Ch 13, Social Psychology Flashcards
What do social psychologists study?
How do we tend to explain others’ behavior and our own?
Social psychologists use scientific methods to study how people think about, influence, and relate to one another. They study the social influences that explain why the same person will act differently in different situations. When explaining others’ behavior, we may—especially if we come from an individualist Western culture—commit the fundamental attribution error, by underestimating the influence of the situation and overestimating the effects of stable, enduring traits. When explaining our own
behavior, we more readily attribute it to the influence of the situation.
How do attitudes and actions interact?
Our attitudes and our actions influence one another. When other influences are minimal, attitudes that are stable, specific, and easily recalled can affect our actions.
Actions can modify attitudes, as in the foot-in-the-door phenomenon and role playing.
When our attitudes don’t fit with our actions, cognitive dissonance theory suggests that we will reduce tension by changing our attitudes to match our actions.
How do peripheral route persuasion and central route persuasion differ?
Peripheral route persuasion uses attention-getting cues (such as celebrity endorsement) to trigger fast but relatively thoughtless judgments. Central route persuasion offers evidence and arguments to trigger thoughtful responses.
How can we share our views more effectively?
To persuade people with views that differ from your own, avoid yelling at, humiliating, or boring them with complicated or forgettable information. Instead, identify shared
goals and relate your aim to their motives. It also helps to make your message vivid, to repeat it, and to engage others in restating it.
How is social contagion a form of conformity, and how do conformity experiments reveal the power of social influence?
Social contagion (the chameleon effect)—our tendency to unconsciously imitate others’ behavior, expressions, postures, voice tones, and moods—is a form of conformity.
Social networks serve as contagious pathways for moods, both good and bad.
Solomon Asch and others found that we are most likely to adjust our behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard when we feel incompetent or insecure, our group has at least three people, everyone else agrees, we admire the group’s status and attractiveness, we have not already committed to another response, we know we are being observed, and our culture encourages respect for social standards.
We may conform to gain approval (normative social influence) or because we are willing to accept others’ opinions as new information (informational social influence).
What did Milgram’s obedience experiments teach us about the power of social influence?
Stanley Milgram’s experiments—in which people obeyed orders even when they thought they were harming another person—demonstrated that strong social influences can make ordinary people conform to falsehoods or capitulate to cruelty.
Obedience was highest when the person giving orders was nearby and was perceived as a legitimate authority figure, the research was supported by a prestigious institution,
the victim was depersonalized or at a distance, and there were no role models for defiance.
What do the social influence studies teach us about ourselves? How much power do we have as individuals
These experiments have demonstrated that strong social influences can influence behavior. The power of the individual (personal control) and the power of the situation
(social control) interact. A small minority that consistently expresses its views may sway the majority, as may even a single committed individual.
How does the presence of others influence our actions, via social facilitation, social loafing, and deindividuation?
In social facilitation, the mere presence of others arouses us, improving our performance on easy or well-learned tasks but decreasing it on difficult ones. In social loafing, group work makes us feel less responsible, and we may free ride on others’
efforts. When the presence of others both arouses us and makes us feel anonymous, we may experience deindividuation—loss of self-awareness and self-restraint.
How can group interaction enable group polarization?
In group polarization, group discussions with like-minded others strengthen members’ prevailing beliefs and attitudes.
What role does the internet play in group polarization?
Internet communication magnifies the effect of connecting like-minded people, for better and for worse. People find support, which strengthens their ideas, but also often isolation from those with different opinions. Separation plus conversation may thus
lead to group polarization
How can group interaction enable groupthink?
Groupthink is driven by a desire for harmony within a decision-making group, overriding realistic appraisal of alternatives. Group leaders can harness the benefits of group interaction by assigning people to identify possible problems, and by welcoming various opinions and expert critique
What is prejudice? How do explicit and implicit prejudice differ?
Prejudice is an unjustifiable, usually negative attitude toward a group and its members. Prejudice’s three components are beliefs (often stereotypes), emotions, and predispositions to action (discrimination). Prejudice may be explicit (overt), or it may be
implicit—an unthinking knee-jerk response operating below conscious awareness. Implicit prejudice can cause discrimination even when people do not consciously intend to discriminate.
