Final Exam Flashcards
1
Q
Group
A
a collection of three or more people who interact with each other and are interdependent, in the sense that their needs and goals cause them to rely on one another; assembled together for a common purpose
2
Q
Social Norms
A
the implicit or explicit roles a group has for the acceptable behaviours, values and beliefs of its members
3
Q
Social roles
A
shared expectations by group members about how particular people in the group are supposed to behave, determines who should occupy certain positions
4
Q
Gender roles
A
influence role expectations (occupational aspirations, unequal treatment, changing family)
5
Q
Group Cohesiveness
A
qualities of a group that bind members together and promote liking between them; influences behaviour and involvement; may impede decision making
6
Q
Social Facilitation
A
happens when people are working alone but in the presence of an audience; performance is enhanced on simple, well-learned tasks, and diminished on novel, complex tasks; when individual performance can be evaluated
7
Q
Evaluation apprehension
A
concern about being judged, evaluated; not just the presence of real people
8
Q
Why the Presence of Others causes Arousal
A
- Other people cause us to be particularly alert and vilgilant
- They make us apprehensive about how we are being evaluated
- They distract us from the task at hand
9
Q
Triplett (1898) - Cycling
A
individual times were slower than group times
10
Q
Triplett (1898) - Children’s Fishing Lines
A
individuals performed faster in front of other children.
11
Q
Zajonc on Arousal
A
Facilitation in terms of one’s dominant response: The presence of others increases physiological arousal; when such arousal exists it is easier to do something simple but more difficult when the task is new or complex; different types of tasks have different optimal levels of arousal
12
Q
Yerkes-Dodson Law
A
arousal due to mere presence of others affects performance
13
Q
Michaels et al (1982) - Pool Hall
A
in a pool hall, watch people play pool and take notes on performance to determine initial skill level. Second time, blatantly watched the others play pool (obvious audience); found that good players played well in front of an audience, bad players performed worse
14
Q
Occam’s Razor
A
difficult to disentangle mere presence theory from other explanations, so are the other explanations really necessary?
15
Q
Social Loafing
A
happens when people are working together towards the same goal; the more people in the group the less each individual contributes; diminished response; do worse on simple tasks and better on complex tasks in the presence of others when individual performance cannot be evaluated
16
Q
Ringlemann’s Rope
A
found that when individuals worked in a group they did not perform as well as they did when they were alone; workers pulled loads across a field, individuals did better than groups
17
Q
Ringlemann’s Theory
A
Coordination loss or loss of motivation? there may be a diffusion of power in a group setting
18
Q
Ingham et al (1974) - Tug of War study
A
randomly assigned men to 1 of 4 groups; played a tug of war game where the opponent is on the other side of a wall, and the force is measured. Interestingly, none of the confederates are actually pulling, only the subject. This rules out coordination loss. found that pulling power decreases as number of people increases
19
Q
Diffusion of Evalutation
A
when an individual is in a group, no one can really tell what they are doing/not doing, so they get lost in the crowd; taking a break when they think they can; may not be doing this consciously
20
Q
How to stop people from loafing
A
Ease of Evaluation, Gender, Group Makeup, Importance of Task, Culture
21
Q
Ease of Evaluation
A
increase the ease of which each person in the group is evaluated; make them all identifiable (make each person responsible for something different)
22
Q
Gender
A
males tend to loaf more than females (women are higher in relational interdependence); this changes in co-ed groups
23
Q
Group Makeup
A
more likely to work hard with friends than with strangers (do not want to let friends down, friends know what you are capable of)
24
Q
Importance of Task
A
if the task is important you will be more motivated to do well, may even pick up the slack for others (social compensation)
25
Culture
individualized cultures loaf more than collectivistic cultures (collectivists more likely to have interdependent view of self)
26
Social Compensation
If we are motivated to perform well on a task, we might compensate for the loafing of other members and pick up the slack
27
William and Karan - Butter Knife
asked participants to come up with as many uses as they can for a butter knife, either in a group or alone; tested level of teammates effort on performance (either the confederate was super motivated for the reward or he was not)
28
William and Karan - Butter Knife Results
If the confederate was highly motivated, they were more likely to loaf if they knew they could get away with it
If the confederate was not motivated, they compensated for the group member
Subjects always think they are performing their best in every situation
29
Deindividuation
the loosening of normal constraints on behaviour when people are in a group, leading to an increase in impulsive and deviant acts (often with anonymous disguises); people feel less accountable for their actions; lower self awareness and shift away from moral standards, increases extent to which group norms are obeyed
30
Process loss
any aspect of group interaction that inhibits good problem solving; focus on what members know in common, ignore unique information known only to one or a few; make sure discussions last long enough, assign people to different tasks, transactive memory
31
Transactive memory
the combined memory of two people that is more efficient than them memory of either individual
32
Groupthink
a kind of thinking in which maintaining group cohesiveness and solidarity is more important than considering the facts i realistic manner
33
When groupthink takes place
when group is highly cohesive, isolated from counter opinions, ruled by a decisive leader; feel invulnerable, will not voice contrary ideas; not all conditions required
34
How to avoid groupthink
remain impartial, seek outside opinions, create subgroups, seek anonymous opinions
35
Group Polarization
the tendency for groups to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclinations of its members; risky shift; member bring a greater number of supportive arguments, supports the groups values to be liked
36
great person theory
