Academic Review Social Flashcards
What are the conflicts in Lewin’s field theory?
Conflicts in Lewin’s Field Theory are approach approach, avoidance avoidance, and approach avoidance.
What is Field Theory?
What is field theory?
Based on the work of Kurt Lewin, assumes behavior is result of interaction between person and environment. Conflicts occur when forces directing individual towards and away from goal are approximately equal.
What is the Zeigarnick effect?
The Zeigernick effect is the tendency to remember uncompleted tasks better than completed ones. The discovery grew out of research based on field theory. It has been found to vary with the amount of ego involvement associated with the task
In Lewin’s field theory, what happens as a person with an approach approach conflict moves toward one of the goals?
When a person with an approach approach conflict moves toward one of the goals, it becomes more attractive and the other goal becomes less attractive
What happens in the avoidance avoidance conflict when the person is unable to leave the field (avoid making a choice)?
If the person is unable to leave the field, the person will vacillate between the goals and then achieve equilibrium, the place where the forces pushing person away from each goal are equal.
Neal Miller investigated Lewin’s approach avoidance conflict using rats. What did he find?
Miller trained the rats to run to the food box and then gave them an electric shock as they were eating. On the next trial they ran to the goal more slowly and stopped short of the goal. The point where the rats stopped was the point where they reached the equilibrium between approach and avoidance
What is the overjustification hypothesis?
The overjustification hypothesis is the theory that if you reward someone for an activity they enjoy, it can undermine their interest in it. Based on distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. When rewarded for behav previously intrinsically motivated, behav becomesoverjustified or over rewarded. Intrinsic motivation loses power. Is predicted by self perception hypothesis: see selves doing behavior to get reward, conclude reason for behav was reward
What is Bem’s self perception theory?
Bem’s self perception theory holds that when internal cues are weak or difficult to interpret, we infer our own thoughts and feelings by observing our behavior and the situation in which it takes place
Fundamental attribution error
Underestimate impact of situations, overestimate impact of personal factors
Actor-observer effect
When explaining own behavior, tendency to overestimate impact of environment instead of self
Self serving bias
Attribute our successes to personal factors, failures to environment
Weiner’s theory of attribution and emotion
Focuses on how different types of attributions (internal/external, stable/unstable, controllable/uncontrollable) affect feelings towards ourselves and others
Belief in a just world
Tendency to blame victims of misfortune-need to believe we get what we deserve and deserve what we get
False consensus bias
Overestimate degree to which others conform to us in terms of their opinions, attributes, behavior
Central traits
Existence of certain trait dimensions (warm/cold) that, in our minds, are assoc. with many other characteristics
Primacy effect
Place greater emphasis on first impressions than on info learned later
Trait negativity bias
Weigh negative info more heavily than positive info in evaluating others
Confirmation bias
Seek, interpret, create info that verifies our beliefs
Self fulfilling prophecy
Our expectations about another person affect that person’s behavior
Authoritarian personality
Belief that Individuals with a specific personality type are more likely to be prejudiced
Social identity theory
Views prejudice as means of maintaining our self esteem through favoritism of ingroup, derogation of outgroup
Sherif’s Robber cave study
Illustrated that creation of superordinate (jointly shared) goals is one way to reduce intergroup hostility
Contact hypothesis
Under certain conditions, interpersonal contact between group members will reduce intergroup hostility
Describe Schacter and Singer’s epinephrine study
Some got epinephrine (strong emotional arousal). One group was told about effects of epi, second was not, third got placebo. Subjects put in room with confederates who acted euphoric or angry. Subjects not told about effects of epi adopted affect of confed. Schacter saw this as support for his two factor theory of emotion (person must experience physiological arousal and then interpret that arousal)
Two factor theory of emotion
Schacter and Singer. People must first first experience phys arousal then interpret that arousal to experience emotion. Reactions of others help us make that interpretation.
Social comparison Theory
Festinger. Social comparison theory describes how the influence of other people affects our self-concept. When people are uncertain about their abilities or opinions as in when objective information is not available they evaluate themselves by comparing themselves to similar others.
According to Festinger’s social comparison theory, when are downward comparisons more likely?
