Summary of the course Economic and Consumer Psychology at Leiden University. Based on the book "Social Cognition: From Brains to Culture", written by Fiske & Taylor.
Content of the summary:
- Chapter 1: Introduction
- Chapter 2: Dual Modes in Social Cognition
- Chapter 3: Attention and Encod...
Chapter 1: Introduction:
Social cognition = the process of how people care about what other people think of
them and how we want to understand thoughts and actions of other people. It is the
study of how people make sense of other people and themselves. Can be studied by:
1. Phenomenology = a systematic description of how people say they
experience the world.
2. Naïve psychology = people’s everyday theories about each other
Both strongly relate to cognitive psychology (= models for learning and
thinking)
Approaches to Studying the Social Thinker:
Asch (1946): The Competing Models of Asch = people describe others using a set number of
descriptors (traits), which together form a unifying concept of that person (impression). He
found in his study that certain descriptive words could lead to participants forming particular
impressions of people they have not seen before. He came with 2 models to
explain this finding:
1. The Configural Model = people will form a unified view of people
which denies variation. If a particular behavior of a person does not fit
the person’s overall impression, the person may interpret the
behavior in a way so that it aligns the overall impression.
o Context changes the meaning of different traits (e.g., a whiny
child is tired, but a whiny adult is immature).
o Impression is made up by mental activity in forms of relationships, which will
then form a schema.
2. The Algebraic Model = people will take each trait individually
and evaluate each trait separately, and combines those
evaluations into a summary evaluation to form an impression.
Both are correct, but people use them under different
circumstances.
Elemental Origins of Social Cognition Research:
Elemental approach = break scientific problems down into pieces and analyses the
pieces in separate detail before combining them.
o Aligns with The Algebraic Model.
o Frequency of the repetition determines the strength of association between
two concepts.
o Notes of a song is an elemental approach.
Holistic approach (Kant & Gestalt Psychology) = analyses the pieces in the context of
other pieces and focuses on the entire configuration of relationships among them.
o Uses phenomenology by systematically asking people about their insights of
the world.
, o Melody of a song is a holistic approach.
Lewin: The Person-Situation Field Theory = focus on a subjective rather than an objective
analysis of people’s realities.
Introduced the term psychological field; the influence of the social environment as
perceived by the individual, with focus on unique interpretation. It is not about what
actually happens, but how one interprets what happens.
In order to predict behavior of a person, one must understand all the psychological
forces operating on the person, not just only focusing on an individual force.
Psychological field (and thus behavior) is influenced by 2 factors:
1. The person in the situation: the influence of needs, beliefs, perceptual
abilities, etc. Everything that makes up their personality.
2. Cognition and motivation: cognition determines what a person will do (if
cognition is distorted, behavior is unpredictable). Motivation (the motor
behavior) predicts whether the behavior will occur, and if so, how much it
will occur.
Cognition in Experimental Psychology:
Wundt: used introspection = self-report of psychological phenomena based on own
experiences and observation. Was quickly dismissed, because was regarded as
being unscientific because it did not produce measurable and comparable data, and
it was too subjective. Shift to physical manifestations of mental processes (e.g.,
reflexes, memory, training) that are externally observable.
Lead to behaviorism = regarding only measurable acts as sufficiently valid, and
denying cognition. Done by specifying an observable stimulus and response.
People became critical, because behaviorism could not account for the development
of language for instance.
Lead to information processing = the idea that mental operations can be broken
down into sequential stages. Look at steps between stimulus and response.
New scientific tools allowed psychologists to trace previously non-observable
processes (e.g., computer information processing).
With cognitive neuroscience, scientists were able to look at brain systems and model
how individual neurons could form neural networks.
Cognition in Social Psychology:
Social psychology has always been cognitive in 3 ways:
1. Social behavior is a function of people’s perceptions rather than objective
descriptions of a stimulus environment.
2. Social psychology looks at thoughts in the cause but also the result.
3. Person between the cause and result is seen as a thinking organism, not as an
emotional or mindless organism.