the theory that certain key personality traits make a person a good leader, regardless of the situation the leader faces; weak theory
37
Integrative Complexity
the ability to recognize more than one perspective on an issue and to be able to integrate these various perspectives; correlated with greatness
38
Transactional leaders
leaders who set clear, short term goals and reward people who meet them
39
Transformational leaders
leaders who inspire followers to focus on common, long-term goals
40
Contingency theory of leadership
the theory that leadership effectiveness depends both on how task-oriented or relationship-oriented the leader is, and on the amount of control and influence the leader has over the group
41
Task-oriented leader
a leader who is concerned more with getting the job done than with the feelings of and relationships among the workers
42
Relationship-oriented leader
a leader who is concerned with the feelings of and relationships among the workers
43
Social Dilemmas
a conflict in which the most beneficial action for an individual, if chosen by most people, will have harmful effects on everyone; prisoner's dilemma
44
tit-for-tat strategy
a means of encouraging cooperation by at first acting cooperatively but then always responding the way your opponent did, on the previous trial
45
Increase cooperation
tit-for-tat strategy, trust individual, cooperation strategy, consistent contributors (free-loader problem); threats are not effective
46
Negotiation
a form of communication between opposing sides in a conflict, in which offers and counter-offers are made and a solution occurs only when both parties agree (assume wants are obvious, bias towards opponent)
47
Integrative solution
a solution to a conflict whereby the parties make trade-offs on issues according to their different interests; each side concedes the most on issues that are unimportant to it but are important to the other side
48
Reward model of attraction
we are attracted to things we find rewarding
49
Propinquity effect
the finding that the more we see and interact with people, the more likely they are to become our friends; physical and functional distance, mere exposure effect; can also increase dislike (if you already dislike them)
50
Familiarity
attracted to those we are familiar with; when they go from neutral to positive they are more attractive, more attractive with mere exposure
51
Moreland and Beach (1992) - Woman in Classroom
had a female confederate attend a class either 0, 5, 10, or 15 times; attractiveness level increased as exposure to individual increased
52
Alphabet example
more attracted to commonly used letters
53
Similarity
we like people who are of similar social status and characteristics because it is comforting; couples tend to be alike; attitudes and values, activity preferences, personality, interpersonal & communication style; attraction can lead to illusion of similarity; over complementarity
54
Reciprocal Liking
when you like someone and that person also likes you; can make up for the absence of similarity, self-fulfilling prophecy, need to like yourself first
55
Beauty
we like people who are good looking; good looks equals good genes, visible beauty is nice to look at; often overcomes other conditions of attraction, consciously and unconsciously; influence first impressions, strongest predictor of desirable, will not admit how important we think good looks are for fear of sounding superficial
56
What is attractive?
the media tells us what is attractive; beauty is associated with goodness, share a set of criteria for defining beauty; baby face features (warmth, youth, nurturance), signs of sexual maturity; visual point of view, smiling faces, size of feet, length of legs, 2D:4D ratio; standards of beauty are generally cross-cultural
57
Beautiful is good stereotype
attractive people receive preferential treatment; takes place across lifespan, large effects on perceptions of social competence; self-fulfilling prophecy
58
What is not rewarding?
upwards social comparisons are not rewarding; comparing ourselves to those who are too attractive can lower SE
59
The pratfall effect
when someone goofs, tends to humanize a person who is seemingly perfect, reinforces a 'doofus' factor for the not so attractive
60
Trivia Bowl Experiment (Aronson)
asked subjects to listen to an audio recording of a trivia bowl (answering a trivia question) and manipulated for two variables; the competence of the person answering the question (perfect vs. incompetent); at the end of the interview, there is either just a goodbye or the sounds of the person doing something clumsy; how much would you like to get to know this person?
61
Trivia Bowl Experiment Results
With no pratfall, the competent person was not significantly more attractive than the incompetent person
With pratfall, the competent person’s attractiveness increases significantly, the incompetent person’s attractiveness decreases significantly so that they are not attractive at all
62
misattribution of arousal
the process whereby people make mistaken inferences about what is causing them to feel the way that they do
63
Capilano Park Study (Dutton and Aron)
suspension bridge vs. secure bridges - manipulated arousal level (naturally) by having an attractive male or an attractive female approach a potential subject either in the middle of the low bridge (low arousal) or in the middle of the high bridge (high arousal) and asks them if they are willing to participate in a psychology study, where they have to look at a vague image of a man and woman (a TAT) and tell a story about what is happening in the image. The story is coded for sexual imagery to determine level of attraction to the participant. Subject is given the number of the researcher. Test for whether or not the person calls.
64
Capilano Park Study Results
TAT Stories - Gloria gets more sex talk than Al in both conditions, which increases in the high arousal condition, as opposed to a deacrease for Al in the high arousal condition
Phone Calls - low phone calls for both in low arousal condition; phone call increases significantly for Gloria in high arousal condition
physiological arousal (being on a bridge) is attributed to attraction (to researcher)
65
White et al (1981) - Unattractive people and arousal
subjects told that they are doing a test on physical activity on perception; told to perform a physical activity (arousal) and then asked to watch a video on a female and give ratings on her characteristics and attractiveness. The same woman’s attractiveness level is manipulated through makeup. How attractive do they find her?
