Social Cognition Exam #2
Describe the Schwarz & Clore study that demonstrates the mood-as-information idea.
"How do I feel about it heuristic" - MOOD AS INFORMATION" (Schwartz & Clore, 1983, 1996) IV 1: Ps were phoned (random numbers in a phonebook) on sunny or cloudy day IV 2: Experimenter (allegedly calling from different city) either did or didn't ask about the weather; "by the way, how's the weather down there?" DV: Ps asked about life satisfaction and present mood "How happy do you feel about your life as a whole?" Results: No reminder of weather: people significantly more positive on sunny days vs. those who had rainy days Reminder: effect taken away People were happier on sunny vs rainy days Weather only affects life satisfaction judgments when Ps were not reminded of the source of their mood
What are the four ways we get knowledge about ourselves? Be prepared to identify and describe self-perception and the looking glass self.
1. Introspection (our thoughts and feelings) 2. Self-perception (our behaviors) 3. Looking glass self (other's reactions to us) 4. Social comparison theory (comparing our selves with others) COIL: Comparison, our behaviors, introspection, looking glass Self-perception: Is when our attidues or feelings are ambigous or weak, we may infer them by using previous or present behaviors as evidence. (using our past/present to imply our present if the present is ambigous) Looking glass self: We tend to see ourselves and the social world through the eyes of another person and adopt those views (this is particularly true when we have a motivation to affiliate with the other person - this process is similar to self-fulfilling prophecies)
What is the above average effect? How is it related to motivation? Describe the Kruger study that demonstrates how easy and hard tasks can alter this basic effect.
Above average effect: For almost every postive and subjective trait they have, people think they are above the average It is related to motivation because we want to see ourselves in a positive consistant light therefore when people engage in a biased evaluation of their own skills but not of others they find themselves superior by compnarison. Kruger Study: The percieved degree of difficulty changes the above average effect (the harder something is the less likely it is for a person to do the above average affect) Ps compare themselves to other students in class on 8 different skills 4 easy skills (using a computer mouse) 4 difficult skills (programming a computer) For each skill, the Ps make absolute ratings of Their own ability The average student's ability R: For easy (subjective) tasks the above average effect was used For difficult tasks the below average effect was used Ps use their own ability as an anchor for the comparative judgement of themselves vs. others
Why does he argue that we like to think about negative events?
Anticipating unpleasant events minimizes the impact of negative events We use unpleasant events as a means of motivation
What fundamental need is ostracism related to?
Belonging - a fundamental requirement for security, reproductive success, and mental health
What are the three guidelines the author proposes to help us evaluate secondhand claims? Why will each help?
Consider the Source: it is easy to be misled through what something is implying by how it is written, look carefully at what is actually being said instead of just inferring information Be on the Lookout for Sharpening and Leveling: people will leave out information and only state partial conclusions/facts, look at estimate realistically (if there is to much focus on the agents in the situation then it might have been sharpened) Be Wary of Testimonials: they only give the account of one person, not the entire story and all the important facts Ignores base rate
What is durability bias? Why does durability bias occur?
Durability bias: We believe that events in the future will provide us with far greater and more lasting joy than they actually do. We can predict what will makes us happy or unhappy but we can not predict the extent that it will make us happy or unhappy. (This is why graduation is a let down, because our forcasting of it will be better than it ever could be) The two reasons durability bias occurs: 1. People misconstrue what a positive event will entail (they forget all the not positive things that come with the positive thing - you get a new job in a new city and you are super happy until you realize that you have to sell your house, buy a new house, move to another place, etc.) 2. Focusing illusion (people making estimates about future happiness after a psotive event will focus only on the event and not on the other events that will occur. - this leads to a schewed focus on positive events and neglect of negative events. EX: When having a baby the parents really only focus on the fact that they will get to meet their child, but then they realize that they have to deal with the child too)
How can expectancies affect encoding? How can expectancies affect attention? Know one example of each from class.
