8 HUS 133 Social Cognition

Chapter 8

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Social CognitionSocial Cognition

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Social Judgment ProcessesSocial Judgment Processes


Learning Objectives• What is the negativity bias in impression formation, and

how does it influence older adult’s thinking?• Are there age differences in accessibility of social

information?• How does processing context influence social

judgments?• To what extent do processing capacity limitations

influence social judgments in older adults?

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Impression Formation• Declines in cognitive 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.

• Thus, age-related changes in processing capacity might make older adults more vulnerable to social judgment biases.

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Impression Formation (cont.)• When forming an initial impression

– 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. – In particular, older adults are more willing to change

their initial impression from positive to negative. – But are less willing to change an initial from negative

to positive even in light of new positive information

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Knowledge Accessibility and Social Judgments• When we are faced with new situations, we draw

on our previous experiences stored in memory.– To do so:

• Social knowledge structures must be available to guide behavior.

• Social information must also be accessible to guide behavior.

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A Processing Capacity Explanation for AgeDifferences in Social Judgments• Declines in cognitive 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.

• Thus, age-related changes in processing capacity might make older adults more vulnerable to social judgment biases.

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Social Knowledge Structures and BeliefsSocial Knowledge Structures and Beliefs


Learning Objectives• What are social knowledge structures and social beliefs?• What are social beliefs, and how do they change with

age?

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Understanding Age Differences in Social Beliefs

• Does the content of our social knowledge and beliefs change as we grow older?

• How do our knowledge structures and beliefs affect our social judgments, memory, problem solving, and more?

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• Understanding age differences in social belief systems has three important aspects:

1. We must examine the specific content of social beliefs.

2. We must consider the strength of these beliefs to know under what conditions they may influence behavior.

3. We need to know the likelihood that these beliefs are being violated or questioned.

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• Age differences were found in the types of social rules evoked in different types of situations.– The belief “Marriage is more important that a career”

increases with age.– Compare with “The marriage was already in trouble”

(Figure 8.2)• Cohort differences can be profound.

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Social Judgments and Causal AttributionsSocial Judgments and Causal Attributions


Learning Objectives• What are causal attributions?• What is the correspondence bias?• How does the nature of our causal attributions change

with age?• What alternative explanations are there for the

dispositional bias found in older adults?

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Attributional Biases• Causal attributions

– Explanations people construct to explain their behavior

• Dispositional attributions – Behavioral explanations that reside within the person

• Situational attributions – Behavioral explanations that reside outside the

person• Correspondence bias

– Relying on dispositional information and ignoring situational information

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Motivation and Social Processing GoalsMotivation and Social Processing Goals


Learning Objectives• How do goals influence the way we process information,

and how does this change with age?• How do emotions influence the way we process

information, and how does this change with age?• How does a need for closure influence the way we

process information, and how does it change with age?

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Personal Goals• Personal goals play a major role in creating

direction in our lives.• Selective optimization with compensation (SOC)

is an important theoretical model.– Growing older causes shift in priorities.

• Re-evaluating interests

• Shifting priorities means goal selection may be perceived differently by older and younger adults.

• Goal selection requires that we thoughtfully choose where to invest resources.

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Emotions as a Processing Goal• Older adults avoid negative information and

focus more on positive information when making decisions and judgments, and when remembering events.– Phenomenon is called a positivity effect.– Emotions may impede information processing.– Focus on positive information can interfere with

decision making by causing older adults to miss important negative information.

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Cognitive Style as a Processing Goal• People with high need for closure and an

inability to tolerate ambiguous situations:– Prefer order and predictability– Are uncomfortable with ambiguity– Are closed-minded– 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.

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Stereotypes and AgingStereotypes and Aging


Learning Objectives• How does the content of stereotypes about aging differ

across adulthood?• How do young and older adults perceive the competency

of the elderly?• How do negative stereotypes about aging unconsciously

guide our behavior?

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Content of Stereotypes• A special kind of social knowledge structure or

social belief that represent organized prior knowledge about a group of people that affects how we interpret new information– Young and older adults hold similar stereotypes about

aging.

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Age Stereotypes and Perceived Competence• An age-based double standard operates when

people judge older adults’ failures in memory.– In this case, 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.

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Activation of Stereotypes• Implicit stereotypes

– Automatically activated negative stereotypes about aging guide behavior beyond our awareness.

• Implicit negative stereotypes can negatively influence performance.

• Implicit stereotyping influences the way we communicate with older adults. – Patronizing talk

• Includes slow speech, simple vocabulary, careful enunciation, a demeaning emotional tone, and superficial conversation

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Stereotype Threat• An evoked fear of being judged in accordance

with a negative stereotype about a group to which you belong– Do negative stereotypes influence the cognitive

functioning of older adults?– Middle-aged adults are also susceptible to negative

age stereotypes.– Influence of stereotypes is not restricted to memory.

• Physical aging is also a negative aging stereotype.

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Personal ControlPersonal Control


Learning Objectives• What is the multidimensionality of personal control?• How do assimilation and accommodation influence

behavior?• What is primary and secondary control?• What is the primacy of primary control over secondary

control?

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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.

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Control Strategies• Brandtstädter(1999) proposes that the

preservation and stabilization of a positive view of the self and personal development in later life involve three interdependent processes:– Assimilative activities

• Used when one must prevent losses important to self-esteem

– Accommodations• Involve readjusting one’s goals and aspirations

– Immunizing mechanisms • Alter the effects of self-discrepant information

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Control Strategies (Cont.)• Heckhausen and Schulz view control-related

strategies in terms of primary and secondary control.– Primary control helps change the environment to match

one’s goals.• It involves bringing the environment into line with one’s desires

and goals.– Secondary control reappraises the environment in light

of one’s decline in functioning.• The individual turns inward toward the self and assesses the

situation.– Control strategies are what one does, actions taken, to

bring the environment in line with goals.

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Some Criticisms Regarding Primary Control• Cross-cultural perspectives challenge the notion

of primacy and primary control.• In collectivists societies, 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.

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Social Situations and Social CompetenceSocial Situations and Social Competence


Learning Objectives• What is the social facilitation of cognitive functioning?• What is collaborative cognition, and does it facilitate

memory in older adults?• How does the social context influence memory

performance in older adults?

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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• Findings indicate that well-acquainted older

couples demonstrate an expertise to develop an adaptive pattern of recalling information.

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Social Context and Memory• Importantly, the social context can serve a

facilitative function in older adults’ memory performance.

• Thus, it is important not to limit our explanations of social cognitive change simply to cognitive processing variables, but to also include social factors.

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8 HUS 133 Social Cognition

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