My individual Assgmnt on Schemas and Prototypes

1. Social
Psychology
Schemas and
Prototypes

2. Table of Contents
 Introduction
 Definition of Schema
 Description of Schema
 Example of Schema
 Assimilation and Accomodation
 Example of Assimilaton and Accomodation
 Types of Schema
 Why Schema is important?
 Problems with Schema
 Self Fulfilling Prophecies
 Description of Prototype
 Definition of Prototype
 Example of Prototype
 Self Reflection
 References

3. Am I really what I think i am …?

4. Introduction
• Social psychology is a branch of psychology that studies
individuals in the social context. In other words, it is the study
of how and why people think, feel, and do the things they do
depending upon the situation they are in.
• One of the sub topics in social psychology is Schemas and
Prototypes.
• Early developments of the idea in psychology emerged with the
gestalt psychologists and Jean Piaget: the term "schema" was
introduced by Piaget in 1926.The concept was introduced into
psychology and education through the work of the British
psychologist Frederic Bartlett, who drew on the term used by
neurologist Henry Head. It was expanded into schema theory
by educational psychologist R. C. Andersen. Since then, many
other terms have been used to describe schema, such as
including "frame", "scene", and "script".
• The plural of Schema is Schemas (USA) or Schemata (UK).
Schemas are also known as mental models, concepts, mental
representations and knowledge structures

5. Definition
Schemas
Refers to a mental framework that allows you to make
sense of aspects of your environment. Schemas enable
you to interact with your environment in an automatic
manner without effortful thought.
OR
A schema is a cognitive framework or concept that helps
organize and interpret information. Schemas can be
useful because they allow us to take shortcuts in
interpreting the vast amount of information that is
available in our environment. Schemas can also
contribute to stereotypes and make it difficult to retain
new information that does not conform to our
established ideas about the world.

6. Description
Schemas affect what we notice, how we interpret things
and how we make decisions and act. They act like filters,
accentuating and downplaying various elements. They
also help us forecast, predicting what will happen. We
even remember and recall things via schemas, using them
to „encode‟ memories.
Schemas appear very often in the attribution of cause. The
multiple necessary cause schema is one where we require
at least two causes before a „fit‟ to the schema is declared.
Once we have created or accepted a schema, we will fight
hard to sustain it, for example by ignoring or force-fitting
observations that do not comply with the schema. It is only
after sustained contrary evidence that many of us will
admit the need to change the schema.
Schemas are often shared within cultures, allowing short-
cut communications.
We tend to have favorite schema which we use often.
When interpreting the world, we will try to use these first,
going on to others if they do not sufficiently fit.

7. Schema Example
For example, a young child may first develop a schema for
a cat. She knows that a cat is cute, has hair, four legs and
a tail. When the little girl encounters a puppy for the first
time, she might initially call it a cat. After all, it fits in with
her schema for the characteristics of a cat; it is a cute
animal that has hair, four legs and a tail. Once she is told
that this is a different animal called a puppy, she will
modify her existing schema for a cat and create a new
schema for a puppy.

8. Assimilation and Accommodation
Jean Piaget viewed intellectual growth as a process of
adaptation (adjustment) to the world. This happens through:
•Assimilation
– Which is using an existing schema to deal with a new object or
situation.
•Accommodation
– This happens when the existing schema (knowledge) does not
work, and needs to be changed to deal with a new object or
situation.

9. •Equilibration
Piaget believed that cognitive development did not
progress at a steady rate, but rather in leaps and
bounds. Equilibrium is occurs when a child's schemas can
deal with most new information through assimilation.
However, an unpleasant state of disequilibrium occurs
when new information cannot be fitted into existing
schemas (assimilation).
Equilibration is the force which drives the learning process
as we do not like to be frustrated and will seek to restore
balance by mastering the new challenge (accommodation).
Once the new information is acquired the process of
assimilation with the new schema will continue until the
next time we need to make an adjustment to it.
Example of Assimilation
A 2 year old child sees a man who is bald on top of his head
and has long frizzy hair on the sides. To his father‟s horror,
the toddler shouts “Clown, clown” .
Example of Accommodation
In the “clown” incident, the boy‟s father explained to his son
that the man was not a clown and that even though his hair
was like a clown‟s, he wasn‟t wearing a funny costume and
wasn‟t doing silly things to make people laugh
With this new knowledge, the boy was able to change his
schema of “clown” and make this idea fit better to a standard
concept of “clown”.

10. Types Of Schemas
Role Schemas: Are about proper behaviours in given
situations.Expectations about people in particular roles and
social categories (e.g., the role of a social psychologist,
student, doctor, teachers,janitors,Blacks)
Self-Schemas: Are about oneself.We also hold idealized or
projected selves or possible selves.Expectations about the
self that organize and guide the processing of self-relevant
information(eg, if we think we re reliable we ll try to
always live up to that image. If we think we are sociable we
are more likely to seek the company of others. )
Person Schemas: It‟s about individual people.Expectations based
on personality traits. What we associate with a certain type
of person (e.g., introvert, warm person,outstanding
leader,famous footballer)
Event Schemas: Are also known as Scripts.Are about what
happens in secific situations.Expectations about sequences
of events in social situations. What we associate with certain
situations (e.g., restaurant schemas,Demonstration,First
Dating)
There are also ;
 Social schemas are about general social knowledge.
 Idealized person schemas are called prototypes.
 The word is also used for any generalized schema.
 Trait schemas about the innate characteristics people have.
 Object schemas about inanimate things and how they work.

