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Summary Entrance Exam Economic Psychology and Consumer Behavior
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This is a summary of the admission exam for Economic Psychology and Consumer Behavior in Leiden.
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Samenvatting Economic and Consumer Psychology
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Part one: Basic concepts in social cognitioni. Introduction
Social cognition
Social cognition = the study of how people make sense of other people and
themselves.
Social cognition research concerns itself with naïve psychology and cognitive
psychology.
Phenomenology
Phenomenology = To describe systematically how ordinary people say they
experience their world.
Naïve psychology
Naïve psychology = People’s everyday theories about each other and themselves
ii. Approaches to Studying the social thinker.
Asch’s competing models
Asch set the stage for person perception research which theorized that we fit
other person’s various qualities (traits) into a single unifying theme (impression).
The two models are as follows:
C 1. The configural model
l The configural model is a holistic approach and states that individuals change
a their new perception of someone based on the conclusion that they already have
s of that someone. Individual elements get bended in the mind to fit the overall
s perspective of someone. Even elements that contradict each other might get
i solved.
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n Eg: a happy young person is naïve and a happy older person is epicurean
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, 2. The algebraic model
The algebraic model is an elemental approach and combines each individual
trait, evaluated in isolation, and later combined to form a summary evaluation of
someone. People will ad the pros and cons of someone together upon meeting
them.
Eg: someone, on first impression, is loud and kind so you combine those elements
to form an impression.
Neither of the models is wrong and they can co-exist because people form first
impressions under varying informational and motivational circumstances.
Elemental origins of social cognition research
In the elemental view ideas come from our sensations and perceptions, they are
associated by closeness in space and time. Repetition is the key from moving
from simple contiguity to a mental compound.
This approach stems from Wundt, Ebbinghaus and Mill. Wundt mainly focused on
memory and the elements concerning remembering.
Holistic origins of social cognition research
The holistic view is a reaction by Kant and Gestalt psychologists and states that
phenomena are inherently subjective. The intellect organizes the world, creating
perceptual order from the properties of the surrounding field. This method of
thinking is also described as phenomenology.
Lewin’s person-situation field theory
Psychological field = the influence of social environment as perceived by the
individual.
The psychological field is inherently subjective because it derives from the
perceived environment. So, it is driven by the person.
Lewin persist on analyzing the whole situation: not one force predicts action, but
rather the dynamic equilibrium among all forces. So, it is driven by the situation
Page 2 of 70
,Cognition and motivation are also psychological field factors that change
behavior. Cognition provides an interpretation of the world and determines what
a person will do and how systematically. Motivation predicts whether a person will
do something and how much they will do.
In short: psychological reality is personal, situational, cognitive and motivational.
iii. The ebb and flow of cognition in psychology.
Cognition in experimental psychology
Wundt, in his time, focused mainly on cognition and introspection. However,
introspection is hard to reproduce so experimental psychologists abandoned this
method.
There was a shift towards behaviorist psychology pioneered by Thorndike and
Skinner. They measured rewarding and punishing effects and focused solely on
behavior. Focusing on Stimulus (S) and Response (R).
Another shift occurred when the SR theory could not account for language
(Chomsky). A new approach was introduced: information processing. Which
states that mental operations can be broken down into consecutive stages.
With the computer becoming widely available scientists could simulate
human cognitive processes creating the framework that human cognition works
like a computer. This way talk of input-output operations and memory retrieval
started bubbling up.
A more recent approach is the cognitive neuroscience approach which tries to
explain how individual (simple) neurons form one (complex) brain.
Cognition in social psychology
Social psychology is more cognitive than experimental psychology in three
important ways:
1. Social behavior is understood as a function of perception rather than
objective reality.
Other people’s opinions of you can influence people’s behavior even if those other
people aren’t present. Meaning that the subjective reality formed by other people
is more important than the objective reality currently present.
2. Not just the cause but also the effect is measured in cognitive terms.
When measuring behaviors social psychologists will usually ask: “how do you
feel/think about this behavior” in stead of objectively measuring the behavior on
its own.
3. The person in between cause and effect is seen as a thinking organism.
The social psychologist rejects the SR model in favor of the SOR model.
Meaning they believe that a stimulus is influenced by the perceptions of the
organism which then results in a response.
Besides cognition, motivation has also played a huge role in social psychology.
Five views of “the thinker” emerge from this dual perspective:
Page 3 of 70
, 1. Consistency seeker
This theory states that people are motivated by perceived discrepancies among
their cognition. We are always trying to solve dissonances in our thinking. It is
based on perceived inconsistency (cognition) and a feeling of uncomfortableness
associated with this (motivation).
2. Naïve scientist
This theory states that people use attribution theories to make a cause-and-effect
analysis about the people around them. It states that, given enough time, people
will gather enough data to support a conclusion. The theory is mainly rational
(cognition) and falsehoods are caused by limited information or a motivation is
inferior to cognition.
3. Cognitive miser
This theory states that people are limited in their capacity to process information
and would prefer to take short-cuts. People value efficiency and adequacy over
rationality and perfection. It focuses mainly on cognition and only sees the
motivation to gain a rapid understanding (which is still cognitive).
4. Motivated tactician
The motivated tactician is a fully engaged thinker with multiple cognitive
strategies available who chooses a strategy based on goals and motivation. A
renewed interest in motivation comes forward in this theory.
5. Activated actor
The activated actor has a bigger focus on the unconscious. Social environments
rapidly cue (activate) social concepts within the brain. This process is not done
with awareness and almost always produce cognitions, evaluations, affect,
motivation, and behaviors. This theory focuses on motivation and cognition but
emphasizes the unconscious processes.
A table to clarify the models of the social thinker in social cognition research:
Page 4 of 70
, iv. What is social cognition?
Social cognition research is focused on how people make sense of other people
and themselves in order to coordinate with their social world. It shares most of the
following assumptions: mentalism, orientation toward process, cross-
fertilization, concern with real-world social issues.
Mentalism
Mentalism = The belief in the importance of cognitive representations.
Mental representations are cognitive structures that both represent one’s
general knowledge about a given concept or stimulus domain and one’s memory
for specific experiences.
Cognitive processes in social settings
cognitive processes = the process of how cognitive elements form, operate and
change.
Behaviorists used to focus on SR. Social cognitive researchers assume there
is a cognitive process in between the Stimulus (S) and the Response (R).
Cross-fertilization
Social cognitive researchers try to incorporate other measurement tools which
they gain from, for example, neuroscience or behavioral science. This is called
cross-fertilization because each discipline makes the science of the other
discipline more fruitful.
Real world social issues
Research in social cognition informs real-life and current events. Social cognition
applications to real-world issues define some boundary conditions for cognitive
processes (not everything can be analyzed by cognition and other factors MUST
be considered).
Page 5 of 70
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