Microsoft Word Chapter 1 done doc

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4.1 INTRODUCTION : 
 
In the previous unit we have discussed the effects of social 
schema and heuristics on social cognition. It enlightened us as to 
how we think about the social reality. We understood that the 
thinking about the social mind of individuals is affected by the 
limitations of the structural and processing abilities of our own 
minds. In this part we are going to discuss various other aspects of 
our thought. They are concerned with models of social thought, 
errors in social thinking, and complex relationship between affect 
and cognition. These three aspects of social thinking would help us 
in understanding social thought clearly. Now, let us move to the 
discussions of these issues.
4.2 AUTOMATIC AND CONTROLLED PROCESSING: 
TWO BASIC MODELS OF SOCIAL THOUGHT : 
 
The distinction between automatic and controlled processing 
has been well-established. According to this idea, social thoughts 
are processed in two distinct ways: (a) Automatic Processing, and 
(b) Controlled Processing. Controlled Processing refers to the 
processing of social information in careful, systematic, logical, 
rational, and effortful way. In this kind of processing, individuals 
think systematically and logically to reach to a conclusion.
E.g., when you want to make a travel plan for your holidays, you 
find out most of the information, carefully choose the destinations 
and then systematically make the travel plans. Automatic 
Processing refers to fast, relatively effortless, and intuitive kind of 
processing of social information. This not necessarily means that 
these processing are entirely independent of each other. Some 
studies have shown that they work together.
Automatic Processing refers to fast, relatively effortless, 
intuitive, automatic and non-conscious processing of information 
due to sufficient experience of the cognitive task or social 
information.
Good amount of correlational as well as experimental 
research has supported this distinction. In addition, neurological 
research has also indicated the support to this distinction. It was 
found that there are two kinds of neural systems that process social 
information; one for automatic and the other for controlled. The 
automatic processing of thought is primarily associated with 
amygdala, whereas controlled processing primarily occurs in 
prefrontal cortex. Now, we shall discuss the effect of automatic 
processing on automatic social behavior. 

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