Social Cognition and Bias Flashcards
what is social cognition?
refers to how we process and store social information
also how this affects our perceptions and behaviours
define attribution
the process of assigning a cause to our own and other’s behaviour
(making inferences about the behaviours of others)
define (social) schema
knowledge about concepts to do with others, not ourselves
used to help make sense of limited information
facilitated by top-down processing
define category in regards to social psychology
organised by hierarchy
features organised around a prototype (boundaries around categories are not set in stone)
define prototypes
cognitive representation of typical defining features of a category
define causal attribution
an inference process through which perceivers attribute an effect to one or more causes
what is meant by ‘naive scientist’?
- idea that people are rational and scientific-like in making cause-effect attributions
what is meant by ‘people are biased/intuitionist’?
- the information we have is limited and driven by motivation
- leads to errors and biases
what is meant by ‘cognitive miser’?
- people use least complex and demanding information processing
- leads to cognitive shortcuts
what is meant by ‘motivated tactician’?
- people only think carefully/deeply when it is required
- e.g.: when it is personally important
- thinking quickly and using heuristics is used for others
- e.g.: things that are not as important so that they can do things quicker and get more done
identify theories of attribution
attribution theory concerned with how people explain the causes of behaviour and events
- naive psychologist
- attributional theory
- correspondent inference theory
- covariation model
explain the naive psychologist theory of attribution
(Heider, 1958)
- believes people are naive psychologists, very logical
- people trying to make sense of social world
- tend to see cause and effect relationships, even if there is none
- proposed 3 principles:
1. people need to form a coherent view of the world
2. people need to gain control over the environment
3. need to identify internal (personal) vs external (situational) factors
explain the attributional theory
(Weiner, 1979)
- states that an individual’s causal attributions of achievement affect subsequence behaviours and motivation
- this is a multidimensional approach to think about causality
explain the correspondent inference theory of attribution
(Jones & Davis, 1965)
- looks at 5 different cues to see whether person’s behaviour reflects true character of person
Cues:
1/ act was freely chosen
2/ act produces a non-common effect (if behaviour = unusual, suggests behaviour driven by individual)
3/ not socially desirable
4/ hedonic relevance (idea that act has important consequences for person)
5/ personalism (idea that behaviour is more directly intended to impact others)
explain the covariation model of attribution
(Harold Kelley, 1967)
- looks at different factors that are considered when deciding whether factor was a cause in the behaviour
(e.g.: behaviour = failed exam, looking at multiple factors that may have caused this. When looking at factors, we look at multiple theories to determine whether factor was cause for behaviour or not)
consistency
- does behaviour always co-occur with cause
(does drinking before exam always cause failure of exam)
- if low consistency -> theory is discounted
- if high consistency -> behaviour and factor are linked
distinctiveness
- looking at if behaviour is exclusively linked to cause or if it’s a common reaction
- high distinctiveness -> behaviour attributed to external cause
- low distinctiveness (behaviour is common) -> cause is attributed internally
consensus
- looking to others behaviour to see if it is consistent with yours
- if behaviour matches cause of others, strengthens attribute to external cause
- if behaviour doesn’t match others cause, internal attribute
