Final Flashcards
What is social psychology
Seeks to understand, explain and predict how peoples thoughts, feelings and behaviours are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of others
Who said “It is not so much the kind of person a man is, as the kind of situation in which he finds himself that determines how he will act.”
Milgram 2004
What is social cognition
How people perceive, interpret and categorize their own and others social behaviours
What are attitudes
Relatively stable and enduring evaluations of things and people
What model do we use to interpret attitudes
ABC model: affective component (how we feel), behavioural component, and cognitive component (what we believe)
What 2 theories explain why Our attitudes change
Cognitive dissonance and self perception theory
What is cognitive dissonance
Emotional discomfort as a result of holding contradictory beliefs or holding a belief that contradicts behaviour ~ we change our beliefs to justify our actions
What is self-perception theory
When uncertain, we infer what our attitudes are by observing our own behaviour
What is attitude specificity
The more specific an attitude, the more likely it is to predict behaviour
What is attitude strength
Stronger attitudes predict behaviour more accurately than weak or vague attitudes
What 2 factors determine how much attitude will effect behaviour
Attitude specificity and attitude strength
What is social desirability
Attitudes that mirror what we think others desire in a person
What is implicit attitude
An attitude of which the person is unaware
What are stereotypes
Generalized impressions based on social categories
What is prejudice
Negative stereotypical attitudes toward all members of a group
What contributes to stereotypes and prejudice
Categorize based on similarities, evolutionary perspective, realist conflict theory and social identity theory
What is evolutionary perspective
Stereotypes and prejudice may have had some adaptive value
What is realistic conflict theory
Amount of actual conflict between groups determines the amount of prejudice and tension between groups
What is social identity theory
Emphasizes social cognitive factors in the onset of prejudice~ social categorization, social identity, social comparison
What is the central route to persuasion
Focuses on content, factual info and logic to change attitudes
What is the peripheral route to persuasion
Focus on superficial information to change attitudes (attractiveness)
What are a few persuasion strategies
Source: is knowledgeable, relatable and likeble
Foot in the door: get them to agree to something small so they agree to something larger later
Door in the face: ask for something very big knowing you will get turned down, but then ask for the smaller item you really wanted
Appeals to fear: ads make it seem like something bad will happen
What are attributions?
Casual explanations of behaviour
What are dispositional/ internal attributions
The behaviour was caused because of the person
What are situational/external attributions
The behaviour was caused by situation ~ we tend to rely on situational attributions when explaining our own behaviour
Explain fundamental attribution error
The tendency to use dispositional attributions to explain the behaviour of other people
What is the actor - observer effect
We tend to make situational attributions about our own behaviour and personal attributions about the behaviour of others.
What are exceptions to the actor observer effect
Self-serving bias - tendency to attribute successes to dispositional causes and failures to situational causes
When don’t we attribute others’ behaviour to their disposition but rather to their situation?
When don’t we attribute our behaviour to our situation vs. our disposition?
What are norms
Social rules about how members of a society are expected to act
What are social roles
A set of norms ascribed to a persons social position
Define descriptive norms
Agreed on expectations about what members of a group do
Define injunctive norms
Agreed on expectations about what members of a group ought to do
What is conformity
The tendency to yield to social pressure
What did the asch studies reveal
Conformity effect is not strong when group size is less than 4 members
What is obedience
The act of following direct commands, usually given by an authority figure
What are factors that reduce obedience
Salience of a victims suffering, proximity or closeness to the victim, responsibility, modeling a non obedient person
When are additive tasks tackled most productively
When the group size increases
What rates the productivity of conjunctive tasks
The group is only as productive as its weakest member
What rates the productivity of a disjunctive task
The strongest member as these tasks require one solution
What are divisible tasks
Simultaneous performance of several tasks
What is social facilitation
Improvement in performance because others are present (both physical and mental tasks)
What is group polarization
Initial attitudes become more intense with group interaction
What is altruism
Self sacrificing behaviour carried out for the benefit of others
What is the bystander effect (apathy)
The more people present, the likely any one person will attempt to help
What is diffusion of responsibility
we are less likely to assist in a large group because responsibility to help is shared
What are the 3 levels of attraction
Cognitive, affective, behavioural