Social Cognition & Attribution
The mental frameworks we use to organise and interpret information about people, objects and situations.
Schemas
In the ABC model of attitudes, the “A” stands for which component?
Affective
A negative attitude towards a person because of their membership of a social group is...
Prejudice
Changing your behaviour or beliefs to match those of a group.
Conformity
In an experiment investigating whether group size affects conformity, “group size” would be this type of variable.
IV
Explain the difference between an internal attribution and an external attribution.
Internal attribution explains behaviour using characteristics of the person; external attribution explains behaviour using situational/environmental factors.
Define cognitive dissonance and give an example.
Psychological discomfort caused by inconsistency between attitudes, beliefs and/or behaviours.
Any relevant example will do.
Explain the difference between prejudice and discrimination.
Prejudice is an attitude
Discrimination is behaviour/action towards someone based on group membership.
During a difficult trivia question, Ben changes his answer after noticing that every other person in his group selected B. He assumes they must know something he doesn't. What type of influence is this?
Informational influence
Why is it important for a psychological study to use a standardised procedure?
It ensures all participants experience the same procedure, improving reliability and reducing the effect of extraneous variables.
Mia meets Noah, who is extremely well dressed and confident. She immediately assumes he must also be intelligent and successful. What social cognition bias is demonstrated?
Halo effect
Ethan believes energy drinks are unhealthy but drinks two every day. He begins telling himself, “They probably aren't that bad if you exercise.”
What process is occurring?
Reducing cognitive dissonance, specifically changing/rationalising a belief.
An employer openly refuses to hire someone because of their ethnicity. Is this direct or indirect discrimination? Explain.
Direct discrimination, because the person is explicitly treated less favourably because of their group membership.
Conformity: Explain the difference between normative influence and informational influence
Normative: conforming to gain acceptance/avoid rejection.
Informational: conforming because others are believed to have accurate information.
Researchers define conformity as “the number of times a participant changes their answer to match the group's incorrect answer out of 10 trials.” Why is this an example of operationalisation?
It clearly specifies how conformity is measured so it is observable and measurable.
Liam is usually late to work. His manager thinks, “He is lazy and irresponsible.” When the manager herself arrives late, she thinks, “Traffic was terrible today.”
Identify the bias and explain how it is demonstrated.
Actor-observer bias.
Liam's behaviour is attributed internally, while her own behaviour is explained externally.
After hearing several news stories about shark attacks, Adrianna thinks shark attacks are extremely common and refuses to swim at the beach.
Identify the cognitive shortcut/bias most relevant to his judgement and explain why.
Availability heuristic: easily recalled examples are used to judge how likely/common something is.
Two groups of students who dislike one another are simply placed together in the same classroom for one lesson. According to the contact hypothesis, explain why this alone may not reduce prejudice.
Contact is most effective when conditions such as equal status, mutual interdependence/cooperation and superordinate goals are present. Mere contact is insufficient.
A teacher increases a discussion group from three students to eight. Everyone except one student gives the same incorrect answer. Explain how group size and unanimity could affect the remaining student's likelihood of conforming.
Larger group size generally increases conformity to a point
Unanimity increases conformity because there is no social support for an alternative response.
In a conformity experiment, participants realise that the other group members are actors and work out the true aim of the study. Explain how this could affect the results and name the relevant research-method concept.
Demand characteristics: Participants may alter their behaviour because they know or guess the research aim, reducing the validity of the results.
A student watches a classmate give a poor presentation. The classmate is visibly shaking and says the projector stopped working just before the presentation. Despite this, the student concludes, “She’s just bad at public speaking.”
Identify two social cognition concepts that could help explain this judgement and justify each one.
Possible answers:
- fundamental attribution error because situational factors are underestimated
- salience because noticeable nervous behaviour attracts attention
- schema/stereotyping if an existing expectation influences judgement.
A student believes “people who study with music always perform better.” They search only for articles supporting this belief, notice classmates who study with music, and ignore classmates who perform well in silence. Identify two cognitive biases operating here and explain the difference between them.
Confirmation bias: seeking/interpreting information that supports an existing belief.
Attentional bias: selectively noticing information consistent with the belief.
A student says, “I’m not prejudiced, but people from that group just don’t fit in with our school culture.” Identify the type of prejudice shown and explain why.
Modern prejudice: the prejudice is expressed in a subtle or socially acceptable way rather than through openly hostile beliefs.
During an online group project, individual contributions cannot be identified. Some students put in very little effort. Later, anonymous accounts in the group chat begin posting comments they would probably never say face-to-face. Identify and distinguish the two group processes occurring.
Social loafing = reduced individual effort when working in a group
Deindividuation = reduced self-awareness/accountability leading to behaviour a person may not normally show.
Design a basic experiment testing the influence of one type of media on X (you decide). State the IV, DV, one controlled variable, and one ethical consideration.
Teacher decides if the response is acceptable.