Social Cognition

Question 1

Social Cognition

Answer 1

Study of cognitive processes and structures that influence and are influenced by social behavior

Dominant perspective to explain social behavior

impression formation and person perception are important aspects of social cognition

Sometimes even criticized for being too cognitive, not relating cognitive processes to language, social interaction and social structure

Question 2

Behaviorism (Skinner, Thorndike, Watson )

Answer 2

Shift in explaining behavior based on overt observations, responses to stimuli in the environment based on reinforcement schedules (rewards/punishments

Question 3

Cognitive Consistency

Answer 3

People people try to remain consistency in their cognitions, find inconsistency disturbing and therefore avoid it

Question 4

naive psychology/scientist

Answer 4

People want to understand the world and use therefore rational, scientific-like, cause-effect analyses

but these are often biased (having to few information or motivations of self-interest when drawing conclusions)

Supports attribution theories

Question 5

cognitive miser

Answer 5

People try to produce generally adaptive behavior and therefore use their least complex and demanding cognitions, to think in an easy and time-saving way

Because we can only process a limited amount of information, we take cognitive shortcuts/heuristics and our conclusions tend to be biased

Question 6

Motivated tactician

Answer 6

Emphasizes importance of motivation in our thinking: we want to achieve personal goals, motives and needs

People therefore have multiple cognitive strategies available, which they choose in a tactic way

Question 7

Configural model (Solomon Asch 1946)

Answer 7

Gestalt based model of impression formation

Gestalt view: impressions are formed as a whole, based on central cues

Traits= person characteristics (habitual patterns of behavior, thought and emotion)

central traits= have a huge influence on our final impression, Influence meaning of other traits and our perceived relationship among traits

Peripheral traits= significant less of an impact on final impression

Question 8

biases of social thinking

Answer 8

Primacy and recency (effect found by Asch 1946)

Positivity and negativity

Personal Constructs (George Kelly 1955)

Implicit personality theories

Physical appearance

Stereotypes

Social judgeability

Question 9

Primacy and order of presentation effect

Primacy: earlier presented information has more of an influence on social cognition (people pay more attention/ primary information acts as central cues)

Answer 9

order of presentation effect

Primacy: earlier presented information has more of an influence on social cognition (people pay more attention/ primary information acts as central cues)

eg. Ash experiment where first presented traits had more influence on final impression on the character=positive traits first/negative traits last)

Recency: later presented information has more impact on final impression formation (can happen when people are tired, distracted

Question 10

Positivity

Answer 10

Positivity: If we lack negative information we have the tendency to form positive impressions and assume the best of others

Negativity: attracts our attention more (we are biased)

Especially: negative information is unusual and distinctive

Could be a signal for potential danger
harder to change negative impression once it is formed

Question 11

Personal Constructs (George Kelly 1955)

Answer 11

We can form different expressions of the same person and we have our own way to characterize people

EG. To me humor is the most important organizing principle to form my impression of a person (others: prefer intelligence)

Develop over time, hard to change

Question 12

Implicit personality theories

Answer 12

Theories about what sort of characteristics go together from certain types of personality (eg. intelligent and not self-centered)

Widely shared in cultures but differ between cultures

Resistant to change and based on personal experience

Question 13

Stereotype

Answer 13

Simplified and evaluative images of a social group and its members

Salient characteristic of people we first meet: what group/category they belong to

Link to topic prejudice and discrimination
We try to make information we receive about others consistent with our stereotype

Try to remain cognitive consistency (eg. Intelligence does not go along together with our stereotype of a working men)

Question 14

Social judgeability

Answer 14

We consider: Is it socially acceptable to judge a person?

