Psychology 2550A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Social Cognition, Cognitive Psychology, Pessimism
14 Dec 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Chapter 15 6/27/2014 4:56:00 PM
Principles of social cognition applied to personality
Research at the social cognitive level is influenced by both personality and
social psychology theories
Social cognition and personality
In the 1980s social psychologists started to adopt the constructs and
methodologies of cognitive psychology
The social cognition movement studies how people process information
about the social world and themselves
Schemas
Knowledge structures made up of collections of attributes or features that
have a “family resemblance” to each other which:
Direct attention and influence memory
Affect how we make inferences (correct or incorrect)
Can create self-fulfilling prophecies
Be positive or negative
Help make sense of new events
Effects of schemas
Activation of schemas is determined by
Availability
Accessibility
Applicability
Salience
Priming is the process that increases temporary accessibility
The Self
The ‘I’, ‘me’, or ‘self’ is a basic reference point around which experiences and
the sense of personal identity seem to be organized
Self Schemas
Each person develops a self theory about the me
Arises from past experiences and guides how we deal with new information
related to the self (how we perceive ourselves) & affects future experiences
We process and remember information relevant to our self-schema quickly
and effectively (but not necessarily accurately – not a mirror of reality)
People differ in their self-schemas
Most people desire:
To maintain positive views of themselves
Are motivated to pursue self-knowledge
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Want to enhance and improve themselves
The relational self
Self-knowledge is closely connected to knowledge representations about the
significant others in one’s life
When representations of a particular significant other are activated, aspects
of your own self-representation also become activated
The close connections in memory make the self intrinsically relational and
interpersonal
In a sense, the significant others to whom one is close become part of one’s
personal identity
The relational self and transference
According to Susan Andersen and colleagues, transference occurs when
representations of significant others in memory are activated by a newly
encountered person
Unlike Freudian transference, this process is seen in terms of social-cognitive
information processing
Perceived stability of self and potential for change
The experience of subjective continuity in oneself seems to be a fundamental
feature of personality
Each person normally manages to reconcile seemingly diverse behaviors into
one self consistent whole
People tend to reduce cognitive inconsistencies and simplify and integrate
information
People often know a good deal about their own characteristic if…then…
situation-behavior patterns
Multiple self-concepts: possible selves
Different perceived selves reflect different aspects of an individual’s total
personality
Each aspect may constitute a different possible self or potential way of being
The working self-concept is comprised by concepts of the self that the
person can access easily – e.g. ever-changing combinations of past selves
and current selves and imagined possible selves
Possible selves serve as guides for behavior and can have significant impact
on one’s emotional and motivational states
Essential features and functions of the self
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Research at the social cognitive level is influenced by both personality and social psychology theories. In the 1980s social psychologists started to adopt the constructs and methodologies of cognitive psychology. The social cognition movement studies how people process information about the social world and themselves. Knowledge structures made up of collections of attributes or features that have a family resemblance to each other which: Affect how we make inferences (correct or incorrect) Priming is the process that increases temporary accessibility. The i", me", or self" is a basic reference point around which experiences and the sense of personal identity seem to be organized. Each person develops a self theory about the me. Arises from past experiences and guides how we deal with new information related to the self (how we perceive ourselves) & affects future experiences. We process and remember information relevant to our self-schema quickly and effectively (but not necessarily accurately not a mirror of reality)