66
Unattractive people and arousal Results
In no arousal, attractive version is more attractive than the unattractive version; this gap significantly widens (in both directions) in arousal condition; Response Facilitation Theory - initial response is strengthened by arousal
67
Passionate Love
the feelings of intense longing, accompanied by physiological arousal, we feel for another person; when our love is reciprocated, we feel great fulfillment and ecstasy; but, when it is not, we feel sadness and dispair; characterized by obsession; passionate love scale
68
Companionate Love
the feelings of intimacy and affection we feel toward someone with whom our lives are deeply intertwined; can be applied to non-sexual relationships; has more value in collectivist cultures
69
Evolutionary Approach
an approach derived from evolutionary biology that states that men and women are attracted to different characteristics in each other because this maximizes their reproductive success; preferences survive if they optimize reproductive success; Males seek to propagate widely, women seek to propagate wisely
70
Parental Investment Theory
gametes are the main determinants of mating choices; expense of the egg will have consequences for how the female chooses to mate; cheapness of the sperm will have consequences for how the male chooses to mate;
females should be choosy because they must consider the expense of the egg; eggs are not as common, a baby takes a lot of internal energy during pregnancy, giving birth is a risk; a long-term investment
males have a minimal initial parental investment; can afford to be more opportunistic; not always opportunistic because they want to ensure that the offspring is raised properly, in which case they might be more choosy because settling down is expensive
71
Yankelovich Research Group Study
Question: would you prefer a great bargain on clothes or great sex?
evidence suggests that women say that they are not as interested in sex than men; tend to downplay sexuality
72
Buss & Schmidt (1993) - sexual opportunism
how many sex partners do you want in the next 30 years? - males desire to have more sex with more people than do women
Timing of sexual intercourse; how willing are you to have sex with someone based on how long you have known them? - men, again, are on average significantly more willing
73
Clarke and Hatfield (1989) - sexual opportunism
recruited good looking researchers and approach members of the opposite sex and ask the subjects if they want to g on a date with the individual, go back to the individuals apartment, or blatantly have sex with the individual
equal on the date; gender gap significantly increases when asked to go to apartment; gap increases greater when asked for sex
generally, men are more likely than women to take the opportunity to have sex
74
What Women Want
resources (need in evolutionary history to desire a mate that can provide for and shelter; increase survival of offspring); protection (ancestral history requires male protection of offspring; predation, other men); commitment (need to secure in place the things she needs to successfully raise offspring)
75
What Men Want
Looks (waist-to-hip ratio correlated with fertility, women with more feminine appearance are associated with more frequent ovulation, higher ease of getting and staying pregnant, more sperm-friendly pH balance in uterus); Sexual Faithfulness (if she is having babies you want it to be your baby; sexual infidelity is unviable, female promiscuity is a turn of in terms of mating, assessment of faithfulness when the male is choosy and looking to settle, why females are more likely to understate how many sexual partners they've had)
76
attachment theory
the theory that our behaviour in adult relationships is based on our experiences as infants with our parents as caregivers; relationships generalize to other relationships; insecurity tends to result in a self-fulfilling prophecy
77
Attachment Styles
the expectations people develop about relationships with others based on the relationships they had with their primary caregiver when they were infants; reflects how people handle conflict, coping strategies; may be seen as schemas
78
Secure attachment
an attachment style characterized by trust, a lack of concern with being abandoned, and the view that one is worthy and well-liked
79
Avoidant Style
an attachment style characterized by a suppression of attachment needs, because attempts to be intimate have been rebuffed; people with this style find it difficult to develop intimate relationships
80
Fearful Avoidant Style
a type of avoidant attachment in which close relationships are avoided because of mistrust and fears of being hurt
81
Dismissive avoidant style
a type of avoidant attachment in which the person is self-sufficient and claims to not need close relationships
82
Anxious/Ambivalent attachment style
an attachment style characterized by a concern that others will not reciprocate ones desire for intimacy, resulting in higher-than-usual levels of anxiety
83
Social Exchange theory
the theory that how people feel about a relationship depends on their perceptions of the rewards and costs of the relationship they deserve, and the probability that they could have a better relationship with someone else
84
Reward/Cost Ratio
the notion that there is a balance between the rewards that comes from a relationship and the personal cost of maintaining the relationship; if the ratio is not favourable, the result is dissatisfaction with the relationship
85
Comparison Level
people's expectations about the levels of rewards and costs that they deserve in a relationship
86
Comparison Level for Alternatives
people's expectations about the level of rewards and punishments they would receive in an alternate relationship
87
Investment Model
the theory that people's commitment to a relationship depends on their satisfaction with the relationship in terms of rewards, costs, and comparison level; their comparison level for alternatives; and how much they have invested in the relationship that would be lost by leaving it
88
Equity Theory
the theory that people are happiest with the relationships in which the rewards and costs that a person experiences, and the contributions that he or she makes to the relationship are roughly equal to the rewards, costs and contributions of the other person
89
exchange relationships
relationships governed by the need for equity
90
Communal relationships
relationships in which people's primary concern is being responsive to the other person's needs
91
Commitment
relationship maintenance efforts, more forgiveness
92
Positive Illusions
idealization of our romantic relationships and partners in order to maintain the relationship; finding redeeming factors
