Introduction to Social Psychology Social Cognition-Lecture Notes-Psychology, Study notes of Social Psychology

Download Introduction to Social Psychology Social Cognition-Lecture Notes-Psychology and more Study notes Social Psychology in PDF only on Docsity! Social Cognition Social Cognition  How people think about themselves and the social world, or more specifically, how people select, interpret, remember, and use social information to make judgments and decisions.  The assumption is that people are generally trying to form accurate impressions of the world and do so much of the time.  Because of the nature of social thinking, however, people sometimes form erroneous impressions.  Automatic Thinking – Quick and automatic, ―without thinking,‖ thinking that is nonconscious, unintentional, involuntary, and effortless.  Controlled thinking – Is effortful and deliberate, pausing to think about self and environment, carefully selecting the right course of action. Schemas and Assimilation Bias The date of the attack: 9/11-9+1+1 = 11 September 11th is the 254th day of the year: 2+5+4 = 11 After September 11th there are 111 days left until the end of the year. 119 is the area code to Iraq/lran. 1+1+9 = 11 Twin Towers—standing side by side, look like the number 11 The first plane to hit the towers was Flight 11 New York State was the 11th State to join the Union New York City—11 Letters Afghanistan— 11 Letters The Pentagon— 11 Letters Ramzi Yousef—11 Letters Flight 11—92 on board—9+2 = 11 and Flight 77—65 on board—6+5= 11 Schemas and Assimilation Bias PS: “IT'S BULLSHIT” has 11 letters also. Source: Farha, R. (2002). The Not So Spooky Tim McVeigh, Skeptic, April, 15. Reducing Effort in Social Cognition Availability Heuristic  Potential Causes:  We misjudge the actual frequency of event’s occurrence.  Subjective ease with which relevant examples come to mind. For instance, apparent ease can be influenced by media reporting (Slovic et al. 1982) Availability Heuristic  Potential Causes:  Amount of information that we can bring to mind influences frequency judgments.  E.g., How assertive are you on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being ―extremely assertive.‖ Availability Heuristic  Okay, now:  List 12 examples of times when you acted assertively.  Rate yourself again: How assertive are you on a scale from 1-10?  Your rating most likely went down because it’s difficult to think of 12 instances of assertive behavior. Effects of Automatic Processing on Social Cognition (Bargh, Chen, & Burrows, 1996) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 P e rc e n t W h o I n te rr u p te d Polite Neutral Rude A higher percentage of participants for whom the trait ―rudeness‖ had been primed interrupted compared to those primed with ―politeness.‖ Negativity Bias We show greater sensitivity to negative information than positive information. Negativity Bias (Ohman, Lundquist, & Esteves, 2001) 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 P e rc e n t C o rr e c t Id e n ti fi c a ti o n s Friendly Scheming Sad Threatening  Threatening faces more accurately identified.  Adaptive Value?  Late Positive Potentials (or LLPs, which are associated with evaluative categorizations) larger for negative stimuli. Linda is 31 years old, single, outspoken and very bright. As a student, she was deeply concerned with issues of discrimination and social justice, and also participated in anti- nuclear demonstrations. What is the probability that Linda is a Bank Teller? Write a number between 0 and 100 Representativeness Heuristic Linda is 31 years old, single, outspoken and very bright. As a student, she was deeply concerned with issues of discrimination and social justice, and also participated in anti- nuclear demonstrations. What is the probability that Linda is a Feminist Bank Teller? Write a number between 0 and 100 Representativeness Heuristic Counterfactual Thinking  Mr. Crane and Mr. Tees were scheduled to leave the airport on different flights, at the same time. They traveled from town in the same limousine, were caught in a traffic jam, and arrived at the airport 30 minutes after the scheduled departure time of their flights. Mr. Crane is told that his flight left on time. Mr. Tees is told that his flight was delayed, and just left five minutes ago. Who is more upset? Mr. Crane or Mr. Tees? Counterfactual Thinking 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 H a p p in e s s R a ti n g Completing Medal Stand Silver Bronze Magical Thinking  If you are in class and don’t want the professor to call on you, does this increase the chance that s/he actually will?  Suppose someone who had died of cancer had bought a sweater that was sealed in a plastic bag and put it away in a drawer. If someone gave it to you a year after the person’s death, would you wear it?  Imagine someone offered you a piece of chocolate shaped like a spider—Would you eat it? Thought Suppression  The attempt to avoid thinking about something we would prefer to forget (Wegner, 1989, 1994).  First, a person makes a concerted effort to suppress an unwanted thought.  Second, a more automatic process checks periodically to see if the forbidden thought has been suppressed.  This latter process is ironic, because it inadvertently brings to mind the unwanted thought every time it checks.  Fewer cognitive resources are required for the automatic process than for the effortful suppression process, which means that people will be less successful at suppressing unwanted thoughts when they are tired or under pressure.