Chapter 16: Social Behaviour Flashcards
If you have concluded that a friend didn’t accept your party invitation because she’s overworked, you have made an ______ about her behaviour
Attribution
What are attributions?
inferences that people draw about the causes of events or behaviour of themselves or other people
Why do people make attributions?
To understand life
What are internal attributions? (Heider)
say behaviour is caused by personal dispositions, traits, or abilities
behaviour is caused by internal factors
What are external attributions?
blaming behaviour on external sources such as situational demands and environmental constraints
True or false, according to Weiner, people often focus the stability of the causes underlying behaviour
True
Is luck a stable or unstable cause according to Weiner?
Unstable
Is ability a stable or unstable cause according to Weiner?
Stable
A common form of bias seen in observers is the “fundamental attribution error”what does it mean?
Observers have a tendency to overestimate the likelihood that an actors behaviour reflects personal qualities rather than situational
True or false, actors favour external attributions for their behaviour, wheras observers are more likely to explain the same behaviour with internal attributions
True
What is defensive attribution?
A tendency to blame victims for their misfortune so that you deny the probability of it happening to you
What is collectivism?
putting group goals ahead of personal goals in defining ones identity
opposite of individualism
What is the self-serving bias, and where is it most prevalent?
the tendency to attribute one’s successes to personal factors and ones failures to situational factors.. most prevalent in individualistic societies
What is a self-effacing bias? Where is it most prevalent?
tend to attribute their successes to help they receive from others, and when they fail, Japanese subjects tend to be more self-critical
What is an illusory correlation? when does it occur?
when people estimate that they have encountered more conformations of an association between social traits than they have actually seen.
“I’ve never met an honest lawyer”
True or false, attributions can be either internal or external
True
Explain the matching hypothesis
males and females of approx. equal attractiveness are likely to select eachother as partners
Romatic relationships are characterized by two types of love, what are they?
Passionate love: complete absorbtion/ sexual feelings
Compassionate love: warm, trusting and tolerant affection
What change did sternberg make to the original types of love hypothesis?
Changed compassionate love to 2 sub categories
Intimacy and commitment
What are the three types of attachment relationships in infancy?
secure attachment: comfortable with intimacy and autonomy
anxious ambivalent: when they’re anxious to be apart from their caretaker
avoidant attachment: never bond well with caretaker
True or false, according to Hazan and Shaver, people relive their early bonding with their parents in their adult romantic relationships
True
True or false, today researchers believe that attachment is best understood in terms of where people fall on “two continuous dimensions” What are they?
Attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance
attachment anx: worried about partners not being there when needed
attachment avoid: not being able to be intimate enough/closeness issues
True or false, anxious ambivalent individuals tend to report more highs and lows in their relationships
True
True or false, those with attachment anxiety promote excessive reassurance seeking
True
In cross cultural studies, what similarities have been found in terms of relationships?
What people look for in a partner
True or false, research suggests that virtual relationships are just as intimate or more than face-to-face ones
True
Explain the evolutionary perspective on attraction
certain aspects of good looks influence attraction because they are indicators of reproductive fitness
What do males and females look for in prospective mates according to the evolutionary theory?
Men: youthfullness/attractiveness
Women: Money and potential
True or false, in early days, social psych was defined as the study of attitudes
True
What three components did social psychologists traditionally view attitudes as being made up of?
cognitive component, affective component, and behavioural
cognitive: beliefs about an object of an attitude
affective: emotional feelings stimulated by an object of thought
behavioural: predispositions to act certain ways towards an att object
What is attitude strength?
how strong an attitude towards something is, how resistant to change it is
What is the accessibility of an attitude?
how often someone thinks about something and how quickly it comes to mind
What are ambivalent attitudes?
evaluations that include both positive and negative feelings about an object of thought
True or false, ambivalence increases as the ratio of positive to negative evaluations get closer to being equal
True
True or false, when ambivalence is HIGH an attitude tends to be more easily manipulated/persuaded
True
True or false, attitudes are mediocre predictors of behaviour
True