Social Psychology Test 2

-Schemas are mental frameworks centering on a specific theme that help organize social information.-laundry example: if you don't know it's laundry ahead of time, it doesn't really make sense.-Social schemas are schemas about situations (in class, restaurants, etc.)-schemas about occupations (kind of job-personality), social roles (what a good mom looks like), social groups (recognize gay people), self (self-concepts)

-Attention: choose to focus on what you want to- don't attend to everything that's going on. Something bizarre can happen when attention is on something else- moonwalking bear.-Perception and interpretation: depending on the schema, you can have different perceptions/interpretations.-Memory: many things can change our memory-it's very active, reconstruction process- damage, change, reconstruct- not like a camera.-Schema guides attention: we can only focus on so many things- schema helps us.

-Priming occurs when stimuli or events increase the accessibility of a schema.

-Higgins, Rholes, and Jones (1977)-Priming manipulation before Donald paragraph.-In an "unrelated" memory task (primed): memorize-Group 1: adventurous, self-confident, independent, persistent.-Group 2: reckless, conceited, aloof, stubborn-get paragraph- "person perception" experiment.-Positive condition interprets Donald's personality positively, negative condition interprets Donald's personality negatively.

-Frame positive, neutral, negative-Anti-abortion vs. the right to life. The way you word things can change the way people think of them-Terrorists vs. Freedom fighters, "rebate vs. "bonus," 75% lean vs. 25% fat, etc.

-How we reduce our effort in social cognition-Rules of thumb making complex decisions in a rapid, effortless manner.

-Judging by resemblance-making judgments based on the extent to which current stimuli or events resemble a typical member of a given category-generally judgments based on this rule are good, but can be wrong because base rates are often neglected. Engineer/lawyer example.

-"If I can think of it, it must be frequent/important"-making judgments on the basis of how easily specific kinds of information can be brought to mind. Ex: 1st letter R or 3rd letter R? We think 1st, but really 3rd.

-Schwartz et. al. 1991 study-Manipulation: # of instances to recall-6 vs 12 instances-6 instances you're acting assertively vs. 12 instances-6 instances easier to come up with- 6 example people thought they were more assertive than 12 example people supports ease of retrieval not amount of information.-Availability Heuristic normally works. It can be wrong because the likelihood of events that are dramatic but rare.

-Judgment based on what you first see- multiply 12345678 (smaller) or 87654321 (larger).-When we try to answer a question, we come up with something and adjust it as we go. Answers can be drastically altered by an anchor- adjustment is based on an anchor- like a priming effect.-Where you begin makes a difference.-Make adjustments using a number or value as a starting point to which adjustments then are made.-Judgments based on this can be wrong because: anchors are often arbitrary and adjustment is insufficient.

-People are selfish- want to avoid loss, maximize profit.-People's financial decisions are rational-Irrationality in financial markets-Market performance is influenced by: amount of sunshine on a given day, soccer team performance, company name (easier pronunciation- especially in Japan, China, etc)-Stock market is moody.

-A loss of a given magnitude has more psychological impact than an equivalent gain.-Loss always weighs more- avoid it more.

-Beach trip you paid $800 for- get sick- still go.-A reluctance to "waste" resources that has been spent, leading to an action that does not necessarily serve our best interests. $3 or $5 entree- same- which do you throw away?

-Treat money differently depending on how it's acquired. $50 ticket example-Plan your own financial future.

-Emotions provide information for judgments.-Seasonal depression- phone interview- How happy are you with your whole life?- one condition: didn't ask any weather questions- more satisfied. Other conditions: asked weather question first- no difference in life satisfaction between sunny and overcast. You call people to pay attention to the weather ( it (weather) unconsciously influences your mood).