Chapter 12 Flashcards
social psychology
study of causes and consequences of sociality
attempts to understand the social dynamics of everyday life
intra vs interpersonal concepts
intra: emotions, attitudes, internal-facing dynamics
Inter: how you act with something/someone outside of you, external facing dynamics
social influence
ability to change or direct another person’s behavior
3 motives for social influence: hedonie, approval, and accuracy
types of motives
approval motive
motivated to be accepted and to avoid being rejected
desire for belonging in social contexts is an evolutionary driver of our percpetion and behavior
types of motives
accuracy motive
we want to be correct, beleive what is true, as often as possible
we want to avoid “wrong” actions
We will follow people who are “right” and shun those who are wrong
norms
customary standards for behavior that are widely shared by members of a culture
some norms are shared by the whole world, in some cultures, and maybe just in families
norm of reciprocity
unwritten rule
**people should benefit those who have benefited them **
conformity
tendency to do what others do
results in a behavior change to “go along” with the group
in the military, there is a high desire for conformity
Solomon Asche Study of Conformity
displayed the influence of group consensus of conformity
A group of confederates falsely identified the length of a line, which caused a study participant to also willingly identify the wrong line length
demonstrates the impact of social pressure
groupthink
group decision-making style characterized by an excessive tendency among group members *to reach the same consensus *
NASA Challenger Disaster is an example
high conformity is valued so much so that any opposing information is rejected
obedience
the tendency to do what authorities tell us to do
Milgram Experiment and Stanford prison experiment
confederates
fake test subject/study participants
type of accuracy motive
informational influence
anothe person’s behavior provides information about what is good or true
persuasion
a person’s attitudes or beleifs are influenced by communication from another person
central route vs peripheral route persuasion
consistency
agreement, harmony or compatibility
especially correspondence or uniformity among the parts of a complex thing
we want to act in line with what they say
cognitive dissonance
an inconsistency between what we
* feel
* do
* act
the state of tension that results is called cognitive dissonance
strive for consistency
people tend to alter their attitudes/beliefs to match their behavior
social cognition
the process by which people think about and understand ourselves and others
stereotype
the process of drawing inferences about individuals based on their **category membership **
can lead to prejudice andiscrimination
heuristic thinking
mental shortcuts that allow people to solve problems and make judgements quickly and efficiently
self-fulfilling prophecy
an expectation held by a person that alters their behavior in a way that *tends to make it true *
attribution
an inference about the cause of a person’s behavior
there are internal and external/situational attributions
fundamental attribution error
the tendency for observers to attribute other people’s behavior to dispositional causes and to downplay situational causes
Because someone is driving poorly, we assume it’s because they are a bad person (dispositional)
actor-observer effect
the tendency to make situational attributions for our own behaviors while making dispositional attributions for the identical behavior of others
impression formation
process during which individuals from either a psoitive or negative perception about people or groups
the primacy effect
the tendency of information learned first is to be weighted more heavily than information learned later
negative information is especially influential
confirmation bias
tendency to search for and favor information that supports our preexisting beliefs
decreased attention to information that is inconsistent with current beliefs
attraction
complex interplay of attitudes, behaviors, and cognitions that draws individuals together
mere exposure effect
the tendency for liking of a stimulus to increase with the frequency of exposure to that stimulus
proximity
the more regularly you are exposed to someone or something, the more favorably you view them
physical appearance
symmetry, body shape, and age (signals of fertility)
psychological factors
similarity (leads to agreement, validations, and liking)
research shows that psychological similarity is attractive
love
complex emotion involving strong feelings of affection and tenderness for the love object, pleasurable sensations in their presence, devotion to their well-being and sensitivity to their reactions to oneself
sternberg’s triangular theory of love
different components of love lead to different types of love
- intimacy - emotional sharing
- passion - lust, physical attraction
- commitment - decision to maintain the relationship
aggression
purposeful behavior intended to harm another
affected by both nature and nurture
proactive aggression
aggression that is planned and purposeful
reactive aggression
aggression that occurs sponstaneously* in response to* a negative affective state
cooperation
behavior by two or more individuals that leads to mutual benefit
prisoner’s dilemma
captures the tension between doing what is good for the individual versus what is good for everyone
altruism
intentional behavior that benefits another at a potential cost to oneself
more likely to act altruistically towards your relatives than any others
group
a collection of people who have something in common that distringuishes them from others
diffusion of responsibility
the tendency to feel diminished responsibility for one’s actions when surrounded by others who are acting the same way
bystander effect
the tendency for people to be less likely to help a stranger in an emergency situation when other bystanders are present
“someone else will do something, so I don’t have to”
