3A Social Psych Theories

Question 1

Floyd Allport Findings; social psych

Answer 1

• Social norms: rules to describe how ppl behave, think they ought to behave.
• Conformity: Pressure to be alike
• Attribution theory: How ppl infer the causes behind the behaviour of others.
• Cognitive dissonance: How ppl dislike inconsistency so they reduce it, find evidence to support their views.

Question 2

Attribution theory

Answer 2

• Concerned with how and why ordinary people explain events as they do
• Deals with how the social perceiver uses info to arrive at casual explanations for events. It examines what info is gathered, how it’s combined to form a casual judgement.
• How do we attach meaning to others behaviour or our own.
• Ex: Anger; because they’re bad tempered or something bad happened?

Question 3

Cognitive dissonace

Answer 3

• Uncomfortable feeling, holding conflicting Ideas simultaneously -> attributes inconsistence with the behaviour.
• Theory of cognitive dissonance; ppl have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance, inconsistency. Do this by changing attitudes, beliefs, actions.
• We also tend to reject new info that contradicts/ goes against Ideas we already have. ‘Mismatch’ between behaviour and thoughts.

Question 4

Social psych definition

Answer 4

The scientific study of the nature and causes of Individual behaviour in social situations.

Question 5

5 main categories of social psych

Answer 5

Behaviour of others
•	Cognitive processes
•	Ecological variables
•	Cultural and biological processes
•	Personality

Question 6

Floyd Allport Contributions

Answer 6

• Argued social psych to be concerned wit the scientific study of human Individual. Behaviour.
• Behaviourist approach; everything organisms do (think, act, feel), regarded as behaviours.
• Social behaviour; derived from action, behaviour of others.

Question 7

Floyd Allport Ideas

Answer 7

• Social conformity: Changing behaviours, attitude in response to group pressure.
• Facial expressions and emotion
• Influence of an audience on Indiv. Behaviour.

Question 8

factors to create an atribution

Answer 8

• Consistency: is the baby always smiling?
• Distinctiveness: Are these occasions on which the baby doesn’t smile?
• Consensus: Do all the babies smile?
-Consistency,Distinctiveness, Concensus

Question 9

Attribution styles

Answer 9

1. Personal attributes= attributions of the actual person.

2. Situational attributes= the situation

Question 10

Fundamental attribution error

Answer 10

• We overestimate the power of the person and underestimate the power of the situation.
• Only noticeable when making attributions for your own behaviour.
• Tend to attribute success to disposistional factors, failures for situational factors.
• Ex: :Did well on the test because I’m smart vs. I did poorly because the teacher hates me.

Question 11

Self-serving bias

Answer 11

The self-serving bias is people’s tendency to attribute positive events to their personal attributes, but attribute negative events to situational factors.

Question 12

Creating an attribution, 3 areas and amount ==

Answer 12

-Pt: If +++ consistency, distinctiveness/consensus low, personal attribution more likely.
Pt: If +++ consistency, distinctiveness and consensus all high, Situational attribution more likely.