Chapter 12 Flashcards
What are humanist theories? What motives and terms do they consist of?
- not focused on biology or early development/ learning experiences
- believe free will and growth shape our personalities.
- Each of our goals/values differ
- self- actualizing motive
- self-congruity
What is the self- actualizing motive?
- part of humanistic theory
- people strive to fulfill their individual potential for personal growth through greater self-understanding
- Maslow’s pyramid tells our fundamental needs. Once we satisfy the base (physiological), we move onto the next one
- self-actualization is at the top of the pyramid and is a luxury
What is self-congruity?
- ideal self- what one hopes to be
- ought self-what one thinks they should be
- actual self- who one is right now
- person always trying to match their actual self into congruence with other 2
- incongruity between actual and ought leads to anxiety
- incongruity between actual and ideal leads to depression
According to humanist theories, how is personality shaped?
free will and growth
In self-congruity of humanist theories, what leads to depression?
incongruity between actual and ideal self
In self-congruity of humanist theories, what leads to anxiety?
Incongruity between actual and ought self
How does personality predict our behavior?
- people are inconsistent in behavior
- situationism
- interactionism
What is situationism?
- theory that situational norms determine behavior at any specific time point more than personality traits
- strong situation- most likely to determine behavior because the social norms of how to behave in that situation are strong. Personality differences have no effect on behavior. Ex- classroom
- Weak situations- less social norms, so people can behave naturally. Ex- dorm room
- personality predicts behavioral patterns across time, but not for a single instance of behavior
In Situationism, what is a strong situation?
- strong social norms of how to behave in a certain situation dictate/determine behavior
- here, personality differences have no relation to behavior
- ex- classroom. Everyone feels the need to take notes. Our personalities aren’t shown
In Situationism, what is a weak situation?
- less social norms of how to act in a certain situation, so you act more freely
- personality predicts behavior
- ex- hanging out in dorm room
What is interactionism?
- theory that behavior is jointly determined by underlying dispositions and situations. Need to know both to predict behavior
- B=f(P,E). Behavior is a function of a person and his/her environment
What can be said about personality and social psychology across time?
personality predicts behavioral patterns across time, but social psychology predicts single instances of behavior
What is social psychology?
The study of how our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real, implied or imagined presence of others
Explain the first social psychology study
- Triplett (1898) discovered social facilitation effect- the mere presence of others made you perform better and faster.
- cyclists and kids reeling in fishing lines faster in group
- Pessin discovered social inhibition- mere presence of others made you perform worse and slower
- writing essay in group made people slower and worse essays
What did Zajonc find?
- presence of other people increases physiological arousal (ex heart beats faster)
- arousal facilitates dominant response- results in:
- social facilitation- easy/well practiced tasks get easier/faster in group
- social inhibition- hard/new tasks get harder/slower in group
What were Zajonc’s studies (multiple) and findings?
College students
- put winter gear on by themselves and in group
- faster when in group
- social facilitation- easy task, got faster
- put winter gear on with one hand by themselves and in group
- slower when in group
- social inhibition- harder/newer task takes more time
Cockroaches
- showed that results weren’t solely because fear of evaluation
- bugs influenced
- cockroach stadium easy v hard, observed or not
- showed same results
How does the presence of others affect us?
- Ash’s line length study
- test of visual perception
- confederates gave wrong answer, and participant conformed most of the time and choice wrong answer
- example of normative influence
What is conformity?
yielding to real or imagined social pressure
What 5 things affect conformity?
- normative influence
- informational influence
- group cohesiveness
- group size
- support/ally
What is normative influence? What is informational influence?
- normative influence- we want to be liked and will do what it takes to get along
- informational influence- in ambiguous situations, we look to others
What is group cohesiveness? What is group size?
- group cohesiveness- if the participant likes the confederates in a group, increases conformity. Example of normative influence
- group size- increased group size increases conformity
Explain support as it relates to conformity.
- having even one ally reduces conformity
- Legally blind confederate ally
- If he says the same answer as you, less likely to conform and you’re not the only person who’s going to be disliked. Normative influence
- If he says wrong answer, you’re more likely to say your answer because you think he’s wrong because he’s blind.
What is an example of normative influence?
Asch’s line length study
What are some examples of informational influence?
- We don’t know what restaurant to choose, so pick a restaurant with lots of people as opposed to a silent one. Others help us decide
- War of the Worlds panic- radio show said aliens had arrived, people didn’t believe at first, but because it was an ambiguous situation, looked to others who panicked, then everyone panicked
Who is Stanley Miligram?
- tried to explain behavior of German society in WWII and see how people went against moral values
- Miligram focused on power of social situation
- others focused on German moral values
How was Milgram’s Yale “teacher/learner” study set up?
- recruited men from community
- made them believe assignment to teacher/learner was random
- confederate learner
- every wrong answer gets electric shock punishment- increases
- destructive obedience
Before the study, what did participants expect they were going to do? What actually happened? What do the results show?
- participants predicted 5% would go to end
- Clinical psychologists predicted 1-3%
- 65% of participants completed study
- show: Ethical controversy. Participants weren’t cruel or callous to causing paint, but continued because of social situation
What are other examples of destructive obedience?
- Hofling (1966)- unfamiliar doctors told nurses to administer non prescribed drug double maximum dosage to confederate patient. 21/22 did
- US soldiers followed orders to torture prisoners in Abu Ghraib 2003
- Wells Fargo employees followed orders to open bank accounts for people without consent
What didn’t stop destructive obedience in Milgram’s study? What did?
No effect
- confederate/particpant is woman
- sketchy location
Effect
- shock plate that you had to press against confederate’s arm. 1/3 obeyed
- Participant had an ally. Obedience dropped to less than 10%. Informational influence
In Miligram’s study, to stop destructive obedience what should I do?
