Chapter 13 - Social Psychology Flashcards
Social Psychology
To understand, predict and explain our thoughts, behaviors and feelings, by imagining or actual presence of others.
Attitudes (ABC)
Stable and enduring evaluations of things and people. A = Affective (how we feel. Secure)
B = Behaviour (went to work because they felt safe)
C = Cognition (believed they were safe)
Mere Thought Effect
More time to think. These thoughts become consistent thoughts.
Cognitive dissonance
When we hold a belief that contradicts our behavior. It is a state of emotional discomfort, so unpleasant we want to eliminate or remove it. When it is COMPLETELY out of character.
Self-perception theory
Infer our attitudes from our behaviors. Behave only slightly out of character or unsure of our attitude.
Attitude specificity
The more specific an attitude, the easier it is to predict behavior. (ex. Love Taylor Swift, listen to her new album day of)
Attitude strength
Stronger attitudes predict behavior more than weak attitudes. (ex. Passionate about gay rights, will likely join demonstration or protests in favor of gay rights)
Social desirability
Respond to how it would be accepted by society
Implicit attitudes
People are not always aware of their true attitudes, attitudes below the level of consciousness awareness.
Mere categorization effect
Categorizing individuals into us or them
Realistic conflict theory
Competition arises between different groups because of conflict over scarce resources.
Social identity theory
In social situations, individuals often identify as members of the group.
Social categorization
Affiliates with a specific group as figuring out how to act and react in the world.
Social identity
Person forms an identity within the group
Central route
Uses factual information and logical arguments to persuade. Fair amount of effort on the receivers end
Peripheral route
Superficial information. How attractive the spokesperson is and how amusing the message is.
Foot in the door technique
Getting someone to agree to a small request and then a larger one. (Why? We strive to be consistent)
Door in the face technique
Make an absurd first request and then follow with a smaller request
Appeals to fear
Seen in anti-smoking ads. Makes the receivers know something bad will happen if they don’t comply.
Attributions
Why people, including ourselves, do things. This is causal explanations of behavior
Dispositional or internal
Peoples traits as the cause of their behavior
Situational or external
Environmental factors as the cause of behavior
Fundamental attribution error
Attributions to explain the behavior of other people (ex. Someone speeding down the highway may have a sick child in their car)
Self-serving bias
Tend to attribute our successes to internal causes and failure to external causes. (ex. Failed a test because the grading wasn’t fair, if you passed probably wouldn’t blame external causes). It is protective for our self-esteem.
Norms
Society is filled with rules how to act (provides order and stability)
Descriptive norms
What the typical person does, rules they follow (tipping, its an option but they expect)
Injunction norms
Agreed-on expectations about what members ought to do (speaking quietly at a library)
Social role
Set of norms to a person’s social position, expectations, duties associated with the individual’s position in the family, at work and in the community.
Conformity
Yield to real or imagined group pressure. (ex. Attend a school with liberal beliefs, you may have liberal beliefs as you grow older)
Asch experiment
People conformed to the norm and gave incorrect responses at least once
Tyranny of the majority
Unanimity, one group member drastically reduces the likelihood that participants will conform to an incorrect group norm. Size, fewer choices, increase in conformity.
Milgram’s experiment
Willingness of individuals to follow orders of authorities when orders conflict with their moral judgment. We are inclined to obey even when we would have never predicted we would behave that way.
Group dynamics
Membership or participation in a group influences our thoughts and behaviors
Conjunctive task
Members are only as weak as its weakest member (ex. Hiking up a mountain)
Disjunctive task
Requires single solution, works better in large groups since there is someone who has the most ideas
Divisible task
simultaneous performance of several different activities (works better in large groups when there are more people)
Social facilitation
our performance is enhanced when we are in the presence of others. Not just physically, also mentally
Social loafing
Also known as free riding. People exert less effort on a collective task than they would in a group taskMen are more likely than women to free ride
Group polarization
Intensification of an initial tendency of individual group members brought by group discussion (attitudes and inclination already in place, becomes more intense).
Faulty group decision making
Relies on overfocused and biased thinking. Occurs when group members reach premature conclusions in a misguided effort to achieve unanimity.
Altruism
concern or acting to help others without any expectation of compensation or reciprocation.
Relational aggression
snubbing, gossiping and excluding others as a means of venting frustration or anger
Companionate love
high on intimacy and commitment but low on passion
Consummate love
High on all three components
Secure attachment
Relatively easy to become close to others and are comfortable depending on lover and being depended on
Avoidant
somewhat uncomfortable being close to others and have difficulty trusting others and depending on them
Social neuroscience
Combination of brain regions that operate together when people function socially. Is also known as social brain
Orbitofrontal cortex
subregion of the prefrontal cortex. Social reasoning, reward evaluation, reading other people and eliciting emotional state.
Ventromedial prefrontal cortex
subregion of the prefrontal cortex. Processes rewards and punishments (non-verbal social information)
Insula
region of cortex beneath the frontal cortex. Empathy and in reading others. Activated when we observe others in physical or emotional pain
Amygdala
control of emotions in the temporal lobe. Emotional facial expression of other people to pay particular attention to stimuli that may be unpredictable.
