PSYC 308 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Iced Coffee, Abnormal Psychology, Counterfactual Thinking
Document Summary
Social cognition: the way people think about themselves and the social world, how they select, interpret, remember and use social information to make judgements and decisions. Thinking that is nonconscious, unintentional, involuntary and effortless: controlled thinking: effortful and deliberate. Encompasses our general knowledge about the social world; information we notice, think about and remember. Our schemas contain our basic knowledge and impressions that we use to organize what we know about the social world and interpret new situations. Schemas are constantly active and ready to use to interpret ambiguous situations. People who are targets of prejudice or discrimination are more likely to interpret ambiguous situations as discriminatory: schemas can become accessible because they are related to a current goal. You are studying for an abnormal psychology class and need to learn about different kinds of metal disorders, this concept might be temporarily accessible: schemas can become temporarily accessible because of our recent experiences.