In social psychology, there are 5 general models of the social thinker:
, 1. The consistency seeker (1950-1960s) = people are driven to reduce the discomfort
they experience from the perceived discrepancies/inconsistencies among their
cognitions.
Relies on the dissonance theory = if someone who has publicly announced
that he will stop smoking and he has just smoked a cigarette, he must evoke
some thoughts to bring those two cognitions into line.
Consistency theories = when individual perceives inconsistency in cognitions,
the individual is presumed to feel uncomfortable and thus motivated to
reduce this inconsistency. Also called the drive reduction model.
Motivation drives the system.
2. Naïve scientist (1970s) = focusses on the way people uncover the causes of behavior.
Explained by attribution theories = the way people explain both their own
behavior and the behavior of others around them (internal vs. external
attribution). People are analytical data collectors and will come to a
reasonable rational analysis. According to this theory, motivation only helps
to catalyze the attribution process.
3. Cognitive miser (1980s) = people are limited in their competence to process
information, so they use shortcuts (= strategies that simplify complex information or
problems).
4. Motivated tactician (1990s) = people are fully engaged thinkers that use multiple
cognitive strategies, depending on what their goals, motives, and needs are.
In some situations, the person will be motivated to choose wisely (for purpose
of accuracy and adaptability), and in other situations the person will be
motivated to choose defensively (for purpose of the self-esteem or speed).
5. Activated actor (2000s) = people’s social concepts are quickly cued by their social
environments. These social concepts cue cognitions, affect, evaluations, motivations,
and behavior through unconscious associations the person has with the social
concepts.
Basic Assumptions of Social Cognition:
1st basic assumption: mentalism = the belief that cognitive representations are
important. Mental representations are cognitive structures that represent one’s
general knowledge about a concept and one’s memory for specific experiences.
Cognitive process = how cognitive elements form, operate, and change over time.
Cross-fertilization = although social psychology has always been cognitive, it uses
measures from other areas (e.g., neuroscience).
Real-world social issues = applying cognitive theories and methods to real-world
social problems.
Neuroscientific techniques used in studying social cognition:
Neuropsychology
fMRI (= functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) = precise indicators of spatial
location of brain activity.
EMG (= electromyography) = detect micro movements of non-observable facial
muscles.
, EEG (= electroencephalography) = provides approximate spatial location but precise
temporal information.
TMS (= transcranial magnetic stimulation) = freezes brain areas to assess their role.
Electrodermal responses = measures short-term physiological arousal through skin.
Cardiovascular activity = measures short-term physiological arousal through
heartbeat.
Hormone levels (such as cortisol) = measures long-term adrenal functioning.
Immune functioning = assesses aspects of social cognition that protect against stress.
Genetic analysis = interplay of populations, evaluation, and culture.
Important brain areas:
Medial Pre-Frontal Cortex (mPFC): engagement in social cognitions.
Superior Temporal Sulcus (STS): judgments of intent and trajectory.
Fusiform gyrus (FFA): responding to faces or other objects in one’s domain of
expertise.
Cultures matter:
Cultures vary in thinking about causality more analytically or holistically: are people
or social circumstances responsible for actions taken?
Different assumptions about interaction between different cultures (power distance,
cynism).
Difference between cultures in which people have an independent self and are more
autonomous vs. cultures where people are more interdependent and harmonious.
Chapter 2: Dual Modes in Social Cognition:
Automatic processes:
The motivated tactician assumes that people rely on automatic processes or more effortful
processes, depending on situational demands. They choose between the modes in different
situations.
Varieties of automatic processes:
Full automaticity = unintentional, uncontrollable, efficient, autonomous response
outside awareness.
Subliminal priming = prime registers on senses without awareness of it or its effect
on responses. Depends on context, and is preconscious (e.g., seeing a smiling face
very briefly is able to impact the positivity of one’s judgment of a situation).
o Immediate emotional priming elicits response in the amygdala, which is
hyper-focused on recognizing emotionally charged cues, especially negative
or threatening ones.
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