What two approaches was social cognition developed from? - ️️The Elemental
Approach
- started in the 1800's
- wanted psych to be like chemistry: goal was to break ideas into mental elements like
the periodic table
*Cognition in Social Psych - ️️- social psych has always embraced cognit...
342 Exam 1 WWU (Lemm)
What two approaches was social cognition developed from? - ✔️✔️The Elemental
Approach
- started in the 1800's
- wanted psych to be like chemistry: goal was to break ideas into mental elements like
the periodic table
*Cognition in Social Psych - ✔️✔️- social psych has always embraced cognition
- perception of the environment is important
-cognition provides the link between stimulus and response
- cognition can be a cause/result of a behavior (what do you intend to do? how did it
make you feel?)
What is social cognition? - ✔️✔️The study of how people make sense of others and
themselves
The Holistic Approach:
- developed along w/ Gestalt psychology (gestalt psych: configurations are processed
as a whole...the whole is greater than the sum of its parts)
Who is considered the father of social psychology/Who came up with the field (force
field) theory? - ✔️✔️Kurt Lewin (German)
Field Theory (Lewin) - ✔️✔️Perceived environment is more important than the actual
environment
Two Factors that determine the psychological field:
1. The person in the situation (individual differences/the environment)
2. Cognition and Motivation (cognition: allows us to interpret the world/motivation: allows
us to act on it)
**Kurt Lewin said both of these are important and ultimately this is what started "social
psychology"
*STUDY
"They Saw a Game"
Hastorf & Cantril (1954) - ✔️✔️*classic study in social perception*
Social Neuroscience - ✔️✔️New brain imaging techniques allowed for the development
of a new sub-field
, - evidence that social cognition is the default, resting state of our brains (we make social
judgments all the time)
- neural activation is different for social vs. non-social judgments
(for example: participants in fMRI saw photos paired with statements (male faces or
photos of cars, computers etc) told to form an impression(social) or remember the order
of the pairings(cognition))
Culture & Social Cognition - ✔️✔️Most early social cognition research was done with
WEIRD participants....with an assumption that the results would generalize globally
- people from different cultures process social (& non-social) information differently
*STUDY
Is the fundamental attribution error really fundamental?
Masuda & Kityama (?)
(Correspondence bias) - ✔️✔️
Perspective on the Social Thinker - ✔️✔️1950's-60's: consistency seekers
- We need to recognize thoughts and behaviors
1970's: Naive/Lay Scientists
- We use elaborate processing to arrive at logical decisions)
1980's: Cognitive Misers
- We have limited resources so we try to use them efficiently
1990's: Motivated Tactitions
- We modify our cognitive strategy depending on the situation
- this is a mix of both naive/lay(if we have motivation) and cognitive misers(if we don't
have motivation)
2000's: Activated Actors
- social environment influences us outside of our conscious awareness
What are the Major Themes in Social Cognition? - ✔️✔️Adherence to Mentalism
- importance of cognitive representations
Focus on Cognitive Process
Borrowing from other Disciplines
- cognition, neuroscience, cultural (psych)
Emphasis on Real World Applications
- therapy, health, social justice
Is social psych easily measurable/directly observable? - ✔️✔️Some social attributes
are not (ex: moral character, sincerity, etc)
- it's hard to tell if social inferences are accurate
- many social decisions occur under time pressure
- people are more complex than objects
How is Social different than Cognition? - ✔️✔️People vs. Things
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