exam 3 social psych Flashcards
what three factors contribute to social psych
1) power of the situation (enviro affects behavior)
2) power of the person (interaction of our personality traits/variables)
3) importance of cognition (how we think/feel abt our enviro)
what are the 4 categories in social psych
1) social influence and conformity
2) attitudes
3) the self
4) relationships
whats social influence?
how other people/groups influence our behavior
what are the 3 forms of social influence
1) conformity
2) compliance
3) obedience
what’s conformity
deciding to change your behavior to fit in
whats compliance
choosing to change your behavior because someone asked you to
whats obedience
changing your behavior because someone with authority demanded it
what are the two causes for conformity
1) informational social influence
2) normative social influence
whats informational social influence; why do we do it
- we conform because we think other people are a source of info; they know something we don’t; they can help us do the best thing
- we have a desire to be right
when do we conform to informational social influence
- SITUATION MUST BE AMBIGUOUS (you don’t know the right answer)
- there’s a crisis (limited time to decide for yourself)
- if other ppl are experts
experiment that showed informational social influence
- people were shown an illusion where it looked like a light was moving
- were asked how much they thought it moved
- were put into groups to decide how much it moved
- groups converged to common answer
what’s normative social influence; why do we do it
- changing your behavior because other people are acting differently from you, even tho you know you’re right
- we want social approval
when do we conform to normative social influence
- source is similar to us
- conditions are uncertain
- we’re concerned abt our relationship with the source
experiment that showed normative social influence
- arsch line test
- obvious which lines matched
- participant said wrong answer because other “participants” were saying the wrong answer
whats the result of informational influence
- private acceptance
- we truly believe that’s the right answer
whats the result of normative influence
- public acceptance
- we truly DONT believe that’s the right answer
what happens if you try to resist normative social influence
- other group members try to get you to conform
- reject you if you don’t conform
what are idosyncratic credits
- when someone has been a good group member so they have “good credits” and can be deviant sometimes without being punished
What experiment showed the power of obedience
- milgram experiment
- told participant to keep shocking actor (actor said they had heart problems; showed signs of pain/death)
- participants kept shocking past “death” bc milgram demanded them (he had authority)
- participants did not keep shocking if milgram was not there
how does authority influence obedience
- more likely to conform if there’s someone else to take responsibility for the outcome (authority figure takes responsibility bc they’re telling you to do i)
why do we obey authority
- want to be right
- we see authority figures as experts (doing what they say = shortcut to the right choice)
what are the 3 components of attitudes
1) affective: pos or neg emotion/affect toward the object
2) behavior: how you act towards the object
3) cognitive: your thoughts abt the object (facts and beliefs)
are attitudes good predictors of behaviors
NO; changing someones attitude doesn’t usually change their behavior
when do attitudes affect behavior
if the attitude is…
1) stable and strong
2) important/relevant to you
3) easily accessed (do you think abt it a lot?)
4) formed from direct experience
5) if you’re certain about it
whats the cognitive dissonance theory
we get anxiety when out behavior doesn’t match our attitude (dissonance)
- theres strong motivation to restore consistency
what are the 3 ways to resolve dissonance/restore consistency
1) change behavior (quit smoking)
2) trivialize dissonance/change cognition (research says smoking is bad but research is flawed)
3) change attitude *marketing strategy; add new cognition (smoking relaxes me; i know someone who smoked and lived a long time)
what’s required in a behavior for it to cause dissonance
1) freely chosen
2) have negative consequences that you know of
3) you must feel responsible
4) must cause an uncomfortable feeling
What are the 2 subtypes of dissonance
1) insufficient justification
2) post-decision dissonance
what’s insufficient justification
reducing dissonance by internally justifying your past behavior because there’s insufficient external justification (the actual outcome didn’t match your previous behavior)
- ex) saying positive things abt a sorority and hazing to get in, but once you get in, you realize it’s not as good as you thought it would be, but you still have to tell yourself you like it to stay in line with your previous behavior
what’s post-decision dissonance
when you have a positive attitude between 2 things, but can only choose 1, it causes discomfort
–> leads to spreading of alternatives
whats spreading of alternatives
in post decision dissonance, you go back and point out the differences between your two choices –> try to make the one you chose seem much better; make the one you didn’t choose seem much worse –> makes you feel better about the one you did pick
what are the 4 compliance techniques
1) foot in the door
2) door in the face
3) low balling
4) “that’s not all”
what is foot in the door technique
asking someone for a small favor first, which establishes an unconscious positive attitude –> dissonance if they reject a future request