LECTURE 2 SOCIAL COGNITION Chapter 3

1. LECTURE 2SOCIAL COGNITIONChapter 3 • Administration • Social Cognition • Schemas • Break • Dual Processes • Automatic Processes • Controlled Processes • Gut Feelings versus Analyses • Next Class

2. Questions?

3. Memory Test

4. Memory Test ADVENTUROUS SELF-CONFIDENT INDEPENDENT PERSISTENT

5. Memory Test

6. Memory Test RECKLESS CONCEITED ALOOF STUBBORN

7. What is Social Cognition? SOCIAL COGNITION: Social cognition studies how people think about themselves and the social world – how they select, interpret, remember and use social information to make judgments and decisions Social Psychology: The scientific study of how people think and feel about, influence, and relate to one another Cognitive Psychology: The scientific study of basic mental abilities such as perception, learning, and memory

8. Social Cognition is • Related to process • Related to what is in our head • Our cognitive representations or schemas • About people (it is social)

9. Social Cognition strives to examine • how we take information from the outside world and encode it (select) • how this interpretation of the information is stored in memory (interpret) • how this information is retrieved from memory and used (remember and use) In general, social cognition is the use of cognitive methodologies (and theories) to understand people and social situations.

10. Memory Test

11. Donald – the story

12. Memory Test ADVENTUROUS RECKLESS SELF-CONFIDENT CONCEITED INDEPENDENT ALOOF PERSISTENT STUBBORN

13. Schemas • Schemas are mental structures that represent knowledge about a concept or type of stimuli, they often include attributes and the relationship among those attributes

14. Types of Schemas • Role Schemas: expectations about people in particular roles and social categories (e.g., the role of a social psychologist, student, doctor, Blacks) • Self-Schemas: expectations about the self that organize and guide the processing of self-relevant information • Person Schemas: expectations based on personality traits. What we associate with a certain type of person (e.g., introvert, warm person) • Event Schemas: expectations about sequences of events in social situations. What we associate with certain situations (e.g., restaurant schemas)

15. Why are schemas important? • They reduce the amount of information to process • They reduce ambiguity • They guide our: • Attention and encoding • How quick we notice • What we notice • How we interpret what we notice

16. Schemas Influence Attention and Encoding/Categorization • http://boingboing.net/2009/12/14/change-blindness-exp.html • http://viscog.beckman.uiuc.edu/grafs/demos/15.html

17. Why are schemas important? • They reduce the amount of information to process • They reduce ambiguity • They guide our: • Attention and encoding • How quick we notice • What we notice • How we interpret what we notice • Our memory • Our judgments

18. When do we use schemas? Accessibility X Fit (Higgins, Rholes, & Jones, 1977) • Accessibility • the extent to which schemas and concepts are at the forefront of people’s minds (and therefore are likely to be used when making judgments about the social world) So how available the schema is in our head. • Fit (applicable, representative, similar) • the degree to which the accessible construct fits the object/person under judgment.

19. When do we use schemas? Applicable Nonapplicable ADVENTUROUS OBEDIENT SELF-CONFIDENT NEAT INDEPENDENT SATIRICAL PERSISTENT GRATEFUL RECKLESS DISRESPECTFUL CONCEITED LISTLESS ALOOF CLUMSY STUBBORN SHY

20. The problem with schemas… • Schemas can distort reality and memories • Schemas can persist, even when discredited - Belief perseverance • Schemas can be self-fulfilling - People often live up to our expectations because we treat them in ways that make them act in accordance with these expectations

21. Self-fulfilling Prophecies • We have expectations (schemas) about other people. • These expectations can influence how we act toward these people. • These actions can cause these people to act in ways that are consistent with our expectations.

22. Self-fulfilling Prophecies • Academic Success: • Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) - Pygmalion effect • Teenage Drinking Behavior: • Madon, Willard, Guyl, Trudeau, and Spoth (2006)

23. Teenage Drinking Behavior: • Asked mothers to rate the likelihood that their child would drink at 4 different times - when the same child was in grade 6, grade 7, grade 8, grade 10, and grade 12. • How likely do you think that your child will drink alcohol regularly as a teenager? • Certain this will Certain this will • not happen happen • 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 • If your child was at a party and one of his or her friends offered him/her an alcoholic beverage, how likely would your child be to drink? • Certain this will Certain this will • not happen happen • 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

24. Teenage Drinking Behavior: • They also measured the child’s alcohol use in grade 7, grade 8, grade 10 and grade 12 with open-ended questions. • During the past month, how many times have you had beer, wine, wine coolers, or other liquor? • During the past month, how many times have you had three or more drinks? • They also controlled for important predictors such as: • Parents drinking • Accessibility to alcohol • Perceived norms about teenage drinking • Attitudes toward alcohol use

25. Children’s Alcohol Use The process of accumulation of expectations over time for mothers who consistently overestimated their child’s alcohol use.