Ecpectancies affect how we encode ambiguous infomration. They distort what we pay attention to and what judgements we make about things EX: The study that told participants if the new teacher was "warm" or "cold" and then this one description changed how those individuals saw the exact same teacher. Attention: (think positive test strategy) because we are more likely to remember both expectancy-congruent information and expectancy-incongruent information best. For congruent information it comes down to the fact that we remember things that fit what we are looking for (this follows positive test strategy) and the fact that this information fits better with our existing schemas. For incongruent information it is because events are unexpected may be more memorable. EX: Hannah is a little girl that either has a low or high SES and how people expect her to perform on tasks
How can expectancies affect retrieval? What is the misinformation effect and what is an experimental demonstration of this effect?
Expectancies can make us add details that were not true to our memories because of the schemas we have surrounding the other events or sircumstances. Misinformation effect: Is a memory distortion where existing memories are altered by misleading (incorrect) information that is introduced at the time they are being retrieved. Experiment: Loftus and Palmer (1974) Ps showed a video of a car accident (fender bender type of thing). They are asked to estimate how fast the cars where going when they... • IV: Smashed into each other? Hit each other? DV: Ps estimated the speed the car was going. R: When the word was more violent (like smashed) - Ps average speed was much greater. Smashed - 41mph vs hit 34mph - One week later Ps asked whether or not there was broken glass in the video. 15% of those in the "smashed" condition answered yes, but only 5% answered yes in the "hit"/control conditions
Be prepared to explain one of the experiments in this paper. Then, briefly explain two ways that they address potential third variables or extend the generalizability of the findings. (Romantic partner success)
Experiment 1 Ps were heterosexual dating couples Ps given a "test of problem solving and social intelligence" IV: Ps were told that their romantic partner had scored... In the top 12% (positive partner feedback) In the bottom 12 % (negative partner feedback) Control (no information) DVs Implicit self-esteem (IAT) Explicit self-esteem (self-report scale) Results: Implicit self-esteem: Men who believed that their partner scored in the top percentile of participants had marginally lower self-esteem than men who believed that their partner scored in the bottom percentile of participants Explicit self-esteem: No interaction between gender and feedback condition Address third variables: Biological difference (the amount of testostorone) Only used WEIRD countries - limits the generalizability Domain of partner's success/failure Measure relationship satisfaction--no effect IAT is relative--effect could be from stronger other + good association instead of weaker self + good association Experiment 3- IAT measured Self + good/bad only Generalizability: controlled for cultural gender socialization Experiment 2 & 3 performed in the Netherlands Experiment 4- Domain of partner's success/failure Intellectual, academic vs. social, interpersonal Experiment 5- controlling for men (competitive) comparing themselves to partner without being asked but women may not telling Ps they failed (direct comparison to partner)
Describe the evolutionary perspective that explains both ostracism and why ostracism is so unpleasant.
Explanation for ostracism? It functions because groups that ostracized burdensome or deviating members became more cohesive and offered the other members more security and reproductive opportunities Why ostracism is so unpleasant? It is so unpleasant because it is signaling an alarm for us to direct our attention to determining if it is actually occurring. If it is, we direct our resources to figuring out what to do with ostracism (from historical context, we were likely to die if ostracized); Pain works as a perfect alarm for this
Why does he argue that we sometimes like to forestall pleasure? What's an example?
Forestalling pleasure is a way for us to get even more pleasure out of an event by allowing it to build up i.e., Volunteers were told they won a free dinner at a fancy restaurant and were asked if they wanted to have it tonight, tomorrow or next week - many participants chose to have their dinner the following week so they could have something to look forward to
What are four things that make people happy? Do people know what makes them happy?
Four things that make people happy are: 1. Satisfying relationships (happy people spend more time with others and are more satisfied with their relationships) 2. Working at something we enjoy (happens when someone has "flow" or being lost in the task - the act of doing the thing is better than the goal attainment of the thing) 3. Helping others (It is a way to connect with other people and develop social relationships) 4. Genetics (at least partically genetic) 5. Money spent on others (feel more happiness spending money on others than themselves) People are terrible at knowing what makes them happy. EX: They believe that they will be happier spending money on themselves (when they are forcasting), but in truth they would be happier spending it on someone else.
How is information processing different for happy and unhappy people, particularly in the case of social comparison? Be prepared to describe the Lubomirsky & Ross study.
