Social Cognition

Social Cognition: mental processes that people use to make sense of the social world around them Attitude: respond positively or negatively toward a certain person, object, idea, situation. Poor predictors as what people say and actually do are different things. Stronger attitudes are likely to predict behavior than weaker ones. ● Ex. People may hold a general attitude but don’t reflect this in their own behavior. Doctors tell patients to be healthy but then smoke, not eat or sleep enough ● Ex. Opinion on second-hand smoke is higher on person who quit smoking due to failing health than someone who quit smoking from a dare ● Affective Component: way a person feels towards the object, person, or situation. Affect is used to mean emotions of feeling. Emotional component ○ Ex. Music is fun and uplifting ● Behavior Component: action a person in regard to the person, object, or situation ○ Ex. Person who thinks music is fun is likely to listen to it certain radio station, buy it, or go to that concert ● Cognitive Component: way a person thinks about him/herself, an object, or a situation. Those thoughts/cognitions include beliefs and ideas about the focus of the attitude ○ Ex. Music lover might believe one music is superior to other music forms Attitude Formation: result of different influences with 1 common aspect: learning. Influenced by person’s immediate world but also larger world of the educational system, mass media of social media, television, and movies ● Direct Contact: with person, idea, situation, or object that is focus of the attitude ○ Ex. Child who tries and dislikes lettuce will form a negative attitude about it ● Direct Instruction: by parents or some other individual ○ Ex. Parents tell children that smoking cigarettes are dangerous & unhealthy ● Interaction with Others: person is around other people with that attitude ○ Ex. Person friend’s think smoking is cool so more likely to think it is cool ● Vicarious Conditioning (Observational Learning): learned through observation of other people’s actions and reactions to various objects, people, or situations ○ Ex. Mother is afraid of spiders, so child develops a similar fear Persuasion: one person tries to change the belief, opinion, position, or course of action of another person though argument, pleading, or explanation ● Source: Communicator is the person delivering the message. Strong tendency to give more weight to people who are perceived as experts, trustworthy, attractive, and similar to the person receiving the message ● Message: actual message should be clear and well-organized. More effective to present both sides of the argument when audience hasn’t committed to one side. Messages to produce MODERATE fear are more effective due to fear-provoking consequences if info is provided on how to avoid the consequences. ● Target Audience: characteristics of people who are the intended target of the message of persuasion. Age of audience matters as young are more susceptible to persuasion than older people. ● Medium: form which a person receives a message ○ Ex. Seeing and hearing a speech on TV is different than reading it. Visual impact of the TV provides an opportunity to see if the person is attractive How Easily Influenced a person will be is related to way people process information Elaboration Likelihood Model: model of persuasion that people will either fail or succeed to elaborate on the persuasive message. The future actions of those who succeed elaborate are more predictable than those who don’t ● importance of the audience's motivation and ability in determining which route is taken, central route leads to long-lasting attitude change than the peripheral route ● Central-Route Processing: involves attending to the content of the message itself ● Peripheral-Route Processing: attending to factors not involved in the message such as the appearance of the person, length of the message, and other factors