Summary PYC3701 - Social Psychology Study Notes.

PYC3701 - Social Psychology Study Notes. AUTOMATIC AND CONTROLLED PROCESSING: TWO BASIC MODES OF THOUGHT  Social thought can occur in either of two different ways: in a systematic, logical, and highly effortful manner (controlled processing), or in a fast, relatively effortless, and intuitive manner (automatic processing). Both may occur together.  Research suggests that people have two different neural systems for processing social information – one that operates in an automatic manner, and one that operates in a systematic and controlled manner. AUTOMATIC PROCESSING AND AUTOMATIC SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR  Automatic processing: This occurs when, after extensive experience with a task or type of information, we reach the stage where we can perform the task or process the information in a seemingly effortless, automatic, and nonconscious manner. Downloaded by janine toffar () lOMoARcPSD|  Research also shows that once automatic processing is initiated (e.g. through priming), individuals may – unconsciously – begin to prepare for future interactions with the people or groups who are the focus of this automatic processing. THE BENEFITS OF AUTOMATIC PROCESSING: BEYOND MERE EFFICIENCY  Research shows that we often attempt to deal with problems, and even complex decisions, while our attention is directed elsewhere.  Recent research suggests that automatic processing may even be superior to conscious thought when it comes to making good decisions.  Automatic thought has greater capacity, and may also reflect our real preferences more clearly. SU 2.4. POTENTIAL SOURCES OF ERROR IN SOCIAL COGNITION: WHY TOTAL RATIONALITY IS RARER THAN YOU THINK A BASIC “TILT” IN SOCIAL THOUGHT: OUR POWERFUL TENDENCY TO BE OVERLY OPTIMISTIC  Optimistic bias: Our predisposition to expect things to turn out well overall.  Negativity bias: We show greater sensitivity to negative information than to positive information. The negativity bias is not universal, and may be eliminated if we find ourselves in situations in which paying attention to positive information is useful.  Overconfidence barrier: The tendency to have more confidence in the accuracy of our own judgements than is reasonable.  Most people believe they are more likely than others to experience positive events, and less likely to experience negative events.  People who are least competent in a domain are often most likely to be overconfident of their judgements in that domain.  Overconfidence often stems from errors of omission. We lack the relevant feedback that would help moderate our confidence. THE ROCKY PAST VERSUS THE GOLDEN FUTURE: OPTIMISM AT WORK  We tend to think our future will be happy and ‘golden’, with few negative events.  When we think about the past, we tend to remember failures and unpleasant events.  When we think about the future, we focus on our dreams and plans.  Being optimistic about the future can make us feel good. If the basis for it is disconfirmed, we may feel bad – but only temporarily. Downloaded by janine toffar () lOMoARcPSD| WHEN OPTIMISM AFFECTS OUR ABILITY TO PLAN EFFECTIVELY  Planning fallacy: The tendency to make optimistic predictions concerning how long a given task will take for completion.  When we make predictions about how long it will take to complete a task, we enter a planning or narrative mode of thought in which we focus primarily on the future and how we will perform the task. As a result, we are unable to remember how long similar tasks previously took.  When we do take into account past experiences in which tasks took longer than expected, we tend to attribute such outcomes to factors outside our control.  Our estimates of when we will complete a task are also influenced by our hopes and desires: we want to finish at a certain time, so we predict that we will.  Power leads us to focus too narrowly on task completion, rather than the steps involved in getting there, which can lead us to seriously underestimate how long it will take to finish tasks. SITUATION-SPECIFIC SOURCES OF ERROR IN SOCIAL COGNITION: COUNTERFACTUAL THINKING AND MAGICAL THINKING  Counterfactual thinking: The tendency to imagine other outcomes in a situation than the ones that actually occurred (“what might have been”).  Counterfactual thoughts seem to occur automatically in many situations.  Studies show that anything that reduces our information-processing capacity strengthens the impact of counterfactual thoughts on our judgements and behaviour.  Counterfactual thinking can influence our social thought.  Depending on its focus, imagining counterfactuals for outcomes we receive can yield either boosts to, or reductions in, our current moods. If individuals imagine upward counterfactuals, the result may be dissatisfaction and envy. If individuals compare their current outcomes with less favourable ones, they may experience positive feelings of satisfaction and hopefulness.  