93
Why Relationships End
factors of attraction, fatal attraction, social exchange (costs > rewards), loss of equity, boredom; avoidance/confrontation strategies, pain of breakup
94
Attitude
an evaluation of an object, person or idea; negative, positive, ambivalence; affective, cognitive, and behavioural components
95
Affectively based atttitude
an attitude based primarily on people's emotions and feelings about the attitude object; do not result from rational examination; linked to values; positive towards social group
96
Cognitively based attitudes
an attitude based primarily on a person's beliefs about the properties of an attitude object; negative towards social group
97
Behaviourally based attitude
an attitude based primarily on observations of how one behaves toward an attitude object; self-perception theory
98
Explicit attitudes
attitudes that we consciously endorse and easily report
99
Implicit Attitudes
attitudes that are involuntary, uncontrollable, and at times unconsious
100
Theory of Planned Behaviour
a theory that the best predictors of a person's planned, deliberate behaviours are the person's attitudes towards specific behaviours, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control; there have historically been low correlations between attitudes and behaviours in empirical research; need to ask specific questions
101
Cognitive Dissonance
a feeling of discomfort caused by the realization that one's behaviour is inconsistent with one's attitudes or that one holds two conflicting attitudes; causes discomfort and motivated for relief
102
Festinger et al. - When Prophecy Fails
Doomsday was going to wipe all of humanity except for this cult that would be rescued by aliens and then sent back to earth to repopulate; there was a specific date that was set for the event
researchers joined the cult to see what would happen to the cult when the event did not take place
what to do? Most would predict that the members would quit the cult and feel foolish for believing in it
103
When Prophecy Fails Results
the members stayed with the cult and found a new way to feel good about it; claimed that the existence of the cult saved the world; the cult leader did ‘guided writing’ and receives a message from god; feel good about saving the world and becomes more devoted
publicly speaking, more devotion
104
When Prophecy Fails - Possible Cognitions
1. I am a smart and reasonable person
2. I joined a cult
3. I joined this cult in order to escape from a great flood, be saved by aliens, and then return to re-populate the earth.
4. The flood never happened.
5. the aliens never came.
there is dissonance (and therefore distortion); change attitudes so that their attitudes do not clash with behaviours and therefore do not develop a negative self-concept
105
Cognitive Dissonance (According to Festinger)
arises out of psychological inconsistency (behaviour at odds with attitudes or self-concept); causes psychological and physiological discomfort (creates an arousal state; a drive state that motivates us to do anything we can to get rid of it)
106
Methods of Dissonance reduction
Attitude Change (automatic, unsconscious, creates consistency, especially if attitude is unimportant)
Motivated Reasoning Bias (controlled, add new cognitions, creates consistency)
Change Behaviour
107
Aronson and Mills - Attitude Change
how do people enjoy clubs and groups if the membership process was unpleasant?
invited female participants in an experiment; came individually and randomly assigned them to either initiated or not initiated to become a part of a group; told they were in an experiment on group discussion on the topic of sex (this is because it’s an interesting but taboo topic); in the initiation condition, the participant has to read a passage about sex out loud to test for ‘embarrassment’; in the severe condition the participant had to read aloud 12 obscene words and view porn; mild condition had to say less obscene sex words
108
Aronson and Mills - Results/Cognitions
Cognitions: Severe
1. that discussion was very boring
2. i went through a very embarrassing initiation to get into it
Dissonance - distortion of attitude 1 (easiest to distort)
Cognitions: Mild
1. that discussion was very boring
2. i went through a mildly embarrassing initiation to get into it (no dissonance, no distortion)
109
Festinger and Carlsmith - Attitude Change
recruited for measures of performance; have to wait for experimenter; told that the experiment takes an hour but has been scheduled for 2; intro psych students conduct interviews while waiting; asked to take place in another study that consists of two extremely boring activities
two groups: Control vs. Lie; some subjects not told to say something to the other group; some paid $1 to tell a lie to another subject and say that the expedient is interesting; some paid $20 to lie
Following the experiment, subjects were asked: How enjoyable was the study you just participated in? Would you participate in a similar study again?
110
Festinger and Carlsmith - Results
Control group: did not enjoy the experiment and would not participate again
$20 group: a little more neutral than the control group
$1 group: found the experiment enjoyable and said they would participate again
111
Festinger and Carlsmith - Possible Cognitions
Cognitions: $1 Group
1. that experiment was boring
2. i told the next subject that it was great fun
3. I was only paid $1 to say that
Dissonance! and therefore distortion of 1st attitude
Cognitions: $20 group
1. that experiment was boring
2. i told the next subject it was great fun
3. I did this because I was paid $20
* no dissonance; no distortion
112
Motivated Reasoning Bias - Smoking Example (Cognitions)
Smokers:
I would like to live a healthy life into old age
I smoke
Smoking will ruin my health and perhaps even kill me
DISSONANCE! and therefore distortion of Attitude 3 (or attitude 2)
113
2 Reasons why Dissonance is so uncomfortable
psychological discomfort due to self-esteem threat
physiological discomfort due to heightened arousal; SE threat motivates DR to restore SE, raised arousal signals threat to SE and need to engage in DR
Both types of discomfort are necessary components of dissonance theory
114
Psychological Discomfort
we feel psychologically uncomfortable when we see ourselves acting stupidly or immorally; we feel sleazy; this harms our SE and so we engage in attitude change or motivated reasoning; if we can find another way to restore SE we do not need to engage in DR; manipulated Se (low) is associated with increased DR through attitude change; Manipulated SE (high) is associated with lack of DR through attitude change
