Chapter 8: Social Cognition

Impression formation:

Decline in cognitive processing resources might impact the social judgment process o Research suggests that we make initial snap judgments and later correct or adjust them based on more reflective thinking Thus, age-related changes in processing capacity might make older adults more vulnerable to social judgment biases When forming an initial impression o Older adults also use less detailed information - due to deficiencies in memory capacity Older adults also weigh negative information more heavily in their social judgments than young adults do o In particular, older adults are more willing to change their initial impression from positive to negative o But are less willing to change an initial from negative to positive even in light of new positive information

Activation of Stereotypes

Implicit stereotyping - The activation of strong stereotypes, not only automatic but also unconscious - Likely to influence our behaviour without us being aware Young-old attitudes test - People categorise photos of faces by indicating as fast as they can whether the photo is a younger or older person - Then do pleasant vs. unpleasant - Now they use a combination of old vs younger and pleasant vs unpleasant - If you have a negative stereotype if becomes difficult to use your hand to indicate old when it is associated with pleasant - People of all ages found to be faster at young pleasant than old pleasant Stereotype Threat: - An evoked fear of being judged in accordance with a negative stereotype about a group to which you belong + SAT study: Race X Instruction (i.e. subjects told the test is evaluative or not evaluative) design. Instruction mattered for African Americans but not white Americans. - Similar results seen for gender. + Also, remember, Age diffs in memory larger when they know their memory is being tested. - You may perform poorly on a task associated with that stereotype regardless of high competence in the setting Middle age adults also susceptible May contribute to our perception of age related decline in cognitive functioning Physical negative aging stereotype has a harmful effect on older adults balance performance Positive stereotypes could have ability to reduce cardiovascular stress

Does the strength of those beliefs differ?

More strongly held beliefs are more likely to influence behavior.

Impression Formation

The way we form and revise first impression about others How people use diagnostic trait information in making initial impressions of an individual and how this process varies with age + we can form impressions of people very quickly, just based on body language and mannerisms - When new information was presented after the initial positive portrayal of the target person, older adults modified their impression of the target from positive to negative - But they modified their first impression less when the negative portrayal was followed by positive information - Older adults make impressions influenced by all the information they receive - Younger adults did not show this pattern - They were more concerned with making sure the new information was consistent with their initial impression - To do so, they modified their impression to correspond with the new information regardless of whether it was positive or negative - Younger adults make their impression based on the most recent information they have Negativity Bias: - When people allow their initial negative impressions to stand despite subsequent positive information because negative information was more striking to them and thus affected them more strongly Social judgements by older adults appear to be more sensitive to the diagnosticity of the available information Older adults are more selective in the information they choose to use in forming their judgements For older adults to invest information processing resources in making a judgement, they need to be invested in the social situation Older adults are at a disadvantage when the social context is cognitively demanding - They take into consideration the relevant information but when given a time limit, they have difficulty remembering the information they need *** After watching a 30 second clip of a professor's lecture, Ss can predict actual class ratings. *** After watching 10 second "cartoon" outline of a person, Ss can predict if that person is homosexual or heterosexual. ***nJudges mannerisms predict jury decision.

Some Criticisms Regarding Primary Contro

Age related changes in goals could be the result of natural movement through life cycle, not simply coping with blocked goals Bias toward western cultures in development or primary and secondary control

Control strategies:

Brandtstädter proposes that the preservation and stabilization of a positive view of the self and personal development in later life involve three interdependent processes: Assimilative strategies: used when one must prevent losses important to self-esteem (memory aids) Accommodative strategies: involve readjusting one's goals aspirations (adjust time to complete) Immunizing mechanisms: alter the effects of self-discrepant information (alter attribution or deny) Heckhausen and Schulz view control-related strategies in terms of primary and secondary control o Primary control helps change the environment to match one's goals (change environment) - it involves brining the environment into line with one's desires and goals o Secondary control reappraises the environment in light of one's decline in functioning (change perception of self) o The individual turns inward toward the self and assesses the situation Primary control is said to have functional primacy over secondary control o Primary control has more adaptive value to the individual o Secondary control simply minimizes losses or expands levels of primary control Cross-cultural perspectives challenge the notion of primacy and primary control (Western bias) In collectivists societies (e.g. Asian cultures), the emphasis is not on individualistic strategies such as those found in primary control, but to establish interdependence with others, to be connected to them, and bound to a large social institution

