User:Atcovi/Spring2024/Social Psychology/Ch. 2

The essay assignment, due on the 21st (Sunday), is located on the talk page.

Chapter 2 discusses social cognition, the ways we see and interpret the social world around us.

2.1: Heuristics
We can only take in a limited amount of information, and any information that is beyond our capacity puts us into an information overload (hence, why we can't be on our phones and drive safely). Below are techniques that we can use to navigate a sea of information (conditions of uncertainty) to get to a correct answer. We will be focusing on heuristics, simple rules to make complicated decisions in an efficient & quick manner.


 * 1) Representative heuristics - A strategy for judgement where you assess where a current stimuli fits in other stimulis/categories. For example, you may have met a lady who is clean, efficient, convivial, has pictures of a local hospital in her room, and dresses up in almost all blue. You compare this lady with a protype, a list of characteristics that fit a certain category, and determine that she is a nurse! Though, this type of thinking has disadvantages: this ignores base rates (how many nurses are in your area? Due to chance, she may actually be a pharmacy tech!) and causes a lack of harmonious agreement (how do we tackle climate change? Do we tackle the "big" things first [Canadians] or the "minor" things in order to lead to the big changes first [Chinese]?).
 * 2) Avaliability refers to how easy a frequency comes to mind. For example, many people can easily recall a visual of a "two-car collision" where a bigger car smashes a smaller car, so they may infer that riding in a bigger car (an SUV or a van, for example) would be safer than a smaller car - despite this going against scientific research. Dramatic situations, like terrorist attacks committed by radical Muslims, may be easily brought to mind when thinking of "terrorism", so one may incorrectly infer that terrorism often happens alongside Islam or most Muslims commit terrorism because majority of massive terrorist incidents (in this century) have been committed by Muslims. When a task gets more difficult, the "ease of retrieval" is given less weight.
 * 3) Anchoring and Adjustment - The tendency for one to put out a number [the "anchor"] and negotiate that number to a desirable figure. This is especially common in the world of selling-buying. The portion-size effect is the tendency to eat more than needed simply because there is more food on the table (anchoring and inadjustment)
 * 4) Status Quo Heuristic shows that people prefer what they got ("older things") over "newer things". It's sort of like the saying, "people don't like change" or "don't fix something that is not broken!".

2.2: Schemas
A schema is a mental framework designed to organize, interpret, and process social information attached to a specific situation. For example, you know what to expect when you are going to Buffalo Wild Wings: a long wait time - so bring some good friends while you wait! Schemas can be resistant to change and even be used for self-fulfillment.

Schemas influence...


 * Attention - What information do we pick up on? We rely on schemas when we doing a cognitive load, where we try to absorb as much as information as we can at one time.
 * Encoding - How do we store the information we recieve? Inconsistent memories will be saved separately as they go against your schemas, like the airport agent who was unnecessarily rude.
 * Retrieval - How do we get that old information back in our explicit mind? Do we remember consistent memories or inconsistent memories (in relation to our schemas)? (Both!)

Priming is a situation which "calls" for a specific schema due to resemblance. An example is putting children ("fun", "happy") in an advertisement for ice cream (something that isn't healthy), so you decide to eat ice cream at that shop because you interpret it as a "fun" experience. Unpriming occurs when schemas are expressed (see "yes-no" study). An example is thinking of butter when you are given bread ("where's the butter?").

The perseverance effect is where a schema that is factually incorrect is not changed. Self-fulfilling prophecies are when biases come to light (teacher is told Student A will do great in the class, and Student A does well because of the teacher!).

A metaphor is a comparison for figurative purposes without using "like" or "as".

2.3: Automatic and Controlled Processing in Social Thought
Social thought can take place in two different modes:

An activated schema might prove to be harmful, as an activated schema may cause us to act in a way that would be different to our regular behavior. An example is an activated schema against an ethnic group (protraying that group negatively) may cause us to behave negatively towards that group.
 * 1) Controlled Processing - Logical, effortfull. Primarily in prefrontal cortex.
 * 2) Automatic Processing - Quick, effortless. Primarily in the amygdala. This proves to be advantageous as it prevents over-thinking and allows us to solve problems while we are distracted with something else. Unconscious mind can weigh our factors more efficiently than the concious mind.

