social cognition: thinking about the social world

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.All rights reserved.

THINK Social PsychologyKimberley Duff

THINKSOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Chapter

Social Cognition: Thinking About the Social World

3



How Do Schemas Guide the Way You Think about the World Around You?

• Schemas Cognitive frameworks Automatically created Guide us to understanding the world Can exist for people, places, events, or other

stimuli



How Do Schemas Guide the Way You Think about the World Around You? (continued)

• Schemas are formed on the basis of experience

• Prime – to activate a schema through a stimulus

• The way a schema is primed affects our attention and processing

• Stereotypes are an example of a schema



Cognitive Development Theories

• Jean Piaget Cognitive Development Theory

• Lev Vygotsky Sociocultural Theory



Jean Piaget and the Role of Schemas Cognitive Development

• Jean Piaget used five key concepts to explain how cognitive development occurs: Schema Assimilation Accommodation Equilibrium Equilibration




• Schema A cognitive structure that is used to used

to identify and process information It operates like a mental index file where

each index card represents a different category (or schema) of information

Once acquired, individual schemas (or categories) can be accessed for future reference.




• Assimilation The cognitive process that occurs when a

child uses an existing schema to classify a new stimulus (or piece of information)

This process influences the growth of an individual schema but it does not change the change the schema



First Schema for Tree



New Stimulus for a tree



Schema for Cat



New Stimulus for Cat



Schema for Caterpillar



New Stimulus for Caterpillar




• Accommodation The process allows a child to modify an

existing schema to accommodate a new stimulus (or piece of information)

If modification does not work, the child will create a new schema




• Equilibrium Piaget used this term to describe the rapid

mental process that occurs when assimilation and accommodation work together to create increasingly more adequate schemas for the understanding of the world

This mental process suggests a steady and comfortable state




• Equilibration On occasion, the nature of the new stimulus (or

information) does not submit to the equilibrium process and disequilibrium occurs

This uncomfortable state forces the child to make their cognitive structure more adequate

Once this is done, the child shifts back to assimilation; it is this process that Piaget calls equilibration



How Do Schemas Guide the Way You Think about the World Around You? (continued)

• The trouble with schemas

The confirmation bias- Information that supports a schema is attended to- Information that contradicts a schema may be

filtered out



Stereotyping

• A stereotype assumes that all members of a group share some common feature

• Perseverance effect Once a schema is formed, it is hard to

change It may be difficult for people to "let go" of

these types of schemas



Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

• Predictions that cause themselves to come true

• When a person "becomes" the stereotype that is held about them

• Selective filtering Paying attention to sensory information that affirms a

stereotype Filtering out sensory information that negates a

stereotype



Automatic Versus Controlled Processing

• Automatic processing Unconscious Effortless and on-the-fly

• Controlled processing Takes careful thought and effort



Automatic Versus Controlled Processing (continued)

• What parts of the brain are involved? Automatic processing

- The limbic system – emotional processing- The amygdale – emotional learning and

fear conditioning




• What parts of the brain are involved? Controlled processing

- The prefrontal cortex• Involved in higher-order thinking and

evaluation• May be involved in automatic

processing as well




• Automatic processing helps us deal with the enormous amount of information in our world

• Sometimes we are "forced" into controlled processing When a situation does not match our

schemas When we need to think with extra care and

logic



How Effective are Mental Shortcuts?

• Heuristics Simple rules that reduce mental effort Mental shortcuts Allow us to make decisions or judgments

quickly



The Availability Heuristic

• Our assessment of how likely an occurrence is based on how easily an example of that event can be recalled

• Tversky and Kahneman (1973) Which are there more of – words starting with

N or words that have N as the third letter? Is your answer based on the examples you

can immediately call to mind?• Which is safer? Travelling by plane or by car?



Death and the Availability Heuristic



The Representativeness Heuristic

• Our assessment of how likely an occurrence is based on how much it resembles our expectation for a model of that event

• Tversky and Kahneman (1974) "Deciding the probability that object A

belongs in category B ﾉ based on how closely A seems to represent B."



The Representativeness Heuristic

• The base rate fallacy An error caused by drawing a conclusion

using the representativeness heuristic without considering the base rate



The Availability and Representativeness Heuristics



The Anchoring and Adjustment Heuristic

• We use a number as a starting point on which to anchor our judgment

• Have you ever bought a car? What did you expect to spend? Was the sticker price above or below

your estimate? Did your final purchase price change

based on these data?



The Framing Heuristic

• Decision-making based on the framework in which a situation or item is presented

• Have you ever bought ground beef? Which would be more tempting? "92% fat-free" "92% lean" "Contains 8% fat"



What are other Sources of Bias in Social Cognition?

• The illusion of control The perception that uncontrollable events are

somehow controllable Do you have a "lucky shirt" that you wear to

help your favorite football team win each Sunday?

• The negativity bias Attending to and remembering only negative

information, thus impacting future evaluations



The Optimistic Bias

• Believing that bad things happen to other people and that you are more likely to experience positive events in life

• How often do you think about being unemployed someday?



The Optimistic Bias (continued)

• Do you think you will be in a car accident this weekend? Let’s hope not!

• The overconfidence barrier The belief that our own judgment or control is

better or greater than it truly is



Counterfactual Thinking

• Imagining different outcomes for an event that has already occurred

• Is usually associated with bad (or negative) events

• Can be used to improve or worsen your mood



Counterfactual Thinking (continued)

• Upward counterfactuals “If only I had bet on the winning horse!" "If only I’d cooked the turkey at 350 instead of

400 degrees!" "I would have won if I’d bought the OTHER

scratch-off lottery ticket!"



Counterfactual Thinking (continued)

• Downward counterfactuals "I got a C on the test, but at least it’s not a D!" "He won’t go out with me but at least he didn’t

embarrass me in front of my friends." "My team lost, but at least it was a close

game and not a blowout!"



Marketing and Counterfactual Thinking

• How do advertisements (television, billboards, magazines, radio) influence our decisions?



The Effect of Mood on Cognition

• The mood-congruence effects We remember positive details of an event if

we were in a good mood We remember negative details of an event if

we were in a bad mood• Mood dependent memory

Our mood at the time of learning is a retrieval cue for remembering that information

If you are calm and happy when you study, how should you be when you take an exam?



The Effect of Mood on Cognition (continued)

• Moods, particularly good ones, can cause us to over-rely on heuristics This can lead to more decision-making errors!

social cognition: thinking about the social world

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