CHAPTER 13 Flashcards
define social psychology
the scientific study of how we think about, influence and relate to one another
what do sociologists study?
they study groups like social class, social structure and social institutions
what do social psychology study?
they study the individual within the group
how do social psychologists test their behaviours?
by conducting experiments
what is the goal of social psychology?
to identify universal properties of human nature that make everyone susceptible to social influence regardless of social class or culture
define personality psychology
focus on individual differences. One’s personaloty makes them different from one another
define the fundamental attribution error
give an example
ignoring situational factors when explaining another’s behaviour
we assume others are the way they act
Ex: when people read a debate speech for or against fidel Castro, they attributed expressed attitudes to the speech writer even when the debate coach assigned the writer’s position
define personal and situation disposition in terms of implications
personal: attribute poverty to personal dispositions such as “they’re lazy” tend to lack sympathy towards such people.
situational: they view poverty as it as well if i were to live with the same overcrwoing, poor education and discrimination would i be better off?
are we aware of situational factors?
we are rarely aware. All wee see is them acting in front of us and we label their act with their personality.
what do we use to justify our behaviour?
1) self serving bias as in we take credit for success. this is an example of dispositional attribution
2) when we fail, we blame others or the situation for the failure. this is known as situational attribution
define the actor/observer effect
when we act, we are aware of situational influence on us.
when we see other people act, we are less aware of situation influences affecting them.
what scenario are we less likely to commit to the fundamental attribution error?
when we ourselves have been in that situation the other person is going through
which groups commit this error less?
japanese and chinese people because unlike western society, they view behaviours within a context and see things mixed with dispotional and situational
what is social comparison?
we compare ourselves to others
example: first and fourth year accouting studnes were shwon an article about a star accounting student who won multiple awards. how did the first and fourth year students feel?
first year: were inspired
fourth year: felt demoralized.
define conformity in terms of social pressure
a chnage in behaviour or belief due to real or imagined group pressure
ex: have you ever just gone along with one of the group’s ideas even though you knew it was bad or perhaps even unethical?
define compliance in terms of social pressure
confrom to request but one privately disagrees
ex: wearing a part of outfit to going out to an event but inside you dont want to do it but you know generally you should
define acceptance in terms of social pressure
conformity that involves both acting and believing in accord with social pressure
intially you may not want to do something but overtime you get used to it and accept it.
define obedience in terms of social pressure
complying with an explicit command
when students were asked to go to the newyork metro and ask others to give up their seats with no justification, what % do you think did?
more than half did: 56%
most students had difficulty asking. they reported not having the words coming out, but they went further to pretending to be sick to justify themselves indirectly to the people who gave up their seat.
why did they feel bad? because they felt like they were going against social norms.
define the autokinetic phenomenon
and define the experiment performed for social norm
the apparent movement of a stationary object of light in the dark
the experiment: so the tester started with each individual seperate guessing the inches the object moved. now after a couple days he invited everyone and performed the same test but as a group. He found that answers were becoming similar to each other than what they have reported invididualy
regarding the 3 sets of lines where the table of 6 students beginning witht he first seated students say what they think the stationary object moved, who has the most accurate answer?
first seated - usually chooses wrong
the next 4 - wrong line as well
but when they are alone, they usually guess correctly 99% of them time
participants went along with the group even though they werent convinced.
those who didnt conform felt conspicuous and felt like a misfit
what did the tester do when replicating the test?
he had a crushing unanimity: having a confedeate defect from others. have one person give the correct answers and become an ally of that participant that is odd one out on the correct answer.
writing their answer down: dropped conformity further
define the berns replication
he used fMRI to show subjects two figures and they had to figure out if they were the same or different. researches then told the subjects that 4 other “people” were making the samejudgments with them. they found that high levels of conformity were found. Participants went along with other’s wrong answers most of the time.
where in the brain is conformity associated with? and how?
amygdala which triggers anxiety in response to danger cues. This finding suggests that conformity may come with an anxiety price tag.
