Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff THINK SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Chapter Social Cognition: Thinking About the Social World 3

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff 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

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff 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

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff Cognitive Development Theories Jean Piaget  Cognitive Development Theory Lev Vygotsky  Sociocultural Theory

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff 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

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff Jean Piaget and the Role of Schemas Cognitive Development 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.

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff Jean Piaget and the Role of Schemas Cognitive Development 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

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff First Schema for Tree

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff New Stimulus for a tree

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff Schema for Cat

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff New Stimulus for Cat

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff Schema for Caterpillar

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff New Stimulus for Caterpillar

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff Jean Piaget and the Role of Schemas Cognitive Development 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

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff Jean Piaget and the Role of Schemas Cognitive Development 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

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff Jean Piaget and the Role of Schemas Cognitive Development 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

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff 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

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff 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

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff 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

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff Automatic Versus Controlled Processing Automatic processing  Unconscious  Effortless and on-the-fly Controlled processing  Takes careful thought and effort

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff 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

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff Automatic Versus Controlled Processing

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff Automatic Versus Controlled Processing (continued) 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

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff Automatic Versus Controlled Processing

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff Automatic Versus Controlled Processing (continued) 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

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff How Effective are Mental Shortcuts? Heuristics  Simple rules that reduce mental effort  Mental shortcuts  Allow us to make decisions or judgments quickly

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff 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?

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff Death and the Availability Heuristic

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff 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."

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff The Representativeness Heuristic The base rate fallacy  An error caused by drawing a conclusion using the representativeness heuristic without considering the base rate

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff The Availability and Representativeness Heuristics

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff 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?

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff 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"

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff 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

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff 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?

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff 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

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff 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

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff 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!"

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff 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!"

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff Marketing and Counterfactual Thinking How do advertisements (television, billboards, magazines, radio) influence our decisions?

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff 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?

Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. THINK Social Psychology Kimberley Duff 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!