Happy people will use social comparison influence info in a strategic way to maintain positive self-regard, whereas unhappy people will just hear info and not do anything with it Happy people cherry pick info, unhappy take it all in LYUBOMIRSKY & ROSS: Happy vs Unhappy People Use Social Comparison IV: Ps complete anagram task (in 20mins) in same room as a confederate who is either faster or slower at task than them Confederate will either go 50% faster than P or 50% slower than P P perceives confederate as being better at this task than them or worse DV 1: How Ps think they did Results: (Higher #'s mean you think you're better) Confederate does worse? Happy and Unhappy people both feel better, but happy people have an even bigger boost Confederate does better? Happy people self-enhance and feel better about their performance... Unhappy people feel worse DV 2: Rate on mood and anagram solving abilites Happy people still feel pretty good relative to when they were with slower confederate, even with faster peer; whereas unhappy people feel worse Happy people are doing something to buffer themselves that unhappy people aren't If you are happy you are more seletive or strategic with the infomration that you utilize or remember
What is hindsight bias?
Hindsight bias is the tendency to exaggerate the extent to which we could have predicted currently known outcomes. (when you learn about/know something now and you can't forget that you know it and you "see" the proof of it in you past memories.) EX: Now that you know John and Jane are dating you can look back and see all the times they were flirting with each other.
What is Gilbert's version of the sentence? How does he explain "nexting" and imagining the future as different?
His version: "The human being is the only animal that thinks about the future" Nexting- brains are continuously making predictions about the immediate, local, personal, future of their owners with their owners' awareness We share this ability with lots of animals (doesn't require conscious thought) Our brains add past to present to make future without ever thinking about any of them I.e., "suddenly feel avocado"--brain predicts what word should come next in a sentence and we are surprised if we're wrong Imagining the future- later; inescapable connotations of calculated, thoughtful reflection about events that may occur anywhere, to anyone, at any time (planning; peering into our future) Not even children can imagine a distant future (requires conscious thought)
How can our memories influence source monitoring?
If we imagine something, the more real it feels and more often it seems like it occurs IV 1: Ps view pictures 2x, 5x, or 8x (told in advance) IV 2: Ps imagined pictures as well either 2x, 5x, or 8x Task isn't hard, but inviting brain to get confused about what Ps saw and imagined DV: estimate of how many times they ACTUALLY saw the pictures Results The more times they imagined or saw the picture, the more times they thought they had seen the picture Kinda why when waking up from a dream that feels really real where you had a fight with someone close with you, no matter how irrational it is, you can be super upset about it when you wake up
How is communication altered to increase perception of immediacy? How is it altered to increase the perceived "informativeness"? How is it altered to increase entertainment value?
Immediacy Exaggerated immediacy leads to the listener having trouble accurately gauging the reliability of the message (instead of Informativeness Stretch the truth Can tempt a speaker to communicate something other than the complete truth as they know it We tend to lose the details of a story via leveling and emphasize the general ideas via sharpening Entertainment "license" to exaggerate/bend the truth is understood by both parties as long as it is not too outrageous Creates a conflict for the speaker between satisfying the goal of both accuracy & entertainment both the speaker and listener have goals that often revolve around a story being entertaining, so they ignore information that may not be accurate
How can goals influence retrieval?
Information that fits with desired conclusion is more likely to be recalled; motivated to be consistent If Ps told extraversion leads to success, able to recall more extraverted events, and vice versa for introversion You think of all the times you matched that goal
What is affective forecasting?
Is predicting into the future what will make us happy and how happy we will be when we get that thing.
And, why is it important to try to plant an impossible memory? Describe research that involves planting an impossible memory.
It is important to plant an impossible memory because that takes out any other variables that could be the cause of the causation. There is no way to know 100% that the target false event never happened because the family members could have forgoten or it that event happened with another family member. Experiment: To make Ps remember meeting Bugs Bunny at Disneyland IV: Showed Ps two ads for Disney, one of which had Bugs Bunny, and asked what ad they prefer. DV: Later Ps asked about personal experiences at Disneyland R: 16% of Ps said that they met Bugs Bunny at Disneyland with 62% remembering shaking his hand and 46% remembring giving him a hug.
What is temporal self-appraisal theory? Describe the Wilson and Ross study that demonstrates how this theory makes us make different judgments of our selves and others.
