Social Psychology Chapter 3 PDF

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Chapter 3 Social Beliefs and Judgments PRIMING happens unconsciously ▪ Activating particular associations in memory ▪ Can influence our thoughts and actions ▪ Subliminal priming ▪ short term ▪ if you are already motivated to engage in that behaviour doesnt work...

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Chapter 3 Social Beliefs and Judgments PRIMING happens unconsciously ▪ Activating particular associations in memory ▪ Can influence our thoughts and actions ▪ Subliminal priming ▪ short term ▪ if you are already motivated to engage in that behaviour doesnt work unless in speicifc circumstances - becuz it needs to be unconscious - 3 INTUITIVE JUDGMENTS  Priming research suggests that much of our behaviour is unconscious. Much of our thinking is unconscious ▪ Schemas ▪ Emotional reactions ▪ Expertise ▪ Thin slices = snap judgement that we make abt other ppl - develops a idea of how this person is like 4 INTUITIVE JUDGMENTS The limits of intuition weak  Subliminal stimuli only have minor effect tend to react + come up a explanation as to why we reacted that way later  Error-prone hindsight our conscuos mind trying to come up w/ a excuse  Capacity for illusion 5  CONFIRMATORY HYPOTHESIS TESTING ▪ 2, 4, 6, ……. to prove ourselves right = confirmation bias - assumes we have the right answer > so we try to prove ourselves wrong OVERCONFIDENCE we overstimate our "correct answers" Overconfidence phenomenon: ▪ The tendency to be more confident than warranted – to overestimate the accuracy of one’s beliefs constanly generating TH why it is the way it is < assume we are right (doesnt test we are wrong ▪ Applies to factual information, judgments of others’ behaviour, judgments of own behavior the less competence u are = the more confident u tend to be right ▪ Fed by incompetence and underestimation of the importance of situational forces ▪ “It takes competence to recognize competence” if u know a lot abt smth < becomes aware of the gaps u are missing in that smth - u know what u dont know 7  OVERCONFIDENCE Leads to confirmation bias comes up w/ excuse to discredit that discredited source that discredited ur beleif ▪ Perseverance of Beliefs ▪ The tendency to maintain beliefs even after they have been discredited ▪ Confirmatory Hypothesis Testing ▪ We seek out information that reinforces our preexisting beliefs ▪ Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Remedies for overconfidence  Prompt feedback once u make a decision < u are told no eg. how long do u think it would take to do X? ( we do this to think of all the pieces V  Break up a task into its subcomponents actively to prove ourselves wrong  Consider disconfirming information 8 HEURISTICS: MENTAL SHORTCUTS we have them b/c we dont have unlimited amt time to make jdugemnts Thinking strategies that enable quick, efficient judgments when it goes wrong: ▪ Lead to attribution biases ▪ We are limited in our ability to process information, so we take shortcuts. These shortcuts sometimes lead us to make errors. 9 HEURISTICS: MENTAL SHORTCUTS we assume things based on how similar it is to our image of that X Representativeness heuristic  The tendency to presume that someone or something belongs to a particular group if resembling a typical member  Ignores base rate information assume the likelihood based on how likely we can think of examples Availability heuristic  A cognitive rule that judges the likelihood of things in terms of their availability in memory 10 COUNTERFACTUAL THINKING ▪ Imagining alternative scenarios and outcomes that might have happened, but did not ▪ Underlies our feelings of luck ▪ Typically more regret over things not done tend to think we havent tried rather than things we have done 11 ILLUSORY THINKING leads to making conclusions (esp. abt ppl) Illusory correlation one of the reasons why it drives prejudice  The perception of a relationship where none exists, or perception of a stronger relationship than actually exists idea of we can actually contorl things < tend to overestimate the controls we have Illusion of control  The perception of uncontrollable events as subject to one’s control or as more controllable than they are 12  mood affects are judhemets MOODS AND JUDGMENT 13 PERCEIVING AND INTERPRETING EVENTS tend to perceive things accordign to our expectations (biased btw) how did u read this originally ? < did u see the 2nd the? 14 BELIEF PERSEVERANCE Persistence of one’s initial conceptions, even in the face of disconfirming evidence once decided on smth = hard to change our minds < dont like to readjust that deciison 16 CONSTRUCTING MEMORIES OF OURSELVES AND OUR WORLDS memoires are contruted + reconstructed - not hard to implant false memroies Misinformation effect very crucial to be aware of during eye testimony > or else it can mislead memory ▪ Incorporating “misinformation” into one’s memory of an event, after witnessing the event and receiving misleading information about it ▪ Potential for the creation of false memories ▪ Elizabeth Loftus 17 CONSTRUCTING MEMORIES OF OURSELVES AND OUR WORLDS Reconstructing past attitudes more common  Rosy (or less then rosy) retrospections tend to make past actions/results better than it actually is in ways that are more consistent of current atitudes / what wouldve been more socially accepted behavs Reconstructing past behaviour  Recall smoking fewer cigarettes, voting more often  Greenwald’s “totalitarian ego” =  We revise our past to match current beliefs 18 ATTRIBUTING CAUSALITY: TO THE PERSON OR THE SITUATION? ▪ Attribution theory we try to figure out why they would do that ▪ How we explain peoples’ behaviour ▪ Misattribution ▪ Mistakenly attributing a behaviour to the wrong cause attribute thats its the personality of others attribute the sitaution of oursleve ▪ Dispositional versus situational attributions ▪ e.g., Why did that driver cut me off on the highway? comes to conclusions due to perspn / situation - dispositional attribution vs. situational attribution 19 QUIZ SHOW!!!!  not culturally universal - more common in western FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR ▪ The tendency to underestimate the impact to the situation on the ONLY behaviour of other people. ▪ Two step process for making attributions: ▪ (1) identify behaviour and make a personal attribution ▪ (2) adjust that impression to account for situational factors ATTRIBUTIONS AND REACTIONS we are defaulted to assume its just the person's personality rather than the situation 22 TEACHER EXPECTATIONS AND STUDENT PERFORMANCE the way how teachers treat students can affect the student's views of their own success/capabilities 23 GETTING FROM OTHERS WHAT WE EXPECT Behavioural Confirmation A type of self-fulfilling prophecy where peoples’ social expectations lead them to act in ways that cause others to confirm their expectations Person’s Expectations Your Person’s Behaviour Behaviour towards the towards You Person 24