Chapter 1 Flashcards
An Invitation to Social Psychology
define social psychology
the scientific study of feelings, thoughts, and behaviours of individuals in social situations
What does Philip Zimbardo believe about the balance of power in prisons
the balance of power in prisons is so unequal that they tend to be brutal places, unless the guards observe strict regulations, to curb their worst impulses. Thus, at both Abu Ghraib and Stanford, “It’s not that we put bad apples in a good barrel. We put good apples in a bad barrel. The barrel corrupts anything that it touches.”
How do social psychologists apply their knowledge in the real world
they apply their knowledge to important questions concerning individuals and society at large; studying how to reduce stereotyping and prejudice in the classroom and workplace; how to make eyewitness testimony more reliable; how physicians can best use diverse sources of information to make a correct diagnosis; what goes wrong in airplane cockpits when there is an accident or near accident; and how business, government and individuals can make better decisions
research by social psychologists regularly influence what large group
government and government policy (e.g. the law that struck down the segregation in schooling had the US draw heavily on social psychologist research which found that the segregated schools were inherently unequal in their effects (and thus unconstitutional)
What is the difference between SP and personality psychology
Personality psychology is a close cousin of social psychology, emphasizes individual differences and behavior rather than the social situation. Personality psychologists try to find a consistent pattern in the way person behaves cost situations, individuals position on a trait dimension
What is the difference between SP and cognitive psychology
They have very related this is the study of how people perceive, think about and remember the world. They really only differ on topics; cognitive psychologists would like just study memory processes or categorization processes
what is sociology
Study of behavior of people in the aggregate. Sociologists study institutions, subgroups, bureaucracies, mass movements and more groups…. SP do more individualized things
What did Kurt Lewin believe about the power of situation
He believes the behavior of people, like the behaviour objects, is always a function of the field of forces in which they find themselves
explain Kurt Lewin and his belief that the behavior of people, like the behaviour objects, is always a function of the field of forces in which they find themselves
The field of forces in the case of human behavior role of situation, especially the social situation, and guiding behavior. Essentially, we rely on other people’s clues about what emotions to feel in various situations even define who we are as individuals
what was the milligram experiment and what did it reveal
this experiment was where participants are told to shock an individual if they answered wrong, unceasing the voltage each time. This was to show if ordinary people were capable of doing awful things just because they were told to; and this proved to be true. The experimenter took responsibility for what was happening to the ‘victim’ so the participants kept going as the blame was then off of them
People are governed by what
Situational factors
What are situational factors
Whether people are pressured by someone etc. etc
What are internal factors
Kind of person someone is
do internal factors influence people or external factors
more external
Defined dispositions
Factors, such as beliefs and values personality traits and abilities that guide a persons behavior
Define the fundamental attribution error
Failure to recognize The importance of situational influences on behaviours, and the corresponding tendency to overemphasize the importance of dispositions on behaviour
Social psychology encourages us to look another’ssituation why
To try to understand complex field forces acting on the individual– in order to fully understand their behaviour
define channel factors
Situational circumstances that appear unimportant on the surface but can have great consequences for behavior– facilitating it, blocking it, or guiding it in a particular direction
what is the gestalt principles and perceptions
when the brain fills in missing gaps and we think we seen image in the blanks but we dont
Define gestalt psychology
based on the german word gestalts, Meaning form or figure, this approach stresses the fact that people perceive objects not by mean of some automatic registering device but by an active, usually nononcious interpretation of what the object represents as a whole
What is naïve realism
The belief that we see the world directly and without a complicated perceptual or cognitive machinery
Define construal
interpretations of our inferences about the stimuli or situations people confront
weather we see people as freedom fighters or terrorists, etc
What is the definition of schema
A knowledge structure consisting organize body of stored information
aka generalized knowledge about the physical world and social situations, how to act anthem and what to expect
What is the definition of stereotype
a belief that certain attributes are characteristic of members of a particular group