It is the notation of self over time as a string of selves, with varying psycholoigcal closeness to the present self. This is the notion of imporvement over time. This also includes seeing yourselve a bit better than you actual are and how your past selves give you someone to form a downward comparison with, regardless of actual objective improvement. Experiment • Ps rate someon on positve and negative traits • IV #1: Self ratings or another persons ratings • IV #2: Time under consideration (now vs. in the past at the beginning of term) • DV: Ps rate the favorability of themselves or other person • Rs: When it is for another person the favorability rating is almost equal for past and present (around 5.9). When it is for themselves, Ps rate their past as being worse than their present (past 5.75, present 6.25) The beliefs that must be true for this to work • We have to believe that we DO improve over time for this therory to work • When you look back at your past selves you do a downward social comparion which makes you think that you are improving • Motivated to think positively about self
What does the Source Monitoring Framework suggest about memories?
Memories are NOT stored with their source Having trouble distinguishing between 2 external sources, also between something that actually occurred vs. what you imagined You know it happen but don't know who said it or when. Or you aren't really sure it happened at all
How can motivation affect our cognitive processes? How is the effect of motivation constrained?
Mental processes + motivation → hot cognition Through hot cognition, or mental processes driven by desires and feelings This occurs when We are dependent on others for our outcome We experience physiological arousal We want to self-affirm The ability to find confirming evidence is constrained by reality Ex. I will never be in the Wimbledon Finals, but I can still think that I am a good tennis player to an extent It is constrained by reality (or perceived reality) - the study about extraversion or intraversion being better
What is ostracism and what are the two major responses people have to ostracism?
OSTRACISM: being ignored and excluded, often without excessive explanation or explicit negative attention 2 major responses? attempts to fortify relational needs (belonging, self esteem, shared understanding, and trust) which generally lead to prosocial thoughts and behaviors - you protect your relationships attempts to fortify efficacy/existence needs (control and recognition) that may be dealt with most efficiently through antisocial thoughts and behaviors - you make sure that the friends you have are super close and that both of you are gettting more out of it
Describe one of the studies conducted in this study. What do the results suggest about our ability to predict our emotions and behaviors when imagining vs. experiencing blatant racism?
People predicted that they would be very upset by a racist act, but when people actually experienced this event, they showed relatively little emotional distress People overestimate how bad they'd feel and how they would behave Upon entering the lab, the experimenter introduced the experiencers (two male confederates - one black and one white) and then the experimenter exited the room Shortly after the black confederate followed and gently bumped the white confederates knee on the way out IV1: experiencer vs forecaster IV2: racial slur Control - no comment was made Moderate - white confederate says, "typical, I hate when Black people do that" Extreme - man says "clumsy N word" DVs: Negative emotional distress Who Ps choose for a partner? (white racist guy vs black guy) Results Overall, forecasters reported that they would feel worse (more distressed) than experiencers actually felt (no difference between moderate and extreme condition) Experiencers were more likely to choose the white partner than the forecasters (in moderate and extreme condition)
How are prospection and control related? Why do we tend to want control about the future and which reason is incorrect?
Prospection can → pleasure and prevent pain, and this is one of the reasons why our brains stubbornly insist on churning out thoughts of the future (we want to know the future so we can control it) Our brains want to control the experiences we are about to have We tend to want control for two reasons: Right reason: We like exercising control Being effective is one of the fundamental needs with which human brains seem to be naturally endowed, and much of our behavior from infancy onward is simply an expression this penchant for control I.e., "Look! I made that happen!" Wrong reason: We think we have a good idea of where we should go Much of what we do is in vain because the future is fundamentally different than it appears through the prospectiscope
Be prepared to describe one of the two studies from this paper ( Frenda et. al) and be sure to describe differences across political ideology in your answer.
Ps were shown a picture/given a description of one fabricated event and 3 true events (the fabricated one was randomly assigned to the Ps) IV: political orientation DV: memory for false events Results: 50% thought the false event actually occurred Ps were more likely to remember a false event that fit their political attitudes or expectations about the actor in the scenario (attitudinal congruence) Ex. more liberals remember Bush's Katrina vacation and more conservatives remember Obama's handshake with Iranian President
What is a pseudomemory? How can memories be created in the lab? Describe a study that demonstrates this.
