 26

PROBLEM-SOLVING STRATEGIES:

• Means-end analysis: “What is the difference between my current state and my goal?” and “what means do I have for reducing this difference?”
• Example: I want to go to the store to buy new shoes.

so compare current state to goal and figuring out how to get there*

Question 27

Hierarchical organization

Answer 27

=Break the problem down into subroutines; e.g., locate my car keys, get driving directions to the store, drive to the store, select new shoes, purchase new shoes.

even if not aware of it, some part of you doing this heirarchical thing, pick out shoes, try on teh shoes buy the shoes the step by step

Question 28

Automaticity:

Answer 28

Automaticity: Some subroutines can be engaged without any mental effort; e.g., driving a well-learned route to the shoe store; frees cognitive resources for other more demanding subroutines.

for this you are not actually thinking about these things

Question 29

Analogy

Answer 29

Identify similarities between this problem and a previously solved problem and try adapting that solution

some features that make it similar enough can spark ideas to deal with problem dealign with now

Question 30

Restructuring

Answer 30

Rethink your understanding of the problem to highlight sub-goals or identify new analogies.

restructuring- analogous problem you know how solve restructuring, you restructure

Question 31

judgment and availability heuristic

Answer 31

Nobel Prize Sidebar: Daniel Kahneman won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002 for work with Amos Tversky that integrated insights on human judgment and decision making under uncertainty into economic science.

Judgment = steps used to evaluate evidence and draw conclusions.

Can be helped or hindered by judgment heuristics: shortcuts that enhance efficiency but occasionally lead

to errors; examples:

The availability heuristic: We tend to judge how often something occurs based on how easily examples of the thing come to mind.

E.g., You are a psychiatrist treating a patient for depression and you want to estimate the likelihood that your patient will attempt suicide; because many examples of depressed patients attempting suicide come easily to mind, you predict that it is likely that your patient will attempt suicide.

Problems: Your personal experience may not be representative of the world as a whole; sometimes examples of common events may not come to mind easily, or vice versa.

Question 32

The representativeness heuristic

Answer 32

When asked to categorize individuals or objects, we tend to rely on whether they resemble our idea of the category as a whole.

E.g., Your mother has made an appointment with a new doctor whom you do not know and asks to assess the doctor’s competence using information available online; because the doctor went to a good school, dresses professionally, runs an office with state-of-the-art equipment, and has three good patient reviews, you tell your mother that this is a “good doctor.”

Problems: Sometimes categories are heterogeneous; many “good doctors” did not go to prestigious schools and vice versa.

Question 33

DUAL PROCESS THEORY:

Answer 33

Emphasizes two types of thinking that contribute to judgment; aka intuition vs. reasoning.

• System 1/fast thinking: fast, effortless, and efficient; relies on heuristics and associations.
• System 2/slow thinking: slow, laborious, but less prone to error; relies on deliberation, logic, and rule- driven reasoning.

Question 34

heuristics=

Answer 34

heuristics= shortcuts*

Question 35

availability vs representativeness

Answer 35

availability- highly highly influenced by how miuch things come to mind, cancer doctor derm preson likely to overestime how common moles become cancerous becuase so many examples come to mind of moles that were cancerous and became a problem; but psychologiclaly if we can think of a lot of examples of something right off the bat we think it is common

representativeness heuristic- asked to make judgments about an individual or thing rely on category part of our mind, if we wanted to judge whether a lawyer is excellent or not we may be swayed by the diploma on is wall if they went to Yale law school; we automatically think better than others and a great lawyer, but this can lead us astray even though it allows us to think of things quicker

Question 36

Sources of errors in judgment

Answer 36

• Confirmation bias/belief perseverance
• hindsight bias
• Faulty logic
• Loss aversion
• Affective forecasting
• Overconfidence
• Functional fixedness
• A self-serving bias
• fundamental attribution error

Question 37

Confirmation bias/belief perseverance

Answer 37

We are slow to revise our existing beliefs → we tend to quickly accept evidence that is consistent with them and reject evidence that contradicts them.

Confirmation bias, the tendency to favor information that confirms existing beliefs, both in the search for evidence and in the interpretation of evidence.

definition= you already are focused on an issue, so you look for confirmation that it is true

Confirmation bias has also been found to be stronger for emotionally charged topics, such as mistreatment of children.

Question 38

The hindsight bias (also called “creeping determinism”)

Answer 38

The hindsight bias (also called “creeping determinism”) names a tendency for people to erroneously inflate (in retrospect) their own ability to have been able to predict an event, based upon already observed outcomes that could not have been accurately predicted in advance.

• Example: One of many couples who have engaged in minor conflicts gets a divorce. An acquaintance says: “I knew it all along; they were going to get divorced!”