We are unlikely to judge others if social rules/laws forbid it „politically incorrect“

If target perceived as socially judgeable, we have a greater confidence (eg. German-Jews Second World War)

Link to topic prejudice and discrimination

Question 15

Schemas

Answer 15

Schemas are sets of cognitions that are connected with each other (thoughts, beliefs, attitudes)

Schema help us to know, what to do=If we only have limited information, schema help us to quickly make sense of a person, situation or location

By Bartlett: cognitive structures that represent knowledge about a concept or a type of stimulus (including its attributes and the relations amongst those structure)

Question 16

Types of schemas

Answer 16

Person schemas

Role schemas

Scripts

Content-free schemas

Self-schemas

Social group schema

Question 17

Person schemas

Answer 17

Knowledge about specific individuals (eg. best friend, politician)

Question 18

Role schemas

Answer 18

Knowledge of structures about role occupant (eg. doctor=stranger, allowed to ask you to undress)

Question 19

Scripts

Answer 19

Schema about an event (eg. having a party, going to the restaurant

Lack of relevant schemas= feeling disorientated, frustrated (eg. feeling lost in foreign countries)

Question 20

Content-free schemas

Answer 20

More number of rules for processing information or on how to attribute a cause to someone’s behavior eg. Kelley: causal schemata

Example: If you like john and john likes Tom, in order to maintain balance, you should also like Tom

Question 21

Self-schemas

Answer 21

How we structure our knowledge about ourselves, later on forms our self-concept

We store information aboutourselves in a similar, but more complex way than about others

Attributes important in our self schema= also important in the schematic perception of others

Question 22

Social group schema

Answer 22

A widely shared schema about a social group is a stereotype

Question 23

Categories

Answer 23

We apply our schemas by forming categories about persons, events or situations

People represent categories as fuzzy (=ungeordnet) sets of attributes/characteristics called prototypes

Question 24

Prototypes

Answer 24

typical/ideal member of a category

prototype uni lecturer, attributes=glasses, intelligent, self confident

When categories are in competition (eg. environmentalists vs capitalists, prototype can be extreme member (eg. most radical environmentalist)

Question 25

Difference between schemas and categories/Prototypes

Answer 25

Quite similar and often interchangeable: we activate schemas once a person/event/situation is categorized Schemas: systematic and specified organization Prototype: unorganized/fuzzy representation of a category

Question 26

How are Categories organized?

Answer 26

HIERARCHICALLY More inclusive categories (more members and attributes eg. European) Less inclusive categories (few members and attributes eg. Italian, British) are included in more exclusive categories People prefer to rely on intermediate-level categories (middle) than on very inclusive/exclusive ones =Not too broad/not too specific How we organize categories depends on SITUATIONAL and MOTIVATIONAL factors

Question 27

Family resemblance

Answer 27

= Some categories belong to a family of categories, even though they vary from the prototype EG. Concerts (heavy mental, classical music..)

Question 28

Exemplars

Answer 28

= specific example of a member of a category often we prefer to use exemplars from using prototypes as a standard of a category (eg. Represent Category American in terms of Barack Obama/Trump) Especially to represent outgroups they belong to

Question 29

What are Associative networks?

Answer 29

We can represent our categories as associative networks: our traits/beliefs/behavior is linked to emotional or causal association Model of memory: we form associative links by connecting nodes (Knoten) and ideas = spread cognitive activation

Question 30

Priming

Answer 30

categories that we often use and that are consistent with our current goals and needs come to mind quicker (woman who wants a baby sees babies everywhere)

Question 31

Stereotypes

Answer 31

They are simplifies and generalized images about members of social groups Link to prejudice and discrimination Not necessarily „wrong“-they serve as a source of information People easily stereotype, but stereotypes are slow to change

Question 32

Perceptual accentuation (Henri Tajfel)

Answer 32

The process of categorization highlights similarities/differences we perceive between groups (link=categorization produces stereotypes) Accentuation principle (Hervorhebung): A stimuli evokes perceptual accentuation of intra/inter-category similarities on dimensions with the categorization Effect can be even stronger when the categorization is personally relevant to us Or when we are uncertain about making judgements Criticism on Tajfels Theory: categorization can‘t explain how stereotypes about specific groups are formed

Question 33

Using Schemas

Answer 33

People orientate more on subtypes than on superordinate/subordinate categories EG. Career women, NOT women or lawyer Prefer to access stereotype and role schemas from trait schemas EG. Politician, NOT intelligent We use schemas automatically and habitually or when they are accessible and salient in our memory We especially use schemas when they are relevant to our self and congruent to our mood When they are based on earlier rather than on later information (=primacy effect)