Age Stereotypes and Perceived Competence

We also make appraisals or attributions of older adults competence when observing them perform tasks Memory competence is the more susceptible to negative stereotyping than any other attribution of aging Age-based double standard: + This is demonstrated when we dismiss a particular behavior in a young person as being due to a lack of attention, for example, but attribute the same behavior to senility when seen in an older adult + Fortunately, we don't always seem to apply this when it comes to real-world situations. - Erber & colleagues: Age of applicant X Forgetfulness design. - S's had more confidence in Non-forgetful applicants, regardless of age. - Is operating when an individual attributes an older persons failure in memory as more serious than a memory failure observed in a younger adults - Think the cause was due to greater mental difficulty in the case of older adults, when for younger its attributed to not paying attention or lack of effort Study found that people had more confidence in and would assign tasks or jobs to nonforgetful people irrespective of age Being able to have assess to positive traits may compensate for forgetfulness - When more individualized information is provided and the individual is considered in a social setting, people consider more than just negative trait based stereotypes in making social judgements

Attributional Biases

Casual Attributions: explanations of why behaviours occur Dispositional Attributions: casual attribution that concludes the cause resides within the actor Situational Attribution: explanation that the cause resides outside the actor Correspondence Bias - Produce information distortions when making casual attributions about problem solving - Rely more on dispositional information in explaining behaviour and ignore compelling situational information such as extenuating circumstances - Young tend to do this Figure 8.2 summary - When target events were ambiguous as the the specific cause, all adults tend to make interactive attributions, but older adults do so at higher rate - But older adults paradoxically also blame the main character more (dispositional attributes) than younger groups, especially in negative relationship situations With negative relationship situations older adults appear to apply specific social rules in making their attributional judgements - Thought to be because of their stage in life and cohort they were socialized - In these situations, strong beliefs about how one should act appeared to be violated for older adults, particularly older women Older adults more likely to based their judgments on their own beliefs Sociocultural context where people are socialized also plays a role - For older Americans to correct their attributions, the constraint needs to provide a meaningful reason why a person would contradict their beliefs - For older Chinese the meaningful nature of the situation does not ned to be emphasised because to them situational influences and constraints represent a naturally occurring manner to approach any judgmental situation

Attributional biases:

Causal attributions: explanations people construct to explain their behavior (I did that because...) Dispositional attributions: behavioral explanations that reside within the person (He's like that because he...) Situational attributions: behavioral explanations that reside outside the person (Given the environment...) Correspondence bias: relying on dispositional information and ignoring situational information or extenuating circumstances

Motivational and Social Processing Goals: Personal Goals

Consist of underlying motivations for our behaviour and how we perceive our own ever changing environment They change to match our needs Selective optimization with compensation - A theoretical model that suggests development occurs as we continuously update our personal goals to match our appraisal of available resources to obtain those goals - We choose manageable goals based on our interests as well as physical and cognitive strengths and limitations - In older adulthood, shift toward physical health and socio-emotional demands Goal selection requires we thoughtfully choose where we invest our resources Older adults are less willing to invest energy into improving their cognitive performance, their strategy choice is more optimal for them because they are more interested in retaining their autonomy by maintaining abilities at their current level

Emotion as a Processing Goal

Emotional goals become more important and salient as we get older Given limited time in life span, older adults may be more motivated to emphasise emotional goals and aspects of life Positivity Effect: - Older adults avoid negative information and focus more on positive information when making decisions and judgments and when remembering events Emotional goals help older adults because they create a supportive contest for their cognitive functioning But there are times when emotions may impeded information processing - Highly arousing situations require a great amount of executive control processing that may lead older adults to be poorer at remembering and processing information

Social judgment processes:

Impression formation o The way we form and revise first impressions about others o Declines in cognition processing resources might impact the social judgment process **** Research suggests that we make initial snap judgments and later correct or adjust them based on more reflective thinking

