Every human being in this world is unique. We all think, eat, and act differently. Cognitive bias is one of the primary parts of our thinking process. Cognitive bias are errors such as judgements that we as humans consistently make. This may relate to our reasoning or decision making. Confirmation bias is one I find every interesting. Confirmation bias is when you think something is true and no matter how many things prove that your point is not true, you will not change your mind about your opinion. This make be an issue because this error can prevent us from accurately understand our true reality.
This may cause us to block certain information, which means we will only pick out the bits of information that confirms our judgement. According
The Cognitive Continuum Theory (Hammond 1988) is a descriptive theory that illustrates how judgement situations or tasks relate to cognition. The theory has six broad modes of decision-making based on two continua: cognition and judgement task structure (figure 1). This theory focuses exclusively on judgment and decision-making and ranges from intuition to analysis (Harbison, 2001). Judgment refers to the process of weighting or estimating the possibilities and a decision is defined as the outcome that leads to an action or a conclusion not to act (Cader et al, 2005).
Issues involving race found in today’s society often stem from historical conflicts. Christopher Edley, Jr. supports this idea in The War on Our Freedoms: Civil Liberties in an Age of Terrorism, “… We can also see in recent developments how … racial and ethnic differences are socially constructed out of, or in midst of, conflict” (Edley, Jr. 171). An ethnic group that is often falls victim to racial profiling in the United States are African Americans. Initially, the transatlantic slave trade sparked this modern practice. The transatlantic slave trade, also known as the triangular trade, included three stages, beginning in Western Europe. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the trade began when ships departed
Throughout this term I learned so much about young children, anti-bias education, developmental growth and so much more. Education is something that shouldn’t be taken lightly; these are development steps of a young child that could help determine their future. Children need to be guided emotionally, academically, mentally and emotionally. Parents teach their children practices and their beliefs to help the child get ready for the world. Parents and teacher should always be involved in a child's learning process, despite of their values or beliefs. Everyone cultures are different, and how they expect their children to behave is different too. As adults, and teachers, we can’t have a set mindset on what we only believe in because, there is always
Cognitive dissonance is a communication theory mostly used in the field of social psychology in providing a theoretical framework in dealing with various issues relating to psychology. The title provides us with the concept that cognitive is thinking while dissonance is the inconsistency or conflict brought about. Cognitive dissonance manifests when one holds two or more incompatible beliefs simultaneously. This theory has been used and applied in several disciplines including communication, due to its simplicity and straightforwardness. The theory is commonly applied in these dynamic fields since it replaces previous conditioning or reinforcement theories by viewing individuals as more purposeful decision makers striving to acquire a balance in their beliefs. Cognitions are chunks or bits of knowledge which can pertain to any variety of values, emotions or values. These cognations can be related to one another or they can also be completely independent from each other (Cooper, 06). For instance, one may like to eat junk food, but may also be trying to lose weight. The two cognitions are related to each other in tha...
Implicit and explicit biases are related mental constructs. For many years, even dating back to our great’s ancestor, people always have automatic judge people, places, and things. We were all given five senses, knowing how the brain works, we choose to use our conscious actions to judge. Without awareness, we usually act on those judgments. There are two types of judgments consciously and unconsciously.
A substantial amount of educational and psychological research has consistently demonstrated that African American students underperform academically relative to White students. For example, they tend to receive lower grades in school (e.g., Demo & Parker, 1987; Simmons, Brown, Bush, & Blyth, 1978), score lower on standardized tests of intellectual ability (e.g., Bachman, 1970; Herring, 1989; Reyes & Stanic, 1988; Simmons et al., 1978), drop out at higher rates (e.g., American Council on Education, 1990; Steele, 1992), and graduate from college with substantially lower grades than White students (e.g., Nettles, 1988). Such performance gaps can be attributed to any number of factors, such as socioeconomic status, academic preparation, and educational opportunities; however, Steele (1997) pointed out that even when background factors are held constant, subsequent achievement remains lower for minority students. Moreover, much research in this area has focused on how African American students’ lack of motivation and negative attitudes contribute to their inferior academic performance (Ogbu, 1990); yet many Black students often report high educational aspirations (Fordham, 1996; Fine, 1991; Ogbu, 1987, 1990; Hauser & Anderson, 1991), even higher than White students of comparable class background (MacLeod, 1995). What remains certain is the urgent need to explain what accounts for the persistent academic underachievement of Black students.
