Chapter 13 - Social Psychology Flashcards
Attributions
judgments about the causes for our own behaviours and other people’s behaviours
Personal/Internal Attributions
behaviour is caused by characteristics of the person
Situational/External Attributions
behaviour is caused by aspects of the situation
Actor-observer Bias
how we perceive our own behaviour and how other people perceive our behaviour may be different
Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE)
we view attributions for other’s behaviours as more personal; while viewing attributions for our own behaviours as more situational
Self-serving Bias
tendency to attribute our successes to personal factors and attribute our failures to situational factors
Judgments of others
research tends to show that there is a stronger tendency for FAE in individualistic culture
Judgments of self
collectivistic cultures tend to take less credit for successful interactions and more responsibility to failures
Primacy Effect
initial information that we get is more important when learning about another person
Recency Effect
most recent information is given more weight
When is the recency effect used most often?
when we are:
- asked to avoid making snap judgments
- asked to think about the information more critically
- made accountable for our judgments
Attitude
a positive or negative evaluation of a person, object, or idea
3 components of Attitudes
- Affective = feelings and emotions towards an attitude object
- Behavioural = tendency to act in a particular response to the attitude object
- Cognitive = beliefs and ideas about an attitude object
3 Attitude Dimensions
- Attitude Strength = stronger attitudes are harder to change, can have strong influence on behaviour
- Attitude Accessibility = how often we think about the attitude object, how quickly the attitude comes to mind, positively correlated with attitude strength
- Attitude Ambivalence = hold both positive and negative attitudes toward the attitude object, harder to predict behaviour
Kelley’s Experiment
- guest lecturer experiments
- Students were told that the guest lecturer was either “warm” or “cold”
- then exposed to lecturer for 20 minutes
- Students rated their impressions of the lecturer
- students who expected him to be warm gave him better ratings and participated more in the discussion/lecture
LaPiere’s Experiment
- traveled with chinese couple, no restaurants turned them away
- sent survey to all restaurants visited to ask if they would serve chinese people
- over 90% said they would not even though they did
Factors that influence the relation between attitudes and behaviours
- dimensions of attitudes are not always taken into account
- the way in which attitudes are measured
- situational influences
Cognitive dissonance theory
feel uncomfortable when:
- our behaviours are not inline with our attitudes (OR)
- our conditions are not consistent
people are motivation to reduce the uncomfortable feelings from dissonance
Social influence
- when people’s own responses (behaviours, attitudes, judgements) are influenced by the action of others
- changes in beliefs or behaviours caused by real or imagined social pressure
3 types of social influence
conformity, obedience, compliance
2 levels of conformity
- Private acceptance = changing public responses and private beliefs or attitudes
- Public compliance = altering public responses, but not true private beliefs or attitudes
Two reasons why people conform
Normative Influence = wanting to be liked
public compliance without private acceptance
- higher conformity when in people
Informational Influence = wanting to be right
- higher conformity when task is difficult
- higher conformity when more concerned with being right
Obedience
form of compliance, people follow direction commands typically coming from someone in a position of authority
Two criteria for satisfying the need for affiliation
- frequent and pleasant interactions
2. temporarily stable interactions involving concern
Why do we have this need to affiliate with others? (4)
- positive stimulation
- emotional support
- attention
- social comparisons
3 factors that lead us to affiliate with others
- Proximity
- Similarity
- Physical attractiveness
Mere Exposure effect
suggests that the more we are expose to a stimulus, he more we tend to like the stimulus
2 theories of increasing attraction
- Self-discolure = disclosing personal information, increases emotional involvement, increases relationship satisfaction
- Social exchange theory = rewards and costs are weighed to decide whether or not we want to continue with a relationship
The three-component triangular theory of love (Sternberg)
- Intimacy = feelings of closeness and connectedness that leads to experiences of warmth
- Passion = drive that leads to romance, physical attraction, sexual consummation that leads to the experiences of passion
- Commitment = (1) in the short-term it means the decision to love another and (2) in the long-term it means to make a commitment to maintain that love
Prejudice
a negative attitude toward people based on heir membership in a group
Discrimination
overt behaviour involves treating people fairly based on the group to which they belong
Overt Prejudice
unfair treatment that is blatant
Covert Prejudice
subtle, passive, either intentional or unintentional
Realistic Conflict Theory
prejudice is promoted when groups compete for limited resources
Self Identity Theory
- prejudice comes from our desire to enhance our self esteem, but our self esteem can also come from groups
- associating with groups enhances our self esteem, but threats to our groups can threaten our self esteem
The equal status contact principle (4)
- continual close contact
- equal status
- work towards a common goal that requires cooperation
- support by broader social norms
4 different helping behaviours
- casual helping (e.g. lending a pencil)
- substantial person helping (e.g. giving a friend a ride)
- emotional helping (e.g. providing emotional support)
- emergency helping (e.g. offering help after an accident)
Two norms relevant to prosocial behaviour
- norm of reciprocity
2. norm of social responsibility
Empathy-altruism hypothesis
altruism exists when there is empathy
Empathy
the ability to put oneself in the place of another and to share what that person is experiencing
Negative state relief model
- high empathy can lead to feelings of distress if we know someone else is suffering
- helping can help reduce our own stress
- relieving our own distress is a self-focused goal and not altruism
Kitty Genovese
stabbed, nobody helped
Bystander Intervention - 5 step process
- notice an event?
- interpret as an emergency?
- assume responsibility for helping?
- know how to help?
- decide to help
Some people are more likely to be held than others based on three factors
- similarity
- gender
- perceived responsibility
3 factors that increase prosocial behaviour
- exposing individuals to prosocial modelling
- developing feelings of empathy and affiliation with others
- learning about factors that drive the bystander effect
Factors that influence destructive obedience
- Distance of the victim
- Closeness and legitimacy of the authority figure
- Cog in a wheel
- Personal characteristics