We often use counterfactual thinking to mitigate the bitterness of disappointments.  Sometimes, engaging in counterfactual thought can enhance performance on important tasks.  Thought suppression: Efforts to keep thoughts out of our consciousness. This involves two components: a monitoring process, acting also as an early warning system, and an operating process, which includes an active prevention system. The two processes are effective, except when people are tired, experience information overload, or are emotional. People may then sometimes experience a rebound effect, where attempts to suppress unwanted thoughts lead to people actually thinking more about the information. Downloaded by janine toffar () lOMoARcPSD|  Magical thinking: Thinking involving assumptions that don’t hold up to rational scrutiny – for example, the belief that things that resemble one another share fundamental properties.  One principle of magical thinking assumes that one’s thoughts can influence the physical world in a manner not governed by the laws of physics.  Our thinking about many situations is frequently influenced by magical thinking.  Terror management: Our efforts to come to terms with the certainty of our own death and its unsettling implications.  Some researchers believe that when we come face to face with the certainty of our own deaths, we try to manage the strong reactions this produces, and one way of doing this is to engage in thinking that is largely outside of what we consider to be rational thought. SU 2.5. AFFECT AND COGNITION: HOW FEELINGS SHAPE THOUGHT AND THOUGHT SHAPES FEELINGS THE INFLUENCE OF AFFECT ON COGNITION  Our current moods can influence our perceptions of the world around us. When we are experiencing positive affect, we tend to perceive almost everything in more positive terms.  We are more likely to judge statements as true if we encounter them while in a positive mood.  Positive moods encourage people to feel that they understand the world better.  Positive moods can also result in less accurate judgements.  Mood congruence effects: The fact that we are more likely to store or remember positive information when in a positive mood and negative information when in a negative mood.  Mood dependent memory: The fact that what we remember while in a given mood may be determined, in part, by what we learned when previously in that mood.  Current moods serve as a kind of retrieval cue, prompting recall of information consistent with your moods.  Being in a happy mood can increase creativity. Positive moods facilitate creativity most when they are relatively high in arousal (happiness) rather than low (relaxation).  People experiencing positive affect are more likely than people experiencing negative affect to engage in heuristic thought in dealing with current problems or decisions.  Our current moods often influence our interpretations of the motives behind people’s behaviour. THE INFLUENCE OF COGNITION ON AFFECT  Schachter’s two-factor theory of emotion: This theory suggests that when we don’t know our own feelings or attitudes directly, we infer their nature from the external world. Downloaded by janine toffar () lOMoARcPSD|  Cognition can also influence emotions by activating schemas containing a strong affective component. How we think about others – and who we think those others are – tells us how we feel about such people.  When we feel “down” or distressed, we often yield to temptations that we know are bad for us in the long run, but make us feel better. Research shows that this is because these temptations help us deal with strong negative feelings.  The tendency to yield to temptation is a conscious choice, not a simple lapse in the ability to control our own impulses. AFFECT AND COGNITION: SOCIAL NEUROSCIENCE EVIDENCE FOR TWO SEPARATE SYSTEMS  Two distinct systems for processing social information may exist within the human brain: the first is concerned with reason – logical thought – whereas the other deals primarily with affect or emotion.  These two systems interact in many ways during problem solving, decision making, and other forms of cognition.  Research shows that the neural system for emotion tends to be impulsive, preferring immediate rewards, whereas the system for reason is more forward-looking and accepting of delays that ultimately yield larger rewards. Downloaded by janine toffar () lOMoARcPSD| 3: SOCIAL PERCEPTION: PERCEIVING AND UNDERSTANDING OTHERS  Social perception: The process through which we seek to know and understand other people.  Nonverbal communication: Communication between individuals that does not involve the content of spoken language. It relies instead on an unspoken language of facial expressions, eye contact, and body language.  Attribution: The process through which we seek to identify the causes of others’ behaviour and so gain a knowledge of their stable traits and dispositions.  Impression formation: The process through which we form impressions of others.  