- best- participant has ally. Obedience less than 10%
- second best- shock plate you had to press against confederate’s arm. 1/3 obeyed
What are attitudes?
- the study of likes and dislikes
- self esteem, prejudice, political identity, consumer behavior based on attitudes
What 3 things shape our attitudes of something?
- Affect- it makes me feel good
- Cognition- I have beliefs about its importance
- Behavior- I’ve suffered for it
What is social cognition?
how we think about the social world. Includes attitudes
What is Affect in ABCs of attitude?
- Affect- it makes me feel good
- positivity in advertising. Associating brand with something positive. Based in classical conditioning and associations. Not beliefs
What is Cognition in ABCs of attitude?
- I have beliefs about its importance, value
- I know the importance of 4 wheel drive and a Chevy commercial mentioned that so I know Chevy is good
What is Behavior in ABCs of attitude?
- I’ve suffered for it
- I spent 2 years on my IB diploma and I’ve suffered for it, so I value it more.
- cognitive dissonance. When you have conflicting ideas and you feel discomfort, you alter an idea.
What is Festinger’s Cognitive Dissonance theory?
- when our thoughts and actions are inconsistent, we feel uncomfortable/dissonance.
- We want to establish consistency, so it’s easier to change our thoughts than our past actions
- Ex- Say don’t have one night stands, but do it. Then change thoughts and say, is restricting myself from my sexual desires really good for me?
Explain Festinger’s Boring Task Study
- participants randomly assigned to be paid $1 or $20 to lie and tell participant study is fun
1. Dissonance: they lied to someone for an unjustifiably small amount of money.
2. Inconsistent with how they feel about themselves.
3. Felt uncomfortable and changed their attitudes to justify actions.
-$1 participant changed their attitudes and told participant they liked the task more than $20
In a holistic view of social psychology, what does every individual want? What type of influence does it lead to?
- to be liked, accepted valued- normative influence
- to have accurate views of the world- leads to informational influence because we trust others’ judgements. Allies help us resist social influence
- to be consistent- so we change our thoughts and behaviors to restore consistency
What is Aronson’s “harsh initiation” effect?
We value groups we need to work hard to belong to because of consistency/self-perception processes
- why hazing induces group loyalty
Explain Aronson’s “harsh initiation” effect study.
- the more embarrassing/ uncomfortable a group initiation, the more participants valued their membership
- said sex words v passages from porn novel
- listened to boring discussion
- harsh initiation wanted to come back
- easy didn’t want to come back
- pressure of normative influence(people want to be liked by senior group members) and informational influence (no one else is acting like it’s a big deal)
What is Bob Cialdini’s Study of interpersonal influence?
- taking advantage of our need to be consistent and be liked
- in day to day life
- Need for consistency: Foot in the door
- Need for Social Harmony/Likability: Door in the face
Explain Cialdini’s theory about Need for Consistency.
- Foot in the door- people more likely to grant large request if they’ve granted small request because we want to be consistent
- Ex- Canned goods study- small phone survey made it more likely for people to agree to a day-long inventory
Explain Cialdini’s theory about Need for Social Harmony/Likability.
- Door in the face- small requests granted more often if first get refusal for large request because we want to be liked and then “compromise”
- Ex- Approached and refused to work with delinquents for 6 months. More willing to take them to zoo.
- Ex- Free gift effect- after receive a gift, more likely to be consistent. Reciprocity norm, social harmony
What part of the brain is important for judging trustworthiness?
amygdala
What is nonverbial behavior/body language? How does it affect our judgments?
- facial expressions, gestures
- following observation, people can make accurate judgments, have impression formation, “thin slices of behavior”
What are attributions
explanations for why events/actions occur
can be stable (permanent) or unstable (temporary)
controlled or uncontrolled
What are personal attributions
explanations of behavior with reference to internal characteristics- their mood/abilities
What are situational attributions
explanations of behavior with reference to external events- weather, luck
What is correspondence bias
expectancy that people’s actions correspond to their beliefs and personalities
What is the fundamental attribution error
When explaining other people’s behavior, the tendency to overemphasize personality traits and underestimate situational factors
What is actor/observer discrepency
when interpreting own behavior, they focus on situations
when interpreting other people’s behavior, focus on dispositions (character)
ex lateness
Stereotypes
- neutral, positive or negative information
- can be inhibited by presenting people with positive examples of negatively stereotyped group
What are illusionary correlations
seeing relationships that don’t exist
Subtyping
When people encounter a person who doesn’t fit their stereotype, they put the person in a special category instead of altering the stereotype
What is the brain activity behind altering stereotypes
frontal lobes needs to override emotional responses associated with amygdala activity
Perspective taking
people contemplating psychological experiences of others
reduce racial bias
Perspective giving
people share their experience as targets of discrimination
How does proximity and familiarity influence attraction?
The more you’re exposed to something, the more you like it
How does being similar in character influence attraction
matching principle- couples are physically similar
the more similar you are, the more likely to be friends and couples
How do personal characteristics influence attraction
admirable characteristics and being physically attractive increase attraction
can’t be too perfect. There’s the pratfall effect to humanize you- spill coffee on yourself
How does physical attractiveness influence attraction
find symmetrical faces more attractive than asymmetrical ones
testosterone higher in men with higher width to height ratio
what is beautiful is good stereotype- belief that attractive people are superior
passionate love
state of intense longing and desire
early in relationships
evolves to companionate love
companionate love
strong commitment based on friendship, trust, respect, intimacy
Things that lead to separation
being overtly critical
no respect for partner
being defensive
mentally withdrawing
What is attribution style of couples
how one partner explains the other’s behavior
What is accommodation in happy couples
overlooking bad behavior or responding constructively