11. Why are Schemas important to us?
•They reduce the amount of information to process
•They reduce ambiguity
•They guide our:
•Attention and encoding
•How quick we notice
•What we notice
•How we interpret what we notice
•Our memory
•Our judgments
Why do we use Schemas?
Accessibility
the extent to which schemas and concepts are at the
forefront of people‟s minds (and therefore are likely to be
used when making judgments about the social world) So
how available the schema is in our head.
Fit (applicable, representative, similar)
the degree to which the accessible construct fits the
object/person under judgment.

12. The Problem with Schemas
1. Schemas can distort reality and memories
2. Schemas can persist, even when discredited
- Belief perseverance
3. Schemas can be self-fulfilling
- People often live up to our expectations because we
treat them in ways that make them act in accordance
with these expectations
Self Fulfilling prophecies
1. We have expectations (schemas) about other people.
2. These expectations can influence how we act toward
these people.
3. These actions can cause these people to act in ways
that are consistent with our expectations

13. Self Fullfilling Prophecies Chart

14. Schemas Influence
Our attention and encoding
Our memory
Our judgments
Our behaviour
which can in turn influence our social
environment
Schemas are also self-sustaining, and will persist
even in the face of disconfirming evidence. This is
because if something does not match the
schema, such as evidence against it, it is ignored.
Some schema are easier to change than others,
and some people are more open about changing
any of their schemas than other people.

15. Prototype
An early pioneer of prototype research was
psychologist Eleanor Rosch, whose work during the
1960s and 1970s was inspired by the Aristotelian
assumption that categories are logical entities whose
membership is defined by an item‟s possession of simple
matching features.
A concept in psychology that is related to the notion of
prototype is schema. These two terms are often used
interchangeably, but there are subtle differences.
Prototype refers to a specific ideal image of a category
member, with all known attributes filled in.
For example, the prototypic "apple" may engender a
representation of red, round fruit, even if actual category
members vary so much on these characteristic dimensions
that the prototype becomes meaningless for identifying
them, for example some apples are green.

16. Eliot Smith (1998) has argued that the distinction between
schemas and prototypes is largely inconsequential and that
four general points can be made about schema and
prototype-based processing.
First, schemas and prototypes are pre existing knowledge
structures that are learned from other people or from
experience.
Second, the effects of schemas and prototypes on free
recall tasks result from two sources: information processing
that occurs at the time the stimulus information is first
learned, and information processing that occurs when the
information is later retrieved or reconstructed.
Third, schemas and prototypes can be primed, thus
influencing interpretations of information presented later.
Finally, separate processes may govern our recall of specific
traits and our overall evaluations of a person, rendering
prototypes just part of the process of knowing others.

17. Definition
Prototype in Social Psychology
A prototype is a cognitive representation that exemplifies
the essential features of a category or concept. Specifically,
a prototypical representation reflects the central tendency
or the average or typical attributes of the members of a
category .
OR
A prototype is an abstract mental representation of the
central tendency of members of a category .
Example of Prototype
The prototype of table consists of the knowledge that a
table has four legs propping up a flat surface. People store
prototypical knowledge of social groups for example ,
librarians, policemen or objects, for example, tables, cars .
These prototypical representations facilitate people‟s ability
to encode, organize, and retrieve information about
everyday stimuli.

18. Prototype
Example
A mental concept or prototype of a car is likely a good
cast Metal of used for driving that has four tyres, flexible
back, and a square comfortable seat. When you came
across a car for the first time, your brain processed the
impression, comparing it to the prototype of the car. Once
it determined that the car had characteristics similar to
that prototype, it was filed away as an example of the
concept car.

19. Self Reflection
Some people dislike police because they have a schema of
police as people who perceive everyone as guilty until proven
innocent. Other people feel safe around police as their
schemas are more about police as brave protectors. That‟s
describe me on my perception on Policemen.
For very long I have schema on policemen. This schema can
be categorized as Person Schema and Trait Schema. In my
family . there were three relatives worked as policemen. I saw
them as fierce ,mean and brutal people.They have such
personalities like having deep,big,loud voice and also thick
moustache. One time, I heard a story how that relative beat his
own younger brother without mercy for something that can be
solved amicably. I couldn‟t deal with the thought of „how could
he do that to his own flesh and blood?‟.it was so violence that
his younger brother and also my second cousin had to be
hospitalized.
When I was a kid, I loved Bollywood movies. I took the liking
(actually,I still love Hindi movies..!!) for such movies form my
grandparents. Most of the movies I watched, there were always
a character of Policeman or „Inspector Sahab‟ having thick
moustache,carrying a bat and always beating,torturing
suspecting villains. The schema or mental framework that
stick in my head was all Policemen were all the same.
As time passed by, as I grow older and wiser ,my schema has
changed.I have no more think all policemen as a fierce,mean
and brutal. I have met many that were very gentle and „normal‟
like any other individuals. A lesson that learn here, we cannot
stereotyping every individual the same.They have their own
personality and principle.

20. The Fierce look of Bollywood „policeman‟ .

21. References
 http://psychology.about.com/od/academicresou
rces/a/social-psychology-research-topics.htm
 http://what-when-how.com/social-
sciences/prototypes-social-science/
 http://www.simplypsychology.org/social-
psychology.html
 Michener, H. Andrew, John D. DeLamater, and
Daniel J. Myers. 2004. Social Psychology. 5th ed.
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thompson Learning.
 Cohen (1981), Kelley (1972), Weiner (1979, 1986),
Markus (1977)
 Wikipedia Encyclopedia

22. That’s all and
Thank you very
much