Question 34

The cost of being wrong

Answer 34

if high, we rather use less schemas and complex cognitions Often high when we depend on actions/attitudes of others (get rewards/fear punishments) We pay more attention, try to get more information and notice schema-inconsistent information

Question 35

The cost of being indecisive

Answer 35

if high, we rather use more schemas (any decision might be better than no decision) If we have performance pressure and less time , feel distracted and anxious

Question 36

Individual differences

Answer 36

Attributional complexity= people have more/less complex explanations of other people Uncertainty orientation= some people have interest in gaining information, some prefer to stay certain Need for cognition=some people prefer to think more/less deeply about things Need for cognitive disclosure= some are more/less quickly to make decisons and judgements Cognitive complexity= people differ in the complexity of their cognitive processes and representations Accessibility: It is easier to recall schemas that we already have in mind We differ on self-schemas, political, gender and sex-role schemas

Question 37

Acquiring schemas

Answer 37

The more processes/instance a schema includes, the more abstract and less concrete it becomes More experience with person/instance, the more complex the schema Schemas become more resilient=rather include expectations to remain validity of the schema

Question 38

Changing schemas

Answer 38

Schemas do not easily change as we tend to avoid cognitive inconsistency (rather reinterpretate information) Only if they are really inaccurate, they change: (3 ways Rothbart 1981) Bookkeeping Conversion Sub-typing depends also on how easy it is to change schemas (which extend it is logical/practical disconfirmable) EG. Honest person cheats, likely that schema changes (honest person don’t cheat)

Question 39

Bookkeeping

Answer 39

slow change of schema (if there appears only some schema inconstistent information)

Question 40

Conversion

Answer 40

sudden and massive change of a schema (if the inconsistent information accumulates)

Question 41

Sub-typing

Answer 41

= schema turns into a sub category (to store/process disconfirming evidence) EG women believes that men are violent and encounters many who are not: form subtype of non-violent men to contrast with violent men

Question 42

Four stages of social encoding (way in which we process/store external stimuli in the mind)-Bargh 1984

Answer 42

1. Pre-attentive analysis = We scan our environment automatically 2. Focal attention= we define stimuli and categorize them consciously 3. Comprehension= We start to comprehend the stimuli by giving them a meaning (verstanden) 4. Elaborative reasoning (by linking stimulus to other knowledge, we allow more complex inferences

Question 43

What attracts our ATTENTION first?

Answer 43

Salience Vividness Accessibility

Question 44

Salience

Answer 44

stimuli that catch our attention are salient people can also be salient, attract our attention, be more influential in groups they often stand out from other stimuli (eg. single male in a female group)

Question 45

Vividness

Answer 45

vivid stimuli that are emotionally attention grabbing (eg. terrorist attack) concrete and image provoking (eg. description of terrorist attack) Often represented in television: entertaining and persuasive contents close in time and place (terrorist attack in city)

Question 46

Accessibility

Answer 46

We tend to activate more on categories or schemas in memory that we already have in our heads Gender: often an accessible and already primed category we use to interpret behavior this has a huge influence on how we process new information

Question 47

Priming

Answer 47

Some stimulus are highly accessible and come quicker into our minds (categories we often/recently use, consistent with our goals and needs) EG. Feminists tend to be aware of sexism more often Depression as an example: chronic accessibility of negative self-schemas

Question 48

Memory for people

Answer 48

How we behave is influenced by how we store information about other people and what we remember about them

Question 49

Associative network/propositional model of memory

Answer 49

We store propositions (Thesen) (eg. The student reads the book) consisting of nodes and ideas (eg. book/ponytail) These are linked by relationships between ideas The more links, the more likely to be recalled

Question 50

Recall

Answer 50

Associative links become stronger the more they are activated by cognitive rehearsal We are more likely to recall information that is inconsistent with our impression inconsistent information attracts more attention, activates more cognition and thought

