Vic Chapter 7.1 Making sense of the social world

• Social cognition

  Involves detection of facial expressions, understanding emotional states, and social decision-making
• Components of social cognition

  • Social perception
  • Social understanding
  • Social decision-making
• Person perception

  The process of making judgments about individuals based on their apparent characteristics
• When we meet new people we make quick judgments and form impressions based on overt and observable characteristics
• Person perception leads us to make judgments about people based on limited information and therefore is not always accurate
• Processes that allow us to make decisions in person perception

  • Physical cues
  • Saliency detection
  • Social categorisation
• Physical cues

  Signals such as physical appearance, facial expressions, and overall manner that allow us to draw conclusions about a person
• We quickly arrive at conclusions regarding people based on the physical cues that they present
• Saliency detection

  The tendency to notice physical features that are unique, novel, or stand out from the norm
• Salient features are those physical features that are prominent or distinctive
• People with salient features capture our attention and we tend to spend longer looking at them
• Social categorisation

  The process by which we group individuals based upon their perceived social category
• Common social categories

  • Sex
  • Race
  • Age
• Other characteristics for judgments

  • Occupation
  • Assumed sexual orientation
• Consequences of stereotyping

  • Prejudice
  • Discrimination
• Attribution

  The process of attaching meaning to behaviour by looking for a cause or causes to explain the behaviour
• Internal attributions

  Factors within the person that shape their behaviour
• External attributions

  Environmental factors that are external to the individual
• The causes of a behaviour can be attributed to either internal or external factors
• Fundamental attribution error

  The tendency to overestimate the role of internal factors and underestimate the role of external factors when interpreting the behaviour of others
• The error lies in the belief that internal factors are the main cause of behaviour
• The fundamental attribution error occurs because observers are not aware of external factors and historical considerations that can influence a person's behaviour
• Social psychology

  A field of psychology that studies the way in which our behaviour is influenced by others
• Social cognition (definition)


  The way in which we judge our own behaviours and the behaviours of others in a social setting
• Attitudes

  Learned ideas we hold about ourselves, others, objects, and experiences
• Attitudes are not innate and are learned through exposure to the environment
• Factors contributing to attitude formation

  • Experience
  • Personal influence
  • Exposure to the media
• Attitudes come from direct contact with the object of the attitude
• Attitudes are also learnt indirectly through interaction with other people
• Tri-component model of attitudes

  Proposes that attitudes contain an affective component, a behavioural component, and a cognitive component
• Components of the tri-component model

  • Affective component
  • Behavioural component
  • Cognitive component
• The tri-component model is applicable to many situations like customer behaviour, travel destinations, and certain music
• The tri-component model does not indicate the strength of an attitude
• Strong attitudes are generally seen to be firmly held and resistant to change
• Inconsistencies often exist between what a person thinks and feels and their behaviour
• Cognitive dissonance

  The inconsistency between behaviours and attitudes
• Common stereotypes

  • Gender
  • Age
  • Ethnicity
  • Occupation
• Stereotypes simplify people by grouping them into ‘us’ and ‘them’ categories
• In-group

  People who share common traits
• Out-group

  People who do not share common traits