Pseudomemories are false memories that, although fictional, are experienced as if they were real. Meories can be created in the lab through implantation (especially under hypnosis), by telling Ps about the memories' framework and saying that it comes from a trusted source, through showing Ps photoshopped photos, or by using unrelated pictures then telling Ps about false memories. Ps saw 4 photos: 3 were real and one was a fake photo of a hot air balloon ride (photoshopped) (a family member verified that the Ps had never been on a hot air ballon ride. After reviewing the photos 3 times over 2 weeks 50% of Ps remember details about the ride (typically these memories were rich with details)
What are the reactions people have to ostracism in the reflexive (immediate), reflective (short-term), and acceptance (long-term) stages? Specifically, what are the four basic reactions that occur in the reflective stage?
Reflexive: the immediate or reflexive reactions to ostracism are painful and/or distressing and resistant to moderation by individual differences in situational factors Increased blood pressure & cortisol levels, physical pain, distress Reflective: fight, flight, freeze, or tend-and-befriend Fight - hostile responses such as jealousy and derogating those who reject and exclude Flight - avoiding interactions where rejection is possible Freeze - the individual's personality will moderate the appraisal and subsequent impact and the amount of time necessary to recover Tend-and-befriend - the individual's personality will moderate the appraisal and subsequent impact and the amount of time necessary to recover Acceptance: the individual adapts the perceived opinion of them being of low value and a burden, which makes social interactions even more risky because if further rejected, the individual risks total exclusion
How can implicit theories affect retrieval? What are the two implicit theories we discussed in class?
Retrieval is after it has been incoded. It is the same as expectations. An simplicity theory will cause us to retrieve information in a way that is consistent Writing ability with a stability theory makes you think that you aren't improving - you retrieve information in a way that conforms to what We assess current standing → consults implicit theory about relation between past and present → reconstruct past by integrating these 2 pieces of info Theories about stability and change Stability - we tend to think we are stable on many dimensions and so are others (see it as the same over time) i.e., how funny we are
What is self-affirmation and how does it demonstrate the impact of motivation on thought?
SELF-AFFIRMATION: affirming threatened facets of our identity can be achieved through any thoughts or actions that bring to mind valued aspects our self-concept It demonstrates the impact because we look for evidence that confirms a desired conclusion (i.e., positive test strategy) Dissonance results from behaviors that threaten one's sense of moral and adaptive integrity; if one is led to believe introversion leads to success, people will be able to think of times when they were more introverted and see themselves as more introverted overall and vice versa with extroversion
What is sharpening? What is leveling? What are the two reasons that stories tend to sharpen information about actors and level the context?
SHARPENING: what the speaker construes to be the gist of the message is emphasized or "sharpened" - the subject is sharpend and related facts about what happened to them LEVELING: details thought to be less essential are de-emphasized or "leveled" Reasons: - the context is level Simplify the story Easier time remembering the realtionships between the actor and what they did (instead of the context of the actor)
Be prepared to describe one of the theories of ostracism (temporal, sociometer, and self-regulation impairment theories).
Self-Regulation Impairment: social exclusion impairs an individual's ability to self regulate, which inhibits their ability to utilize the cognitive/motivational resources that are necessary to avoid impulsive acts and engage in hedonic sacrifice and delayed gratification Sociometer theory Self-esteem is a gauge of relational valuation that, when low, signals the individual that changes must be made to improve inclusionary status Temporal Examination theory Impact of cumulative experiences of frequent exposures to ostracism or to long-lasting episodes of ostracism If relational needs (belongingness and self-esteem) are thwarted, then ostracized individuals will seek to fortify these by behaving prosocially However, if efficacy and existence/recognition needs are thwarted, ostracized individuals→ controlling, provocative, and antisocial responses
What is self-esteem? Identify and briefly describe two of the theories that try to explain why we have self-esteem.
Self-esteem: Our overall self evaluation and how positive or negative it is. Our global feelsing about ourselves, positivity of our self-evaluation (and the extent to which it is possitive or negative). Sociometer theory: Self-esteem is an indicator of how included we are by other people. We need community and this ties into that. The motive to maintain self-esteem protects us against social exclusion and rejection. (This is why people will take a social despiesed group over no group at all) Self-affirmation theory: Positive views of the self gives us reaources for coping with negative feedback or events. Terror management theory: We are fundamentaly motivated by the faer of death and our mortality. We deal with this anxiety of death by identifying with cultural vales and groups. Our self-esteem indictes we are a valued member of the group.