Question 51

Long-term memory

Answer 51

Huge store of information that can be potentially brought to our mind

Question 52

Short-term memory

Answer 52

Much smaller amount of memory we have in our consciousness

Question 53

Contents of person memory

Answer 53

Contents on person memory vary in how observable/concrete it is 1. appearance 2. behavior 3. traits

Question 54

Traits

Answer 54

Characteristics of people are not directly observable, based on complex interference from behavior and situations Organized (with respect to) ``` Social desirability (warm, friendly, pleasant) Competence (intelligent, industrious, efficient) ```

Question 55

Two ways of forming impressions about people

Answer 55

1. on-line we use incoming information and data to form impressions (little correlation memory and judgement) 2. memory-based judgements (more unusual) Wether we choose on-line/memory-based depends on personal goals/purposes in interaction/judgements

Question 56

Social interference

Answer 56

The way in which we process social information

Question 57

Interferial process

Answer 57

We identify, collect and combine information to form impressions and make judgements Automatically=Schemas/Stereotypes

Question 58

Two ways of information process 1. Top-down deductive fashion=

Answer 58

we rely automatically on general stereotypes and schemas we look at the whole first and then at small individual parts

Question 59

Two ways of information process 2. Bottom-up inductive fashion

Answer 59

=rely on specific instances we look at small individual parts first and then we look at the whole

Question 60

Elaboration-likelihood model (Petty and Cacioppo 1986)

Answer 60

Central route processing People consider information carfully to form impressions Peripheral route processing People make decisions based on stereotypes, schemas, cognitive short-cuts

Question 61

Heuristic-systematic model (Chaiken 1989)

Answer 61

People either process information carefully/systematically or rely automatically on cognitive heuristics

Question 62

Behavioral decision theory (Einhorn and Hogarth 1981)

Answer 62

Strategies of social interference are intuitive and and include many biases and errors =fall short compared with those from the behavioral decision theory

Question 63

1. Gathering and sampling social information

Answer 63

First step to make an interference People rely to heavily on schemas „Law of small numbers“-people are too much influenced by extreme examples (eg mass media)

Question 64

2. Regression

Answer 64

First observations of instances from a category often seem more extreme than later observations Ignorant of regression: make judgement mistakes (inferences from limited information) Extreme information can later on be diluted by more information ( Eg 1. Hans kicks cats 2. He kicks cats and cares for his mother in his free time)

Question 65

3. Base-rate information

Answer 65

factual, statistical information about an entire class of events Often not interesting (salient/vivid) enough to people and therefore often ignored

Question 66

4. Covariation

Answer 66

We judge how strong two things are related, this is often based on schemas (people not interested in disconfirming them)

Question 67

Illusory correlation

Answer 67

people assume that relationship between two variables exists overestimate degree of correlation/see correlation where none exists

Question 68

Associative meaning

Answer 68

items are seen as belonging together because they „ought“ to (on basis of prior expectations)

Question 69

Paired distinctiveness

Answer 69

items share unusual feature and are therefore seen as belonging together

Question 70

Heuristics (cognitive short-cuts)

Answer 70

Cognitive short-cuts help us to make accurate inferences most of the time Help us to deal with overwhelming amount of information Biased by known schemas

Question 71

Representativeness heuristic

Answer 71

We assign instances/examples to categories on the basis of an overall similarity EG. Steve is shy and has passion for details= he is rather a librarion than a farmer

Question 72

Availability heuristic

Answer 72

The more frequent and often an event occurs, the more quickly come associations to our mind If Instances already available=we tend to just fill the frequencies (eg. media reports on terrorist attacks/car crashes vs lung cancer)

Question 73

Anchoring (=Anker) and adjustment

Answer 73

We infer about other people based initial standards or schemas we already have Belief about ourselves can be an anchor for judging others (judgement based on own self-schema)

Question 74

Improving social interference

Answer 74

We should try to rely less on intuitive inferential strategies to avoid biases and heuristics in our thinking and their causes (stereotyping, discrimination, depression) Solution: More education in scientific, rational thinking and statistical techniques Social inference not optimal (misinterpretations, mistakes) but suit everyday life very well EG. Flee automatically from pitbull in the street

Question 75

Antecedents of affect (hopes, desires, abilities)

Answer 75

Cognitive evaluation wether we should act or not (process largely continuous and automatic) Primary and secondary appraisals

Question 76

Primary appraisals

Answer 76

How relevant is what happens for my needs/goals? amygdala =part of the brain that decides wether something is good/bad/, wether it has survival value responsible for fast, automatic system-related emotional reactions

Question 77

Secondary appraisals

Answer 77

For more complex emotions and more slowly Am I responsible for this situation? Can I cope with it?