115
Goffman - Repairing Self esteem
1. Make excuses - “I had no choice”
2. Make justifications - “They paid me; it was my job!”
3. Focus on whether our behaviour caused harm - “No one (important) was hurt!”
116
Counter-attitudinal Essay
arguing for something that is counter to your attitude; used to induce dissonance; technical aspect of this manipulation; convincing subjects to write a strong counter-attitudinal essay; convincing subjects that they chose (or not) to write the essay; convincing subjects that writing the essay was their job (or not)
117
Excuses and Justifications - Choice and Reward Example
Subjects write counter-attitudinal essays in favour of North Carolina law forbidding communists from speaking on college campuses (pre-tested subjects hate this law)
IVs: Excuse (Choice vs. No Choice); Justification (high vs. low reward)
DV: Attitude towards the law
118
Choice and Reward Example - Results/Cognitions
if the reward was high, there was no real evidence towards attitude change
those with low reward and had no choice still showed no evidence of attitude change
those with low reward but had a choice showed significant evidence for attitude change
Possible Cognitions:
1. i think Communists should be allowed on campus
2. i wrote an essay, for no real reward, saying that they shouldn’t be allowed on campus
3. I chose to write this essay
* Dissonance, and therefore distortion of #1
119
Harm - Magnitude of Harm Done Example
subjects write counter-attitudinal essays in favour of legalizing marijuana (pre-tested subjects are against legalization); the theory was that people would most likely change their attitude if they perceived harm done, that is, they convinced an undecided group to believe in something they were against
IVs: Justification (high vs. low reward); Harm done (intended audience: decided vs. undecided)
DV: agreement with marijuana should be legalized
120
Magnitude of Harm Done Example - Results/Cognitions
High reward - no attitude change
low reward; decided audience - no attitude change
low reward; undecided audience - attitude change
Possible Cognitions:
1. I don’t think that pot should be legalized
2. i wrote an essay for no real reward, saying that pot should be legalized
3. i wrote this essay for an undecided audience
4. i might change their minds
dissonance, and there distortion of #1
121
Harm - Done to Whom? Example
Replicate Festinger and Carlsmith
subjects are told they are going to do 4 brief experiments; told that they are randomly assigned to the order of experiments; watch what they think is a live interview with an experimenter and a subject
first task is watching the interview, which is really the manipulation of the perception of the person in the interview (total ass vs. super nice)
then the next step is the really boring peg turing task
Third task is to lie to a subject who is about to turn pegs and tell him it is really fun (you are telling the first person that was seen in an interview)
IVs: Liking for Victim (high vs. low); Harm Done (victim is convinced by lie; victim unconvinced by lie)
DV: Fourth: liking for task
122
Harm Done to Whom Example - Results/Cognitions
```
only changed attitudes if the person was liked and there was perceived harm done to him.
Possible Cognitions:
1. That experiment was boring
2. i told the next guy that it was great fun
3. i liked hm
4. he believed me
Dissonance
Possible Cognitions:
1. that experiment was boring
2. i told the next guy that it was great fun
3. he was a jerk
4. he believed me
i don’t care
```
123
Physiological Arousal
acts as a red flag that SE is threatened
124
Cooper et al. - Manipulated Arousal Example
Subjects told they are doing a short term memory task (tested on a list of non-sensical syllables)
told they are going to take a drug; all told they are going to take a placebo; manipulation of arousal
some take placebo, some take Speed, some take a tranq
then they go to a different experiment where they write a counter-attitudinal essay for the pardoning of Nixon (following the watergate scandal); manipulation of choice
fill out another anonymous survey about politics in general, and one of the questions includes a question about whether Nixon should be pardoned
then take another short term memory task
IVs: Arousal (placebo vs. low vs. high); Excuse (high vs. low choice)
DVs: Should nixon be pardoned?; Perception of choice
125
Cooper et al. Results/Cognitions
Placebo: no arousal when there is low choice; increased attitude change with high choice
Tranq: no attitude change regardless of choice
Speed: significant attitude change regardless of choice;
those with heightened arousal had a high perception of choice (regardless of the manipulation)
Possible Cognitions:
1. I don’t think Nixon should be pardoned
2. i chose to write an essay arguing that nixon should be pardoned
3. i feel extremely agitated
Dissonance!
126
Post-Decision Dissonance
Dissonance that is inevitably aroused after a person makes a decision; such dissonance is typically reduced by enhancing the attractiveness of the chosen alternative and devaluing the rejected alternatives; increased if the decision is permanent; decision to behave immorally can influence moral value system
127
Justification Effort
the tendency for individuals to increase their liking for something they have worked hard to attain
128
External justification
a person's reason or explanation for dissonant behaviour that resides outside the individual (i.e. to receive a large reward or avoid severe punishment)
129
Internal justification
the reduction of dissonance by changing something about oneself (attitude or behaviour)
130
Counter-attitudinal advocacy
the process that occurs when a person states an opinion or attitude that runs counter to his or her private belief or attitude; used to tackle social problems; induction of hypocrisy; insufficient punishment
131
Rationalization Trap
the potential for dissonance reduction to produce a succession of self-justifications that ultimately result in a chain of stupid or immoral actions
132
Self-Affirmation theory
a theory suggesting that people will reduce the impact of a dissonance-arousing threat to their self-concept by focusing on and affirming their competence on some dimension unrelated to the threat; boost SE, remind of morals
133
Positive Self-Esteem (according to Rosenberg's Self Esteem Scale)
on the whole i am satisfied with myself, i feel that i have a number of good qualities, i am able to do things as well as most other people, i take a positive attitude toward myself;
134
Negative Self-Esteem (according to Rosenberg's Self Esteem scale)
at times think i am no good at all, i feel o do not have mush to be proud of, i certainly feel useless at times, all in all i am inclined to feel that i am a failure.