Impression management (self-presentation): Efforts by individuals to produce favourable first impressions on others. SU 3.1. NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION: THE UNSPOKEN LANGUAGE OF EXPRESSIONS, GAZES, AND GESTURES  Both our own and other people’s social actions can be affected by temporary factors or causes. This includes changing moods, shifting emotions, fatigue, illness, drugs, the menstrual cycle, etc.  Non-verbal cues can give us clues as to how people are feeling, because non-verbal cues are relatively irrepressible.  Women might have better nonverbal skills, specifically regarding others’ appearance, than men. NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION: THE BASIC CHANNELS  Our feelings are usually revealed through 5 basic channels: facial expressions, eye contact, body movements, posture, and touching. FACIAL EXPRESSIONS AS CLUES TO OTHERS’ EMOTIONS  We can learn much about others’ current moods from their facial expressions.  Five basic emotions are represented clearly, and from a very early age: anger, fear, happiness, sadness, and disgust.  Emotions occur in many combinations, and each of these reactions can vary greatly in strength.  Most research confirms that facial expressions are fairly universal. Downloaded by janine toffar () lOMoARcPSD|  Cultural differences do exist with respect to the precise meaning of facial expressions.  When people know each other very well, they are better at “reading” each other’s nonverbal cues. GAZES AND STARES: EYE CONTACT AS A NONVERBAL CUE  We often learn much about others’ feelings from their eyes.  A high level of gazing from another is usually a sign of liking or friendliness.  Avoiding eye contact is usually interpreted as unfriendly, or shy.  Staring: A form of eye contact in which one person continues to gaze steadily at another regardless of what the recipient does.  Staring can be interpreted as anger or hostility (cold stare). BODY LANGUAGE: GESTURES, POSTURE, AND MOVEMENTS  Body language: Cues provided by the position, posture, and movement of others’ bodies or body parts.  Body language often reveals others’ emotional states.  Large numbers of movement, especially ones in which one part of the body does something to another part, suggest emotional arousal.  Larger patterns of movements, involving the whole body, can be informative.  Emblems: Body movements carrying specific meanings in a given culture. TOUCHING: WHAT DOES IT CONVEY?  Depending on certain factors (such as who does the touching, or the nature of the touch), touch can suggest affection, sexual interest, dominance, caring, or even aggression.  When touching is considered appropriate, it often produces positive reactions.  The firmer, longer, and more vigorous others’ handshakes are, the higher we tend to rate them in terms of extraversion and openness to experience, and the more favourable our first impressions of them tend to be.  A light, comforting pat on the arm can induce feelings of security among both men and women, but only if it is done by a woman.  Such feelings of security can influence actual behaviour. SCENT: ANOTHER SOURCE OF NONVERBAL SOCIAL INFORMATION  Paralingual cues: Changes in the tone or inflection of others’ voices.  Subtle cues relating to others’ body chemistry can be revealing. Downloaded by janine toffar () lOMoARcPSD|  Changes in women’s internal chemistry occurring during the menstrual cycle can be transmitted to others through subtle olfactory cues. ARE FACIAL EXPRESSIONS AN ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT OTHERS?  Facial expressions are a uniquely crucial source of information about others.  It is almost impossible to ignore facial expressions.  To the extent a person’s neutral facial expression resembles a particular emotional expression, they are seen as showing this emotion, even when in fact they are not experiencing any strong emotion.  Male faces are seen as resembling angry expressions to a greater extent than female faces, and black and Korean faces are seen as resembling expressions of happiness or surprise to a greater extent than white faces.  We tend to perceive more in others’ faces than is really there.  Facial expressions are not only external signs of internal states, they can also trigger or influence internal emotional experiences.  The view that facial expressions can actually trigger emotions is known as the facial feedback hypothesis. THE FACIAL FEEDBACK HYPOTHESIS  The facial feedback hypothesis suggests that there is a close link between the facial expressions we show and our internal feelings, and that this relationship works both ways: the expressions we show reflect our internal feelings/emotions, but these expressions also feed back into our brains and influence our subjective experiences of emotion. DECEPTION: RECOGNIZING IT THROUGH NONVERBAL CUES, AND ITS EFFECTS ON SOCIAL RELATIONS  Most people tell at least one lie every day, and use deception in almost 20% of their social interactions.  