CH7 Social cognition

Person perception is the process by which people think about, appraise and evaluate other people.

Social cognition refers to the cognitions involved in the way that we behave in social settings and how we interpret the behaviours of others.

• Involves:
• 1.Social perception
• 2.Social understanding
• 3.Social decision-making

Attribution is the cognitive process of attaching meaning to behaviour by looking for a cause or causes to explain the behaviour.

Internal attributions refers to factors within the person that shape their behaviour. E.g. personality characteristics, motivation, ability and effort.

External attributions refers to environmental factors that are external to the individual. E.g. their location or the people around them.

Fundamental attribution error is when we tend to overestimate the role of internal factors and underestimate the role of external factors.

Attitudes is learned ideas we hold about ourselves, others, objects and experiences. Attitudes are not innate.

The tri-component model of attitudes: proposes that attitudes contain 3 main components (the ABC of attitude):

• ○Affective component
• ○Behavioural component
• ○Cognitive component

Limitations of the model is that it does not indicate the strength of an attitude. 

• - understanding the strength is useful as strong attitudes are generally firmly held, resistant to change and impact behaviour
• - inconsistencies often exist between what a person thinks and feels and their behaviour (cognitive dissonance)
•  an individual might hold negative views about a particular religious group but not express them in daily interactions with individuals from that group.

Affective component: feelings or emotions towards the object or person

Behavioural component: the actions towards various people, objects or institutions.

Cognitive component: the belief about an object or person.

Stereotypes: generalized views about the personal attributes or characteristics of a group of people.

Stereotyping involves placing people in categories based on perceived similarities.

Common stereotypes include those based on gender, age, ethnicity and occupation.

• - gives people an idea on how to behave around new people 
• - lead to prejudice.

Stereotyping is a quick but often flawed way of making judgments about individuals because it does not take into consideration individual factors beyond the stereotype.

Heuristics: mental shortcuts we use to make quicker, more efficient decisions

• Three types of heuristics:
• ○availability heuristic
• ○representative heuristic 
• ○affect heuristic.

The availability heuristic: a mental shortcut in which we use the information that we first think of to make a judgement.

E.g. Consider the following question. Which profession is more dangerous: being a police officer or being a garbage collector?

The representative heuristic: a mental shortcut in decision-making where we estimate the likelihood of something occurring or being true based on its similarity to our existing understanding and expectations.

E.g. A patient at a hospital assuming their doctor to be white and male.

The affect heuristic: when decision making is influenced by an individual’s current emotional state or mood. 

E.g. Good mood - go bungee jumping

Prejudice: a negative preconceived notion that we hold towards individuals due to their membership to a particular group.

Discrimination: treating others in an unfair manner based on the negative attitude held about that person or the group to which they belong.

Direct discrimination: When a person or a group is treated less favourably than another person or group because of their background or certain personal characteristics.

E.g. the 1901 White Australia Policy placed heavy restrictions on people of non-white backgrounds migrating to Australia.

Indirect discrimination: An unreasonable rule or policy that is the same for everyone but has an unfair effect on a particular group.

E.g. if a workplace policy says that managers must work full-time, this disadvantages women with family responsibilities because they are more likely to work part-time

• Frequent experiences of prejudice and discrimination leads to:
• - increased psychological distress
• - significantly worse mental health outcomes
• - increased risk of mental health conditions (namely depression and anxiety).

First Nations males reported more severe depressive symptoms than non-First Nations respondents – and, worryingly, significantly higher rates of suicidal ideation.

• Methods to reduce prejudice
• Intergroup contact
• Sustained contact
• Superordinate goals
• Mutual interdependence
• Equality of status
• Changing social norms

Intergroup contact: When intergroup contact is increased between the people who hold the stereotype and those who are the target of the stereotype, prejudice is reduced.

Sustained contact involves ongoing contact either directly or indirectly over a period of time.

It is used to break down stereotyped that was based on minimal information obtained from other secondary sources.

Superordinate goals: shared goals, which individuals cannot achieve without the cooperation of others.

Mutual interdependence: when individuals must rely on one another to meet each person’s goals, prejudice and discrimination is reduced.

Equality of status: involves social interaction that occurs at the same level, without obvious differences in power or status. Members of the in-group and outgroup interact with each other, but without one group exerting power over the other.

Changing social norms: Social norms are rules, standards or behaviours that are generally understood or accepted within society.