Unit 2: Social Psychology 2.1 Social Thinking & Attribution

Social Thinking (aka social cognition) How people think and act in situations with others Influences our perception of ourselves and other people

Social Thinking Social schemas: mental representations that influence how we perceive others Influence how information is processed or interpreted Ex. We expect teachers to be knowledgeable, so we might trust them more than another student giving the same information. Ex. Perceive a police officer as trustworthy, even if you’ve never met them before (because police are supposed to be trustworthy)

Social Thinking Script: expectation about how a certain event/situation should go Ex. After a successful job interview, assumed you’ll get a phone call asking for a 2nd interview or offering the job Self-fulfilling prophecy: our expectations cause our behavior to change; then we meet the expectation originally set Ex. You think you will fail your test because the material is too hard so you don’t study. Because you didn’t study, you fail your test.

Attribution Process that describes how we explain the causes of our behavior and others’ behavior Personal (internal) Attribution: explains outcome by looking within individual (based on the person) Ex. I was able to do well on the test because I worked hard in class and spent time studying. (internal attribute = hard worker) Situational (external) Attribution: explains outcome by looking outside individual (based on the situation)– also includes ideas of luck, fate, chance Ex. I didn’t do well on the test because my baby brother was up all night crying so I didn’t get much sleep (external attribute = lack of sleep) Ex. I didn’t study for the test, but I got lucky on my guesses so I still did well (external attribute = lucky guesses)

Attribution Fundamental Attribution Error: When judging the behavior/outcomes of others, we overestimate internal influences and underestimate external influences Especially prevalent when judging people we don’t know well Ex. He is poor because he is lazy (internal influence) Ignores all external issues – cost of rent, how hard it is to find well paying jobs, expensive medical care

Attribution Just-World Hypothesis Tendency to believe that good people are rewarded and bad people are punished Can lead to blaming-the-victim effect Basically we want to explain why bad things happen (justifying that the person must have done something to deserve it)