chapter 13 - social psychology Flashcards
define social psychology
seeks to understand, explain, and predict how peoples thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are influenced by the actual, perceived, or implied presence of others
does social psychology search for commonalities or differences among people?
commonalities
define social cognition
how people perceive and interpret themselves and others in their social world
define attitudes
relatively stable evaluations of things and people
what are the three components of the ABC model of attitudes?
- affective: emotion / emotional expression
- behavioural: predispositions to act
- cognitive: beliefs and ideas
what is the mere thought effect?
the idea that attitudes become more extreme over time
what was the main subject of study for Festinger and Carlsmith?
they wanted to study if manipulating peoples behaviours away from their attitudes could lead to changes in those attitudes
what is the cognitive dissonance theory?
a state of emotional discomfort when a person holds two contradictory beliefs or hold beliefs that contradict their behaviour (people will change their attitudes bc they don’t want to experience cognitive dissonance)
what is the self-perception theory?
when people are uncertain about their attitudes, they infer what they are based on their own behaviour (e.g. I must like that person bc I’m usually nice to them)
what are the two factors that enable attitudes to influence behaviour?
- attitude strength
- attitude specificity (working out vs health example)
what is the social desirability factor?
people will often claim attitudes that they believe are socially desirable, and hide behaviours that they aren’t proud of
what technique can be used to induce honesty and limit the social desirability factor?
the bogus pipeline technique, which includes fake polygraph testing
what are implicit attitudes?
attitudes were unaware of
what test can be used to determine implicit attitudes?
the IAT test (implicit association test): including pressing left for young, right for old, etc.
what are some ways to change implicit and explicit attitudes ?
explicit: diversity training and exposure
implicit: fear reduction, emotion focused intervention, persuasive messaging, writing arguments, hearing information against prejudice
define stereotypes
fixed, overgeneralized, and oversimplified beliefs about a person or group based on assumptions about the entire group (can be positive or negative)
define prejudice
negative and unjust feelings about individuals based on their inclusion in a particular group (tends to grow out of stereotypes)
what is the realistic conflict theory? what case study demonstrated this?
competition arises for resources among different groups, and the Robbers Cave Study with the two groups of boys.
what are the three elements that persuasion requires?
- message
- source
- receivers
describe the central route of persuasion
it emphasizes the content of the message, and involves factual information, logical arguments, and leads to long term changes in attitudes if the information is true
describe the peripheral route of persuasion
relies on superficial information, involves humour, an attractive source, and changes in attitudes are often temporary
what is the foot-in-the-door technique?
the idea that small favours can lead to larger favours (you’ve helped in the past, surely you will help now)
what is the four-walls technique?
getting boxed in by answers to leading questions (do you hate doing the dishes? buy our dishwasher!)
what is the door-in-the-face technique?
the idea that a big request can increase the likelihood of someone saying yes to a smaller one (can i have $50? no? can i at least have $20?)
what is the appeal to fear technique?
from a credible source, something bad will happen if you don’t comply, recommendations for change to avoid an undesirable outcome)
define attributions?
causal explanations for behaviour
what are dispositional/internal attributions?
focus on peoples traits to explain their behaviour (we do this to explain OTHERS behaviour)
what are situational/external attributions?
environmental factors are the cause of behaviour (we use this to explain OUR behaviour)
what is the fundamental attribution error?
the tendency to use dispositional attributions to explain others behaviour, and situational attributions to explain our own behaviour
- he’s speeding because he’s a jerk
- I’m speeding because I’m late for work
what is the actor-observer effect?
the discrepancy between how we explain others behaviour vs our own
what is the self-serving bias?
the tendency people have to attribute their success to internal causes and failures to external causes
define norms
social rules about how members of a society are expected to act
define descriptive vs injunctive norms
descriptive: what people actually do
injunctive: what people are supposed to do
- speed limits
define social roles
set of norms ascribed to a persons social position, expectations associated with a persons position in a group (e.g. gender roles)
what experiment examined roles and situational demands?
the Stanford Prison Experiment
define conformity
tendency to yield to social pressure (feeling like you have to do what others are doing)
what are the Asch studies?
examined how people can be induced to give incorrect answers if everyone else does beforehand
define obedience
the act of following direct commands, usually given by a figure of authority
what was Milgram’s experiment?
participants told to shock “learners” when they got questions wrong, many people didn’t stop until the end
what is social loafing?
the tendency for people to exert less effort on a collective task than they would on an individual task
define social facilitation
the effect in which the presence of others enhances performance
define polarization
the intensification of initial tendency of group members following discussion
define groupthink
when group members strive for unanimity, and this overrides motivation to appraise alternate courses of action (hiding info that goes against beliefs, pressure when someone disagrees)
define altruism
self-sacrificing behaviour or the benefit of others
what is egoistic helping behaviour?
helping others to reduce personal stress or to receive rewards
what is the bystander effect or bystander apathy?
the idea that when more people are present at an emergency, the less likely individual persons are to offer assistance (diffusion of responsibility)
define aggression
the intention to harm others
what is the frustration-aggression hypothesis?
the idea that aggression is always due to frustration
what are the three levels of interpersonal attraction?
- cognitive (how you think of them)
- behaviorally (how you act towards them)
- affectively (how you feel towards them)
what are the 5 key factors of liking?
- similarity
- proximity
- self-disclosure
- situational factors
- attractiveness
what are Rubin’s 3 elements of love?
- attachment
- caring
- intimacy
what is Sternberg’s triangular theory of love?
- intimacy
- passion (physical)
- commitment
what is the purpose of the orbitofrontal cortex?
it is responsible for reasoning, reward evaluation, reading people, eliciting emotional states
what is the purpose of ventromedial prefrontal cortex
processes rewards and punishments, interpreting non-verbal information, empathy
what is the purpose of the insula?
responsible for empathy, reading people, activated when we preserve others in pain and we feel it ourselves
what is the purpose of the amygdala?
controlling emotions, identifying facial expressions, interpreting fear and anxiety
