Social Cognition

How do people select, interpret, remember, and use social information?

Person Perception

physical attractiveness -Beautiful is good stereotype - self-fulfilling prophecy - composite faces, symmetry, and youthfulness first impressions

Social Cognition: Attribution

Attribution Errors

observers often explain actors behaviors incorrectly

fundamental attribution error

- overestimate the importance of internal traits - underestimate the importance of external causes

actors often explain own behavior in terms of external causes

Social Cognition
Heuristics
cognitive shortcuts that speed decision making

Stereotypes

Positive vs. negative

false consensus effect

- overestimating the degree to which everyone else thinks or acts the way we do - use our outlook to predict that of others

The Self as a Social Object

Self-Esteem

positive illusions views of ourselves that are not necessarily rooted in reality self-serving bias tendency to take credit for success and deny responsibility for failure

self-objectification tendency to see oneself primarily as an object in the eyes of others

Social Cognition

Stereotype Threat

a self-fulfilling fear about being judged on the basis of a negative stereotype about our group

Social Comparison

process by which we evaluate our thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and abilities in relation to other people

Downward social comparison

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Discomfort caused by two dissonant thoughts

thoughts of ones attitude v. ones behavior

Dissonance reduced by

changing behaviors to match attitude changing attitudes to match behavior

Persuasion

Successful Persuasion

foot-in-the-door technique door-in-the-face technique

Prosocial Behavior
Altruism

an unselfish interest in helping someone else

The Bystander Effect

Darley and Latan (1968) individuals are less likely to help in an emergency when others are present

Aggression
Biological Influences

evolutionary views genetic basis neurobiological factors

limbic system and frontal lobes of brain low levels of serotonin testosterone

Aggression
Psychological Influences

aversive circumstances
- frustration - weather, physical pain, crowding

cognitive determinants
- perception of unfairness

observational learning

Aggression
Sociocultural Influences

cultural variations

culture of honor

media violence

television violent pornography violent video games

Social Influence: Conformity

Aschs experiment (1951)

Social Influence: Obedience

Milgrams study (1965, 1974)

Social Influence: Obedience

Zimbardos prison study

Group Influence
Deindividuation

erosion of personal identity and responsibility anonymity

Social Contagion

spread of behavior, emotions, and ideas

Social Facilitation

When people are performing tasks they know quite well, they generally perform better in front of an audience than alone. However, when people are performing tasks with which they are unfamiliar, they generally perform better alone than in front of an audience.

Social Facilitation
Interaction between task familiarity and presence of others
10

Performance Level

8 6 4 2 0 Skilled task Unskilled task Alone With audience

Social Loafing

Tendency for everyone performing a task (where each persons contributions can be added together with anothers) contribute less to the joint product than an individual does when performing the same task alone. To help prevent social loafing as much as possible:

Identify individual performance. Explain the importance of work. Use punishment threats. Form smaller work groups.

Group Decision Making

Risky Shift

group decisions are riskier than average individual decisions discussion strengthens the individuals position
group harmony impaired decision making and avoidance of realistic appraisal symptoms of groupthink

Group Polarization

Groupthink

Intergroup Relations
- Social Identity Theory
-

in-groups versus out-groups us versus them

Ethnocentrism - favoring ones own group over other groups

Prejudice

an unjustified negative attitude toward a group and its members

explicit versus implicit racism explanations for prejudice
competition between groups cultural learning motivation to enhance self-esteem limitations in cognitive processes

Stereotyping and Prejudice

Stereotype
a generalization about a group

Discrimination
an unjustified negative or harmful action

Stereotyping and Prejudice

Improving Interethnic Relations
Contact with the other group members

Sherifs robbers cave study Aronsons jigsaw classroom

Work at Building Teams

Any formal effort directed toward making teams effective. Team building is usually used when established teams are showing signs of trouble. Team building activities include:

Interpersonal process exercises.

Close Relationships
Attraction

proximity
- mere exposure effect - promise of acquaintanceship

we like those who like us

similarity
- consensual validation