INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY

Chapter 12

Social Cognition and Emotion

At the end of this Chapter you should be able to:

Learn the importance of perceiving and understanding others

Learn the importance of perceiving and understanding ourselves

Understand the Attitudes

Learn about Emotion

Perceiving and understanding others

Social Cognition: How we perceive and think about ourselves and each other; how we process and make meaning about our encounters

One focus: why did someone else act as they did? We make attributions about others’ actions – and about our own

Attribution

Kelly: early social psychologist– According to Kelly… we specifically look for

ways that events co-vary: “cause and effect”– Or: Causal attributions

2 types of attributions– Situational attributions and Dispositional

attributions Attributional styles also vary by culture

– E.g., individualistic and collectivistic

Fundamental Attribution Error

In an individualistic culture, the most common error made is the fundamental attribution error; a bias to explain others’ behavior by attributing it to their disposition, our own to our situation

In collectivistic cultures: focus on group actions / contextual cues to explain behavior

Actor-observer differenceActor-observer difference: : Observer who watched from Observer who watched from behind Actor A believed that B controlled the conversation, behind Actor A believed that B controlled the conversation, and the observer who watched from behind Actor B and the observer who watched from behind Actor B thought the reverse. The observer who watched from thought the reverse. The observer who watched from midway between the two believed that both were equally midway between the two believed that both were equally influential.influential.

Person Perception and Cognitive Schemas

Cognitive schemas: shortcuts when limited information is available

Schemas: operate when trying to explain why people behave the way they do

Implicit theories of personality: our schemas for

- How we remember other people– How we perceive them– How we interpret what they have done

Stereotypes

One type of schematic thinking – Stereotypes often are used when we think

about identified groups of people: e.g., Greeks, women, old people, etc.

Origins of stereotypes: explicitly and implicitly communicated to us by others

Used more often when we have little or no exposure in daily life to that group

Effects of stereotypes:

Self-fulfilling prophecies– We often pick up on others’ expectations for us

(dictated by a stereotype) and behave in that way

Stereotype threat – When a stereotype about us is made salient, in

a “performance” situation, we often feel under threat – which holds performance down

– Poor performance then may confirm stereotype

Combating prejudice

“Robbers cave” experiment (Sherif, 1966):– When groups compete, prejudice and hostility

grow– When groups collaborate/cooperate to

achieve an important task, prejudice and hostility decrease

– To achieve this:Status must be held equal for all membersContact must be sustained for a long time

Perceiving and understanding ourselves

Social psychology: also concerned with how we perceive ourselves– We are “actors” in the drama of the social

world– We seek to understand our own behavior

as well

Attitudes

Attitude: belief, feeling, predisposition to act in a certain way

Cover a wide range of topics about which we may feel quite strongly: nuclear power, abortion, bilingual education, etc.

Attitude Formation

Occur as a result of…– Classical conditioning

Advertising for expensive car always accompanied by beautiful surroundings/people

– Operant conditioningIf a reward given for behavior, attitude for

that behavior will change– Observational learning

Attitude Change: Being Persuaded by Others

Central route to persuasion: we attend to the message, the message-bearer, and make decisions accordingly

Peripheral route to persuasion: context in which information is given is capable of determining our attitude

Attitude Change: Being Persuaded by Ourselves: Cognitive Dissonance

Festinger & Carlsmith (1959): Under different conditions of reward, people justify behavior with different explanations

“Insufficient justification”: the notion that we try to justify our own behavior; if we cannot justify it, we experience dissonance between beliefs and actions

We try to resolve that “cognitive dissonance” through the process of bringing attitudes in line with our behavior

Emotion

– Emotions encompass: changes in behavior, changes in subjective experience, and changes in physiology

– Emotions: briefer and more targeted than moods

Theories of emotion: developed for over a century

Common sense notions: we feel an emotion and then take action: feel fear, then run!

James-Lange Theory of Emotion

Posited the reverse:– Emotional experiences cause emotional

behavior– See a bear, run, “feel” our behavior as fear

only after we run– Support: facial feedback theory

The configuration in which we hold our facial muscles influences the emotion we then claim as our experience

James Lang theoryJames Lang theory: We see a dangerous object : We see a dangerous object (attacking bear); this triggers a bodily response (attacking bear); this triggers a bodily response (running, pounding heart), and the awareness of (running, pounding heart), and the awareness of this response is emotion (fear).this response is emotion (fear).

Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion

Critique of James-Lange: our bodily experiences happen too slowly to be the source of our emotions

Cannon-Bard: physiological and experiential responses occur simultaneously

Both are triggered by changes in brain-state

Cannon-Bard theory: A stimulus (such as a bear) Cannon-Bard theory: A stimulus (such as a bear) triggers changes in the brain, and this brain triggers changes in the brain, and this brain activity then causes changes in both physiology activity then causes changes in both physiology and experienceand experience

Functions of Emotion

Help set up the body for reaction to threat/danger: “fight or flight” reaction and the accompanying emotion of fear

Help recover from stress Aid in marking important memories Signal social intent/connection

Emotion Regulation

Two primary forms:– Cognitive reappraisal: decrease emotional

response by re-interpretation of stimuli– Suppression: Decrease in emotional

reaction by decreasing strength of facial expression or denying other behavior appropriate to that emotion (e.g., refusing to frown or cry when sad)