A Processing Capacity Explanation for Age Differences in Social Judgements

It appears processing recourse limitations play an important role in understanding how older adults process and access social information Older adults consistently hold to their initial judgements or conclusions of why negative events occur more often than younger Older adults typically exhibit lower levels of cognitive processing recourses Possible this decline in capacity might impact their judgment Older adults may have limited cognitive resources to process detailed information presented after the initial impression if formed

Stereotypes:

Negative stereotypes of aging are pervasive in our culture Positive expectations coexist with negative ones: o Seen as grouchy and forgetful, losing physical stamina and sexual abilities vs. being wise, generous and responsible Content of stereotypes: o Stereotypes are a special type of social knowledge structure or social belief that represent organized prior knowledge about a group of people and that affects how we interpret new information o Older & younger adults hold similar age stereotypes (what are they?) Age stereotypes and perceived competence: o We make appraisals or attributions of older adults competence when we observe them perform tasks o Age-based double standard: **** Operating when a person considers an older person's failure in memory to be more serious than a memory failure observed in a young adult (forgetting...losing something etc.) **** Younger adults judge older adults who are forgetful more harshly than older adults do **** However, younger adults also make positive judgments about older adults being more responsible despite such memory failures Activation of stereotypes: o Implicit stereotyping: automatic (non-conscious) activation of negative stereotypes making it more likely that they will influence behavior without being aware of it o Patronizing talk (e.g. elderspeak): includes slow speech, simple vocabulary, careful enunciation, a demeaning emotional tone, and superficial conversation o Stereotyping threat: an evoked fear of being judged in accordance with a negative stereotype about a group of which you belong o Stereotype lift: occurs when a privileged group is motivated to perform after exposure to an unflattering stereotype of a less advantaged group

Collaborative cognition:

Occurs when two or more people work together to solve a cognitive task Collaborating with others in recollection helps facilitate memory in older adults (Dixon et al, showed older adults working together outperform average individual in story telling and other tasks) Findings indicate that well-acquainted older couples demonstrate an expertise to develop an adaptive pattern of recalling information

Emotions as a process goal:

Older adults avoid negative information and focus more on positive information when making decisions and judgments, and when remembering events o Carstensen and Turk-Charles (1994) memory experiment (if emotion is more salient later in life, older adults will remember emotional info better)

Multidimensionality of Personal Control

Ones sense of control depends on which domain is being assessed - Ex: no changes in sense of control over ones health until 70s Also important in cognitive domains, as those who had higher sense of control over cognitive changes in later life perform better on memory tasks Maintaining a sense of control throughout adulthood is linked to better quality of social relationships, health, and cognitive functioning Also may be a protective factor for ones well being in face of declining health

Cognitive style as a processing goal: How we solve problems:

People with high need for closure and an inability to tolerate ambiguous situations o Prefer order and predictability o Are uncomfortable with ambiguity o Are closed-minded o Prefer quick and decisive answers It may be that limited cognitive resources and motivational differences are both age-related Declines in working memory may be related to need for closure

Multidimensionality of personal control:

Personal control is the degree to which one believes that one's performance in a situation depends on something that one personally does One's sense of control depends on which domain, such as intelligence or health, is being assessed and varies widely across domains (e.g. physical health, thoughts, life in general)

Self Perception and Social Beliefs

Self-Perception of Aging: individuals perceptions of their own age and aging Social stereotypes we associate with aging influence what we believe is true about us Labelling Theory - When we confront an age related stereotype, older adults are more likely to integrate it into their self-perception Resilience Theory - Confronting a negative stereotype results in a rejection of that view in favour of a more positive self perception - Like peoples tendency to want distance themselves from negative stereotype

Knowledge Accessibility and Social Judgements

Social Knowledge: when we are faced with new situations we draw on our previous experiences stored in memory The stored knowledge that might be similar and how easily we can retrieve it affects when types of social judgments we make and how we behave in situations We draw on implicit theories of personality to make judgments - They influence the impressions we form about specific individuals Not always easy to access our information - The degree to which information in memory is accessible and remembered determines the extent that information will guide social judgements and or behaviour Easy access to information is influenced by 1) The strength of the information stored in memory o Someone with a extensive past with aggressive people will have that specific trait highly assessable 2) The extent people rely on source judgments: when they try to determine the source of a particular piece of information o Older adults rely more easily on accessible knowledge o Ex: you meet Jane (an athlete) and Sereatha (bookworm who plays tennis), an older adult is more likely to remember Jane as the one who plays tennis 3) Distinguishing between true and false information o Older adults make more biases because they have trouble making this distinction o Damage or age related changes to parts of the prefrontal cortex may be responsible for increased susceptibility to false information

