Social Schemas in psychology PDF

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Social schemas and how they affect our way of thinking of people and groups ...

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Social Schemas Social schemas: ‘a mental structure which contains general expectations and knowledge of the world. This may include general expectations about people, social roles, events and how to behave in certain situations’ (Augoustinos & Walker, 2006) Some features of social schemas   

Top-down/theory-driven Heavy influence of prior knowledge on thoughts and behaviours Active construction of reality

Types of social schema  

Fiske & Taylor (1991) suggest 4 (but there are many) Schank & Ableson (1977) o Understanding based on unconscious knowledge and implicit assumptions o Fills in missing information once activated

Event schemas – ‘scripts’    

Appropriate sequences of actions In well-known everyday activities Classic example is a restaurant: our actions, others’ actions and order of events We also have scrips for: o Sex (McCormick, 2010) o Going to lectures (Bower, Black & Turner, 1979) o Life (Tekcan, Kaya-Kiziloz & Odaman, 2012) o Driving (Prabhakharan & Molesworth, 2011) o Crime (criminal event schemas) (Smith, 1991)  Frequently elicited thoughts for burglary were  Something of value is taken – 54%  Occurs in a home/apartment – 46%  Break-in – 42%  Purpose is to steal – 33%  Compared to legal criteria  Knowingly entered a building, not necessarily a home  Without authority  Intent to commit a felony – not necessarily theft, but rather to assault or vandalise  ‘Intent’ – not necessarily carried out  Frequently elicited thoughts for kidnapping were  Random demand – 63%  Victim is a child – 60%  Victim is taken away – 40%  Involves custody battel – 35%  Victim did not consent – 33%  Motive is money – 31%  Compared to legal criteria  Defendant acted knowingly  By force or threat of force, carried the victim from one place to another, OR, by deceit or enticement, induced the victim to go from one place to another  Intended to secretly confine the victim against their will  Findings suggest that stereotypes don’t always add up to the legal criteria. Jurors may be using schemas to judge crimes and may use these more than what the judge tells them

Social psychology – Lecture 11

about the law. The same was also found for sexual harassment Person schemas 

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Schemas about what people are like o Personality traits o Goals o Intentions Experience determines people schemas Examples o What is an optimistic person like? How do they behave? What do they feel? What trouble do they get into? o Goals/intentions: Person schemas include assumption about these, e.g. that people are benevolent, hostile, selfish, short-term focussed etc.

Self-schemas   

‘Self-schematic’: clear and apply to us ‘Aschematic’: unclear and do not apply to us LOOK AT YEAR 1 LECTURE TO FIND MORE

Role schemas and stereotypes  

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Schemas for social roles and groups Associate o Characteristics o Entitlements o Emotions o Actions Achieved roles acquired through effort Ascribed roles are automatic

Stereotypes: ‘a particular kind of role schema that organises people’s expectations about other people who fall into certain social categories’ (Fiske & Taylor, 1991)   

Originally: Lippmann (1922) and psychoanalytic theory suggesting stereotypes are negative Schema theory says that stereotypes are potentially negative, neutral or positive Implications o Stereotypes are beyond our control o The only way to not have a stereotype is to of never had it o Dovidio, Evans & Tyler (1986): of course, you don’t have to act on them! o We can create stereotypes in the lab on sadness (Hill, Lewicki, Czyzewska & Boss, 1989)

A clinical application of the social schema approach   

Fiske & Taylor’s (1991) list of 4 is not exhaustive or universal. Schema therapy offers a clinical example Young (1990): based around 18 early maladaptive schemas within 5 schema domains Schema domains o Child has basic emotional needs o If they are not met, the child will develop:  Enduring schemas of selves and the world  Lead to unhealthy life patterns  In some, mental health issues

Social psychology – Lecture 11

For example  Defectiveness/shame: self as bad, unwanted, unlovable > insecurity/shame Entitlement/grandiosity: self as superior > competitive, dominating, unemphatic Punitiveness: people should be punished > intolerant/angry Self-help book (Young & Klosko, 1994) suggests 5 steps to changing you ‘lifetraps’ (maladaptive schemas) Giensen-Bloo et al., (2006) tested schema therapy on BPD o Compared schema therapy patients (44) and psychodynamic psychotherapy patients (42) over 3 years o Schema therapy patients had a better recovery/clinical improvement and better quality of life o

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Social schemas and groups  

Categorising into groups minimises within-group differences and maximises between-group differences (Tajfel & Wilkes, 1963) Park & Hastie (1987) ‘outgroup homogeneity effect’

Cueing evaluations and emotions 

Fiske (1982) o Schema-triggered emotions (affect) o Some schemas have an affective/evaluative component o Matching an instance to a schema cues the evaluation and emotions stored

Problems with the social schema approach 

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Schemas ‘can be evoked to explain any result and its opposite’ (Riske & Linville, 1980) Biggest critique is the social representations theory

Social psychology – Lecture 11...