26. Children’s Alcohol Use The additive effects of expectations over time worsen an initial difference in alcohol use between mothers who overestimate and underestimate their child’s alcohol use.

27. Schemas influence • Our attention and encoding • Our memory • Our judgments • Our behaviour • which can in turn influence our social environment

28. Questions?

29. Dual Processes – Automatic vs. Controlled Processing An Automatic Process is: • unintentional/spontaneous • efficient • fast • implicit/nonconscious • uncontrollable 2. How do we measure this type of process?

30. Automatic/Implicit Measures Reaction Time Tasks • Lexical Decision Task/Sequential Priming Task • Stroop Task • Implicit Association Test - IAT Physiological/Social Cognitive Neuroscience Measures • ECG (heart rate) • Cortisol Levels • FMRI, EEG (brain activity) Subtle and Nonverbal Behaviours

31. Name Letter Task

32. How much do you like this letter? ___ really dislike really like 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ___ really dislike really like 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ___ really dislike really like 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ___ really dislike really like 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ___ really dislike really like 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ___ really dislike really like 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

33. Name Letter Task How much they like each letter of the alphabet F really dislike really like 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 C really dislike really like 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Compare mean ratings of own first and last initials to overall liking across all subjects of those first and last initials

34. Self-Esteem A person’s overall self-evaluation or sense of self-worth.

35. How is the Name Letter Task Automatic? An Automatic Process is: • unintentional/spontaneous • efficient • fast • implicit/nonconscious • uncontrollable

36. SELF-ESTEEM IAT pleasant or SELF unpleasant or OTHER THEM

37. SELF-ESTEEM IAT pleasant or SELF unpleasant or OTHER love

38. SELF-ESTEEM IAT unpleasant or SELF pleasant or OTHER ME

39. SELF-ESTEEM IAT unpleasant or SELF pleasant or OTHER war

40. How is the IAT Automatic? An Automatic Process is: • unintentional/spontaneous • efficient • fast • implicit/nonconscious • uncontrollable

41. Subtle and Nonverbal Behaviours • What are subtle and nonverbal behaviors? • What is an example of this type of behaviour related to self-esteem? • How are these effects automatic?Are they intentional? Controlled? Are participants aware that they are making these types of responses? Nonverbal “leakage” • Definition: the unintentional transmission of information through nonverbal channels of communication. • Might occur because • don’t think to control nonverbals • aren’t able to control nonverbals

42. Dual Processes – Automatic vs Controlled Processing A Controlled Process is • intentional/deliberative • capacity consuming/inefficient • generally slower • explicit/conscious • controllable 2. How do I measure this type of process?

43. Controlled/Explicit Measures Self-Report Measures • Standard Personality Measures/Attitude Measures (e.g., surveys, questionnaires, interviews) Explicit Behaviours • What say, how act, who choose, etc. when able to deliberate and control responses

44. Self-Esteem A person’s overall self-evaluation or sense of self-worth.

45. Examples of Explicit Measures of Self-Esteem • Self-Esteem overall self-evaluation or sense of self-worth • Rosenberg (1965) Trait Self-Esteem Scale • Pennebaker (1997) Writing Task

46. Rosenberg (1965) Trait Self-Esteem Scale 10 items I feel that I am a person of worth, at least on an equal plane with others. Strongly disagree Strongly agree 1 2 3 4

47. Pennebaker (1997) Writing Task Instruct participants to write about their deepest thoughts and feelings about themselves.

48. Explicit and Deliberative Behaviours • What are explicit, controlled, deliberative behaviors? • What is an example of this type of behaviour related to self-esteem? • How are these effects controlled/explicit?Are they intentional? Are participants aware that they are making these types of responses? Are they controlled?

49. Self-Esteem A person’s overall self-evaluation or sense of self-worth. Is high self-esteem good or bad? good – it protects us from depression, drug abuse, some types of delinquency bad – terrorists and gang leaders have high self-esteem, if we reject people with high self-esteem they can become ugly and abusive The answer may be related to dual processing theories.

50. Jordan, Spencer, Zanna, Hoshino-Browne, & Correll (2003) • Measured Explicit Self-Esteem (Rosenberg scale) • conscious and deliberately reasoned evaluations of self • Measured Implicit Self-Esteem (IAT) • automatic evaluations of self that occur unintentionally and outside of awareness