Social Cognition & Perception

Social Cognition

• Refers to perception, interpretation, belief, and memory when evaluating ourselves and others.
• First impressions matter and can be influential months later.
• Snap judgements are often influenced by stereotypes.

Primacy Effect

• The tendency for initial information received to heavily influence overall impressions.
• People tend to seek information confirming first impressions, leading to confirmation bias.

Confirmation Bias

• Seeking information that confirms existing beliefs, overlooking contradictory evidence.
• Overconfidence leads to incorrect snap judgements.
• Existing beliefs influence every stage of a relationship, affecting judgements of partners.

Power of Perceptions

• Idealizing partners involves positive illusions, viewing their faults as circumstantial.

Attributional Processes

• Delight or distress is affected by how we explain a partner’s behavior.
• Attributions can be:
  • Internal vs. external
  • Stable vs. unstable
  • Controllable vs. uncontrollable

Actor/Observer Effects

• Individuals explain their behavior with external circumstances but attribute others' behavior to internal attributes.
• Trying to understand the other's viewpoint reduces the actor/observer discrepancy.

Self-Serving Bias

• Success is attributed to internal attributes, while failures are blamed on external factors.

Relationship Enhancing

• Happy individuals attribute positive actions to internal, stable, and controllable factors in partners.
• They excuse negative behavior with external, unstable, and uncontrollable causes.
• Unhappy individuals show negative attributions, exaggerating bad and minimizing the good of their partner.

Memories

• Memories are altered and updated, mixing past events with current knowledge.

Reconstructive Memory

• Memories are revised with new information, influencing relationships.
• Happy individuals forget past disappointments.

Relationship Beliefs

• Marital Paradigm: Established beliefs influence relationship expectations.

Destiny Beliefs

• The inflexible view that happiness is immediate and guaranteed for soulmates.

Growth Beliefs

• Successful relationships result from hard work and overcoming challenges.
• Growth beliefs promote commitment during difficulties, while destiny beliefs may lead to breakups.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

• False predictions become true due to behavioral changes.
• The process involves a perceiver forming expectations, acting accordingly, the target interpreting and responding to the behavior.

Self-Perception

• Self-Concept: Beliefs and feelings about ourselves, including self-esteem and self-knowledge.
• During interactions our self-concepts try to fulfill two different functions:
  • Seeking feedback to enhance self-concepts
  • Seeking feedback to sustain existing self-concepts

Self-Enhancement

• The desire for positive feedback

Self-Verification

• The desire for feedback consistent with self-concept, more important in marriage.
• Individuals with negative self-concepts prefer partners who verify their low opinions.

Nonconscious Social Cognition

• Implicit Attitudes: Unintentional associations evident when partners come to mind.
• Implicit attitudes predict future happiness.

Transference

• Transferring old feelings to new partners.

Impression Management

• Individuals control information others receive.
• Anything done in the presence of others is strategically regulated.
• Impression management is pervasive and helps achieve interpersonal goals.

Strategies for Impression Management

• Ingratiation: Seeking acceptance through favors and compliments, mostly in relationships.
• Self-promotion: Recounting accomplishments, common in workplaces.
• Intimidation: Portraying oneself as ruthless, undesirable.
• Supplication: Presenting oneself as inept to gain help.

Impression Management in Relationships

• Self-Monitoring: Adjusting behavior to fit different situations.
• High self-monitors adapt, while low self-monitors are more consistent.
• Less effort is put into appearing likable with close partners.

Perceptions of Partners

• Perceptions of partners are often inaccurate.
• Partners are idealized and perceived as more similar than they are.
• Intimate partners understand each other better over time.

Emotional Intelligence

• A set of abilities to perceive, use, understand, and manage emotions.
• People with high emotional intelligence read others' feelings sensitively.
• Women tend to have higher EQ than men.
• Training can improve abilities to understand partners.
• Thinking positively about a relationship enhances it, while negative thinking can cause failure.