PSY 101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 12: Realistic Conflict Theory, Classical Conditioning, Stereotype Threat
INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY
Chapter 12: Social Cognition
At the end of this Chapter you should be able to:
• Learn the importance of perceiving and understanding others
• Learn the importance of perceiving and understanding ourselves
• Understand the Attitudes
• Learn about Emotion
Perceiving and understanding others
•Social Cognition: How we perceive and think about ourselves and each other; how we
process and make meaning about our encounters
•One focus: why did someone else act as they did? We make attributions about others’ actions
– and about our own
Attribution
•Kelly: early social psychologist
• According to Kelly…we specifically look for ways that events co-vary: “cause and effect”
• Or: Causal attributions
•2 types of attributions - Situational attributions and Dispositional attributions
•Attributional styles also vary by culture
• E.g., individualistic and collectivistic
Fundamental Attribution Error
•In an individualistic culture, the most common error made is the fundamental attribution
error: a bias to explain others’ behavior by attributing it to their disposition, our own to our
situation
•In collectivistic cultures: focus on group actions / contextual cues to explain behavior
Person Perception and Cognitive Schemas
•Cognitive schemas: shortcuts when limited information is available
•Schemas: operate when trying to explain why people behave the way they do
•Implicit theories of personality: our schemas for …
• How we remember other people
• How we perceive them
• How we interpret what they have done
Stereotypes
•One type of schematic thinking
• Stereotypes often are used when we think about identified groups of people: e.g., Greeks,
women, old people, etc.
find more resources at oneclass.com
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Document Summary
At the end of this chapter you should be able to: learn the importance of perceiving and understanding others, learn the importance of perceiving and understanding ourselves, understand the attitudes, learn about emotion. Attribution: kelly: early social psychologist, according to kelly we specifically look for ways that events co-vary: cause and effect , or: causal attributions. 2 types of attributions - situational attributions and dispositional attributions: attributional styles also vary by culture, e. g. , individualistic and collectivistic. In an individualistic culture, the most common error made is the fundamental attribution error: a bias to explain others" behavior by attributing it to their disposition, our own to our situation. In collectivistic cultures: focus on group actions / contextual cues to explain behavior. Person perception and cognitive schemas: cognitive schemas: shortcuts when limited information is available. Schemas: operate when trying to explain why people behave the way they do.
