Ch 10 - Social Thinking

Question 1

interpersonal attraction

Answer 1

• individuals liking each other
  
  • similatorit, self disclosure, reciprocity, proximity
• golden ration - body proportions that are 1.618 : 1 are the most attractive
• similar attitudes, intelligence, education, height, age, religion, appearance, SES

Question 2

self disclosure

Answer 2

• sharing fears, thoughts, goals without the other person having judgmental empathy

Question 3

reciprocal liking

Answer 3

• people like others better when they believe the other person likes them

Question 4

Proximity

Answer 4

• physically close to someone
  
  • share a dorm, sit close to
  • convenience
• mere exposure effect (familiarity effect) - people prefer stimulu that they have been exposed to more frequently

Question 5

aggression

Answer 5

• behavior that causes harm or increases social dominance
• threat displays
• offers protection against perceived and real threats
  
  • evolutionarily can help survival or obtain food
• amygdala actvivation increases aggression
• testosterone increases aggression
• cognitive neoassociaton model - aggression more likely when feeling negative emotions (tired, hungry, pain, frustrated)
• increased with exposure to violent behavior

Question 6

attachment

Answer 6

• emotional bond between caregiver and child
• secure - healthiest situation, consistant caregiver that is a stable base
  
  • child upset when they leave and heppy when they return
• avoidant - caregiver has littler to no response to distressed child
  
  • no preference between caregiver and stranger
• ambivalent - caregiver has inconsistent response to distress
  
  • unable to form strong base
  • distressed when caregiver leaves, but ambivalent when they return
  • aka anxious ambivalent (anxious about reliability)
• disorganized - no pattern of behavior
  
  • erratic behavior and social withdrawal
  • sign of abuse

Question 7

social support

Answer 7

• perception or reality that one is cared for by a social network
• emotional - listening, affirming, empathizing
• esteem - affirm skills or qualities in person
• material - (tangible support) financial or material contribution
• informational support
• network support - sense of belonging

Question 8

foraging

Answer 8

• seek out food and eat
• bio - hunger controlled by hypothalamus (lateral promotes) (ventromedial supresses)
  
  • genetics
• learned behavior for many species (observational)

Question 9

mating system

Answer 9

• organization of group’s sexual behavior
• monogamy
• polygamy
  
  • polygyny - male with several females
  • polyandry - female with several males
• promiscuity - one sex mating with any member of the other sex

Question 10

mate choice

Answer 10

• aka intersexual selection
• selection of mate based on attraction
• mate bias - how choosy members of the species are while choosing a mate
• direct benefits - material advantage, protection, emotional support
• indirect benefits - promote better survival in offspring

Question 11

Mechanism of mate choice

Answer 11

• phenotypic benefits
• sensory bias - develop trait to match preexisting preference
• Fisherian or runaway selection - positive feedback mechanism
  
  • trait that is neutral or negative towards survival is deemed sexually desireable
    
    • ex. peacock feathers
• indicator traits - signify overall good health and well being
• genetic compatibility - complementary genetics
  
  • reduce recessive disorders
  • reduce homozygous for disease carrying allele

Question 12

Altruism

Answer 12

• helping behavior where benefit someone else while costing themselves
  
  • motivated by selflessness or egoism anf ulterior motives such as public recognition
• empathy (ability to feel emotions of someone else) influences this behavior
• empathy-altruism hypothesis - theory to explain why someone helps someone else even though it will cost them

Question 13

Game Theory

Answer 13

• attempts to explain decision-making behavior
• dependent on players, information and possible actions, reward/punishment
• evolutionary stable strategy - biology, study sex ratio, goal is to improve fitness
  
  • natural selection prevents alternative strategies
• 4 outcomes:
  
  • altruism -/+
  • spite -/-
  • cooperation +/+
  • selfishness +/-

Question 14

inclusive fitness

Answer 14

• measure of an organism’s success in population
  
  • number of offspring
  • supporting offspring
  • offspring support each other

Question 15

Social perception

Answer 15

• aka social cognition
• judgements and impressions regarding other people
• perceiver - influenced by experience, motives, emotional state
  
