Exam 2 Flashcards
Conformity - Social Influence:
What are norms?
- Socially based rules
Conformity - Social Influence:
What are descriptive norms?
- what people normally do in a situation
Conformity - Social Influence:
What are injunctive norms?
- what people should or shouldn’t do
- not necessarily what people normally do
- moral component
Conformity - Social Influence:
Describe Sherif’s norm study
- autokinetic effect: little pinpoint of light in entirely dark room appears to move bc our eyes are always moving
- people estimated how much the light moved
- also put people in groups to see if that would influence their answers; settled on 5 inches as group norm
- even 1 year later the subjects reported same number bc they had internalized the group norm
Conformity - Social Influence:
Define conformity
- “tendency to change perceptions, opinions or behaviors to be consistent with group norms”
Conformity - Social Influence:
Is conformity possibly automatic? Describe the Chartrand and Bargh study
- subjects told they would be doing a task with a partner
- partner rubbed face or shook feet
- subjects more likely to do the behavior the partner did
- in a second experiment the partner mimicked the subject’s actions
- the subject’s liked the partner more when their own actions were mimicked
Conformity - Social Influence:
Describe Asch’s conformity study
- task was to indicate which line length matched
- one person in group was real subject, others were confederates
- confederates gave some wrong answers
- subject went along with group even if the answer was obviously wrong
- believed group was correct
- went along w/ group to prevent disruption (normative conformity)
- variation when had a partner subject less likely to go with group
Conformity - Social Influence:
Define normative influence
- conform bc we don’t want to deviate from the rest of the group (ex. Asch line study)
Conformity - Social Influence:
Define informational influence
- if the right answer isn’t clear then may agree with group
- believe group is right/ knows more than you
Conformity - Social Influence:
What is the difference between public conformity and private acceptance?
- public conformity: go along with group but only in presence of the group; superficial change in behavior (ex. Asch study)
- private acceptance: actually change mind (ex. Sherif study), report same response alone as when in presence of the group
Conformity - Social Influence:
What are the factors that increase/decrease conformity? (AMAUMGAC)
- anonymity - decreases
- motivation - increases for hard task, decreases for easy
- ambiguity - unclear task increases conformity
- unanimity - unanimity in group increase; break in group decreases
- size of majority - bigger majority increases (Law of diminishing returns: adding ppl to group past 4 has less and less effect)
- gender - depends on task; increases if stereotypical task for opposite gender
- age - higher in adolescence, lowest early childhood, low at elderly stage
- culture - individualistic decrease, collectivistic increase
Conformity - Social Influence:
Describe Moscovici’s study on minority influence
- slides of blue which varied in brightness, asked if they were blue or green
- control group had 6 naive subjects, all said slides were blue
- experimental group had 2 conf. who said 2 slides were green
- 1/3 of subjects called one slide green
- did show that numerical minority could have an influence on majority
- consistency is important to be effective
Conformity - Social Influence:
Describe Latane’s social impact theory
- social impact is a function of 3 sources
- strength - some people are more influential than other people
- immediacy - physical proximity, more influence if in closer proximity
- number - greater number of people trying to influence you the more influenced you are
Conformity - Social Influence:
What is compliance?
- “change in behavior as a result of a direct request”
Conformity - Social Influence:
What are ways to increase compliance?
- reciprocity norm: do favor for someone else, more likely to do one for you if you ask immediately for return favor
- atypical request: more likely to get compliance if atypical request
- foot in the door: ask for small request and get compliance, then ask for bigger request
- door in the face: ask for large request and denied, then ask for small favor
- low-balling: lure you in with a good deal but change terms to put it in asker’s favor (ex. buying cars)
- that’s not all: make deal and make deal even better
Conformity - Social Influence:
Describe Milgram’s obedience study
- learner, teacher
- teacher administers shock when learner (confederate) answers incorrectly on the word pairs
- hypothesized that less than 1% of subjects would give highest shock
- actually 65% of subjects did
- no differences in compliance w/ males or females
- other conditions
- low compliance when no experimenter probes
- low when ordinary person giving probes
- low when experimenter in other room
- low when touch victim (put hand on shock plate)
- low when group confederates refuse to go on
Conformity - Social Influence:
Describe Meeus and Raaaijimakers obedience study
- subject had to deliver harassing remarks to conf. during job test
- experimenter probes
- 92% of subjects showed obedience
Conformity - Social Influence:
Describe the results of Burger’s (2009) Milgram study replication
- reminded subject’s that they could leave whenever they wanted to
- replicated Milgram’s results exactly
Group Processes:
Describe Tuckman’s group processes
- Forming: getting together as group, get accustomed to members
- Storming: individuals try to influence group and vice versa; this is when deviance usually comes out
- Norming: settle on group norms, establish roles, tasks, become more cohesive
- Performing: do the task
- Adjourning: disengaging from group temporarily or permanently
Group Processes:
What are the two types of cohesiveness?
