Final Exam: Social Psychology Flashcards
Social Psychology
The study of how people influence other behavior, beliefs, and attitudes
Need to belong theory
states there is a biologically based need for interpersonal connections
- when we are deprived of social contact for a considerable amount of time, we become lonely
Social facilitation or disruption
enhancement of easy tasks or disruption of difficult ones, elicited by the presence of others
Social Facilitation Ex)
If you work out regularly, working our at a gym will motivate you to work harder
Social Disruption Ex)
If you never or rarely work out at a gym having others around may make you more anxious, and therefore, more prone to perform poorly
Attribution
Process of assigning causes to behavior
-when we try to figure out why other people or why we ourselves did something, we are making attributions
Internal attribution
inside the person
External attribution
outside the person
Fundamental attribution error
tendency to OVERESTIMATE the impact of dispositional/internal influences (personality, attitudes, intelligence) on other people’s behavior
- because of this error, we attribute too much of people’s behavior to who they are and too little of their behavior to what is going on around them
Social comparison theory
we evaluate our beliefs, attitudes, and abilities by comparing ourselves to others (how do I stack up??)
Mass Hysteria
Outbreak of irrational behavior that is spread by social contagion
ex) Halloween night 1938 a radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds- people thought there was an alien invasion of sorts
Urban Legends
Demonstrate the power of social influence
- tap into out emotions (usually negative)
ex) bloody mary
Conformity
tendency of people to change their behavior as a result of group influence
Solomon Asch’s Experiments
Experiment with comparison lines. Must identify which lines are the same as the standard line. Confederates in the group would pick the wrong line each time to see if the person being experimented on would conform
Asch Paradigm and conformity
- Unanimity= if all subjects gave the same wrong answer, the participant was more likely to conform
- Diff Wrong Answer Given= a confederate gives an incorrect answer different than the other confederates, a participant is less likely to conform
- Size of Majority= as long as there were at least 5 or 6 people, people conformed
Individual and Cultural Differences (Asch Paradigm)
- Low self-esteem= people with low self-esteem are more prone to conformity
- Asians vs Americans= Asians are more likely to conform. Likely because Asian cultures are more collectivist than the individualistic American culture.
Groupthink
emphasis on group consensus at the expense of critical thinking and sound decision making
Groupthink: Challenger explosion
1986 space shuttle exploded 73 seconds after
take-off. Engineers warned against launching on bitterly cold days
because certain parts could fail. Project managers went on with the
launch. They were all confident of their decision to move forward. No
one dared challenge management.
How to prevent groupthink
groups should encourage dissenting (conflicting) opinions.
designate a person to play devil’s advocate
Symptoms of groupthink
- illusion of the group’s invulnerability
- illusion of groups unanimity
- and unquestioned belief in the group’s moral correctness
- conformity pressure= pressure on group members to go alone w everyone else
- self-censorship
- mindguards= self-appointed individuals whose job it is to stifle disagreement
Cults and Brainwashing
they promote groupthink in 4 ways:
- Employing persuasive leadership that fosters loyalty
- Disconnecting group members from the outside world
- discouraging questioning of leadership
- gradually indoctrinating new members
Cult
groups of individuals who exhibit intense and unquestioning devotion to a single cause
-in many cases they are devoted to one charismatic individual
Unification Church Cult
Rev. Sun Yung Moon= united thousands of total strangers in. mass wedding ceremonies
couples determined by leadership pairing of photos
Deindividuation
the tendency of people to engage in atypical behavior when stripped of their usual identities
- anonymity and lack of individual responsibility
- deindividuation makes one more vulnerable to social influences
Stanford Prison Study
curious about dehumanizing
conditions in prison. Participants were assigned to be guards or
prisoners (deemphasizing their individuality). The study got out of hand
and was ended early. Was this the result of roles people adopted or
was it their personalities?
Obedience
Adherence to instructions from those of higher authority (vertical)
-obedience is essential in society, yet it can produce troubling consequences when people stop asking questions about why they are behaving as others want them to.
My Lai Massacre
soldiers following orders without thought during the Vietnam War. U.S. platoon ordered to open fire on 500 civilians ages 1-82. After, the soldier insisted they were just taking orders.
