102 Midterm 2 Flashcards
Attributions
how people explain the causes of behavior
Dispositional
attributing behavior to internal characteristics such as ability, personality, mood, or effort
Situational
attributing behavior to external factors such as environment or other people
Consensus
Do other people do this?
Yes -> high consensus -> situational
No -> low consensus -> dispositional
Distinctiveness
Does the person usually behave similarly across different situations?
No -> high distinctiveness -> situational
Yes -> low distinctiveness -> dispositional
Consistency
Does the personal usually do this behavior in this situation?
No -> low consistency -> combination of situational and dispositional
Yes -> high consistency -> definitely situational or definitely dispositional
Castro Study
Participants read pro or anti Castro papers
- rated people who spoke freely in favor of Castro to have more positive views on him but also rated people to have positive attitudes towards Castro who were told to write in favor of Castro
Fundamental Attribution Error
tendency to overestimate dispositional factors and underestimate situational factors
Role of perceptual salience
people are often the focus, not the situation
Taylor & Fiske (1975)
2 students get acquainted in conversation, 6 observers
People facing person A believed he led the conversation
People facing person B thought he led the conversation
Meritocracy
chances are equal, winners deserve their winnings
Belief in a just world
believe that people get what they deserve in life
Actor-observer bias
tendency to see others’ behavior as a product of their internal states but our own behavior as affected by the situation
self-serving bias
exception to actor-observer bias; tendency to take credit for our successes but blame the situation on our failures
Cultural differences in attribution
East asians = more sensitive to context & background
outgroup homogeneity
the tendency to view members of outgroups as more similar to each other than we see members of ingroups
stereotype
beliefs that associate a group of people with certain traits
prejudice
negative attitude or feelings towards others because of their group membership
discrimination
negative behaviors towards others because of their group membership
Attachment Theory
humans have evolved a dependence on close social relationships; formed by experiences with caregivers
interdependence theory
relationships provide costs and benefit that depend on
- situation
-your behavior
-your partners behavior
Kalick & Hamilton 1986
- believed all people want attractive partners
- attractive people have the most freedom to choose
- less attractive people have to pick from what’s “left over”
social groups
set of individuals with a shared purpose who normally share a positive social identity
social facilitation
how the presence of others affect an individual’s performance
zajonc’s theory
the presence of others increases arousal, and arousal increases your dominant response
social loafing
tendency to exert less effort when working on a group task
deindividualization
psychological state that is experienced as the loss of individual self awareness and individual accountability produced by anonymity in groups
social identity theory
the part of an individuals self concept which derives from their knowledge of their membership in a social group
cognitive component of social identity theory
people have a natural tendency to categorize when they see contrast
motivational component
in group is seen as self and outgroup is seen as ‘other person’
in group favoritism
the tendency to respond more positively to people from our ingroups
outgroup animosity
perception of outgroup as inferior in competence and morality
minimal group experiment
options:
- max joint profit ($17 for ingroup, $25 for outgroup)
- max profit for ingroup ($19 ingroup, $21 outgroup)
- max difference ($7 ingroup, $1 outgroup)
Results; participants preferred…
max ingroup profit > max difference > max joint profit
illusion of invulnerability
because NASA had been successful before, they believed they would always be successful
Belief in inherent morality
thought their own actions were right
collective rationalization
explain results away
stereotypes of outgroups
thought they knew everything and disregarded MTI engineers
direct pressure on dissenters
top managers pressured MTI managers to change their recommendations
Mindguards
members of the group guarded against alternative ideas
self censorship
members of group don’t speak up to avoid being a deviant
illusion of unanimity
doubters don’t speak up, people assume there is more agreement than there is
conformity
tendency to change our perceptions, opinions, or behavior to align with group norms
norm
belief about where the group average is or ought to be
ideomotor action
the phenomenon whereby merely thinking about a behavior makes performing it likely
informational social influence
the influence of other people that result from taking their comments or actions as a source of information about what is correct
normative social influence
the influence of other people that comes from the desire to avoid disapproval
compliance
changes in behavior elicited by direct requests
obedience
behavior change produced by the commands of authority
