4 Core Processes
Social Cognition
Chapter 3
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Attention
Interpretation
Judgment
Memory
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Cognitive Misers
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Expectations
Self-fulfilling prophecy
Inferences
Automatic vs. Deliberative processing
Automaticity
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Attribution
• Single observation of a behavior
• Multiple observations
– Covariation model
Efficiency
Intent
Control
Awareness
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Attribution
• The process of explaining other people’s
behavior – determining a causal link
• Stage 1 – Automatic
– Identification and categorization
– Resolve ambiguities
– Dispositional vs. situational attribution
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Attribution
• Stage 2 – Deliberate
– Deliberative adjustments
– Kelley
Kelley’ss Cube
• Consistency
• Consensus
• Distinctiveness
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Attribution
– Other effects of the behavior
• Constraints
– Discounting
– Augmenting
g
g
• Emotional impact
• Outcome of attribution
– Stable – Unstable
– Internal – External
– Global - Specific
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Attribution Accuracy
• Correspondence bias
– Tendency to assume that a person’s words or
p
with underlying
y g traits/attitudes
deeds correspond
– Why does this happen?
• Unrealistic expectations
• Overemphasize role of behavior in defining the
person
• Overlook the situation (Fundamental Attribution
Error)
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Attribution Accuracy
• Fundamental Attribution Error
– Underestimate the power of the situation relative
p
to dispositions
– Tendency to assume that all behavior is internally
caused
– Actor-observer effects
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Types of schemas
• Person schema
– Structures about people
• Self schema
– Structures about some of your stronger traits
• Role schema
– Concept we have about people in particular roles
• Event schema (Script)
– Structure of familiar events
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Schemas
• Cognitive structure representing knowledge
• What schemas do
• How do we use schemas?
– 1st: Categorize
• Exemplars (specific examples)
• Prototypes (abstract ideal – like the best member)
– 2nd: Organize
• Use schemata to incorporate new information
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Heuristics
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Mental shortcuts (Rules of thumb)
Availability
Representativeness
Anchor and Adjustment
Simulation
– Counterfactual thinking
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Biases
• Negativity bias
– Positive-negative asymmetry
• Optimistic bias
– We may focus on negative, but expect things to work out
– When expecting failure or negative feedback, we brace
for loss
• Overconfidence
– We dramatically overestimate our own abilities
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Social Comparison
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Self Esteem
• Upward
• Downward
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