Social Psychology Terms Quiz

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Questions and Answers

What is the primary function of schemas in social psychology?

To categorize all people into predefined groups

To make sense of limited information (correct)

To create conflict between groups

To assess the importance of empirical data

Which type of processing starts with specific data and builds to a general theory?

Bottom-up processing (correct)

Prototype processing

Top-down processing

Schema-based processing

What distinguishes prototypes from schemas?

Prototypes are definitive representations while schemas are vague

Schemas are more organized than prototypes (correct)

Prototypes are more organized than schemas

Schemas are less flexible than prototypes

How are stereotypes typically formed in social psychology?

Based on simplified images and visible differences Signup and view all the answers

What term describes the inherent preference for one's own group over others?

Ethnocentrism Signup and view all the answers

What are 'exemplars' in the context of categorization?

Specific instances representing category members Signup and view all the answers

At what age are stereotypes typically crystallized in children?

After age 10 Signup and view all the answers

What cognitive phenomenon involves relying on categories to inform perception?

Cognitive perceptual bias Signup and view all the answers

What does salience refer to in a particular context?

Standing out to other stimuli. Signup and view all the answers

How are salient people generally perceived in a group setting?

They attract more attention and are more influential. Signup and view all the answers

What does the concept of priming involve?

Activating accessible schemas that influence information processing. Signup and view all the answers

What is a significant characteristic of person memory according to Fiske and Taylor?

It is organized to influence behaviors and impressions in real-time. Signup and view all the answers

How does long-term memory differ from short-term memory?

Long-term memory serves as a vast store of information, while short-term memory is the focus of current attention. Signup and view all the answers

What is the main focus of the accentuation principle?

To highlight similarities and differences among categories Signup and view all the answers

Which term refers to the cognitive priority of middle-range categories?

Basic-level categories Signup and view all the answers

What does the optimal distinctiveness theory balance?

Intragroup differentiation and intragroup homogenization Signup and view all the answers

Which concept describes the tendency to overestimate the prevalence of events that readily come to mind?

Availability heuristics Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a way schemas can change?

Amplification Signup and view all the answers

In Kelley's covariation model, which factor is important for determining causal attributions?

The factor that covaries most closely with the behavior Signup and view all the answers

What is the first stage in the social encoding process as described?

Pre-attentive analysis Signup and view all the answers

What does the stability dimension in Weiner's performance dimensions refer to?

The extent to which the cause is considered permanent or temporary Signup and view all the answers

How are schemas that we use automatically typically characterized?

Sufficiently accurate for day-to-day interaction Signup and view all the answers

What aspect of schema acquisition involves making a schema richer and more complex?

Encountering diverse instances Signup and view all the answers

What does self-perception theory suggest about how individuals understand themselves?

They make attributions for their own behavior similar to how they attribute others' behaviors Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following statements best defines emotional components?

Emotions involve psychological arousal and cognitive assessments Signup and view all the answers

What term describes changes to schemas that occur suddenly due to disconfirming evidence?

Conversion Signup and view all the answers

What describes an attributional style?

An individual personality predisposition to make causal attributions for behavior Signup and view all the answers

What is representative of the correspondence bias?

The tendency to overlook the impact of external factors on behavior Signup and view all the answers

What is the actor-observer effect?

Attributing our own actions to external factors while attributing others' actions to internal factors Signup and view all the answers

What does essentialism in the context of correspondence bias imply?

An extreme view in attributing behavior solely to stable personality traits Signup and view all the answers

What does the false consensus effect refer to?

Overestimating how common one's own behavior is among others Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary focus of social inference in social cognition?

The way we categorize social information to form impressions of others Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is a characteristic of organizing memory by person?

Easily recalled and rich person memories Signup and view all the answers

What distinguishes the heuristic/peripheral route of processing attitudes?

It relies on quick decisions based on schemas and stereotypes. Signup and view all the answers

What does 'illusory correlation' refer to?

A cognitive belief in a connection between two unrelated events Signup and view all the answers

In what way does paired distinctiveness contribute to illusory correlation?

By combining unusual features of items to create a connection Signup and view all the answers

Which cognitive heuristic involves judging the similarity of an instance to a larger category?

Representative heuristic Signup and view all the answers

What is a common misconception regarding events and their perception in terms of distinctiveness?

Negative events are often deemed more distinctive due to rarity Signup and view all the answers

What does organizing memory by group primarily rely upon?

Stereotypical attributes of social categories Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

Schemas: Sets of thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes used to understand individuals, situations, or events. They provide a framework for interpreting limited information.
Top-down processing: Theory-driven approach, starting with a general theory and then examining specific details.
Bottom-up processing: Data-driven approach, starting with specific details and building towards a general theory.
Person schemas: Knowledge structures concerning role occupants.
Scripts: Schemas about events (e.g., a festival).
Self-schemas: Schemas about oneself often complex and varied.
Content-free schemas: Rules for processing information.
Categories/Prototypes: General representations of attributes; prototypes are typical/ideal features (of a category, not always representative).
Family resemblance: Defining property of category membership: features overlap, no single defining attribute.
Exemplars: Specific instances of a category member, highlighting concrete examples.
Stereotypes: Schemas about social groups; often used for outgroups and associated with prejudice and conflict. Stereotypes simplify images of group members. Often based on physical differences. Adaptive cognitive shortcut for quick judgments, but prone to change. Affected by social, political or economic changes; usually crystallized after age 10.