Downward comparisons may be more likely when our self-esteem is at stake. They are especially likely when individuals feel threatened, and in people who have low self-esteem. Also when a negative characteristic is being evaluated
What is self verification theory?
Self verification theory proposes that people need and seek confirmation of their self-concept whether their self-concept is positive or negative. People prefer to be right rather than happy.
What strategies do people employ according to self verification theory?
According to self verification theory, individuals often employ strategies such as selective interaction or choosing to interact with those who confirm their self concepts and avoiding those who don’t
What are the implications for understanding depression with self verification theory?
One study found depressed people seek more negative feedback from others and or more rejected by others.
What is social role theory?
Social role theory proposes that men and women behave differently in social situations and act in accordance with social roles often along gender lines due to society’s expectations
What is attribution theory?
Attribution theory is an approach to understanding how people perceive and think about the causes of what happens to them and others.
What is the fundamental attribution error?
The fundamental attribution error is the tendency for people to infer more causation from the person than the environment or situation
What is the actor observer effect?
The actor observer effect is our tendency to overestimate the effect of environment and under estimate the effect of ourselves when explaining our behavior.
What is the exception to the actor observer effect?
The exception to the actor observer effect is with making attributions regarding the cause of our own successes. We explain successes with dispositional attributions and explain failures with situational factors
What is the self-serving bias?
The self-serving bias is the tendency to take credit for successes but blame situational factors for our failures. This may not apply to people who are depressed or have low self-esteem
What are the three factors in wieners attributional theory of motivation and emotion?
Wiener’s theory is about attributions for success and failure. The three factors are:
1-internal or external
2-stable or unstable
3-controllable or uncontrollable
What are the two dimensions Wiener later added to his theory of attribution?
Wiener later added two more dimensions to his attributional theory. These are: intent and global. Intent is intentional and unintentional, and global is global and specific. Accomplishments attributed to intentional and specific causes produce the greatest pride. Negative behaviors attributed to specific and intentional causes produce the greatest blame,shame and guilt.
What notion is behind our tendency to blame the victim?
Lerner’s notion of belief in a just world applies to individuals attributions for the misfortune of others. People need to believe that the world is just place so when bad things happen, we assume it is the person’s fault
What are the four possible worldviews according to Derald Sue?
For possible worldviews according to Derald Sue are:1 internal control plus internal responsibility (success or failure is due to one’s own efforts and abilities)
2 internal control plus External responsibility (we have abilities, but there are external factors such as discrimination which may affect our success)
3 external control plus internal responsibility (believed by marginalized individuals who feel they have little control over their fate but deny existence of racism and blame themselves)
4 external control plus external responsibility (feel they have little control over their lives and blame the system for it)
What is hostile attribution bias?
Hostile attribution bias is the tendency to believe that others are trying to cause harm even in neutral or unclear situations. Maybe due to deficits in social information processing
What is the false consensus bias?
The false consensus bias is the tendency to overestimate the degree to which others conform to us in terms of opinions, attributes and behavior.
What are central traits?
Asch theorized that certain characteristics imply more about a person than others. For example, warm/cold seems to be a central trait because we associate many other characteristics with these traits
What is the primacy effect?
When it comes to assessments, of ourselves or others, information presented early has more impact. This may persist even when opposing information is presented later. This does not occur in all cases. If the subject is warned not to jump to a conclusion or if an irrelevant activity intervenes between presentation of two conflicting descriptions, the more recent information is likely to have a greater impact.
What is trait negativity bias?
In evaluating others, we tend to weigh negative information more than positive information. This is called trait negativity bias
What is confirmation bias?
Confirmation bias is the tendency to seek, interpret and create information that verifies our existing beliefs.
What is Rosenhan’s famous pseudo-patient study?
Roseland had confederates admit themselves to mental hospitals with the complaint that they were hearing voices. When they began to act normally, other patients recognized that they were not mentally ill but staff did not. This illustrates that we tend to view reality in terms of our beliefs and impressions about it
What is the self-fulfilling prophecy?
A person’s expectations about the behavior of others and lead to fulfillment of those expectations.
What is Rosenthal and Jacobson’s Pygmalion in the classroom study?
Rosenthal and Jacobson told teachers at an elementary school that certain pupils who were chosen at random were on the verge of an intellectual growth spurt. Eight months later, the researchers found that these children showed IQ improvement up to 30 points
What is the MUM effect?