Social Context and Memory

Social communicative context or experience enhances what is most salient to the individual The social context can serve a facilitative function in older adults memory performance

Content of Stereotypes

Stereotype: a special type of social knowledge structure or social belief - represent socially shared beliefs about characteristics and behaviours of a particular social group Affect how we interpret new information - we use them to help us process information when engaged in social interactions Guide us in our behaviour towards others from a developmental perspective we ask if there are changes in the nature and strength of our stereotypes as we grow older Age differences in how we perceive older adults The ability to estimate the age of someone by seeing their face decreases with age, but older adults are better with their age group than younger adults at judging older faces Older adults have a more positive view of aging in comparison to younger adults - holds cross culturally

Implicit social beliefs:

Three important considerations in understanding age differences in social belief systems: 1. Must examine specific content of social beliefs 2. Consider the strength of these beliefs to know under what conditions they may influence behavior 3. Know the likelihood that these beliefs will be activated automatically when they are violated or questioned

Understanding Age Differences in Social Beliefs

Two developmental questions arise with respect to our social knowledge structures 1) Does the content of our social knowledge and beliefs change as we age 2) How do our knowledge structures and beliefs affect our social judgements, memory, problem solving etc. Understanding age differences in social belief systems has 3 important aspects 1) We examine the specific content of social beliefs 2) We consider the strength of these beliefs to know under what conditions they may influence behaviour 3) We need to know the likelihood these beliefs are automatically activated when a person is confronted with a situation when they are violated or questioned How strongly individuals hold beliefs may vary as a function of how particular generations were socialized Social cognition argues there are individual differences in strength of social representations of rules, beliefs and attitudes linked to specific situations Age differences found in the types of social rules evoked in different types of situations

Social knowledge structures and beliefs:

Understanding age differences in social beliefs o Age differences were found in the types of social rules evoked in different types of situations The belief "Marriage is more important than a career" increases with age Compare with "The marriage was already in trouble" which has an inverted U-shaped relationship o Cohort differences can be profound Self-perception of aging: individuals perceptions of their own age and aging o The social stereotypes we hold about aging influence what we believe about ourselves Two frameworks for this influence: o Labeling theory: when confronting an age-related stereotype, older adults are more likely to integrate into their self-perception o Resilience theory: confronting a negative stereotype results in a rejection of that view

Knowledge accessibility and social judgments:

When we are faced with new situations we draw on our previous experiences stored in memory To do so: o Social knowledge structures must be available to guide behavior o Social information must also be accessible to guide behavior

What is a stereotype?

+ A heuristic for forming impressions and predicting the behavior of others that is based on the perceived representative characteristics, real or imagined, of members of a particular social group. + Note: book says "socially shared beliefs", but I don't think this is correct, although it may be typical. + Not all stereotypes are necessarily incorrect or negative. e.g. Older adults are wise, generous, and responsible. + However, many stereotypes can lead to prejudice, racism, sexism, ageism, etc, which are negative in their consequences. - Trying to identify when and whether there are age differences in the age-based stereotypes people have is a complicated matter, and there isn't a single summary result in that respect.

In addition to collaborative cognition, describe a study that revealed another situation involving memory in which older adults outperform younger adults

+ Adams et al. (2002): - Younger adults and older adults participants were asked to memorize a story that they would later be asked to retell to children. - Older adults remembered more details and were more fluent than Younger adults. - Result suggests that age-related memory loss is not as severe in social contexts.

....

+ Adults of different ages invoke the social rule "the marriage was already in trouble" has inverted U-shaped relationship + adults around ages 35 to 55 years as compared to 24- to 35-year-olds and those over 65 years produced this rule the most + older adults make more social judgment biases because they have trouble distinguishing between true and false information + older americans showed a greater correspondence bias than younger americans + both younger and older chinese perfromed similarly and showed less correspondence bias + older americans may focus their attributions on the individual due to a lifelong experience of an individualistic orientation + older adults prefer to maintain steady performance by optimizing their current resources rather than risking loss with an unknown strategy + emotional goals appear to help older adults because they create a supportive context for their cognitive functioning

What are the explanations for age differences in social beliefs?