- Interpersonal: committed to group bc like the members
- task: committed to group bc interested in task
Group Processes:
What is social facilitation?
- “presence of others enhances performance on easy tasks, impairs performance on a difficult task”
Group Processes:
Describe Zajonc’s research on social facilitation
- presence of others increases physiological arousal
- arousal increases likelihood of dominant response
- so task you’re normally bad at, you’ll perform poorly
- and task you’re normally good at you’ll perform well
- these were confirmed with cockroaches - dominant response occurred faster in presence of other roaches
Group Processes:
Define social loafing
- “group produced reduction in individual output”
Group Processes:
Describe Latane’s social loafing study
- people clapped and yelled as group
- sound doesn’t increase in proportion to increase in number of group members
- more people in group, less sound each individual makes
Group Processes:
Describe the conditions that decrease the likelihood of social loafing
- if individual output can be identified
- if task is important to the individual
- if groups are smaller
- collectivistic culture
- women less likely to social loaf
Group Processes:
Define social compensation
- work harder compensate for poor performance of some individuals in the group
Group Processes:
Define deindividuation
- loss of sense of individuality
- sometimes leads to deviant behavior
Group Processes:
What are the conditions that lead to deindividuation
- darkness
- being part of a big group
- wearing a mask or costume
- being under the influence of drugs or alcohol
Group Processes:
Describe Lewin’s Quasi-Stationary Equilibrium idea
- forces hold norms in place
- once group reaches norm, usually stick to it
- if a member tries to deviate from the norm the group may direct pressure to make the member come back
- deviant member may be kicked out to maintain equilibrium
Group Processes:
What is group polarization?
Why might it occur?
- initial opinions become exaggerated/stronger due to group discussion
- discussion usually occurs with like-minded individuals
- may overestimate how many people (outside the group) would support your/group’s opinion
Group Processes:
How does group polarization affect decisions?
- risky shift: groups tend to make risky decisions if initial position is already risky
Group Processes:
What is Groupthink?
What kinds of decisions does it often lead to?
- making decisions with an excessive tendency to seek agreement among group members
- often leads to worse decisions
Group Processes:
What are ways to reduce or prevent Groupthink?
- consult with people outside of the group
- assign a person to play devil’s advocate
- meet again to reconsider decision
Group Processes:
Group Performance -
what are the different types of group tasks?
- Additive task: add together each group member’s contribution; result - group does better than individual
- Conjunctive task: entire group’s performance based on weakest member; result - individual does better
- Disjunctive task: entire group performs at highest member’s performance; result - group does better
Inter-Group Processes:
What is in-group favoritism?
Describe Tajfel’s study
- more likely to share resources with group members
- middle school boys assigned to random (minimal) groups and still more likely to share with group members even if temporary/not important group
Inter-Group Processes:
Describe Sherif’s Robber’s Cave Study. What were the roles of competition and superordinate goals?
- 2 groups of middle school boys
- engaged in competition to inspire neg. feelings toward outgroup
- superordinate goal to work past bus breakdown to overcome these neg. feelings
- superordinate goal: common goal everyone has to work on to complete
Self:
What is self-concept?
- beliefs about yourself
Self:
Describe the ability of self-recognition
- self-recog.: ability to identify self as different from other
- emerges in humans about 18 months - 2 years
- ex. Rouge test - put dot on child’s face and put in front of mirror. If touch face then has recognition
Self:
What are self-schemas? What does it mean to be schematic for a trait? Aschematic?
