Final Exam Flashcards
Altruism
The desire to help another person even if it involves a cost to the helper
Kin selection
The idea that behaviors that help a genetic relative are favored by natural selection. (Idea that people can pass down their genes not only by having their own children but also ensuring that their genetic relatives have children)
Social exchange theory- (Cost and rewards of helping)
SET argues that many of the things we do stem from the desire to maximize rewards and and minimize cost. Helping can be costly (physical pain or danger or embarrassment) but also rewarding (reciprocation)
Empathy and Altruism- (The pure motive for helping)
The idea that peoples motives are sometimes purely altruistic, their only goal is to help the other person, even if doing so involves some cost to them.
Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis
(Batson) When we feel empathy for another person, we will try attempt to help the person for purely altruistic reasons, regardless of what we have to gain.
Gender differences in pro social behavior
Males sex role includes being chivalrous and heroic, while woman are expected to be nurturant, caring and to value close, long-term relationships. Women are also more likely than men to provide social support and engage in volunteer work that involves helping others.
Cultural differences in pro social behavior
People in all cultures are more likely to help people of their “in-group”. But interdependent cultures consider the needs of their in group much higher then those of their out group and thus when compared to individualistic cultures, these people are less likely to help out group members.
Effects of mood on pro social behavior
Feel good, do good. Or feel bad, do good.
Pluralistic Ignorance
People think that everyone else is interpreting a situation in a certain way, when in fact, they are not.
Increasing the likelihood that bystanders will intervene
Studies showed that students who learned about the bystander intervention research were more likely to intervene when placed in a situation when compared to students who did not know.
Is aggression instinctual? Situational? Optional?
The Evolutionary Argument: aggression is genetically programmed into men.
Aggression and Culture
Human culture varies widely in degree of aggressiveness. Some primitive tribes in New Guinea live in peace and harmony with acts of violence being very rare.
Neural and chemical influences on aggression
Amygdala controls aggressive behaviors. Serotonin (too little can lead to increase in aggression) Testosterone (more can increase aggression- or aggression increases testosterone)
Gender and aggression
Men are more aggressive than women. Women are are less likely to be aggressively in nonprovocative circumstances than men are. Women also feel more guilt when they do commit acts of overt aggression than men.
Alcohol and aggression
Alcohol increases aggressive behavior (because is reduces social inhibitions)
Frustration and aggression
Frustration can increase aggressive responses
Frustration- Aggressive theory
Idea that frustration- the perception that you are being prevented from a goal- increases the probability of an aggressive response.
Violence in the media
Effects on children: the more violence children watch, the more they exhibit later as teenagers and young adults. Watching violence also effects adults. There is also a numbing effect from this (men who watch a lot of violence showed little physiological evidence of excitement, anxiety, etc.)
Violent pornography and violence against women
Studies indicate that exposure to violent pornography promotes greater acceptance of sexual violence.
Catharsis and Aggression
Catharsis is the notion that “blowing off steam”- by performing an aggressive act- relieves built up aggression energies, hence reduces the likelihood of further aggressive behavior. But the truth is that if people commit acts of aggression, it increases the tendency towards future aggression.
The effect of war on general aggression
When a nation is at war, its people are more likely to commit acts of aggression against one another.
Prejudice and self-esteem
One study found that African-American children were convinced that it was inferior to be black (when given the choice to pay with a white doll or a black doll) another study found that women regarded the output of other women to be inferior than when compared to men (reading articles signed by women or by men). In recent years discrimination has decreased sharply and therefore women and black have become more content with being a woman/being black.
What causes prejudice?
Thinking that people of a certain group are all pretty much the same. Individual traits or behaviors will go unnoticed.
The way we think: Social cognition
Social Categorization: Us vs. them, in-group bias, out-group homogeneity, failure of logic, stereotypes,
Illusory correlations
Tendency to see relationships or correlations, between events that are actually unrelated
Role of the scapegoat
Scapegoating - tendency for individuals, when frustrated or unhappy, to displace aggression onto groups that are disliked, visible and relatively powerless.
Institutionalized Racism
Racist attitudes that are held by the vast majority of people living in a society where stereotypes and discrimination are the norm.
Institutionalized sexism
Sexists attitudes that are held by the vast majority of people living in a society where stereotypes and discrimination are the norm.
Modern prejudice
People have learned to hide prejudice in order to avoid being labeled as a racist, but when the situation is safe, their prejudice is revealed.
Subtle sexism
Subtle form of prejudice against women.
Hostile sexism
Stereotypical views of women that suggest they are inferior to men.
Benevolent sexism
hold stereo typically positive views of women
How can prejudice be reduced?
Contact hypothesis, Jigsaw classroom
Perceived stress and heath
when people undergo a major upheaval in their lives, their chance of death go up.
Increasing perceived control in nursing homes
many people who end up in nursing homes feel like they have lost control of their lives, two different speeches, the people who felt like they had more control felt happier, healthier and more active
perceived control and mortality
when the nursing home residents had their control taken away it had negative effects on mortality rate
Knowing you can do it: self efficacy
SE is the belief in one’s ability to carry out specific actions that produce desired outcomes.
Learned helplessness
State of pessimism that results from attributing a negative event to stable, internal and global factors.
Stable attribution
belief that a certain even is caused by factors that will not change over time, as opposed to factors that will change over time
internal attribution
belief that an event is caused by things about you
Global attribution
belief that on event is caused by factors that apply in a large number of situations
Gender differences in coping with stress
Women respond to stress with nurturant activities
ABC’s of prejudice
A = Affect (prejudice)
B = Behavior (discrimination)
C = Cognitions (stereotypes)
Prejudice:
Positive or negative feeling about a person based on attitude about the person’s social group membership
Discrimination:
Unfair treatment of a person or group in comparison to others who are not members of the same social group
Stereotypes:
Attributes believed to describe a social group
Stereotype Threat:
Being scared about confirming the stereotype for your social group- threat
Stereotype Threat StudySteele & Aronson (1995)
When you don’t make it about the stereotype group, both groups perform equally but when said that there is a stereotype included in the test then the group with the stereotype will do worse
Personal stereotype:
you hold but a lot of people don’t hold, it’s not widely adopted. This is from your personal experience.
Consensual stereotype:
shared by a lot of people, widely adopted, these stereotypes have more power.
Labeled Lines StudyTajfel & Wilkes (1963)
Same lines side by side, one pair labeled the other not.
The labels caused participants to:
1. perceive the lines in group A as highly similar to to one another
2. perceive lines in group B to be highly similar to one another
3. perceive large differences between the line groups
Overestimate similarity within groups
(within category homogeneity)
Exaggerate differences between groups
(accentuation of inter-category difference)
