PSYC 381 Chapter Notes - Chapter 7: Stereotype Threat, Middle Age, Self-Perception Theory
14 Jun 2018
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What are stereotypes, and how do they change with age? What is the age-based double
standard, and why is it important? Provide an original example. (pp. 217-219)
-Stereotypes are a special type of social knowledge structure or social belief.
-As we age, negative stereotypes become throughout our culture.
-The age based double standard is when an individual attributes an older persons
failure in memory as more serious than a memory failure observed in a young
adult.
-Important b/c when we observe an older adult complete a task, we are judging
their competence.
-Ex. older adult forgetting doc appt is more serious.
1.
What is implicit stereotyping, and why is it important? How is it measured with
the Implicit Attitude Test? What is stereotype threat? Describe the evidence for
stereotype threat in older adults. (pp. 219-222)
-Implicit stereotyping is the activation of strong stereotypes.
-Happens unconsciously
- Guides our behaviour and social judgements.
-Attitude test shows pictures of old and young, and then pleasant and
unpleasant. Press button on left and right. Associating old with pleasant had
slower reaction time.
-A stereotype threat is an evoked fear of being judged in accordance with a
negative stereotype about a group to which you belong.
-Negative stereotypes affect older adults cognitive functioning
-Middle age adults who identified with older adulthood showed poorer memory
performance if they were told their performance would be compared with other
older adults.
2.
What is social knowledge, and how is it related to social beliefs? How does social
knowledge change with age? What is self-perception of aging, and why is it
important? Describe the two theories that explain this influence. (pp. 223-225)
-Social knowledge is how we represent and interpret the behaviour of others in a
social situation.
-This is related to social belief, because the way we interpret a situation is
connected with our beliefs and what we consider 'proper'.
-Social knowledge can change with age as we accumulate different experiences
and knowledge, but differences in age groups are also largely due to cohort
differences.
-Self perception of aging refers to individuals perceptions of their own age and
aging.
- Positive self perceptions are correlated with things such as better well being,
better health and longer life.
-There are two main theories that explain this:
1. Labelling theory: argues when we confront an age related stereotype, older
adults are more likely to integrate it into their self perception.
2. Resilience theory: argues confronting a negative stereotype results in a
reflection of that view in favour of a more positive self perception.
3.
What is impression formation, and how does it differ with age? What is the
negativity bias, and why is it important? Why is knowledge accessibility
important? Describe the processing capacity explanation for age differences in
social judgement biases. (pp. 226-230)
-Impression formation is the way we form and revise first impressions about
others.
-Older adults make impressions influenced by all the information they receive.
-Younger adults make their impression based on the most recent information
they have.
-Negativity bias occurs when people allow their initial negative impressions to
stand despite subsequent positive information.
-Knowledge accessibility affects how older adults make social judgments as they
are more sensitive to the content of available information than younger adults.
- Older adults have also been found to be at a disadvantage when processing
social information when the social context is cognitively demanding
- Processing resource capacity is the major factor explaining social judgment
biases.
4.
What are causal attributions? Provide original examples of how it is used. Be sure
your answer includes a definition of the two major types. What is the
correspondence bias, and how is it affected with age? (pp. 230-232)
Casual attributions are explanations of why behaviours occur. Ex. someone gets
anxious for a test. Many reasons why.
-There are two major types of casual attributions:
1. Dispositional attribution is a casual attribution that concludes the cause resides
within the actor.
2. Situational attribution is an explanation that the cause resides outside the
actor.
-A correspondence bias is when people produce informational distortions when
making casual attributions about problem solving.
-Most common in middle aged youth. This bias may be due to the lack of life
experience
5.
Define each of the following, and describe how they influence information
processing. Also, include a description of how they are related to age. (pp.
232-235)
personal goals
1. Personal goals:
-Goals play a major role in creating direction in our lives.
-our personal goals change to match our needs.
1.
Emotion
2. Emotion:
-Older adults avoid negative information and focus more on positive
information when making decisions and judgements.
-Younger adults remember both positive and negative images equally
2.
cognitive style
3. Cognitive Style:
-How we approach solving problems.
-Changes in resources with aging may lead to an increase in a need for
closure with age.
3.
6.
What is personal control? How is it multidimensional? Provide original
examples. Describe the different control strategies. What are the criticisms of
primary control? (pp. 235-238)
-Personal control is the degree one believes ones performance in a situation
depends on something that ones personally does.
-It is multidimensional because it depends on which domain is being assessed. Ex.
Do bad on a work presentation. Was it their fault? or technology? ect.
-Primary control strategies involve bringing the environment in line with ones
desires and goals.
-Secondary control strategies involve bringing one self in line with the
environment.
-Argue age related changes in goals could also be the result of natural movement
through the life cycle.
7.
What is collaborative cognition, and why is it important for older adults? How
does the social context facilitate cognition? Provide examples of each. (pp.
238-240)
-Collaborative cognition occurs when two or more people work together to solve
a cognitive task.
-Enhances older adults performance on a variety of memory and problem solving
tasks.
-The social context facilitates cognition by examining contextual variables that
influence memory performance.
-An example of this would be an older adult retelling a story to a child from
memory. Their retelling of the story contained more detail and were more fluent
than those of younger adults.
8.
L7 -Social Cognition
Friday, May 25, 2018
12:00 PM