Question 78

Consequences of affect

Answer 78

We judge others more positively if we are in a good mood We are more likely to make negative evaluations/stereotypes of outgroups if we are in a bad mood Emotions can help us to make better decisions by setting priorities and focus our attention The effect of mood on our self-perception is greater for peripheral than central aspects

Question 79

Affect-infusion Model (Forgas, 1994)

Answer 79

Social judgements reflect our current mood (our cognition is influenced by our feelings) 4 WAYS in which people process information about one another 1. Direct access- Using schemas/judgements directly stored in memory 2. Motivated processing-We make judgements due to specific motivations/moods/to achieve goals 3. Heuristic processing- We rely on cognitive short cuts/heuristics 4. Substantive processing- We use informational sources to carefully come to a judgement

Question 80

Emotion regulation

Answer 80

People regulate their mood to reach their own goals (eg. decide not to show anger) Instrumental reason Hedonic reason For some people it is easier/harder to regulate their emotions (find a good regulation strategy)

Question 81

Instrumental reason

Answer 81

= to cope with the situation

Question 82

Hedonic reason

Answer 82

=to feel happy/good

Question 83

Naive psychologist (Fritz Heider) =we construct our own theories to explain human Three principles

Answer 83

1. we have an urge to develop to causal explanations 2. We want to be able to control our environment 3. To determine causality in other peoples behavior we use Internal/dispositional attributions: the personality has the main impact on a persons behavior External/situational attributions: the situation has the main impact on the persons behavior

Question 84

Internal/dispositional attributions

Answer 84

The personality has the main impact on a persons behavior

Question 85

External/situational attributions

Answer 85

the situation has the main impact on the persons behavior

Question 86

Theory of correspondent inference (Jones & Davis)

Answer 86

Theory assumes that person behaves due to underlying dispositions/personality traits Process of making correspondent interference: Cues: 1. act was freely chosen 2. act produced non-common effect 3. act was not considered socially desirable 4. act had a direct impact on us (hedonic relevance) 5. act seemed intended to affect us (Personalism)

Question 87

We are more likely to make correspondent (or internal/dispositional) attributions when:

Answer 87

1. behavior is freely chosen (not controlled by external factors) 2. behavior is exclusive:Non-common effects Outcome bias : Belief that outcome of behavior was intended by the person who chose it 3. act not considered socially desirable 4. act has direct impact on us=Hedonic relevance 5. act seemed intended to affect us (benefit/harm oneself rather than others)=Personalism

Question 88

Covariation Model (Kelly) (people as everyday scientists)

Answer 88

People use this model to decide whether to attribute behavior to internal/dispositional/external factors Kelly assumes: people are rational observers and have enough time to process 3 types of information Consistency information Distinctiveness information Consensus information Criticism: Consistency, distinctiveness and consensus information require multiple observations

Question 89

Consistency information

Answer 89

high: Tom ALWAYS laughs at this comedian, low: Tome only sometimes laughs at this comedian

Question 90

Distinctiveness information

Answer 90

high: Tom ONLY laughs at the comedian, low: Tom laughs at everything

Question 91

Causal schemata

Answer 91

If we have incomplete/no information we draw causal conclusions on experience-based beliefs

Question 92

Emotional lability

Answer 92

It depends on ourselves, what kind of attribution we make on a first unexplained arousal (turn it into different emotions) Example: Study by Schlachter and Singer (62) tried to give arousal a different label and turn it into something positive in therapy (made use of emotional lability)

