In the abnormal psychology option, what is the difference between cognitive biases and clinical biases? Clinical biases are cognitive biases that take place when a psychiatrist or psychologist is trying to make a diagnosis and label the behaviour. They can arise from experience (‘these symptoms nearly always mean this mental health problem’) and result in a misdiagnosis when other explanations … Read More
Theories of stereotyping
According to Tajfel (1970) we are naturally inclined towards Social Categorisation and Social Comparison. This tendency to think about people in terms of the groups they belong to and to make comparisons between our group and others would support the development of stereotypes. This relates to the concept of ‘outgroup homogeneity’, researched by Qualtrone & Jones (1980). This theory proposes … Read More
Cognitive Biases
Cognitive biases – distortions of reality Cognitive biases arise from heuristics (shortcut thinking) and systematically distort the way we think and affect our decision-making. Three of the most common cognitive biases are confirmation bias, anchoring bias and cognitive dissonance. All three arise from our tendencies to focus on part of a story, especially the part that confirms our pre-existing beliefs, … Read More