+ Cohort differences. - Consider generational changes in the acceptability of same-sex and "inter-racial" marriage. + Life-stage differences. - Consider how different age groups endorse statements like the following in response to a young couple who eloped against their parent's wishes: *** "They were too young." Inverted U-shape. *** "You can't stop true love." U-shape. + Differences in strengths of beliefs and whether they are automatically activated may be due to age-related change in cognition. (Your professor's idea.)

What seems to be a good way to guard against succumbing to age stereotypes, or any stereotype for that matter?

+ Consider the individual's abilities/characteristics/qualities while doing your best to minimize the influence of stereotypes. + Try to recognize situations in which your impression/opinion/beliefs may be influenced by stereotypes.

How do the cognitive processing demands associated with a particular scenario influence age differences in how social judgments are made?

+ Greater demands (time, memory, complexity) lead us to make snap judgments. + Therefore, Older adults are more likely to rely on those snap judgments (heuristics) and fail to re-evaluate using all available information. + Perhaps they are even less likely to look for disconfirming evidence than younger adults?

How can the unconscious influence of stereotypes be measured?

+ Implicit Association (or Attitude) Test - Respond Young or Old to faces. (i.e. Decide whether faces are young or old.) - Respond Pleasant or Unpleasant to words or scene pictures. - Pair Pleasant with Young (right hand) and Unpleasant with Old (left hand). - Pair Pleasant with Old (right hand) and Unpleasant with Young (left hand). + If implicit negative attitude is present, then Pleasant - Old should be slower than Unpleasant - Young because the ideas in the former case are incompatible.

Do stereotypes of aging actually result in lower cognitive performance by older adults?

+ It seems to in some situations. + Levy (1996) found that priming the idea of "old" in Older adults led to worse memory performance. + Rahhal, Hasher, & Colombe (2001) found that instructions mattered. - Older adults did worse when told they would be performing a memory test than when told they were going to learn new information.

What is social cognition?

+ Mental processes involved in making decisions and judgments concerning how we perceive and interact with others. + Why is it important? - We are social animals, so it would be beneficial to know about changes in these types of processes. - We might adjust the way we interact with older adults, and be careful about the type of information we present about others and ourselves. - Changes in cognition could result in difficulty recognizing cues like body language and facial expressions, which could result in Older adults having trouble with social situations, or just in experiencing them differently.

How do personal goals act as a source of motivation and guide our behavior? How do these personal goals tend to change as we grow older? What theory accounts for this change?

+ Obviously, we will behave in a way that increases the likelihood of achieving goals. + But, the goals themselves change, especially with age. E.g. declines in physical ability change goals. + Selective optimization and compensation. - Our abilities (resources) change with age. - We evaluate the status of those abilities, and whether they are sufficient for achieving goals. - Our goals change as our abilities change. + As we age, we focus more on maintaining health and positive emotional experiences.

Social Situations and Social Competence: Collaborative Cognition

+ Occurs when two or more people work together to solve a cognitive task + Older Adults can reduce age differences in memory by working together, using one another's ideas as cues. + It enhances older adults performance on a variety of memory and problem solving tasks Serves as an important adaptive function for older adults Two heads are better than one Improves cognitive performance Older married couples produce more statements resulting from a shared discussion, and provide richer descriptions when working together Positive outcomes with problem solving when they perceive deficiencies in their own functioning but prefer to work along when feel competent in an area Collaborating with others in recollection helps facilitate memory in older adults

Describe the Bargh et al. (1996) study that demonstrated the influence of implicit age-based stereotypes on behavior.

+ Prime the idea of "old" and then see how fast YA subjects walk down the hall. + Those primed with "old" walked more slowly than those not primed with "old". +This is a demonstration of implicit stereotyping, or the idea that stereotypes are automatically and unconsciously activated.

How does the accessibility of social knowledge differ between young and old adults?