Question 93

Weiners 1979 attribution theory on task performance

Answer 93

Theory on the causes and consequences when people attribute their performance on a task 3 performance dimensions in attribution making 1.Locus What caused the performance? Internal (actor) or external (situational) attribution Internal: typical effort External: help/hindrance from others 2. Stability Is the cause (internal/external) a stable one? Consistent help/hindrance from others Unusual help/hindrance from others 3.Controllability To what extend is the future task performance under the actor‘s control? Controllable: Task difficulty Uncontrollable: Luck

Question 94

attributional style

Answer 94

Our individual predisposition to make a certain type of causal attribution to explain behavior

Question 95

We differ in the way we consider to have control over our life: Internal/External attribution

Answer 95

Internals We believe to have significant personal control over our life and destiny Externals Believe to have little control over destiny and attribute behavior to external/situational factors

Question 96

Three basic phases that interpersonal relationships go through (Harvey 87‘)

Answer 96

1. formation Attribution helps with communication and to have more clarity 2. maintainance When a stable relationship is established, attributions are reduced 3. dissolution (Auflösung) People make more attributions to regain an understanding of the relationship

Question 97

Attributional conflicts

Answer 97

When partners have different interpretations of behavior Attributions have a huge impact on the satisfaction in the relationship Positive behavior: internal, stable, controllable factors Negative behavior: external, unstable, uncontrollable factors

Question 98

Attributional biases

Answer 98

Attribution processes are often biased based on personality, interpersonal dynamics, communication needs We are motivated tacticians and cognitive misers

Question 99

Correspondence bias/ Fundamental attribution error

Answer 99

People make dispositional attributions and tend to link behavior to stable, underlying PERSONALITY attributes (Internal factors) EG. Factors such as temperament, genetics, individual personality traits People see what they want to see and under/overestimate behavior EG. Focus more on candidate than on parties programme, blame driver and not road

Question 100

Ultimate attribution error

Answer 100

In group contexts To explain behavior to reflect attributes of a group rather than to situational/external factors Related to: Outcome bias Essentialism

Question 101

False-consensus effect

Answer 101

We assume that other people behave in the same way that we do See our behavior as more typical and normal than it really is The stronger our beliefs are and the more we care about them, the stronger the effect

Question 102

Self-serving bias

Answer 102

Attributional biases to protect our self-esteem and serve our ego

Question 103

Self-serving /enhancing bias

Answer 103

We like to take credit for our successes and positive behavior and to enhance ourselves Associate success with own efforts (INTERNAL attribution)

Question 104

Ego-serving bias

Answer 104

Cognitive component People expect to succeed and exaggerate their amount of control over their performances

Question 105

outcome bias

Answer 105

The outcome/result of a behavior has an effect on our attribution Believe it to be intended by the person who chose the behavior EG. Attribute more responsibility to someone involved in an accident with large consequences

Question 106

Self-protecting bias

Answer 106

We make EXTERNAL attributions to our negative behaviors/failures to „explain them away“

Question 107

Self-handicapping

Answer 107

We try to reduce our personal responsibility for our failure and enhance our personal responsibility for our success We can do this even before an event happens and „anticipate“ our failure due to external factors

Question 108

Belief in a just world

Answer 108

We believe in a just world where good things happen to good people and bad things to bad ones Blame victims of poverty, rape as being responsible for what happens to them EG. Jews in Second World War, believed to be responsible for being in holocaust

Question 109

Illusion of control

Answer 109

People have control for their outcomes (world controllable)

Question 110

ethnocentrism/ Ingroup-serving bias

Answer 110

We tend to prefer our own group membership and culture over others and see it as an ideal standard We make positive ingroup and negative outgroup comparisons

Question 111

Ultimate attribution error

Answer 111

Tendency: attribute internally/dispositional BAD OUTGROUP and GOOD INGROUP behavior Attribute externally GOOD OUTGROUP and BAD INGROUP behavior

Question 112

Attribution and Stereotypes

Answer 112

Stereotypes influence and are influenced by societal and intergroup attributions Serve ego-defensive function Scapegoating : Attribute failures/distressing events to specific groups (eg. economic crisis) Justify actions against outgroups