What groups are frequent targets of prejudice?
Prejudice involves explicit and implicit negative attitudes toward people of a particular racial or ethnic group, gender, or sexual orientation. In the United States, frequently targeted groups include Black Americans, women, and LGBTQ people.
What are some social, emotional, and cognitive roots of prejudice, and what are some ways to reduce prejudice?
The social roots of prejudice include social inequalities and divisions. Higher-status groups often justify their privileged position with the just-world phenomenon. We tend to
favor our own group (ingroup bias) as we divide ourselves into “us” (the ingroup) and “them” (the outgroup). Prejudice can also be a tool for protecting our emotional well-being, as when we focus our anger by blaming events on a scapegoat. The cognitive
roots of prejudice grow from our natural ways of processing information: forming categories, remembering vivid cases, and believing that the world is just (and that our own and our group’s ways of doing things are the right ways). Monitoring our feelings
and actions, as well as developing new friendships, can help us free ourselves from prejudice.
How does psychology’s definition of aggression differ from everyday usage? What biological factors make us more prone to hurt one another?
In psychology’s more specific meaning, aggression is any physical or verbal behavior intended to harm someone physically or emotionally. Biology influences our threshold for aggressive behaviors at three levels: genetic (inherited traits), neural (activity in key brain areas), and biochemical (such as alcohol or excess testosterone in the bloodstream). Aggression is a complex behavior resulting from the interaction of biology and experience.
What psychological and social-cultural factors may trigger aggressive behavior?
Frustration (the frustration-aggression principle), previous reinforcement for aggressive behavior, and observing aggressive role models all contribute to aggression. Media violence provides social scripts that children learn to follow. Viewing sexual violence
contributes to greater aggression toward women. Playing violent video games can increase aggressive thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.
Why do we befriend or fall in love with some people but not others?
Proximity (geographical nearness) increases liking, in part because of the mere exposure ef ect—exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of those stimuli. Physical attractiveness increases social opportunities and improves the way we are perceived.
Similarity of attitudes and interests greatly increases liking, especially as relationships develop. We also like those who like us.
How does romantic love typically change as time passes?
Intimate love relationships start with passionate love—an intensely aroused state. Over time, the strong affection of companionate love may develop, especially if enhanced by
an equitable relationship, intimate self-disclosure, and positive support.
What is altruism? When are people most—and least—likely to help?
Altruism is unselfish regard for the well-being of others. We are most likely to help when we notice an incident, interpret it as an emergency, and assume responsibility for helping. Other factors, including our mood and our similarity to the victim, also affect our willingness to help. We are least likely to help if other bystanders are present (the bystander effect).
How do social exchange theory and social norms explain helping behavior?
Social exchange theory is the view that we help others because it is in our own self-interest; in this view, the goal of social behavior is maximizing personal benefits and minimizing costs. Others believe that helping results from socialization, in which we
are taught guidelines for expected behaviors in social situations, such as the reciprocity norm and the social-responsibility norm.
How do social traps and mirror-image perceptions fuel social conflict?
Social traps are situations in which people in conflict pursue their own individual self-interest, harming the collective well-being. Individuals and cultures in conflict also tend to form mirror-image perceptions Each party views the opponent as untrustworthy
and evil-intentioned, and itself as an ethical, peaceful victim. Perceptions can become self-fulfilling prophecies.
What can we do to promote peace?
Peace can result when individuals or groups work together to achieve superordinate (shared) goals. Research indicates that contact, cooperation, communication, and conciliation—such as the Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension-Reduction
(GRIT) strategy—help promote peace.
Social Psychology
the scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another.
Attribution Theory
the theory that we explain someone’s behavior by crediting either the situation or the person’s disposition.
Fundamental Attribution Error
the tendency, when analyzing others’ behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact
of personal disposition
Attitude
feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events.
Foot-in-the-door phenomenon
the tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request.
