PSY-8 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Social Cognition, Psych
Document Summary
How people think about themselves and the social word, or more specifically, how people select, interpret, remember and use social information to make judgments and decisions. How people think about themselves and others. The study of social cognition is a central topic in social psychology. The assumption is that people are generally trying to form accurate impressions of the world and do so much of the time. Because of the nature of social thinking, however, people sometimes form erroneous impressions consciously deliberately one"s own thoughts, perceptions, assumptions. Two kinds of social cognition: quick and automatic without thinking, spontaneous kind of cognition without. Simple automatic judgments: controlled thinking that is effortful and deliberate, pausing to think about self and environment, carefully selecting the right course of action. People often size up a situation very quickly: they figure out who is there, what is happening, and what might happen next. Thinking that is non-conscious, unintentional, involuntary, and effortless.