The MUM effect refers to the tendency to keep MUM about undesirable messages and the best explanation for group members reluctance to provide negative feedback to one another
What is Rosen and Tesser’s research on message transmission?
Message transmission was observed in different groups of people to determine how individuals respond to relaying a message that may be displeasing. Results showed emotional stress on the messenger-fear of being infected with the emotional distress of the recipient or having to assume an emotional state congruent with the bad news. Therefore there may be a decrease in transmission of bad news
What are stereotypes?
Stereotype is the cognitive belief that associates groups of people with certain traits
What is prejudice?
Prejudice refers to negative feelings about persons based solely on their group membership
What is discrimination?
Discrimination refers to behavior directed against persons due to their identification with a certain group
True or false: both males and females are likely to devalue the performance of unfamiliar but competent women who engage in tasks usually reserved for men.
True
What is the authoritarian personality based on work done by Adorno and his colleagues?
In studying individuals who were anti-Semitic, and racist , Adorno and his colleagues identified what they call the authoritarian personality also called prejudiced personality. They are conventional, rigid in their thinking, sexually inhibited, submissive to authority and intolerant of others who were different. Adorno developed the F scale (Fascism) to measure authoritarian personality traits
What is social identity theory?
According to social identity theory, each of us strives to maintain and enhance our self-esteem which has two components: a personal identity and a social identity. The latter is based on the groups we belong to. Social identity is enhanced both by believing our own group (the ingroup) is attractive and belittling members of the other groups (the outgroup). So prejudice and discrimination are an outgrowth of the drive to enhance her own self-esteem
True or false: perception alone of another group can produce discrimination. People must be categorized as members of an in group or outgroup before discrimination can occur
True
What is the Robbers Cave study?
Robbers Cave study dealt with the development and mitigation of group hostility through competition and cooperation. Boys at a summer camp were divided into two groups and manipulations were introduced to encourage competition between the groups. This led to intergroup hostility and ingroup coherence
In the Robbers Cave study, what had some effectiveness in reducing intergroup hostility?
The introduction of superordinate goals or shared goals that required cooperation between the two groups, was effective
How does Sherif, who did the Robbers Cave study, explain prejudice?
Sherif said the prejudice arises out of conflict between two groups. For example, hostility is produced between two groups when they want to achieve the same goal but cannot both have it
What is the jigsaw classroom as it relates to intergroup hostility?
Jigsaw classrooms are racially mixed classrooms where material is divided into subtopics and each student is responsible for learning one subtopic and teaching it to other students. Children in jigsaw classrooms were less prejudiced, like school more and have higher self-esteem.
What is the doll study as it relates to prejudice?
Kenneth Clark studied racial awareness and preference among African-American and white children in 1947. 2/3 prefer to play with a white doll more than an identical one that was painted brown. African-American children felt the brown dolls looked bad while white dolls were perceived as nice. 1/3 of African-American children picked the white doll when asked to pick one that looked like them. Clark’s findings played an important role in the eventual desegregation of public schools
What is the contact hypothesis as it relates to stereotyping and prejudice?
The contact hypothesis holds that under certain conditions direct contact between members of hostile groups will reduce stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. Research supports this but says certain conditions must be met.
1-contact must be between two equal status groups
2-contact involves personal contact between two groups
3-contact situation provides opportunities for mutual cooperative activity to achieve a joint goal
4-the social norms in the contact situation must favor and encourage cooperation, group equality and intergroup contact
What is the stereotype content model as it applies to prejudice?
The stereotype content model says the definition of prejudice as hate is too simple. It suggested prejudice directed at social groups is subject to the same structural factors that affect female male relations: relative status of groups and the nature of their interdependence (competitive or cooperative). These two factors would determine the content of stereotypic beliefs, the quality of emotions, and the kind of behaviors in response to out groups
Explain Glick and Fiske’s ambivalent sexism theory
Ambivalent sexism theory describes two complementary cross culturally prevalent ideologies called hostile and benevolent sexism, both of which predict gender inequality.
What is hostile sexism as a part of ambivalent sexism theory?
Hostile sexism is an adversarial view of gender relations in which women are viewed negatively as being competitive and seeking to control men.