Question 39

Faulty logic

Answer 39

When asked to evaluate a syllogism—i.e., whether a conclusion follows logically from a set of premises—people tend to focus erroneously on whether the conclusion seems plausible, ignoring the premises.

premise-a previous statement or proposition from which another is inferred or follows as a conclusion.

“if the premise is true, then the conclusion must be true”

Question 40

Loss aversion

Answer 40

People tend to weight losses more strongly than gains, so they usually take steps to minimize losses, even if those steps are risky.

Question 41

Affective forecasting:

Answer 41

People can usually predict the valence (good or bad) of their emotional response to an event but they tend to overestimate the duration and magnitude of their responses.

new job’s happiness doesn;t last forever

ppl good at predicting if something will make you happy or sad, but bad at predicting how long it will last, feeling doesnt last

Question 42

Overconfidence

Answer 42

People tend to overrate their confidence in their judgments relative to the objective accuracy of those judgments.

• The “Lake Wobegon” better-than-average effect.

better def: Overconfidence refers to the phenomenon that people’s confidence in their judgments and knowledge is higher than the accuracy of these judgments

Question 43

Functional fixedness

Answer 43

Functional fixedness: people tend to have trouble imagining novel uses for familiar objects.

Question 44

self-serving bias

Answer 44

A self-serving bias serves to elevate or maintain an individual’s self-esteem:

• Positive events are generally attributed to an individual’s own personal qualities (otherwise known as dispositional attribution).
• Negative events are attributed to external factors (otherwise known as situational attribution); relates to the idea of locus of control. See Behavioral II: Chapter 2: Self and Identity).
• Example: A win at a trivia contest is attributed to a group’s natural intelligence; a loss is attributed to bad questions from the questioner.
• For depressed individuals, the self-serving bias may become inverted, wherein negative events are attributed to an individual’s own character and positive events to external/situational factors.

Question 45

The fundamental attribution error

Answer 45

The fundamental attribution error refers to the tendency of individuals to attribute the behaviors of others primarily to dispositional (internal) factors intrinsic to another person’s character or personality.

•Examples:

“Megan made the soccer team over me; coach must really like her more.” (Whereas perhaps in truth Megan is just a better player.)

“Anouk hasn’t greeted me in the morning this week; she’s just an unpleasant person!” (Whereas perhaps in truth Anouk has suffered a personal loss.) (See also: Behavioral Sciences Study Outlines Part 2: Chapter 3 [Interacting with and Understanding Others]: Attribution Theory).

Question 46

The actor-observer bias (also called the actor-observer asymmetry)

Answer 46

The actor-observer bias (also called the actor-observer asymmetry) refers to the tendency of people to judge (in their role as “observers”) the behavior of others (in the others’ roles as “actors”) by different standards than one judges one’s own behaviors. Tends to be amplified in cases of negative outcomes.

• Under actor-observer bias, individuals tend to attribute their own behaviors to situational (external) factors and the behavior of others to dispositional (internal) factors.
• Example: “Nathan and I just argued a ton over that news item about the Middle East; he’s just a jerk about it, but I’m feeling stressed and tired—that’s why I argued so much!”

Question 47

Summary: Three types of attribution bias:

Answer 47

1. Self-serving bias: bias toward internal locus of control in our own behavior and outcomes.
2. Fundamental attribution error: bias toward internal locus of control in others’ behavior and outcomes.
3. Actor-observer bias: self-serving bias for oneself; fundamental attribution error for others.

Question 48

actor- observer bias 2

Answer 48

we judge ppl by different standards than we judge ourselves

we tend to think it is because they are inherently jerks; when we know we are acting badly we are more liekly to say “But I am feelign stressed and tired that is why I am being a jerk”

Question 49

Q 12

Sample AAMC

Which piece of information from the passage is LEAST relevant for determining the possible influence of confirmation bias on child abuse diagnosis?

A. Parental concealment of child abuse from physicians

B. Physician attention to evidence of child abuse

C. Challenges posed by interpreting child abuse symptoms

D. Emotional sensitivities around child abuse as a subject

Answer 49

A- answer, only if physcian never sees symptom so cannot interept it. Confirmation bias, the tendency to favor information that confirms existing beliefs, both in the search for evidence and in the interpretation of evidence. Confirmation bias has also been found to be stronger for emotionally charged topics, such as mistreatment of children. Parental concealment is a social interaction factor, related to impression management, rather than a cognitive processing factor.

B. if in their mind and traied much more liekly to be like those bruises look suspcious. Confirmation bias, the tendency to favor information that confirms existing beliefs, both in the search for evidence and in the interpretation of evidence. Confirmation bias is clearly relevant to the aspects of a case to which a physician pays attention.