135
Individualists and SE
define themselves in terms of personal traits
give priority to own goals
Answers to “Who am I?”: i am outgoing, i am smart, i am funny, i am a great doctor
Self: the self is most important, but agents (family, school, peers, etc.) are only interacting, not integrated
self-esteem is extremely important
136
Collectivists and SE
define themselves in terms of relationships with other people
give priority to group goals
Answers to “Who am I?” i am a father, i am a buddhist, i am Japanese
Self: agents are a part of the self
self esteem is not that important; do not experience SE (and maintaining strategies) the same as individualists
137
3 Sources of Evidence for Self-Esteem
Most people have high self-esteem
Most people engage in cognitive biases to enhance or maintain their self-esteem
Most people will do whatever it takes to maintain a positive self-esteem
138
Most people have a high Self-Esteem
like a standard deviation, but skewed higher; there are small correlations between SE and actual success, but there are large correlations between SE and self- perceived success, even larger correlation between SE and self-perceived success on SE-relevant tasks
we recognize the things that we are good at as important to us and therefore are biased
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Cognitive Biases
enhance and maintain SE; encoding/recall bias, definitional bias, self-serving attributional bias, positivity bias, unrealistic optimism, illusory control over good events
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Encoding/recall bias
preferentially forget failures and preferentially remember success
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Definitional Bias
definitions vary from person to person, subjective traits vs. objectively observable traits
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Self-Serving Attributional Bias
tendency to take more credit of things that go well than blame for things that do not; internal attributions for success, external attributions for failures
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Positivity bias
unrealistically positive view of self on the way you rate yourself on subjective traits; above average effect
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unrealistic optimism
beliefs about likelihood to get cancer, divorcing, doing well in school (that won't happen to me; I'm doing better than most)
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Illusory control over events example
control over success, do not have control over failures; lottery ticket example
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Doing Whatever it takes
associating with winners, some successful other, boosts SE; dissociating with losers, from people who's failures hurt SE; basking in reflected glory
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Cialdini - Arizona State U. Football
factors predicting association and dissociation; take a phone quiz on university and received false feedback on trivia test (success, failure, no feedback control), then asked how the team played this week (check for associative language, i.e. we vs. they)
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Cialdini - Results
Success condition - no difference in the use of the word ‘we’ in wins or losses
Control condition - willingness to reject the team when they lose (dissociation protects SE)
Failure condition - over associates with winning team (to boost SE) and rejects team when they lose
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Tesser's 2 Factor Self-Esteem Model
how relevant the task is to our self-esteem
how close we are to the person who we are comparing to
Bask: high relevance and distant relationship; low relevance and close relationship
Don’t care: low relevance and distant relationship
Compare: high relevance and close relationship (this is where self-esteem is at stake)
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Self-Handicapping
sometimes we’ll even hurt ourselves to preserve our self-esteem; setting up an excuse for a failure that we think is going to happen; make it less likely to be successful, then blame the failure on the handicap, if you succeed even with the handicap, you can get a major SE boost
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Berglas and Jones - Drug Test
students came into lab and were tested for new drugs; took a cognitive test, take a drug, and take the test again (one 'drug' is a cognitive enhancer, the other is a cognitive disruptor)
either got a really hard test or really easy test, told that they did well either way; those who took the easy test understandably did well, those who took the hard test doubt that they will do well again (which would lower SE)
DV: % choosing disruptive dug
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Drug Test - Results
those who take the easy test rarely take the disruptor
| those who take the difficult test take the disruptor (so that when they don’t do well there is no big deal)
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automatic thinking
thinking that is nonconscious, unintentional, involuntary, and effortless; to create shortcuts
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Schemas
mental structures people use to organize their knowledge about the social world around themes or subjects and that influence the information people notice, think about, and remember; process info, fill in the blanks, stereotypes; influenced by culture; understand ambiguous info; resistant to change
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accessibility
the extent to which schemas and concepts are at the forefront of people's minds and are therefore likely to be used when making judgments about the social world; past experience, related to current goal, recent experiences
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Priming
the process by which recent experiences increase the accessibility of a schema, trait, or concept; must be accessible and applicable, how we perceive others and our behaviour
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Self-Fulfilling prophecy
the case whereby people have an expectation about what another person is like, which influences how they act toward that person, which, in turn, causes that person to behave consistently with their original expectations
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Judgmental heuristics
mental shortcuts people use to make judgments quickly and efficiently;
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Availability Heuristic
a mental shortcut whereby people base a judgment on the ease with which they can bring something to mind; not always right (not typical), sometimes used on self
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Representativeness Heuristic
a mental shortcut whereby people classify something according to how similar it is to a typical case
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Base rate Information
information about the frequency of members of different categories in the population
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Controlled Thinking
thinking that is conscious, intentional, voluntary and effortful; can be turned on or off, requires limited mental energy
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Counterfactual thinking
mentally changing some aspect of the past as a way of imagining what might have been; especially when you just missed something negative, regret, increases distress; not always intentional; useful if it helps people focus on way to cope better int he future, self-improvement over self-enhancement
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Thought suppression
the attempt to avoid thinking about something a person would prefer to forget
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Overconfidence barrier
the barrier that results when people have too much confidence in the accuracy of their judgments; people's judgments are usually not as correct as they think they are
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Analytic Thinking Style