What is self-presentation and what two motivations typically govern this process?
Self-presentaiton: How we attempt to convey infomraiton and images about ourselves to others. The two motives: 1. Instrumental: We want to influence others and gain rewards (this is why you dress differently for an interview than for class) 2. Expressive: We construct an image of our selves to cliam personal identity (this is why you only get t-shirts with bands and tv shoes that you like and claim)
What is a self-schema? What is something influenced by self-schemas? How does the environment create a working self-concept?
Self-schema: A conceptual structure that organizes information about the self along with a particular dimension. How we process and recall information about the self and how we process information about others is impacted by the self-schema. The environment factors/situation creates a working self-concept by making certain parts of your self-concept more salient in those different settings. EX: Dr. Z wants to be more patient as a mom than anywhere else, therefore the environment of being a mom makes her working self-concept more patient.
Describe the Pennebaker paradigm and the results they find for sense-making about negative events.
Sense-making is when you think about something a lot that you make it seem more ordinary (which makes it feel less bad and provides closure) THE PENNEBAKER PARADIGM (Sense-Making and Negative Events) Every day for 3 days, Ps write in a journal about: Traumatic event - death of loved one, sexual/physical abuse Neutral event - plans for the day Initially, Ps assigned to write about the traumatic event experience more distress than those assigned to write about neutral events In the end, Ps who write about traumatic events experience significant benefits (students tracked through semester) Better mood Better grades Improvement in immune system Less likely to visit the doctor WHY? They were sense making and that helped them find closure and the events became less stressful. People are trying to create closure for themselves 1997 Study Benefits appear to come from "making sense" out of trauma Looking at words in journals to identify this Most significant improvements are associated with: Bigger improvements with more use of causal words i.e., because, cause, reason Bigger improvements with insight words i.e., realize, know, understand
How can social comparison produce assimilation and contrast? Describe the Lockwood & Kunda research on social comparison and attainability.
Social comparison can produce: Assimilation: Judgement of self chagnes to beomce more similar to the target Contrast: Judgement of self changes to become more different from the target (This can have a postive or negative effect depending on who we compare ourselves with - it the why that matters) It produces it by comparing yourself to others and you will do what is necessary to keep your self esteem in tact Lockwood and Kunda: Ps: accounting students at university of waterloo (to become an accountant here you had to apply to get in - so it plays a big part in their self concept) IV #1: Ps are in their 1st or 4th year of the accounting program IV #2: Ps read bogus newspaper article about a superstar 4th year student ("Jeremy" or "Jennifer" - the superstar gender matches with the Ps' gender) or they do not read an article (control condition) DV: Ratings of self R: First years who read the article self rate themselves higher than any group because they assimilate (they still have time for them to become the superstar, so they think they are great!) First years who don't read the article are about even with fourth years that don't read the article Fourth years that did read the article self rated themselves lower than all other groups because they contrast (they know they don't have time to change to become the superstar and therefore have to rationalize what happened) - they were using self esteem defenses to make themselves feel better Attainable: can you become that or not, if you can or not changes which one you use
What part of the brain is implicated in thinking about the future and how do we know? How is anxiety related?
The frontal lobe Patients with their frontal lobes removed performed horribly at tasks that required forethought and planning frontal lobe= time machine that allows each of us to vacate the present and experience the future before it happens Anxiety if a reaction we have to the future; without the ability to mentally project ourselves into the future, then we will not be fearful of it -- unable to imagine tomorrow
What is self-monitoring?
The idea that people differ in the degree to which they look too the environment for cues to social behavior. High self-monitors: attend to the situation and the bahaviors of others and modify their behavior accordingly (social camelion) Low self-monitors: do not try to alter their bahavior to suit each situation
How can event significance affect encoding? What has research demonstrated about flashbulb memories?
The more significant an event the more likely we are to remember it because we encode the event differently Flashbulb: Is a memory that happens when you where in a heightened emotional state with vivid details (9/11, etc) Research shows there is no correlation between acuracy and confidence. When Ps were asked where they were during 9/11 then two weeks later 50% got the entire memory wrong (because we fill in the blanks of our memories using schemas - I probably would have done this...)