Accentuate

Accentuation principle: Similarities emphasized within categories and differences between categories are highlighted. Categories show more errors in differences than between categories.

Basic level categories

Middle range categories: Useful and readily processed due to their cognitive priority.

Optimal distinctiveness theory

Balance between conflicting needs to perceive similarities and differences amongst people.

Categorizing people

Ways to categorize people (e.g., distinctive cues, standing out from the group).
The categories are in schemas (easily retrieved from memory).

Schema Acquisition and Change

Schemas are acquired through experience and can be modified. Schemas are initially general and become more complex over time.
Acquiring schemas: Instances that fit the category increase schema generality and abstraction.
Changing schemas: Schemas change slowly, requiring supportive evidence. Significant change occurs only with inaccurate evidence (bookkeeping, conversion, or sub-typing).
Social encoding: Process of representing external social stimuli in minds; influenced by salience and perceived accessibility.

Pre-attentive analysis: Automatic, non-conscious scanning of the environment.
Focal attention: Stimuli are consciously identified and categorized.
Comprehension: Stimuli are given a meaning.
Elaborative reasoning: Linking stimuli to other knowledge (allows complex inferences).
Salience: Stimuli that stand out from the background, or are especially meaningful in the current context.

Salient people

Important in a specific context; they attract attention and are influential in a group. They are more responsible for their actions and less influenced by the situation.

Priming

Activating accessible categories or schemas in memory, influencing the processing of new information.
Person memory: Remembering people based on schemas.

Associative network

Specific ideas or memories (nodes) linked together in a network, activated by cognitive rehearsals.

Types of memory

Long-term memory: Vast store of information brought to mind.
Short-term memory: Working memory, focus of attention, limited.

Person Memory Structure

Concrete appearance (observable traits) to more abstract categories (e.g., personality).
Positive/desirable to negative/undesirable attributes. Stored like pictures in memory.
Accurate at remembering faces.

Organizing Person's Memory

Categorizing people by person vs. by group.
First encounters with strangers leads to categorizing them based on salient characteristics (pigeon-hole).
Social inference: Processing information to form impressions.

Categories (Brewer)

Schemas related to categorized information
Attributes or traits.

Heuristic/Peripheral route

Simple, top-down decisions based on schemas or cognitive shortcuts.
systematic/central route: More deliberate and thoughtful decision-making process, examining the reasons behind decisions.

Illusory Correlation

Exaggerated perception of a relationship between two stimuli or events where no connection exists. Often caused by distinctive events being viewed as more common, e.g., negative stereotype of minority groups.

Cognitive Heuristics

Simplification methods used to solve complex problems.
Representative heuristic assesses similarity.
Availability heuristic focuses on readily-available information (perceptions).
Anchoring and adjustment focuses on early perceptions which act as a baseline.

People as naïve psychologists

Individuals construct causal theories of human behavior (similar to scientific methods).
Understanding individuals, their motives, and the causes of their actions.

Attribution theory

Internal vs External attributions (causes of behavior) and self vs other differences
Covariation model: Attributing cause of a behavior to factors that closely correlate with that behavior.
Dimensions of performance (e.g., locus, stability, controllability).
Self-perception theory (making self-attributions to understand oneself).
Defining emotions (psychological arousal and cognitions).
Attribution bias (assessing cause of behaviors based on others' actions).
Attributional style (tendency to make the same type of attribution).
Internal (personal) vs External (situational) attributions
Attributional Conflict

Correspondent Inference

Inferring a correspondence between a person's behavior and their personality traits.
Correspondence bias: Fundamental Attribution error; tendency to attribute behavior to internal factors, overlooking situational influences
Actor-observer effect: Attribute others' behavior to internal factors but our own behavior to external situational factors.
Asymmetry of information: Better understanding of oneself than of another person regarding situational context.
False consensus: Overestimating the degree to which others share our views or behavior.
Self-serving bias: Attributing our successes to internal factors and failures to external factors.
Self-enhancing bias: Attributing positive behaviors to personality, not coercion.

Self-protecting bias

Explaining negative behaviors as external and situational to protect our image.

Intergroup attributions and prejudice

Attributing behaviors to group membership rather than individual factors.
Ultimate attribution error: Negative out-group behavior attributed internally and positively to groups.

Common sense interpretations of social reality; creating shared understanding.

Rumors and conspiracy theories

Unverified accounts intended to create explanation or sense.
Conspiracy theories attribute widely-spread events to secret organized groups.

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Description

Test your knowledge of key terms and concepts in social psychology through this engaging quiz. Learn about schemas, processing types, and other foundational ideas that shape our understanding of social interactions. Challenge yourself to recall important definitions and examples.