a type of thinking in which people focus on the properties of objects without considering their surrounding context; common in western cultures
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Holistic Thinking Style
a type of thinking in which people focus on the overall context, particularly the ways in which objects relate to one another; this type of thinking is common in East asian cultures
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Self-concept
the contents of the self; that is, our knowledge about who we are
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Self-Awareness
the act of thinking about ourselves; evidence in non-human species, children as young as 2; self-control is limited under stress
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Self-Schemas
an organized body of knowledge about the self (attitudes, preferences, traits) that influences what people notice, think about, and remember about themselves
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Self-reference effect
the tendency for people to remember information better if they relate it to themselves; can create memory biases
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Self-Concept clarity
the extent to which knowledge about the self is stable, and clearly and consistently defined
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Independent view of self
defining oneself in terms of one's own internal thoughts, feelings, and actions, and not in terms of the thoughts, feelings and actions of other people
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Interdependent view of self
defining oneself in terms of one's relationships to other people; recognizing that one's behaviour is often determined by the thoughts, feelings, and actions of other people
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Introspection
the process whereby people look inward and examine their own thoughts, feelings and behaviours; not as common as we think
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Relational interdependence
focus more on close relationships, such as romantic partner, a friend, or child; more common for women than men
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self-awareness theory
the idea that when people focus their attention on themselves, they evaluate and compare their behaviour with their internal standards and values; self-scrutiny, aware of disparities, escapism
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outsider perspective of self
viewing self through the eyes of other people; collectivistic cultures
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insider perspective of self
focus on own private experiences without considering how other people see them; individualistic cultures
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Causal theories
theories about how the causes of one's own feelings and behaviours; typically, we learn such theories from our culture; used to explain away behaviour, not always accurate, incorrect schemas lead to incorrect judgments of causes
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self-perception theory
the theory that when our attitudes and feelings are uncertain or ambiguous, we infer these states by observing our behaviour and the situation in which it occurs; how you really feel vs. the situation
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Intrinsic motivation
the desire to engage in an activity because we enjoy it or find it interesting, not because of external rewards or pressures; increases persistence, relationships
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Extrinsic Motivation
the desire to engage in an activity because of the external rewards or pressures, not because we enjoy the task or find it interesting
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Over-justification Effect
the case whereby people view their behaviour as caused by compelling extrinsic reasons, making them underestimate the extent to which their behaviour was caused by intrinsic motivation; not always a bad thing if there is no initial interest to undermine
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Task-contingent rewards
rewards that are given for performing a task, regardless of how well the task is done
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Performance-contingent rewards
rewards that are given based on how well we perform the task; less likely to decrease interest, done without causing apprehension of evaluation
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looking-glass self
the idea that we see ourselves through the eyes of other people and incorporate their views into our self-concept; approving or disapproving mental audience
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Social Comparison theory
the idea that we learn about our abilities and attitudes by comparing ourselves to other people; when there is no objective standard and when you experience uncertainty about yourself in a particular area, similar to them in the dimension in question
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Downward social comparison
the process whereby we compare ourselves with people who are worse than we are in a particular trait or ability; need to view ourselves positively, boost SE, comparison to past self, only if we are not vulnerable to the other person's negative outcomes
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Upward Social Comparison
the process whereby we compare ourselves with people who are better than we are in a particular trait or ability; usually threatening to SE, can be inspiring if comparing 'usual' self rather than 'best' self
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Self-Discrepancy Theory
the theory that we become distressed when our sense of self is discrepant from our personal standards or desired conceptions; reflected ideal (depressive symptoms) self and ought self (anxiety-related symptoms) esp. when we are self-aware; self-justifications, reassess situation
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Self-Enhancement
an unrealistically positive view of self; false uniqueness, above average effect; collectivists engage in self-effacement
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Self-Verification Theory
A theory suggesting that people have a need to seek confirmation of their self-concept, whether the self-concept is positive or negative; in some circumstances, this tendency can conflict with the desire to uphold a favourable view of oneself; do not want to interact with people who view us differently, depends on dimension being evaluated and relationship with person evaluating us
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Social Perception
the study of how we from impressions of other people and make inferences about them; critical in first impression making
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Non-Verbal comunication
the way in which people communicate, intentionally or unintentionally, without words; nonverbal cues include facial expressions, tone of voice, gestures, body position and movement, the use of touch, and eye gaze; not limited to humans, mimicry (may reflect empathy), mirror neurons; reflect attitudes, emotions, personality traits
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Encode
to express of emit nonverbal behaviour, such as smiling or petting someone on the back
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Decode
to interpret the meaning of the nonverbal behaviour other people express, such as deciding that a pat on the back was an expression of condescension and not kindness; evolutionary significance; happiness, sadness, fear, surprise, anger, disgust
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Affect Blend
a facial expression in which on part of the face registers one emotion while the other registers a different emotion
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Display Rules
culturally determined rules about which emotional expressions are appropriate to show
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Emblems
nonverbal gestures that have understood definitions within a given culture; usually have direct verbal translations, such as the okay sign
