Human Relationships - terminology Flashcards
Cooperation
Groups or individuals working together for mutual benefit.
Competition
Groups or individuals working against each other for selfish benefit.
Free-riding
A possible cause for decrease in cooperation as group size increases. A free rider is in an individual who contributes little to nothing to a joint endeavour but nonetheless garners the same benefits as others who contribute their fair share. The resentment caused by them can hamper the efficiency if a froup working on a collective task.
Deindividuation
A feeling of being anonymous in a large group which decreases the likelihood of people conforming to group norms. Another cause for decrease in cooperation.
Cultural priming
Tests how brain activities underlying various cognitive/affective processes are modulated by recent exposure to specific cultural symbols or activation of specific cultural values/beliefs.
Social Comparison
The tendency to look at how others are behaving and thus adapting our behaviour (social loafing, free-rider effect, sucker effect).
Social Loafing
The reduction of individual effort that occurs when people work in groups compared to when they work alone.
Sucker effect
A phenomenon in which individuals reduce their personal investment in a group endeavour because of their expectation that others will think negatively of them for working too hard or contributing rio much (considering them to be a sucker).
Prejudice
A preconceived judgment, opinion or attitude directed toward certain people based on their membership in a particular group
Discrimination
An act, policy, practice, or social structure that creates, maintains, or reinforces an advantage for some groups and their members over other groups and their members
Implicit bias
A non-conscious automatic bias.
Threatened self perception
When our ego is threatened, our self-esteem drops. It is a reason why intergroup discrimination occurs, we use it to restore our self-esteem.
Integrated threat theory
Argues that prejudice has 3 components:
- Stereotyping: creates expectations about the out-group which lead to prejudice.
- Realistic threats: competition for economic resources.
- Symbolic threats: threats to one’s culture as a result of integrating people of an out-group which different social norms, morals and values than the existing group.
Contact hypothesis
Argues that prejudice can be reduced if the majority has positive contact experiences with members of a minority group. Some criteria for positive contact: equal status, cooperation, common goals, social or institutional support.
Minimal group paradigm
Minimal circumstances for discrimination to occur.
Enculturation
The process through which we learn about the culture we live in
Acculturation
The psychological and cultural adjustment that occurs within individuals, families, and cultural groups who come into contact with others from different cultural backgrounds
Social Identity Theory
Accepts that conflict can exist between groups simply because those groups exist.
Realistic group conflict theory
States that group membership and competition for limited resources may lead to conflict.
Morton-Deutsch theory
Lists 4 specific factors as important for understanding conflict resolution:
-Cooperative orientation
-Reframing
- Norms of cooperation
- Underlying values
Cooperative orientation
A win-win approach facilitates resolution, while a win-lose orientation does not.
Reframing
Reframing the conflict as a mutual problem, to be solved through mutual effort.
Norms of cooperation
Same norms as toward friends: respectful, responsible, honest, empowering, and caring behaviour.
Underlying values
Include reciprocity, equality, community, nonviolence.
Social cognitive theory
States that we learn by observing others and argues that conflict can be reduced by observational learning.
The Sabido Method
A theoretical model for stimulating positive change in social attitudes and behaviours through commercial television and radio programming.
Altruism
Willingness to do things that bring advantages to others, even if it results in disadvantage for yourself.
Reciprocal altruism
Acting in ways which mutually benefit one another.
Kin selection theory
A type of natural selection in which individuals engage in altruistic behavior towards their relatives. Can explain why we care about the survivial of our own species but not why we help those of other species,
Bystander effect
Theorises that in the face of emergence, people are less likely to help if there are multiple others present.
Diffusion of responsibility
Happens when people think that someone else will help when there is an emergency.
Factors that influence bystanderism (latane and darley)
- Diffusion if responsibility
- Informational social influence: A form of conformity in which we figure out how to behave watching the behaviour of others.
- Evaluation apprehension: The fear of social criticism for helping in a situation where helping was unnecessary.
Social categorization
Refers to categorisation of ourselves and others into groups in order to simplify a complex world.
Self-disclosure
The act if revealing personal and intimate details about oneself to another person.
Social penetration theory
- the orientation stage (small talk)
- The exploratory stage (reveal more but safe)
- The affective stage (more personal)
- The stable stage (high degree of trust)
Relationship enhancing pattern
Happy couples tend to engage in relationship enhancing patterns. They dont blame their partner when there is a disagreement, they rather blame the situation.
Distress-maintaining pattern
Couples who are unhappy tend to blame their partner more when something is going wrong. They also tend not to give them praise for positive behaviours.
Inclusive fitness theory
A method of measuring evolutionary success. It is the ability of an individual to transmit genes to the next generation, including genes shared with relatives. In accordance with this rule, an individual’s inclusive fitness can depend, in part, on altruistic behavior and cooperation.
Parental investment theory
The sex that is physiologically required to invest more in offspring evolves to be more choosy regarding mates, because a mating error (mating with a low-quality or noninvesting partner) is more costly to that sex.
Androstadienone
A potential candidate human sex pheromone that is associated with social dominance and competition
Estratetraenol
The hormone sends olfactory signals of high fertility in pregnant and ovulating women that presents and highlights attractive qualities in those women to potential mates.
The Halo Effect
A cognitive bias that claims that positive impressions of people, brands, and products in one area positively influence our feelings in another area.
Similarity Attraction Hypothesis
Suggests that when choosing a partner, people tend to look for similarities between them, such as cultural background, values, beliefs, etc.
The mere exposure effect
Proposes that the more you “are exposed” to a person, the more you like them, as you feel they are more part of your in-group.
Equity theory
Suggests that people are more satisfied with a relationship in which there is equal give and take by both parties.
