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## 3.7 Schema Theory ### How do we simplify this complex world we live in? #### (a) Schema Theory: An Introduction Social identity theory provides possible explanations for how social factors (like belonging to a group) can influence our thinking and behaviour. A product of the cognitive process...

## 3.7 Schema Theory ### How do we simplify this complex world we live in? #### (a) Schema Theory: An Introduction Social identity theory provides possible explanations for how social factors (like belonging to a group) can influence our thinking and behaviour. A product of the cognitive processes involved in identity, including the **out-group homogeneity effect** and **implicit bias**, are incredibly closely related to another cognitive concept called **schema**. A schema is a cluster of related pieces of information in our mind. Their understanding and description is a cognitive **framework**, or a system of cognitively organising and storing information, knowledge and memories. It’s not expected that you’ll be able to grasp a schema is an incredibly abstract but important concept to understand. Cohen et al.’s study on individual behaviour and attitudes after college football games is an interesting example of a natural experiment. In order to correctly identify a particular research method used, you must fist make sure you know the characteristics of the different research methods (this will be covered in later chapters). It might be natural to think that this study is a **field experiment**. But you need to ask, “did the researchers manipulate the IV?” In this case, the IV was naturally occurring. And if the “IV” could vary along a continuum, and this was what the researchers measured, it’s more probably a **correlational study**. In this case, the IV that was expected to affect the behaviour was whether or not the team won. This cannot vary: it’s yes or no. It’s also not a **naturalistic observation**, even though they gathered observational data in a natural environment, because the study clearly had an independent variable (win/loss) that the researchers believed was influencing the dependent variable (their attitudes towards the group). The purpose of my explanation here is to show you how careful you need to be when identifying and describing research methods related to a particular topic. And the purifying and describing research methods related to a particular topic and Cohen et al study was helpful in that particular context to focus on a naturally occurring variable. ### Ethical Considerations Protecting participants' self-esteem and their psychological well-being is at the heart of the ethical guidelines that associations use to govern psychological research. In many studies related to an individual’s attitudes or behaviour in social situations, there is the chance for participants to feel embarrassment or even shame at their responses. For example, when uncovering implicit racial biases or stereotypes, participants may experience some distress or anxiety over having their attitudes revealed to them. This is important to consider when following protocols like debriefing. ### One of the functions of schema is that they save our cognitive energy by enabling us to make generalizations. Stereotypes are also examples of social schema because they are ways we make generalizations about members of other social groups. It’s easier to make a generalization about someone based on a group they belong to, rather than thinking about everyone individually. Making such generalizations can help to save our cognitive energy. In this course, it’s important that you know about schema theory. Unlike theories such as SIT and RCT that can be attributed to a particular group of theorists, schema theory has had many contributions from a range of psychologists over the past 80 years. By the end of this topic, it’s hoped that you know the following about schema theory: - The definition of schema - Characteristics and functions of schema - How they might influence our mental processes and our behaviour As with SIT, we will cover these concepts gradually over the next few sections. **Schema:** A cognitive framework that helps to cluster related pieces of information, knowledge or memories. ### Schemas (plural is also known as schemata) are mental clusters of related ideas and memories The metaphor I like to use to explain