What is the self-control strength model? What is ego depletion? Be prepared to describe three research findings about self-regulation. And, identify three ways we can improve our self-control resources.
The self-control strength model: that self-control is a limited resource and all types of self-control draw on this resource (eventually you "run out"). Ego depletion: How self-control attempts will be less successful after engaging in other self-control. Three research findings: Self-regulation affects perceptions of time (people exerting self-control think tasks last longer) Ego depletion can lead to intellectual imparments Self-regulation affects self-presenation (self-presentaiton in a challenging situation leads to ego depletion which leads to less effective self-presentation Three ways to improve our self-control resources: Self-control drills (5 minutes a day - try to sit up straight, try using non dominant hand to do something) Positive mood Religious practice Glucose (your brain needs fuel and it can only use glucose - all cognitive resources use glucose and if you run out then you need more)
Why does the author argue that we treat our beliefs like possessions? What is the consequence of this?
We adopt and keep beliefs that make us feel good in the same way that we acquire and retain material things because of the functions they serve and the value they offer Consequence? We choose stuff based on how it serves us We want, but cannot, have all the things we want to believe so we must throw some out and pick and choose carefully; we are willing to change in order to get what we want
What are two examples from the chapter about how motivation can influence our beliefs?
We are biased in the questions we ask (positive test strategy) because we want to hear information that supports what we already think to be true We tailor information we take in to fit alongside out prior understanding; we subtly skew the meaning we assign to information in order for everything to fit together smoothly and avoid cognitive inconsistency
How is this research paradigm related to the Source Monitoring Framework?
We are more easily able to store memories that match our expectations/feelings This explains why conservatives more easily remembered the false event of Obama shaking hands with the Iranian President (which makes Obama look bad and matches conservative people's expectations) and why liberals more easily remembered the false memory of Bush vacationing after Hurricane Katrina
What is immune neglect?
We tend to ignore the fact that we have a psychological "immune system" that promotes well-being by keeping negative views of the self away (we ignore this and forget that we are good at processing and dealing with negative information - this is why tragic events see impossible to live through until you've lived through them because you forget your brain is working on your side to get through everything.)
What is self-image bias?
We tend to judge others on the traits that we share and that we feel that we do a good job on. (EX: we think famous leaders share our leadership style or you are more likely to like a application if they share experiences or competencies with)
How do our traits serve as an anchor in judgment? What goals motivate us and which goal causes us to use ourselves as an anchor?
We use our own attributes and abilities as a basis for our perception of someone else's abilities i.e. If someone is funny to me, it's because they are funnier than me Goals that motivate us include: Self-Enhancement - feeling good about ourselves (and others that are close to self) This causes us to use ourselves as an anchor (i.e., downward social comparison) Accuracy - we want an accurate conclusion, especially when a lot of time, money, and mental energy is at stake; takes a lot of cognitive energy Closure - arriving to a clear conclusion (could be motivated to both seek and avoid this)
How can goals affect encoding?
When you goal is to remember an overall impression of someone you can remember more than if you focus on the little details (think of the blink face thing)
What are three reasons the authors put forth to explain why men and women might respond differently to the success of their partner?
Women are more concerned with communal behavior and smoothing social interactions women = higher inclusion of other and self; women see themselves in terms of their relationship with close others to a greater degree than men do Positive self evaluation derives, in part, from fulfilling roles prescribed to one's gender Gender stereotype that men should be successful and competent Ambition and success are qualities women look for when searching for a mate, so men thinking of themselves as unsuccessful might trigger a fear that their partner will ultimately leave them Men tend to be more competitive than women (in american society) Men tend to value agentic traits (such as competency) more than women do Breaks with society's expectations of gender (there are cetain things that makes you a successful man and if your partner is succesful it breaks this down a bit)
How is affective forecasting connected to counterfactuals designed to create meaning?
○ Other animals must experience an event in order to learn about its pleasures and pains, but our powers of foresight allow us to imagine that which has not yet happened and hence spare ourselves the hard lessons of experience ■ Using counterfactuals, we can imagine what would have happened in another situation, and we find meaning in why something happened the way it did ○ forecasts can be fearcasts whose purpose is not to predict the future but to motivate people to engage in prophylactic behavior?