- def: organization of different traits that relate to yourself, including roles, traits, etc.
- schematic: trait is important to you and how you view yourself; also use this trait to judge others
- aschematic: trait isn’t important to sense of self; also won’t usually use this trait to judge others
Self:
How does how others see us relate to self?
- informs self view
- perception of how people important to you see you
- incorporate into own self-concept
Self:
Explain how our own behavior in terms of the facial feedback hypothesis influences our sense of self
- showing different facial expressions can trigger changes in how you feel
- ex. if you smile, then you’ll feel happy
Self:
Describe the Schacter and Singer study regarding behavior of others
- physiological arousal (epinephrine)
- told about effects or told about wrong effects
- exposed to confederate who was angry or euphoric
- subjects informed about effects attributed what they were feeling to the drug
- subjects misinformed experienced same emotion as confederate
- feel emotion, may interpret it to match emotions of those around you
Self:
What is the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation? What is the overjustification effect?
- intrinsic: behavior you do bc you want to
- extrinsic: behavior you do for other reasons
- overjustification: undermining person’s intrinsic interests by using extrinsic rewards; decreases intrinsic motivation
Self - Self-Esteem:
Define self-esteem
- feelings you have about yourself
- most people have high self-esteem
Self - Self-Esteem:
Describe the basic factors that influence self-esteem (as studied by Crocker)
- academics, appearance, being a good person, the approval of others, getting God’s love, competition, family support
Self - Self-Esteem:
What is the difference between trait vs. state self-esteem?
- trait: generally throughout time this is stable
- state: fluctuates, how you feel right now in moment
Self - Self-Esteem:
Describe Crocker’s study relating to trait/state self-esteem and being schematic
- measured self-esteem of college students receiving acceptance/rejection letters from grad schools
- ## state self-esteem raised when receiving acceptance letter, esp. if person is schematic on academics
Self - Maintaining Self-Concept:
What is the difference between self-enhancement and self-verification?
- self-enhancement: present self more positively than you actually see yourself
- self-verification: present self accurately/ how you see yourself
- tend to use verification in situations that are verifiable
- prefer significant people in your life to see you accurately
Self - Maintaining Self-Concept:
What are self-serving cognitions?
- taking credit for successes and distancing yourself from failures
Self - Maintaining Self-Concept:
What is self-handicapping?
- actions people take to handicap performance (ensure failure) to provide an excuse for anticipated failure
Self - Maintaining Self-Concept:
How do people with high self-esteem use self-handicapping? People with low self-esteem?
- high: use to get extra credit (ex. get 100 on test you didn’t study for so success seen as more impressive)
- low: sabotage own performance and have an excuse
Self - Maintaining Self-Concept:
How do women and men differ in their use of self-handicapping?
- women more passive (ex. blame stress)
- men more active (ex. drinking)
Self - Maintaining Self-Concept:
What is BIRG?
- basking in reflected glory
- more likely to associate ourselves with successful people/groups to maintain our positive self-concept
Self - Maintaining Self-Concept:
What is CORF?
- cutting off reflected failure
- don’t want to associate ourselves with unsuccessful groups/people
Self - Maintaining Self-Concept:
Describe Festinger’s Social Comparison Theory
- we evaluate ourselves by comparing ourselves to similar others; esp. when we’re not sure how we’re doing
Self - Maintaining Self-Concept:
What’s the difference between upwards social comparison and downwards?
- upwards: compare to people better than you; makes you feel worse; ex. person who placed first when you placed second
- downward: compare self to people worse off than you esp. when self-esteem threatened; helps you feel better about yourself
Self - Maintaining Self-Concept:
Describe Baumeister’s study on self-control
- subjects hungry, had to complete problems, cookies on table
- some could eat cookies, some couldn’t
- those who ate the cookies took longer on the problems (were more focused on them), self control focused on the problems not the cookies
Self - Maintaining Self-Concept:
Describe the three parts to Baumeister’s analogy between self-control and strength
- like strength self-control:
- can be temporarily depleted
- can be recovered with rest
- can get stronger with repeated exercise
