Social cognition (1) Fundamental concepts

• Person situation field theory =

  B= F ( P, E )
• in B=F ( P, E )

  It states that Behaviour is the Function of a person and the situation
• A Person is the entirety of self, which includes past, Present, Desires, Motivations
• a psychological field includes =

  social Influence + environment
• Channel Factors =

  Certain circumstances that appear unimportant on the surface but can have great consequences towards behaviour by either facilitating or blocking it
• Life space =

  Individuals perception of reality which is influenced by personal experiences ( thoughts & feelings ) and environment

  Consists of everything that affects behaviour at any given point in time
• two models of social cognitive thought =

  1. Hollistic/configural
  2. Elemental/algebraic
• Holistic/Configural model =

  1. people form a single, unified impression of others
  2. Different personality traits brought together to form a single holistic expression
• in a holistic/configured model, the meaning of different characterstic traits changes in order to better fit into the overall impression

  E.g; an intelligent con artist is sly, an intelligent kid is clever, an intelligibly grandma is wise
• Algebraic/Elemental Model =

  1. Takes each individual trait and evaluates in isolation & then combines them into a summary
• Social Schema Theory

  Q. Two things make schemas more readily available =

  1. Priming
  2. Salience
• Salience?

  How much a particular item stands out compared to its surroundings
• Priming?

  Exposure to stimuli immediately prior to a situtaion that engages in a scheme
• What are the two dual modes?

  1. Automatic
  2. Deliberate
• Automatic - ( Dual Mode )

  1. Operates outside consciousness
  2. Quick and efficient
• Deliberate - ( Dual modes )

  1. operates on conscious level
  2. Slow & effortful
  3. Involves reasoning & analytical thought
• What happens in Full automacity Mode?

  1. Unintentional, Unconscious, Uncontrollable, Efficient, Autonomous, Fast responses
• What experiment was in Subliminal Priming?

  The circle experiment
• explain circle experiment?

  particoapnts were shown a series of circles for 3 seconds, after each set of circle they had to guess wether it was even or odd, after 130 trials they were told their data had not been recorded and they had to re-do the experiment.
• what were the participants unaware of in the circle experiment ( subliminal priming ) ?

  what the participants were unaware of was that they were shown a picture of an african american and eurpoean american man in between the sets for about 13 milliseconds
• conclusion of circle test ( subliminal prining ) ?

  The participants themselves were non African-American

  particpants who were exposed to a series of pictures of african americans had more hostile facial expressions as compared to the ones who were exposed to european-american pictures, once told the bad news. Thus you can say that hostile emotions were primed and ready to appear under provocation
• Conscious priming includes which experiment?

  Professor
• in the professor experiment ( conscious priming ) what was the experiment?


  Participants were told to imagine a day in the life of a professor, Then they played a trivia game. particpants who were primed through imagining the life of a professor outscored the other participants

  Priming a soccer hooligan or the trait of stupidity was not helpful to the knowledge test
• Goal driven Automatic processes includes what?

  1. Lack of awareness of process itself
  2. not needing to monitor the process to completion
  3. eg; A distracted parent on autopilot has been known to feed the dog baby food and the baby kibble
• there are two systems involved in reaction to stigma ?

  ( reaction )

  1. Initial reaction

  2. subsequent Reaction
• 1. Initial reaction : Governed by reflexive ( autonomic ) systems
  2. Subsequent reaction : Governed by Deliberate, Rule based systems
• give an example of initial reaction to stigma?

  Study - campus + blindfold

  1. Participants led to believe they will come into physical contact with another Persom after being blindfolded, who will guide them around the campus.
  2. The participants selected the other person through a computerised test which showed option of 3 individuals
  3. one was Hiv positive ( stigma attached to homos )
  4. second had a criminal past
  5. third was an honours student
• what was the result of the initial reaction to stigma study ?

  ( college + blindfold )

  1. participants with more negative views about homosexuality showed strong avoidance response ( initial reaction )
  2. a few seconds later, motivation to respond to prejudice kicked in, triggering more rule based process
• your initial ( reflexive ) reaction is :

  1. Immediate
  2. spontaneous
  3. emotional

  ( Ise )
• heuristics = mental shortcuts
• 4 common type of heuristics =

  1. Representativeness
  2. availability
  3. Stimulation
  4. Anchoring & adjustment

  ( RASA )
• You are going to a concert with your friend, who brings along john and Adam two people whom you have never met before, you just know one is a musician and the other is a professor. upon meeting them you notice that john wears glasses and is a bit more shy, whilst Adam is confident and wears ripped jeans. without asking, you assume Adam is the musician and John is the professor. later you find out that you were wrong. which common type of heuristic is this an example of?

  Representativeness Heuristic
• representativeness heuristic = tendency to judge the frequency of an event based on how similar it is to a known situation ( you compare it to a situation/stereotype already in mind )
• availability heuristic?

  tendency to judge frequency of events based on how easily you can remember similar events
• When asked which job do you think is more dangerous, cop or logger? you may answer cop, keeping all high profile cop cases and famous serial killers in mind, even though in reality loggers have statically shown more deaths, what type of heuristic is thsi?

  availability heuristic
• stimulation heuristic?

  tendency to judge the frequency of an event based on how easily you can imagine/picture the event
• Anchor and adjustment heuristic ?

  Tendency to make a judgment on the frequency of an event by choosing a starting point ( anchor ) and making adjustments up and down from starting point
• my last paper took a week, but this one is more demanding so maybe two weeks is a good guess, which heuristic is this?

  anchor and adjustment