C. The diagnosis can be affected by confirmation bias in both the search for evidence of child abuse and the interpretation of evidence.- huge grey area, baby with broken leg, room for physicians bias to creep in

D. Confirmation bias has been found to be stronger for emotionally charged topics, such as mistreatment of children–> also comes into play if acting super weird parents feel very sensitive and weird adn they can also lead ot clinicians feeling suspicious about things * so those can all rule out can contribtue to confirmation bias

definition= you already are focused on an issue, so you look for confirmation that it is true

Question 50

other errors : base rate fallacy

Answer 50

A base rate fallacy is committed when a person judges that an outcome will occur without considering prior knowledge of the probability that it will occur. They focus on other information that isn’t relevant instead. Imagine that I show you a bag of 250 M&Ms with equal numbers of 5 different colors. Then, I ask you what the probability is I will pick a green one while my eyes are closed? I also tell you that green M&Ms are my favorite and yesterday I picked out twice as many green M&Ms than red ones. If you ignored the fact that there are 50 of each color, and instead focused on the fact that I picked out twice as many green M&Ms than red yesterday, you have commited a base rate fallacy because what I did yesterday is irrelevant information.

Question 51

physical attractiveness stereotype

Answer 51

a specific type of halo effect bias; people tend to rate attractively individuals more favorable for personality traits and characteristics than they do those who are less attractive

Question 52

just world phenomenon (added)

social perception

Answer 52

the tendency to believe that the world is fair and people get what they deserve; when bad things happen to others, it is the result of their actions or their failure to act, and when good things happen to us, it is because we deserve it

“You got what you deserve”. “you got what was coming to you”.

The “Just World Hypothesis” - Predictable result as a consequence for our actions.

Noble actions performed/good deeds by an individual are rewarded, while evil acts/deeds are always punished.

o Ex: our college Tom does a noble-act (helps an old lady cross the road. We would expect a predictable appropriate consequence such as a reward.

o Ex: Tom performs an evil act, he gets punished.
o Suggests there is some kind of special force, “cosmic justice” at play.

o Reason people think in this way because it helps individuals rationalize their or others good/fortune or misfortune. Also allows people to feel like they can influence their world – easier to engage in goal oriented behavior and plan for the future. Ex. if I go to school I will be rewarded in life. If I work hard, I will get what I want. If I do the right thing, I will get rewarded.

o However, just-world doesn’t always hold true – people are not always rewarded for their actions and punished for their evil deeds. Ex. Using this just-world hypothesis we may blame people in poverty for being poor because they deserve it. Or victims of domestic violence for being victims because they deserved it.

Question 53

halo effect

Answer 53

• when one trait of a person or thing is used to make an overal judgement of that person or thing
• when piece of information oversahdows all else

The halo effect is tendency people have inherently good/bad natures, rather than looking at individual characteristics. Ex. the physical attractiveness stereotype – believe attractive people have more positive personality traits.

Ex. Jim, our initial overall impression is in the middle. His accounting rating/skills is very high, sales are negative, and leadership is moderately good.

o Halo effect – as if someone has a halo over their head. If we have an overall positive first impression, we start to analyze all their skills based on our overall first impression rather than just skills. They get an overall boost in each of their skills because of our impression.

Ex: Now imagine, he has overall very good impression, even though he has the same actual skillset. We would perceive that the person is much better at other skills not demonstrated. Regardless of evidence, we may perceive he’s actually pretty good at sales instead of below average, We may say he is extraordinary in leadership and accounting instead of just good.

o Halo effect often happens with celebrities, and greater attractiveness.
§ Ex; we think attractive people are kind, good leaders, hospitable without actual evidence.

Question 54

ecolocgical fallacy

Answer 54

drawing conclusions /inferences about specific individuals based on aggregate data on the larger group. making inferences about individuals on information abotu groups that are not to be trusted

Ex. of course he likes soccer, after all its the most popular sport in the world! The university of chicago produces the finest scholars in the country, so john who got his phd hter emust be one of the finest scholars in teh country”

ex. if we find a national “aggregate: that republcians vote more frequently than dems that does not guarantee that every indiviudal republican we meet is going to vote and every individual that we meet is not going to vote

Question 55

hasty generalization

Answer 55

the logical fallacy occurs when someone draws a conclusion based on just a small sample size. in other words, the conclusion is supported by insufficient evidence.

to generalize from a few/single observation”my friend has been eating only burgers, pizza, and fries for 10 years adn he has no health issues. Therefore, fast food is not unhealthy for you.”there is no drug problem at our school I talked to 30 ppl from my class and none of them do drugs”