2.4: Potential Sources of Error in Social Cognition
We tend to overestimate/be overly optimistic most of the time, so we are going to review what these errors of social thought are:


 * 1) Optimistic and Overconfidence Bias - People tend to believe in their abilities past justification; people tend to predict about themselves in a higher manner than reality shows. A 2005 study explains that we have this because of errors of omission (we lack needed information). Motivation has no effect.
 * 2) The Rocky Past Vs. The Golden Future - We recall difficulties in the past, but are optimistic about our future. It may just feel good to be optimistic (and can provide benefits!).
 * 3) Planning Fallacy - Our fault in a tendency to believe we can get more things done in a period of time (the Omar kid planning to do an assignment on time but will probably fall back and fail again). This is because they...
 * 4) *Focus primarily on the future and their expected performance, ignoring previous attempts.
 * 5) *People may attach past experiences to "unusual" situations/factors not within their control, thereby ignoring important obstacles.
 * 6) *New to the task at hand.
 * 7) *Lose motivation.
 * 8) *With power, focus more on the goal than the process.

2.4.2: Situation-Specific Sources of Error in Social Cognition
Forms of bias which occur in specific scenarios...


 * 1) Counterfactual thinking - Tendency to think of other turnouts to a scenario ("maybe if I studied more, I would've gotten an A+ instead of a C"). Free-will believers tend to this form of thinking. This type of thinking encourages the growth mindset (upward counterfactuals).
 * 2) Magical Thinking (peace of mind), Terror Management, and Belief in the Supernatural - Humans like to engage in "magical thinking". Law of similarity is responsible for this "magical thinking". Insurance is bought for a "peace of mind". Terror management is aimed at comforting the notion of death through wordly views that give meaning to one's life, such as religion.

2.5: Affect and Cognition
Our affect, or current emotions or moods, has a direct, two-way street with our cognition. For example, interviewers are more likely to give a positive opinion towards interviewees if they are in a good mood vs. a bad mood.

Affect on Cognition

 * Mood Congruence effects - Your mood allows information that is aligned with your mood to be stored in your long-term memory bank.
 * Mood dependent Memory - You can recall (through a "retrieval cue") information that you learned in a certain mood much easier in that certain mood ("My life is getting worse, it's tumbling down. WTF is going on? This happened, and that happened...").

We are most likely to engage in heuristical thinking/creativity/positive assumptions of people (vs. bad assumptions of people) when in a positive mood.

Cognition on Affect

 * Two-factor Theory of Emotion - We don't really know our feelings, so we let our mind do the guiding (I feel shy, lovey-dovey, and aroused around this girl... I probably like her!).
 * Activating schemas containing strong affective component - We may have more sympathy from someone of our group vs. someone of another group.
 * Affective forecasts (using forecasting and experiencing), predictions surrounding mythical events, turn out to be inaccurate. People were not compelled by the number of people killed in a tragedy, even though the ones in the "forecaster role" believed they would be more hurt in comparison to 5 people killed vs. 500 people killed. This is because processes information different than if we were to be in that experience. An example is, "dude, I wouldn't be scared if we boat across the Atlantic Ocean during hurrican season. I'm ok with dying anyways" [talk the talk, but not walk the walk].

Cognition and the Regulation of Affective States
"The tendency to yield to temptation is a conscious choice, not a simple lapse in the ability to control our own impulses." - chapter 2.5.3 - people may engage in detrimental behavior when emotionally distressed, such as "drinking your problems away". Even though these people know its not a wise idea to do such a thing, they may do it anyways because it may increase positive affect/self-satisfaction.

Are there two systems involved in processing social information within our brains?
These systems both interact with each other when dealing with problem-solving and decision making.
 * "Reason" (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex), or logical thought, is sensitive to cognitive load.
 * "Emotions" (limbic system) is less sensitive to cognitive load.