Two goals of social cognition seem to be in opposition to each other. In what situations do people seek to conserve mental effort? Under what circumstances do they seek accuracy?

What features within the person encourage people toward one goal versus the other?

What will be an ideal response?


Answer: We conserve mental effort when we don't have the mental resources necessary for effortful processing or don't have the motivation to engage in it, such as when the information available is too complex or we are under time pressure. We seek accuracy when we need to justify our decisions, when the decision is important to us, when faced with unexpected events, or when socially interdependent. Personal factors that facilitate the conservation of mental effort include arousal, thinking during circadian rhythm downtimes, and need for structure. Personal factors that encourage accuracy motivation include sad mood and high need for cognition.

Psychology

You might also like to view...

The fact that tattoos are commonplace today, while they were once viewed as abnormal, illustrates that __________.

A. modern society is unlikely to change B. what is acceptable for men and women is no longer different C. American culture values independence D. the values of a society may change over time

Psychology

Corisna is an introductory psychology student who participates in a reaction time experiment. In this experiment, she is asked to press her foot on a pedal when she hears the sound of a horn. Her reaction time will be most affected by ____.?

a. ?P300s b. ?expert systems c. ?the complexity of the decision d. ?experimenter bias

Psychology

According to Ekman (1987), if you were visiting Malaysia, you would ________ to understand people's emotions by observing their _________

a. be able; facial expressions c. be able; posture b. not be able; language d. not be able; facial expressions

Psychology

_____ forecasting refers to a person's ability to predict both their own as well as others' happiness

A) Hedonic B) Affective C) Socioemotional D) Schizoaffective

Psychology