Question 56

no true scotsman fallacy

Answer 56

an attempt to defend a generalization of a certain group by exlcuding any controversial examples for not being “no scotsman puts sugar on his porridge. “but my uncle is a scotsman and he puts sugar on his porridge” “but no true scotsman puts sugar on his porridge”

Question 57

appeal to unreliable authority

Answer 57

this fallacy occurs when the source cited as a reason to believe a claim is either:

1. not a reliable authority actually
2. a reliable authority on some subjects, but no the one in question.
3. or is asserting a claim that is quite controversial even among relaible authorities in the field ex. “I read in national eqniquere that acteress Jamie Lee curtis is really a man, or Dr. X is a nobel prize winning physicist, and he says that drining lemonAade can cure cancer”

Question 58

selective observation/cherry picking

Answer 58

the enumeration of favorable circumstances or counting the hits and forgetting the misses. ex. a state boasts of hte presidents it has produced but is silent about its serial killers

Question 59

reductionism

Answer 59

inferences about groups based on info about indivduals that is not to be trusted, cannot go from individual to group assumption

ex. the majority of people in Country X cherish democratic ideals, conclusion: country x is a democratic society or every ingredient in this drink tastes great therefore the drink tastes great when ingredients are choclate cake, lemonate etc not a sound statement

Question 60

spurious relationship

Answer 60

a relationship that appaers to exist at face value , but that disappears when you control for another variable

Question 61

post hoc fallacy

Answer 61

assuming that an event must have been the cause of a later event b/c it happened earlier ex. the rooster crows always before the sun rises, therfore the crowing rooster causes the sun to rise

Question 62

the devil effect/reverse halo effect

Answer 62

Now imagine someone who we think is overall very poor. Even if baseline skills are same, we perceive them to all be lower – the devil effect/reverse halo effect. Can carry over into how we see other attributes about the person. Happens if overall negative impression or if one attribute is very negative.

o Ex: From being good at accounting we can perceive them as being mediocre, we can perceive someone as being awful at sales (even though they are great). We can see them as having terrible leadership (instead of being moderately good).

The reduction of our perception depends on the situation.

• Ex: Halo effect: Teacher sees kid who is good can’t do no wrong. Reverse-halo/devil effect: Kid who is wrong that can do no right

Question 63

just world phenomenon 2

Answer 63

o Reason people think in this way because it helps individuals rationalize their or others good/fortune or misfortune. Also allows people to feel like they can influence their world – easier to engage in goal oriented behavior and plan for the future. Ex. if I go to school I will be rewarded in life. If I work hard, I will get what I want. If I do the right thing, I will get rewarded.

o However, just-world doesn’t always hold true – people are not always rewarded for their actions and punished for their evil deeds. Ex. Using this just-world hypothesis we may blame people in poverty for being poor because they deserve it. Or victims of domestic violence for being victims because they deserved it.

Question 64

just world phenomenon 3

Answer 64

When the “just world hypothesis” is threatened (which occurs on a daily basis, we say “the world is not fair”….we see evil deeds being rewarded and good deeds being punished), we need to mentally make sense of them to keep just world hypothesis in tact– we use rational techniques or irrational techniques

o Rational Techniques:
1. Accept reality

2. Prevent or correct injustice – with charities, sign a petition or changes to legal system

o Irrational techniques can also be used

1. Denial of the situation – refuse to accept the situation
2. Reinterpreting the events – change our interpretation of the outcome, the cause, and the character of the victim.

• Ex. If a Victim of violence that was hurt, they were really hurt, we can reinterpret outcome (wasn’t that bad, it was a trip, it could have happened to anyone), reinterpret cause (victim was working in a bad neighborhood), or reinterpret character of victim (I always thought she was a good human being but I now realize she probably isn’t, she was hanging around with the wrong people, etc.)

3. Attribution Theory - JWH overemphasizes/attribute people’s actions to personal/dispositional/internal factors and underemphasise situational factors that are at play.

Ex; poor person = personal miss-failings instead of recognizing the complex situational/environmental causes.

Question 65

Ethnocentric:

Answer 65

Ethnocentric: judging someone else’s culture from the position of your own culture

o Viewing our own culture to be superior to that of others
o Can lead to cultural bias and prejudice
o Using one’s own cultural standards, such as norms and values, to make judgements about another culture.

Question 66

Cultural relativism

Answer 66

the practice of assessing a culture by its own standards rather than viewing it through the lens of one’s own culture.

Judge and understand another culture from within their culture –

o No absolute right or wrong, but we have different cultures which are themselves valid.

o Important to consider: Can falter if someone uses it to conduct activities that violate rights of humans no matter what culture they’re from.

o “Refers to an awareness of differences across cultures in norms, values, and other elements of culture”

Question 67

Xenocentrism:

Answer 67

Xenocentrism: judging another culture as superior to one’s own culture