Exam 2 Flashcards
What is evolutionary psychology?
The study of evolution of cognition and behavior using principles based on natural selection.
What are the criticisms of evolutionary psychology?
- It is mostly theory.
- Can only explain what has already happened with plausible explanations.
- It is not inherently falsifiable.
What is natural selection?
The evolutionary process by which heritable traits that best enable organisms to survive and reproduce.
What is gender?
Characteristics, whether biological or socially influenced, that we associate with males, females, or others.
What is sex?
Biological categories of male or female.
What are gender roles?
Sets of behavioral expectations for men and women.
What is culture?
The enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a large group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next.
What are social norms?
Standards for accepted and expected behavior.
______ think about and initiate sex more often.
Men
__________ are more inspired by emotional passion.
Women
___ seek out quantity in mating, whereas _________ seek out quality.
Men; women
What are the Big Five Social Beliefs?
Cynicism, social complexity, reward for application, spirituality, fate control.
What is conformity?
A change in behavior or belief as the result of real or imagined group pressure.
What are the three varieties of conformity?
Acceptance, compliance, and obedience.
What is acceptance conformity?
Both acting and believing in accord with social pressure.
Ex: exercising because you believe it is healthy, whether or not you’ve done the research.
What is compliance conformity?
Publicly acting in accord with a request while privately disagreeing.
Ex: saying you like your friend’s spouse even though you don’t.
What is obedience conformity?
Acting in high accord with a direct order or command.
Ex: dress code
What is mass hysteria?
Suggestibility to problems that spreads throughout a large group of people.
What are factors that breed obedience?
- Victim’s emotional distance.
- Closeness/credibility of the authority.
- Institutional authority.
- Liberating effects of group influence.
Central Route Persuasion occurs when:
interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts.
Peripheral Route Persuasion occurs when:
people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker’s attractiveness.
_____________________ Persuasion requires the arguments to be strong and compelling.
Central Route
What is the Sleeper Effect?
Delayed impact of a message that occurs when an initially discounted message becomes effective, as we remember the message but forget the reason for discounting it.
What is a group?
Two or more people who interact with and influence one another and perceive themselves as an “us.”
What are social roles?
Shared expectations in a group about how particular people are supposed to behave in that group.
What is social faciliatation?
Strengthening of dominant responses whether correct or incorrect in the presence of others.
What is evaluation apprehension?
Concern for how others are evaluating us.
What is social loafing?
The tendency for people to exert less effort when they pool their effort toward a common goal than when they are individually accountable.
What is deindividuation?
The loosening of normal constraints on behavior when people cannot be differentiated, leading to an increase in impulsive and deviant acts.
What factors lead to deindividuation?
Group size, low self-awareness, anonymity, arousing/distracting activities,
What is leadership?
The process by which certain group members motivate and guide the group.
What are the three leadership styles?
Task leaders, Social leaders, and Transformational leaders.
What are task leaders?
Leaders who organize work, set standards, and focus on clear, short-term goals and reward people who meet them.
What are social leaders?
Leaders who build teamwork, mediate conflict, and offer support.
What are transformational leaders?
Leaders who inspire followers to focus on common, long-term goals.
What is groupthinking?
A kind of thinking in which maintaining group cohesiveness and solidarity is more important than considering the facts in a realistic manner.
What is groupthink caused by?
Cohesive group, isolation of the group from the dissenting viewpoints, directive leader.
What is group cohesiveness?
Qualities of a group that bind members together and promote liking between members.
What are the 8 symptoms of groupthink?
- Illusion of invulnerability.
- Unquestioned belief in the group’s morality.
- Rationalization.
- Stereotypes view of opponent.
- Conformity pressure.
- Self-censorship.
- Illusion of unanimity.
- Mindguards.
What is normative influence?
Conformity based on a person’s desire to fulfill others’ expectations, often to gain acceptance.
What is informational influence?
Conformity occurring when people accept evidence about reality provided by other people.
What was Sherif’s method?
Assessing suggestibility regarding seeming movement of light.
What was Asch’s method?
Agreement with others’ obviously wrong perceptual judgments.
What was Milgram’s method?
Complying with commands to shock another.
What 8 factors predict conformity?
- Difficulty of the task
- Group size
- Group unanimity
- Cohesiveness
- Public
- No prior commitment
- Status of the other group members
- Crisis
What is persuasion?
The process by which a message induces change in beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors.
What is the need for cognition?
The motivation to think and analyze.
How do we resist persuasion?
By strengthening personal commitment.