  • emotion and previous experiences also effect
• target - person about which the perception is made
  
  • prior knowledge of target effects perception
• situation - may determine what info is available to the perceiver

Question 16

Impression bias

Answer 16

• primacy effect - first impressions are more important then later impressions
• recency effect - most recent info about a person is most important to form an impression

Question 17

reliance on central traits

Answer 17

• organize perception of others based on traits that are most relevant to perceiver

Question 18

implicit personality theory

Answer 18

categories we place others in during impression formation

sets of assumptions people make about how different types of people, their traits, and behavior are related

• stereotyping

Question 19

Halo effect

Answer 19

• cognitive bias
• one aspect of a person influences their whole impression
• attractiveness can lead to person viewed as “good, trustworthy”

Question 20

Just-world hypothesis

Answer 20

• good things happen to good people

Question 21

self serving bias

Answer 21

• self serving attributional bias
• success due to internal factors and failures due to external factors
• locus of control
• self-enhancement achieved via self serving bias

Question 22

attribution theory

Answer 22

• people infer causes of other peoples behavior
• dispositional (internal) - characteristics of individual
• situational (external) - social context, environment

Question 23

cues

Answer 23

• consistency cues - consistent behavior over time
• consensus cue - how behavior differs from others
• distinctiveness - how behavior varies across scenarios
  
  • different behaviors lead to situational attribution

Question 24

correspondent inference theory

Answer 24

• intentionality of others behavior
• unexpected helpful or hurtful behavior tends to be explained by dispositional attribution

Question 25

fundamental attribution error

Answer 25

* biased to make dispositional versus situational attributions * actor-observer asymmetry - likely to make situational attributions about ourselves and dispositional about others

Question 26

attribute substitution

Answer 26

* complex judgements are made using a simpler solution * ex. resolve sphere in a cube to a circle in a square * used to create optical illusions via color and size

Question 27

cultural attribution

Answer 27

* indiviualists - more fundamental attribution errors and attribute dispositional factors * collectivists - more attribute to situational factors

Question 28

Stereotypes, prejudice, discrimination

Answer 28

* stereotypes - cognitive; expectations, impressions, opinions * prejudice - affective; attitude, emotional response * discrimination - behavior; difference in actions

Question 29

stereotypes

Answer 29

* stereotypes - attitudes and impressions based on limited and superficial info

Question 30

stereotyoe content model

Answer 30

* classify stereotypes using "warmth" and "competence * warm - not in direct competition with in-group * competence - high social status * paternalistic - group is inferior; high warmth and low competence * contemptuous - annoyance, anger; low warmth and low competence * envious - jealousy; low warmth and high competence * admiration - pride and positive; high warmth and competence

Question 31

self fulfilling prophecy

Answer 31

* validates a stereotype * potentially caused by expectations to fulfill stereotype * ex: intern bad at sutures

Question 32

Stereotype threat

Answer 32

* anxious about conforming to stereotype * cause reduced performance * stereotype threat may cause self-fulfilling prophecy

Question 33

Prejudice

Answer 33

* irrational positive or negatice attitude toward something or someone without an interaction * formation of attitude prior to encounter * can be towards place or thing not just person or group * propaganda - large organizations create prejudices * often exaggerarted

Question 34

Influences on predjudice

Answer 34

* power - abililty to control resources despite obstacles * prestige - level of respect shown to a person by others * Class - SES Imbalances cause "haves" and "have-nots"

Question 35

Ethnocentrism

Answer 35

* make judgements about other cultures based on ones own culture * language, customs, religion * in groups and out groups * dislike of outgroup due to lack of favoritism of ingroup and lack of favoritism for out group * cultural relativism - perception of another culture as different from one's own, but recognize value of differences

Question 37

discrimination

Answer 37

* prejudicial attitudes cause individuals to be treated differently from others * unequal power, prestige, and class influence discrimination * individual vs institutional * institutional is harder to resolve * institutional - built into structure of society

Question 38

Actor-observer asymmetry (bias)

Answer 38

* self serving bias (by actor) * blame situational for negative * fundamental attribution theory (observer) * blame dispositional and ignore situational factors * more prevalent in negative situation