The Milgram Paradigm
wanted to understand irrational behavior (e.g. how the holocaust could have occurred?)
-People wanted to say Nazis=mentally ill, but Milgram sensed this was not the case.
Milgram’s Finding
Good people can do very evil things or behave irrationally
- Compliance decreased with greater psychological distance between teacher and experimenter
- compliance increased with increasing psychological distance
- compliance is negatively correlated with moral development (more moral= more likely to defy)
- authoritarianism= participants/teachers were more likely to go all the way
Is human nature good or bad
It is a blend of socially constructive and destructive tendencies
Bystander Nonintervention
safety in numbers isn’t always the case
- Kitty Genovese Stabbing
- Deletha Word beating
Pluralistic Ignorance
- look around, does anyone else think it is an emergency?
- It must be just me. No one else thinks it’s an emergency.
- It must not be an emergency
Diffusion of responsiblity
Passing the buck
-the more people present at an emergency, the less each person feels responsible for the negative consequences of not helping
Bystander Intervention
the percentage of people helping when in groups was markedly lower than the percentage of people helping when alone
Social Loafing
the phenomenon in which people slack off in groups
-“freeloaders”
Diffusion of responsiblity
in groups, individuals feel less responsible for the outcome
- people are more likely to hold back ideas due to fear of criticism
How to prevent social loafing
- ensure each person in the group is identifiable
- ex) by guaranteeing that managers/bosses can evaluate each individuals’ performance in a group project
Altruism
helping others selflessly
-ex) genuine altruism of the poor giving to the poor (role of empathy)
Situational Influences on Altruism
- More likely to help others if the possibility to avoid/escape situation is low
- victim characteristics= whether the victim is crippled or drunk matters
- mood= good mood -> more likely to assist others
- enlightenment effect= knowledgeable about bystander intervention
- Individual differences= people less concerned about social approval are more likely to help
- Men, less traditional, extraverted and med workers= more likely to help
Aggression: Why we hurt others
- interpersonal provocation
- frustration
- media influences= observational learning
- Aggressive cues (guns and knives-> stimulate aggression)
- Arousal
- Alcohol/Drugs= lower inhibition to behave violently
- temperature= warmer temps increase irritability
Aggression: personality traits
- Negativity (high level of negative emotions, e.g., mistrust)
- Impulsivity (act out without thinking)
- Lack of closeness with others
Aggression: Sex Differences
Sex differences
• Males are by far more physically aggressive
• Females engage in more relational aggression
Two Pathways to Persuading others: Central Route & Peripheral route
- evaluates merits thoughtfully
- snap judgments, we can be fooled by superficial factors such as how physically attractive, famous or likable the communicator is.
Foot in the door technique
involves making a small request before making a large one
Door in the face technique
involves making an unreasonably large request before making a small request we are hoping would be granted
Low ball technique
seller of a product starts by quoting a low sales price and then mentions all of the “add on: costs once the customer has agreed to purchase the product
Nature of Prejudice: Adaptive conservatism
distrust anything unfamiliar
- evolutionary origins
In group bias
tendency to favor individuals inside out-group relative to members outside f our group (e.g. fans at a football game)
Out-group homogeneity
tendency to view all people outside of our group as highly similar- they all share at least on undesirable characteristic
Prejudge
to arrive at a conclusion before we have evaluated all of the evidence
-prejudge is synonymous with prejudice
Prejudice (attitudes) vs discrimination (behaviors)
- prejudice can lead to discrimination
- consequences of discrimination: reducing opportunities
- ex) less women in major American orchestra
Stereotype
a belief, positive or negative, about the characteristics of members of a group that is applied generally to most members of the group
Why have stereotypes?
- Simplification of a social world and saves us mental energy
- everyone has stereotypes, but nonprejudiced people try to resist them
- Implicit stereotypes (unaware) vs explicit (aware) stereotypes
Scapegoat hypothesis
claim that prejudice arises form a need to blame other groups for our misfortune
just-world hypothesis
claim that our attributions and behaviors are shaped by a deep-seated assumption that the world is fair and all things happen for a reason
- people are poor because its what they choose to be
- blaming the victim mentality
Conformity
conformity to social norms
-may originate from the need for social acceptance or approval: the rejection of out-group