The majority of strangers lie to each other at least once during a brief first encounter.  People lie to avoid hurting others feelings, conceal their real feelings/reactions, or to avoid punishment for misdeeds.  We tend to perceive others as truthful, and do only a little better than chance in determining whether they are lying.  Our desire to be polite makes us reluctant to discover deception.  We don’t always pay attention to nonverbal cues that might reveal deception.  We tend to assume that if people are truthful in one situation, they will be truthful in others.  Microexpressions: fleeting facial expressions lasting only a few tenths of a second. Such reactions appear quickly after an emotion-provoking event and are difficult to suppress. Downloaded by janine toffar () lOMoARcPSD|  Interchannel discrepancies: Inconsistencies between nonverbal cues from different basic channels. These result from the fact that people who are lying often find it difficult to control all these channels at once.  Eye contact: People who are lying often blink more often and show pupils that are more dilated. They may also show an unusually low or high level of eye contact.  Exaggerated facial expressions: They may smile more – or more broadly – than usual or may show greater sorrow than is typical in a given situation.  When people are lying, the pitch of their voices often rises, and they also take longer to begin. They may show a tendency to start sentences, stop them, and begin again. THE EFFECTS OF DECEPTION ON SOCIAL RELATIONS  When people find out they have been lied to, they react with mistrust and disliking toward the deceiver.  After being exposed to someone who lies, most people are more willing to engage in such behaviour themselves.  Lying undermines the quality of social relationships. SU 3.2. ATTRIBUTION: UNDERSTANDING THE CAUSES OF OTHER PEOPLE’S BEHAVIOUR THEORIES OF ATTRIBUTION: FRAMEWORKS FOR UNDERSTANDING HOW WE MAKE SENSE OF THE SOCIAL WORLD FROM ACTS TO DISPOSITIONS: USING OTHERS’ BEHAVIOUR AS A GUIDE TO THEIR LASTING TRAITS  Correspondent inference: A theory describing how we use others’ behaviour as a basis for inferring their stable dispositions.  Often, individuals act in certain ways not because doing so reflects their own preferences or traits, but rather because external factors leave them little choice. We cope with this by focusing our attention on actions that seem to have been freely chosen, and pay full attention to actions that show noncommon effects.  Noncommon effects: Effects produced by a particular cause that could not be produced by any other apparent cause.  We also pay more attention to actions that are low in social desirability. Downloaded by janine toffar () lOMoARcPSD| KELLEY’S THEORY OF CAUSAL ATTRIBUTIONS: HOW WE ANSWER THE QUESTION “WHY?”  When trying to figure out the reasons for others’ behaviour, we often ask: Did others’ behaviour stem mainly from internal causes, mainly from external causes, or from a combination of the two?  When considering the reasons for others’ behaviour, we focus on 3 types of information: consensus (the extent to which other people react to some stimulus or even in the same manner as the person we are considering), consistency (the extent to which an individual responds to a given stimulus or situation in the same way on different occasions), and distinctiveness (the extent to which an individual responds in the same manner to different stimuli or events).  We are most likely to attribute another’s behaviour to internal causes under conditions in which consensus and distinctiveness are low but consistency is high.  We are most likely to attribute another’s behaviour to external causes when consensus, consistency, and distinctiveness are high. OTHER DIMENSIONS OF CAUSAL ATTRIBUTION  Some internal causes of behaviour tend to be quite stable over time, while others can, and often do, change greatly.  Some internal causes are controllable, while others are not. The same is true for external causes of behaviour.  In trying to understand the causes behind others’ behaviour, we take note of all three dimensions: internal-external, stable-unstable, and controllableuncontrollable. ARE THE EVENTS IN OUR LIVES “MEANT TO BE”, OR DO WE MAKE THEM HAPPEN? FATE ATTRIBUTIONS VERSUS PERSONAL CHOICE  One interpretation is that they are due to our own actions.  Another explanation attributes such events to fate.  Norenzayan and Lee suggest that belief in fate is related to two more basic beliefs: religious convictions concerning the existence of God, and a belief in complex causality (the idea that many causes influence such events, and that no one cause is essential). ACTION IDENTIFICATION AND THE ATTRIBUTION PROCESS  Action identification: The level of interpretation we place on an action; lowlevel interpretations focus on the action itself, while higher-level interpretations focus on its ultimate goals.