Lecture 2- Social cognition/Bias

Question 1

What is Social cognition?

Answer 1

How we process and store social info and how it affects perceptions and behaviour.

Question 2

What is social psychology?

Answer 2

Perceptions and behaviour and how influenced by others

Question 3

What is Attribution?

Answer 3

Process of assigning a cause to our own and others behaviour

Question 4

What are social schemas?

Answer 4

Knowledge about concepts, making sense of info w/ limited context, facilitates top down (theory driven) processing

Question 5

What is a category?

Answer 5

Organised hierarchically ( association network).

Question 6

What are prototypes?

Answer 6

Cognitive representation of typical defining features of category

Question 7

What is causal attribution?

Answer 7

An inference process through which perceivers attribute an effect to one/more than one cause

Question 8

What is motivated tacticians?

Answer 8

Only thinking deeply when required

-Think carefully and scientifically when personally important/necessary. -Think quickly and heuristically when less important to get it done

Question 9

Describe the Covariation model (Kelley, 1967)?

(Theory of attribution)

Answer 9

-Using multiple observations to identify factors covarying w/ behaviour
-Assigning causal role to factor
-Is behaviour internal/external?

Question 10

What are the 3 aspects of the Covariation model (Kelley, 1967)?

(Theory of attribution)

Answer 10

Consistency
Distinctiveness
Consensus

Question 11

What is CONSISTENCY in the Covariation model (Kelley, 1967)

(Theory of attribution)

Answer 11

Does behaviour always co-occur w/ cause?

-Low= Internal attribution eg generally failing exams -High=External attribution eg never failed other exams

Question 12

What is DISTINCTIVENESS in the Covariation model (Kelley, 1967)?

(Theory of attribution)

Answer 12

Is behaviour exclusively linked to cause or common reaction?

-Low= Internal attribution eg generally failing exams -High=External attribution eg never failed other exams

Question 13

What is CONSENSUS in the Covariation model (Kelley, 1967)?

(Theory of attribution)

Answer 13

Do people react same way to cause/situation

-Low= Internal attribution (affect only me) -High= Strengthens attribution to external cause (realise not drink before exam)

Question 14

What are the MH aspects involved in the Covariation model (Kelley, 1967)?

(theory of attribution)

Answer 14

People w/ depression attribute negative events to internal/global/stable causes > internal attribution

Question 15

What are the psychotherapy aspects in the Covariation model (Kelley, 1967)?

(Theory of attribution)

Answer 15

Needing to stop explaining events in an overly pessimistic, self-defeating way (Ebeck et al, 1979)

Question 16

What are the critiques of the Covariation model (Kelley, 1967)?

(Theory of attribution)

Answer 16

Salience of prior information and considered actually poor way of assessing covariation

-Covariation = Correlation ≠ Causation

Question 17

Describe the Naïve psychologist (Heider, 1958) theory

(Theories of attribution)

Answer 17

-Attribute causes to effects to create stable world that makes sense
-Homo rationalis- Analytical, balanced and logical hypothesis testing

Question 18

What are the 3 principles of the Naïve psychologist (Heider, 1958) theory?

(Theories of attribution)

Answer 18

-Need to form coherent view of world so search for motives in other behaviours

-Need to gain control over environ so search for enduring properties

-Need to identify internal (personal) vs external (situational) factors

Question 19

Describe the Attributional theory (Weiner, 1979)

(Theories of attribution)

Answer 19

Causality of success or failure

-Locus (internal vs external) -Stability (natural ability vs mood) -Controllability (effort vs luck)

Question 20

What is attributional retraining in the Attributional theory (Weiner, 1979)?

(Theories of attribution)

Answer 20

-People are encouraged to make more optimistic attributions. -Outcomes are controllable and success are attributed to internal causes

Question 21

In attribution heuristics, what are heuristics considered as (Tversky & Kahneman, 1974) ?

Answer 21

-Cognitive shortcuts to avoid effort and resource expenditure -Uses rule of thumb not complex mental judgement

Question 22

What are the 3 types of heuristics?

Answer 22

Availability
Representative
Anchoring/adjustment

Question 23

What is the Availability heuristic?

Answer 23

Judge probability/frequency by how easy it is to think of examples (memory accessibility).

Question 24

What is the representative heuristic?

Answer 24

Categorise based on similarity between instance and prototypical category members by allocating set of attributes.

Question 25

What is the Anchoring/adjustment heuristic?

Answer 25

Starting point/initial standard influences subsequent judgements.

Question 26

Describe the Correspondence inference theory (Jones & Davis, 1965)

Answer 26

Uses 5 cues to determine if behaviour is internally or externally caused -Does the act reflect the true characteristics of a person

Question 27

What are 5 cues of the Correspondent inference theory (Jones & Davis, 1965)?

Answer 27

-Act was freely chosen -Act produced a non-common effect -Not socially desirable -Hedonic relevance -Personalism

Question 28

What is a criticism of the Correspondent inference theory (Jones & Davis, 1965)?

Answer 28

It is overly focused on internal attribution

Question 29

What are the 3 thinking/rationalising types?

Answer 29

Naive scientist Biased/Intuitionist Cognitive miser

Question 30

How does a naive scientist think?

Answer 30

They are rational and scientific like in making cause and effect attributions

Question 31

How does a biased/intuitionist think?

Answer 31

Info is limited so driven by motivations which leads to errors and biases

Question 32

How does a cognitive miser think?

Answer 32

Use the least complex and demanding information processing so leads to cognitive short cuts