Psychology 110

Neil Lutsky, Carleton College

1. Social learning theory elaborated: Cognitive competency, personal constructs, outcome expectancies (E), subjective values (V), self-regulatory skills (and self-efficacy).
2. How has cognitive psychology influenced the study of social cognition?

II. Knowledge of self.

1. George Herbert Mead: Self and symbolic interaction.
   
2. Social comparison processes.
   
   1. What is social comparison?
   2. Is social comparison automatic (Gilbert)?
   3. The false uniqueness effect (above-average effect, Pipping).
      1. Demonstrable evidence.
      2. Downward comparison.
         
   4. Self-Enhancement Maintenance (SEM): Social comparison vs. BIRGing.

III. Perceiving others (and self).

1. The elements of person perception: Implicit personality theory.
2. Attribution.
   1. The fundamental attribution error (FAE) aka correspondence bias.
      1. Ross, Amabile, & Steinmetz: The misperception of role-conferred advantage.
      2. Explanations of correspondence bias.
   2. Actor-observer effects.
   3. Focus of attention effects.

IV. Judging social objects.

1. Persuasion: Central vs. peripheral routes.
2. Attitude consistency dynamics: Cognitive dissonance and its discontents.
   1. Classic dissonance theory and its origins.
   2. Selected research demonstrations.
   3. What happens when your ultimate driving machine isn't highly rated?

V.  Two challenges to contemporary work on social cognition.

1. Cross-cultural comparisons?
   1. Individualistic vs. collectivistic differences?
   2. What did Norenzayan and Nisbett show?
2. Hot vs. cool cognition?