complete summary of social behaviour

Samenvatting Social behavior
Problem 1 social cognition
HS2
Social cognition= cognitive processes and structures that influence and
are influenced by social behavior.
Thought= internal language and symbols we use, we can be aware of our
thoughts
Cognition= mental processing that is largely automatic
A short history of cognition in social psychology
Wilhelm Wundt (one of the founders modern empirical psychology) used
self-observation and introspection to gain understanding social cognition
Behaviorism= an emphasis on explaining behavior in terms of
reinforcement schedules. Focuses on overt behavior as a response to
observed stimuli in environment based on past punishments and
rewards for behavior.
Kurt Lewin (father experimental social psychology) social behavior best
understood as function of people’s perceptions of their world and their
manipulation of such perceptions Gestalt Psychology= perspective in
which the whole influences constituent parts rather than vice versa.
The cognitive emphasis in social psychology had 4 guises;
1. Cognitive consistency= a model of social cognition in which people
try to reduce inconsistency among their cognitions, because they
find inconsistency aversive
2. Naïve scientist/ naïve psychologist= model of social cognition that
characterizes people as using rational, scientific-like cause-and-
effect analyses to understand their world  this model underpins
the attribution theories of behavior
(people limited in capacity to process information, they take
cognitive shortcuts)
3. Cognitive miser= a model of social cognition that characterizes
people as using the least complex and demanding cognitions that
are able to produce generally adaptive behaviors. (the importance of
motivation became evident)
4. Motivated tactician= a model of social cognition that characterizes
people as having multiple cognitive strategies available, which they
choose among on the basis of personal goals, motives and needs
 Most recent development in social cognition is social neuroscience=
exploration of brain activity associated w/ social cognition and social
psychological processes and phenomena.

,Forming impressions of other people
Impression formation and personal perception are important aspects of
social cognition, impressions are influenced by some pieces of info more
than others.
Deciding what information is important;
Solomon Ash configural model= Ash’s Gestalt-based model of
impression formation, in which central traits play a disproportionate role in
configuring the final impression.
Central traits= traits that have a disproportionate influence on the
configuration of final impressions
Peripheral traits= traits that have an insignificant influence on the
configuration of final impressions.
Central traits influence meaning other traits and perceived relationship
among traits.
Warm/cold= central fundamental trait dimension for social perception and
impression formation, also connected to how person becomes attached to
others.
How do people decide trait is central;
 Gestalt theorists intrinsic degree of correlation w/ other traits
 Centrality is function of context
People employ 2 main dimensions for evaluating other people; warmth
and competence.
Biases;
 Primacy= an order of presentation effect in which earlier presented
information has a disproportionate influence on social cognition
 Recency= an order of presentation effect in which later presented
information has a disproportionate influence on social cognition
 Positivity in absence of information for the contrary; we assume
best of others and form a positive impression
 Negativity we are biased towards negativity
o Once negative impression is formed, much harder to change in
light of something positive
o Any negative information plays big role in subsequent
impression
o We are sensitive to negative information for 2 reasons;
 Information is unusual and distinctive
 Information indirectly signifies potential danger
 Personal constructs= idiosyncratic and personal way of
characterizing other people resistant to change, develop over time

,  Implicit personality theories= idiosyncratic and personal ways of
characterizing other people and explaining their behavior resistant
to change, based on personal experience, widely shared within
culture, differs between cultures.
 Physical appearance;
o Very influential in forming first impression
o Appearance-based impressions can be accurate
o Psychically attractive people are seen as good, interesting,
warm, outgoing and socially skilled
o Marked impact on affiliation, attraction and love
 Stereotypes= widely shared and simplified evaluative image of a
social group and its members
 Social judgeability= perception of whether it is socially acceptable to
judge a specific target;
o Is target is perceived as socially judgeable judgements
polarized and made w/ greater confidence.
Schemas and categories
Schema= cognitive structure that represents knowledge about a concept
or type of stimulus, including its attributes and the relations among those
attributes. -> help you interpret events and guide choices about how to
behave.
Script= a schema about an event
 Once invoked, schema facilitate top down, concept-driven
processing rather than seeking information in direct setting, we fill
in gaps w/ prior knowledge and preconceptions.
A schema about a social group that is widely shared= stereotype.
Kinds of schemas;
 Person schema= knowledge structure specific individual
 Role schema=knowledge structure about role occupant
o Roles= patterns of behavior that distinguish between different
activities w/i group, and that interrelate to one another for the
greater good of the group
 Scripts=schemas about events
o Lack of relevant scripts feelings of disorientation, frustration
and lack of efficacy
 Content-free schemas= limited number of rules for processing
information
o Specify how to attribute a cause to someone’s behavior
 Self-schemas=schemas about oneself
o Represent and store information about oneself in similar but
more complex way than information about others.

, Categories and prototypes
Applying schematic knowledge categorize person, event or situation in
particular schema. People cognitively represent categories as fuzzy sets=
categories are considered to be fuzzy sets of features organized around a
prototype= cognitive representation of the typical/ ideal defining features
of a category.
Cases of these categories have family resemblance= defining property of
category membership.
Extreme prototypes may prevail when social categories are in competition.
Categories are organized hierarchically people generally use
intermediate level categories.
Choice of level of categorization determined by contextual and
motivational factors.
We can also represent categories in terms of specific instanced
exemplars= specific instance of a member of a category. Categorizing new
instances people often use exemplars rather than prototypes.
Categories can be seen as prototypes, exemplars or associative
networks= model of memory in which ideas or nodes are connected by
associative links along which cognitive activation can spread attributes
or behavior linked emotionally, causally or by mere association.
Categorization and stereotyping
Stereotypes= widely shared generalization about members of a social
group.
central aspects prejudice, discrimination and intergroup behavior as a
whole.
 People ready to characterize large group on few common attributes
 Stereotypes slow to change
 Generally, change in response wider social changes
 Stereotypes acquired at early age
 More pronounced and hostile  social tension and conflict
 Not inaccurate or wrong
Henri Tajfel  process categorization might be responsible for
stereotyping accentuation principle= categorization accentuates
perceived similarities w/i and differences between groups on dimensions
that people believe are correlated w/ categorization. The effect is
amplified where categorization and/or dimensions has subjective
importance, relevance or value.
 Accentuation effect stronger when people are uncertain about
judgements