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Implicit Personality Theory
a type of schema people use to group various kinds of personality traits together; for example, many people believe that if someone is kind, he or she is generous as well; can lead us astray, can be culturally specific
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Attribution
quick decisions about why certain things have happened; make our lives simple, easy to make sense of the world around us and why; used to help understand others' behaviours and our own behaviours and emotions
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Attribution Theory
a description of the way in which people explain the causes of their own behaviour and other people's behaviour; can have consequences
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Internal Attribution
the inference that a person is behaving in a certain way because of something about him or her, such as their attitude, character or personality
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External Attribution
the inference that a person is behaving in a certain way because of something about the situation; the assumption is that most people would respond the same way in that situation
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Covariation Model
a theory stating that to form an attribution about what caused a person's behaviour, we systematically note the pattern between the presence or absence of possible causal factors and whether or not the behaviour occurs (Internal when consensus and distinctiveness are low and consistency is high; external when all high; situational when consistency is low); make inferences when missing situational data
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Consensus information
info about the extent to which other people behave the same way as the actor does toward the same stimulus
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Distinctiveness Information
info about the extent to which one particular actor behaves in the same way to different stimuli
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Consistency Information
info about the extent to which the behaviour between one actor and one stimulus is the same across time and circumstances
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Correspondence Bias
the tendency to infer that people's behaviour corresponds to or matches their disposition; blaming the victim, situational information is not always available
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Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE)
correspondence bias; dispositional attributions while ignoring situational factors; easy to see; has many consequences regarding impression formation and interpreting others' knowledge
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Jones and Harris - Interpreting FAE
IV: condition under which Fred wrote essay:
* free choice
* no choice
* coin flip
* was provided with arguments
* copied an essay written by someone else
* read the essay aloud, but didn’t write it
DV: rating of Fred’s attitude toward Castro (negative to positive)
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Jones and Harris - Results
tendency to discredit the fact that Fred had no choice, even when there was no free choice participants still assumed that what he wrote reflected how he felt about Castro (internal attribution Error)
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Miller - Cross Cultural Differentiation
participant given stories and asked to explain why the person did what they did
dispositional is more prominent and increases in age in western culture, the same is true for situational for collectivists
based on different views of self and culture; how we learn to explain the events around us
the increase in behaviour in age suggests that these behaviours are learned
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Perceptual Salience
information that is the focus of people's attention; people tend to overestimate the causal role of perceptually salient information
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Two-Step process of attribution
analyzing another person's behaviour first by making an automatic internal attribution and only then thinking about possible situational reasons for their behaviour, after which one may adjust the original internal attribution (second step happens when we slow down and consciously think, are motivated to be accurate or are suspicious)
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Actor-Observer Bias
the tendency to see other people's behaviour as dispositionally caused, while focusing more on the role of situational factors when explaining one's own behaviour
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Jones and Nisbett on the Actor-Observer Bias
Observable across situations, but most consistently in situations that make people look bad/silly/etc. Why?
makes you feel better about yourself - downward social comparison
able to externalize and protect self-esteem if you behave badly
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Actor-Observer Bias - Mechanism
knowledge of the actor - we know ourselves well; if we don’t know them well we do not know their predispositions
the better we know someone the more likely we are to think situationally
point of view (perceptual) - we notice our situation; it is perceptually salient
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Nisbet et al. - Knowledge of the Actor
Does how well we know someone affect our likelihood of viewing them dispositionally vs. situationally?
IV: knowledge of Target (Self, best friend, acquaintance, Walter Cronkite)
DV: Rating of target on trait descriptors (% dispositional vs. % situational)
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Knowledge of the Actor - Results
the self was significantly more situational than the rest; increasingly more dispositional as knowledge of the actor decreases
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Lassiter and Irvine - POV
IV: POV (video focused on suspect/disposition, on detective/situation, or both)
DVs: Coercion (1-9), Attributions re. suspect’s behaviour
coercion increased when video focus moves away from suspect; dispositional attributions increase in this same way
Later replication DV: likelihood of guilt
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Diner & Walburn - Effects of POV on Own Behaviour
when we view ourselves as others do, we have a high self-awareness
IV: POV (mirror vs. no mirror)
DV: % Cheating
results; likelihood of cheating drops significantly when there is a mirror in place and thus high self-awareness
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Two-Factor Theory of Emotion (Schachter)
We deduce out emotional state by assessing out physiological arousal and the situation; Our assessment usually leads to correct attributions (ex. high arousal + running from bear = fear); BUT: our assessment can also lead to false attributions, thereby creating emotions we might not otherwise have had (high arousal + people laughing = joy)
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Schachter and Singer - Evidence of Two-Factor Theory
IVs: Arousal (placebo, epi-informed, epi-uninformed); situation (euphoria vs. anger conditions)
DV: Emotion (self report; facial expression)
Results: the placebo and epi-informed groups were not angry or euphoric in their respective conditions; but the epi-uninformed group were very angry and very euphoric
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Self-Serving Attributions
explanations for one's successes that credit internal, dispositional factors and explanations for one's failures that blame external, situational factors (when one's SE is threatened)
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Defensive Attributions
explanations for behaviour that avoid feelings of vulnerability and mortality
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Belief in a Just World
a form of defensive attribution wherein people assume that bad things happen to bad people and that good things happen to good people; higher power, motivated to invest in future