Growing up in a very accepting and forward home, I always found myself to be free of most bias. Having been the target of some racial prejudice in the past, I always told myself that I would make sure nobody else had to feel the same way. While this may be a great way to think, it really only covers the fact that you will not have any explicit bias. What I have realized during the course of this class is that implicit bias often has a much stronger effect on us than we might think, and even the most conscious people can be affected.
I have learned that bias is very hard to overcome, but acknowledging its basis can help change the lenses I view the world through.
The human psyche frequently experiences the phenomena of internal contradiction, followed by an internal struggle for some semblance of balance or consistency (Hall, 1998). Cognitive dissonance acts as motivation for people to behave in a manner that effectively reduces said dissonance and restores balance. Leon Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance explores this occurrence and the subsequent actions that people take in order to create a balance between their ideals.
Cognitive biases within the intelligence community create difficulties in the analysis of intelligence since it creates a pattern of deviation susceptible to human error. These biases may act as enemies of intelligence due to the intelligence organization or analyst simplifying the intelligence process and not taking into account factors that may cloud their judgment. The intelligence community with time can minimize the effect of these biases by applying different methodologies that would determine where more awareness would be needed in order to prevent biases but even with new methods in place, cognitive biases will unconsciously effect the decision making process within the intelligence community. Within the intelligence field the problem
Practical implications: People are more likely to be slow at taking action on new information than they rationally should. Why is this? First, information can be hard to process. Second, truly bad information is sometimes difficult to come to grips with if, especially if you’ve publicly shared your thesis.
Rationality and good judgement are typically affected by certain ways of thinking which are often studied within the psychological community. Within the community, these different ways of effected thinking are called cognitive biases. Breaking down the overall umbrella of the term cognitive bias yields subcategories of decision-making, social and memory biases, among others. Biases such as these affect all humans in one way or another. My personal experience with cognitive biases include confirmation bias, authority bias and egocentric bias. This list is definitely not complete, as I am sure there are many more biases I experience without even realizing what is happening. That being said, the first experience I would like to present is
In this comic strip by Matt Groening, the main character, Bongo, is being picked on by another character that is telling him "that everyone in the world hates your guts." Generally, most individuals perceive their selves as being "better than average." We are familiar with our own talents, thoughts, feelings, and emotions more so than anybody else's. This leads to a self-serving bias. In the comic, Bongo reassures himself of his "greatness" until he looks in the mirror. The mirror causes Bongo to be more self-aware of his uncertainty. I chose this particular comic not only because it illistrates the self-serving bias, but also because of the way it incorporates the mirror and Bongo's self-awareness.
Ingroup bias is the tendency to favor one own’s group. It has very powerful effects on people, society and everyday life. If a person believes that someone else is involved with the same group as themselves, they will have positive views of them and treat them favorably compared to other groups. This is very common among boys and girls. Ingroup bias is particularly important because it affects your self-esteem. As humans, we build our self-esteem through belonging and connecting with people who have similar attributes. Having a close group in which one connects and feels a sense of belongingness can help to increase one’s self-esteem. Despite these positive factors, an ingroup bias may also create negative outcomes. This may include a group treating another in unfair ways, or perceiving the group as “bad” and “evil.” Ingroup bias can be both positive and negative, helping or hurting people in everyday life.
Social cognitive theory is the study on how an individual stores, processes, and applies information about others in their everyday life. It was first known as the “Social Learning Theory”, and was later changed to the term known today as the “Social Cognitive Theory”. The definition of social cognition is defined as any cognitive process that involves one or more than one person. While the definition of cognition is unconscious process in the brain that bring about representations. Social cognition purpose is to study social knowledge, social structure, group behavior, social influences, social categories (age, race, sex) defines a person. (Science Direct) Social cognition is thought to be the outcome of social interactions. One will learn by observing others, this is known as vicarious learning. For example, one is more likely to follow another’s behavior if they can identify with them, whether it be personality wise, age proximity, and more. (Verywell)