Download Social Development (Chapter 13)

Social Psychology
Social Psychology: Personal
Perspectives (Chapter 14)
Lecture Outline:
Social Cognition
Attributions and Biases
Impression management
Social Cognition:
– How we perceive and interpret information
from ourselves and others
• Cognitive-Consistency Theory:
– A match between thoughts and behaviors gives
peace of mind.
• Conflict leads to cognitive dissonance:
– As a student, I accidentally killed a rat, but
concluded they would have died soon anyway
– Justification of effort: working hard to get an A
Self-perception theory
• You infer your attitudes from your
behaviors
• Roommate drags you to hockey games, and
you spend your whole time talking, yet you
are now a “hockey fan”
• A dreary course you suffered through is
recommended to a friend
• Impression management: Girl Guide
cookies at an Apple Blossom tea
You are watching these job candidates in the waiting
room? Why are they behaving as they are?
Attributions: Explanations for
behavior
• “I don’t want to dance”. Why?
– Because I am a loser (personal attribution)
– Because they are too wrapped up with their
friends (situational attribution)
– I didn’t really want to (cognitive dissonance)
• Someone bumps you in line. Why?
– Because they are an !@?&#!!.. This is a
fundamental attribution bias where we overemphasize internal causes behavior
Self-serving bias
• Internalize success and externalize blame
• Winning a hockey game because “we’re a
good team”, losing because they were
“lucky” or you “did not get the bounces”
• Self-handicapping is the opposite, e.g.,
pass a test because “it was easy”, fail
“because I am stupid”
How do you form impressions?
• You meet someone at
a party. You form an
initial impression of
them. What is your
initial impression
based on?
Impression Formation
• Primacy effect: Initial impressions matter
– Hard to get over bad start
• Confirmation bias: We notice things
consistent with our beliefs
– Teenagers “hang around and are up to no
good”
– Leads to self-fulfilling prophecies
• Person-positivity bias: Individuals can be
regarded more highly than groups