+ Social judgments depend on the accessibility of social knowledge. + This knowledge should be easily accessible. - Accessibility depends on the strength of the info stored in memory. *** Age differences are found in the accessibility of information: OAs will rely on easily accessible information (Processing Resources?). - Accessibility also depends on whether source judgment is required. *** Remember, older adults have difficulty with source judgments. + Perhaps this is why OAs are more likely to be guided by stereotypes. - Stereotypes are heuristics - quickly accessible "rules of thumb".

Personal Control

+ The extent to which you believe you have control over your life and your ability to achieve goals. The degree one believes ones performance in a situation depends on something that one personally does - High sense of personal control - belief that performance is up to you - Low sense of personal control - performance is under influence of forces other than your own Guides behaviour and relates to well being

Does negativity bias in impression formation seem to be in opposition to anything else you know about age differences in how emotional information is processed?

+ The fact that Older Adultss are more influenced by negative information than positive information is referred to as the negativity bias in impression formation. - But, this seems to be in opposition to the positivity effect. Not sure why. + Hess study: Condition 1 - Positive info, then negative info. Condition 2 - Negative info, then positive info. OAs were more willing to downgrade their opinion of someone (Condition 1) than to upgrade their opinion. + NOTE: The authors propose that the negativity bias suggests that older adults have a reduced ability to alter initial impressions. - But, look at the data. Really the same pattern; neither older adult nor younger adult are all that willing to change an initially negative opinion. And, older adult are altering impression MORE that younger adults when new negative information is presented. That is the negativity bias.

How does emotion influence the processing of social information, and what theory has been proposed to describe how this changes with age?

+ We focus more on emotionally relevant outcomes as we grow older. + Socio-emotional selectivity theory. - Carstensen has found that OAs avoid the negative, and focus on the positive, whereas YAs do the opposite (positivity effect). - Note: this is contrary to the negativity bias we discussed earlier. MORE WORK NEEDS TO BE DONE.

How does personal control change with age?

+ When we look at the domain (social, personal, societal) how perceived personal control changes with age depends. - Control over social (relationships) and personal (physical appearance) issues increase until about the 30's then decline. - Control over societal (climate change) issues decreases constantly with age. + There may be different types of control, which is addressed in the next question.

Control Strategies

Brandtstadter, proposed the preservation and stabilization of a positive view of the self and personal development in later life involve 3 interdependent processes: 1) Assimilative Activities - o People engage in activities that prevent or alleviate losses in domains that are personally relevant for selfesteem and identity 2) Accommodations o People readjust their goals and aspirations as a way to lessen or neutralize the effects of negative self evaluations in key domains 3) Immunizing Mechanisms o People alter the effects of self discrepant evidence Heckhausen, Wrosch and Schultz view control as a motivational system that regulated human behaviour 1) Primary Control Strategies o Involve brining the environment in line with ones desires and goals; Changing the environment to fit your abilities and goals. o Ex: loss job, you entail an active search for a new one or using post- it notes when memory declines 2) Secondary Control Strategies o Involve bringing one-self in line with the environment; Changing your own attitudes, beliefs, and goals to be consistent with your abilities and the environment. o Ex: appraising situation in terms of how you did not even enjoy that job or A runner can no longer race sprint distances competitively, so changes goal to finish a marathon. + This idea has been criticized for being culturally biased; being primarily based on western cultures. + Primary control has functional primacy over secondary: it lets people shape their environment to fit their goals and is thus has more adaptive value to the individual; DECREASES as we grow older, as it is largely biologically determined - However, it has been theorized that our striving for PC remains stable with age. + Secondary Control: our striving for SC may increase as we compensate for a loss of PC. Major function of secondary is to minimize losses or expand levels of primary In childhood much development is directed at expanding the child's primary control potential, and they predict stability in primary control striving through most of adult life As we enter old age, maintenance of primary increasingly depends on secondary Secondary control increases with age Perceived control over desirable out comes = high emotional well being

Cognitive Style as a Processing Goal

Cognitive Style: a type of motivational goal that influences our thinking, which comes from how we approach solving problems - Ex: people with high need for closure prefer order and predictability, are uncomfortable with ambiguity, are close minded, and prefer quick answers + Higher need for closure is associated with greater attributional biases, and this may increase with age. - This is all consistent with findings that Older adults rely more on pre-existing knowledge, and search for less information when making a decision. Older adults social judgment biases are predicted by the degree they need quick and decisive closure - this is not so for younger