Introduction to Psychology Chapter 13 (Social Psychology) Flashcards
Explain the person bias
Because humans attribute too much information from behaviour to the personality, the circumstances of the enviroment are often neglected
people attribute bevaiour too personality even when they know that its only because of the situation
What is an attribution
An attribution is a claim about the reason for someones behaviour (causation)
In what situations is the person bias more used
When people are occupied by other tasks or when people deliberately are trying to judge someones personality
Adults from western countries attribute more to personality than people form eastern countries
Explain the attractiveness and baby face bias
Physical attractive people are assessed as more intelligent, social and moral, because attractivness is a sign of “good genes”
People with “babyfaces” are assessed as more honest helpless and warm, which is why people like them more, but these people are not voted as leaders.
Why are impressions on the internet rated better
Because people on the internet are less anxious and less biased by physical appearance when meeting first.
Biasing people by there appearance results in worse realtionships as people tend to be different than that
What are self-fulfilling prophecies and pygmalion effects?
When the beliefs and expectations of a person on another actually makes these beliefs come true because of extra attention and encouragement. This works because of schemas, as when we put something in one schema (like intelligence) we reason the results from other parts of the schema (like missunderstanding)
This can be seen at schools and work
Explain self esteem and mark learys theory about it
Ones feeling of aproval acceptance and liking of oneself. The Theory is that our self esteem is more a meter which shows us what others think of us (at least ones best guess of it). This is supported because it increases after being praised and also it is influenced more if others know about your successes and failures. If they dont, your self esteem is not changed a lot.
This helped us in evolution because we were able to be more social
What is social comparison
It is when we assess our own characteristics and traits by comparing us to others. The only reason why somebody thinks hes smart or tall is because his reference group is on a lower level
This is why good grades students in low universities are have better self assessment than the bad students in harvard
What is the positive illusory bias
The fact that we tend to see ourself better than we actually are. It is correlated with better psychological wellbeing and academic success, but when it is too high it can backfire as soon as failure and reality starts
What is the difference between person bias and self serving attributional bias
The person bias is when we think that others behaviour is a result of their personality.
The self serving attributional bias is when we think that our successes come from our personalities but our failures come from enviroment and circumstances. It also involves selective memories where we remember positive things more than negative ones.
Explain what an attitude is and its components
An attitude is a belief or opinion which involves evaluation and judgment. It has about 3 components
good or bad
morale or unmorale
attractive or repulsive
explain the difference between explicit and implicit attitudes
Explicit attitudes are the attitudes we express with thought and thinking. It is like slow thinking
Implicit attitudes are quick and without thought. They are like unconscious and fast thinking (conditioning).
Explicit thinking can also be influenced in fast ways, for example by thinking that famous and pretty people are right or other instant stuff.
What is festingers cognitive dissonance theory
We sense a uncomfortable feeling of dissonance when our there is an inconsistency in our explicit attitudes beliefs or knowledge. This mechanism exists because inconsistency among our beliefs tells us that we are wrong about something and that can lead to danger.
It works similar to hunger or fear
Explain the problems that come with the cognitive dissonance theory in the modern world
- People tend to avoid dissonant information (confirmation bias), as it causes unpleasant feelings. This is even worse in times of the internet, as people can sort out what they want to see.
- People tend to be more confident about a decision or belief after they invested or sticked to it, as it diminishes the feeling of dissonance
- insufficent justification effect: when we do something against our beliefs or attitudes for little/no incentive, we tend to change our attitudes so we have a reason why we did the action. (People who are paid less for a boring task find it more fun)
Explain stereotypes and its 3 types
Stereotypes are schemas that are created
through induction about groups of people. (Some skinheads are aggressive –> all of them are)
There are 3 types
1. Public Stereotype (explicit, what we openly say)
2. Private Stereotype (explicit, what we think)
3. Implicit Stereotype (what we belief but are unaware of)
They are often copied from others.
The best way to defeat them is to have positive experience with the stereotype person.
