AP Psychology 8-10% of AP Exam Social Cognition AP Psychology 8-10% of AP Exam

Quick Write: Describe when a stereotype has caused you to have a wrong impression about someone, or caused someone else to have a wrong impression about you. Has this wrong impression changed your behavior or the behavior of the other person? What advice would you give to others when forming impressions about people?

Social Psychology how thoughts and feelings influence behavior toward others, and how the behavior of others influences people’s thoughts Social Cognition – mental processes associated with the ways people perceive and react to other individuals and groups

Social Influences on the Self Self-concept – the beliefs we hold about who we are and what characteristics we have Self-esteem – the evaluations we make about how worthy we are as human beings

Self Comparison Leon Festinger – people make two types of comparisons: Temporal Comparison Considering your present condition in relation to how you were in the past Social Comparison Evaluating yourself in comparison to others - using others as a basis for evaluating your attributes

Social Comparison Reference Groups – categories of people to which you see yourself as belonging and to which you compare yourself Downward social comparison – strategy of choosing someone as the target of comparison to oneself who is not as good on some dimension of importance Upward social comparison – comparing yourself to people who do much better

Social Identity Our beliefs about the groups to which we belong, and thus is a part of our self-concept A group identity helps people to feel part of a larger whole (may foster an “us versus them” mentality) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ_qXmxdgGM

Self-Schemas Mental representations of people’s beliefs and views about themselves Unified self-schemas – regard their attributes as stable across every situation and role Differentiated self-schemas – regard their attributes as changing in different roles or situations

Impressions First Impressions – quickly formed, difficult to change, long-lasting influence People are confident about their judgment Easier to remember Forming Impressions – schemas create a tendency to infer a great deal about a person on the basis of limited information Lasting Impressions – difficult to change, long-lasting influence

Self-Fulfilling Prophecies Basis = Without our awareness, schemas cause us to subtly lead people to behave in line with our expectations 4 steps: Adopting an attitude concerning a person Behave as though your attitude is correct Others react to your attitude Your prophecy comes true, not because you were right, but because your behavior/attitude caused the prophecy to come true

Attribution The process people go through to explain causes of behavior People tend to attribute behavior in a particular situation either to: Personal or Dispositional Attribution (primarily internal) causes Situational Attribution (primarily external) causes

Biases in Attribution http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkWTCXDCVvc Fundamental Attribution Error: a tendency to over-attribute others’ behaviors to internal factors, such as personality traits False Consensus Effect– tendency to overestimate the number of people who feel how you feel Self-serving bias – tendency to take credit for success (internal) but to blame failure on external causes

Sources of Attributions Harold Kelley’s 3 Elements: Consensus – the degree to which other people’s behavior is similar to that of the individual. Ex: if it is similar, it has high consensus. If it is dissimilar, it has low consensus Consistency – the degree to which the behavior occurs repeatedly in a situation. Ex: if it always occurs, it has high consistency. If it occurs intermittently, it has low consistency Distinctiveness – the extent to which similar stimuli draw the same behaviors from the individual. Ex: if it is highly predictable, then it has low distinctiveness. If it is not predictable, it has high distinctiveness. An internal attribution is most likely when there is low consensus, high consistency, and low distinctiveness.

Attributions

Attitudes The tendency to think, feel, or act positively or negatively towards objects in our environment 3 Components: Cognitive – set of beliefs about attributes of the attitude object Affective – feeling about the object (emotional) – a like or dislike Behavioral – involves a way of acting toward the object http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/attitudes.html#lesson

3 Components of Attitude

Forming Attitudes Modeling (Bandura, Skinner)– children learn from their parents what one should believe and feel about certain objects Classical Conditioning (Pavlov)– people are more likely to form a positive attitude toward an object when it is paired with stimuli that elicit good feelings Mere-exposure effect – attitudes toward an object tend to become more positive as people are exposed to that object more often

Prejudice and Stereotypes Stereotypes – Perceptions, beliefs, and expectations a person has about members of some group – schemas about the entire groups of people Prejudice – undeserved, usually negative attitude toward an individual based on his or her membership in some group Discrimination – action (based on prejudice attitude) Out-group homogeneity – members of the “in group” see themselves as better than the “out groups” Contact Theory – bring hostile groups together and give them a common goal = prejudice will be reduced

David Duez Video Lecture Link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_A_HqxgTHU