social cognition

• explain social cognition 


  involves how we interpret and use information to make judgements about others in different social situations
• explain person perception 


  mental processes we use to form impressions and draw conclusions about the personal characteristics of other people

  sometimes we make judgements on information that isnt accurate and is influenced by the situation and bias
• halo effect is 


  a cognitive bias in which we form the impression that one quality is linked to their other qualities
• non verbal communication 


  body language and eye contact
• what is an attribution 


  the process by which people explain the causes of their own and other peoples behaviour
• what are the 2 types of attrbutions

  internal - personal - personality , ability

  external - situational - fate , luck
• what is the fundamental attribution error

  the tendency to overestimate the personal factors and underestimate the impact of situational factors of other people
• what is an attitude 


  an evaluation/judgement a person makes about an object , person or group
• tricomponent of attitudes is

  A - affective , emotional reactions or feelings

  B - behavioural , how attitude is expressed through actions

  C - cognitive , beliefs we have
• what is a stereotype

  a widely held generalisation about a group by fitting people into categories based on what we think we know about them , regardless if individual differences
• what is cognitive dissonance

  psychological tension that occurs when thoughts vs behaviours
• what is cognitive bias

  unconscious systematic tendencies to interpret information in a way that is neither rational nor based on objective reality

  confirmation bias - searching and accepting into that supports out beliefs

  actor observer - attributing our own actions to external causes while others to internal causes

  self serving - attributing positive success to internal character while failure to external factors

  false consensus - overestimate the degree which others share the same ideas as us
• what is heuristics 


  information processing strategies or mental shortcuts
• what are the types of heuristics

  anchoring - making judgement based on first info received

  availability - form judgement based on info that is easily accessible

  representative - categorical judgement about an idea event or person based on similarity to another items in similar category

  affect - using emotions
• what is prejudice 


  prejudgement , holding a negative attitude towards members of a group based solely on their membership of that group
• when do stereotypes become prejudice

  stereotypes are the thoughts we have about people (cognitive) while prejudice are the more reflexive feelings that result from streyotpes towards them (affective)
• what is discrimination 


  an action/behaviour

  the unjust treatment of people due to their membership within a social category

  direct - person treated unfavourably because of personal characteristic

  indirect - treating everyone the same disadvantages some people
• what is stigma 


  the feeling of shame or disgrace experienced by an individual for a characteristic that differs them from others

  stereotypes often cause widespread stigma

  social stigma - negative stereotypes as they come to define people and prevent them from being seen as an individual

  self stigma - the internalisation of negative stereotypes and can lead to poor self efficiency and low self esteem
• prejudice , discrimination , stigma influence on mental wellbeing 


  cause indiviudals to feel alienated and excluded from society

  damage and worsen self image and self confidence

  experince stress

  rumnination (ovethtinking)