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Social Cognition - Social Psychology Lecture 2 ( Schemas (Clusters of…
Social Cognition -
Social Psychology Lecture 2
Defining Social Cognition
Social Cognition: How people think about themselves and the social world
How people select, interpret, remember and use social information to make judgements and decisions
Our mind follows a set of principles
Act consistently with our expectations, past experiences and recent experiences
Schemas
Schema: Mental structures we use to organise our knowledge about everything in the world
Clusters of knowledge and properties about
A. Other People
B. Ourselves (Self-knowledge)
C. Social Categories (Stereotypes)
e.g. what librarians or engineers should look like, features of old people
Schemas that are applied to members of a social group are called stereotypes
We form specific impressions about social groups
Can be applied rapidly and automatically when we encounter others
Once labelled, associations, expectations and evaluations follow
D. Social Events (Scripts)
e.g. what is supposed to happen in a restaurant, how a graduation ceremony should look like
Schemas that refer to the logistics and components of an event are called scripts
Scripts help us to determine what to do in an unfamiliar situation
Provide a mental frame to recall things in the past
Functions of Schemas
Used to
Organise what we already know
Interpret new situations we know nothing about
Influence the information we notice, think about, remember and anticipate
Mental Guides (Past and future)
Past:
Helps us to recall things
Remember information that was there (particularly, key information in basic schemas)
Remember things that was never there, or negating information that actually existed (adding and dropping information unknowingly)
Future:
Helps plan for the future
Perceptual Guides
Schemas affect our perceptual processes such as what we see or hear
Properties of Schmes
Over time:
Schemas typically become richer in content
More abstract in the information they contain
More resistant to change (they tend to stick in our head even in the face of conflicting information)
Self-related Schemas:
Richer in content
More accessible
More complete
Accessibility: The extent to which schemas are at the forefront of our mind
The more accessible they are, the more likely it will be used to form judgements
Spreading Activation
All related or relevant concepts will become more accessible and activated
Unrelated/irrelevant concepts will not become activated
Making Schemas Accessible
Three Reasons
Chronically accessible due to repeated
past experiences
Accessible because it is related to a
current goal
Temporarily accessible because of a
recent experience
Accessibility
Processes of Social Cognition
Counterfactual Thinking