Key terms (post-midterm) Flashcards
diffusion of evaluation
- we feel that others cannot judge our individual input, less pressure to perform well
- difficult to work hard when there are others working
how to reduce social loafing
- allow for individual evaluation
- decrease group size
predictors of social loafing
Don’t work as hard:
- men in single gendered group
- all strangers
- individualistic cultures
Work harder:
- men in a group with 1 or more women
- highly important task to individual
- collectivist cultures
social compensation
person works harder because they know others are loafing
prosocial behaviour
any behaviour that helps someone else
altruism
behaviour that helps someone else without benefiting the actor (pure altruism existence is debated)
inclusive fitness
direct fitness: behaviours that increase our fitness
indirect fitness: behaviours that increase the fitness of those with our genes
kin selection
preferential helping towards family members because it preserves copies of our genes
more likely to help if:
- more closely related
- more reproductively fit (younger, fertile…)
reciprocal altruism (examples)
- when animals make warning calls, they are putting themselves in danger in the hopes that other animals will make a warning call later
- sharing meat after a large hunt (since it will spoil before you can eat it all)
bystander effect (definition + concepts which cause it)
chances of getting help decrease with the number of witnesses
- result of ambiguity, evaluation apprehension, pluralistic ignorance and diffusion of responsibility
5 step bystander intervention model
- notice event
- interpret event as emergency
- decide that you should help
- decide what to do to help + whether you’re able
- followthrough
empathy-altruism model
help because of empathy (pure-altruism exists)
unlikely to drive help, but likely increases quality of help
negative-state relief model
helping others boosts our mood, we help if there’s no easier way to boost mood
reward model (attraction) 4 factors
- propinquity (physical proximity)
- familiarity
- similarity (to ouselves)
- attractiveness
the pratfall effect
when someone we perceive as ‘superior’ (highly attractive, intelligent…) makes a mistake and we like them more because of it
components of persuasion
- source
- message/medium
- target
components of credibility + cues
- expertise
- trustworthiness
Cues: - discounting (reduces cred.)
- acceptance (increases cred.)
normal decay
messages from trustworthy sources become less persuasive over time
sleeper effect
messages from low cred. sources become more persuasive over time
nonverbal cues
anything nonverbal (and non ASL/written) which can communicate a message/opinion
elaboration likelihood model by petty & caccioppo
2 ways to process message:
- central processing: learn intently, think critically
- peripheral processing: quick decision, no deep thought
Define groupthink & group polarization
GT: social pressure to conform can prevent critical evaluation of ideas (lead to poorly thought out decisions)
GP: the average opinion of the group gets strengthened (eg: risky or cautious shift) due to cognitive processes
ways to reduce groupthink & group polarization
- assign a devils advocate
- anonymous voting
- divide into subgroups before large group discussion
social facilitation
generalized drive hypothesis
evaluation apprehension hypothesis
while being observed:
- perform better at well-learned/easy tasks
- perform worse at difficult/new tasks
GDH by Zajonc
- high arousal: best for easy tasks
- medium arousal: best for most tasks
- low arousal: best for hard tasks
EAH
- fear of judgment increases with more observation
dissonance theory
Steps:
- psychological inconsistency
(between thoughts, physical response, behaviours)
- drive state (dissonance)
(threatened self concept, heightened arousal)
- drive reduction (dissonance reduction)
(change the easiest thing, attitude OR restore self concept)
the ikea effect
the more effort we put into something, the more likely we are to have a positive opinion of the result
(building furniture causes us to like it better than bought furniture)
why is psychological inconsistency so uncomfortable? (2 theories)
- self esteem threat: dissonance is a threat to our self concept or we must admit that we are wrong to correct it without an attitude change, dissonance reduction avoids this (most supported)
- heightened arousal: dissonance can trigger fight or flight
how to restore self esteem/concept (harm caused by psychological inconsistency)
- excuses (no choice…)
- justifications (it was my job…)
- harm done (no important people harmed = behaviour doesn’t matter)
dissonance findings in collectivist cultures
- self inconsistency does not cause harm to self esteem in collectivist cultures (limits dissonance triggers)
- potential harm done to others will trigger dissonance
arousal and dissonance
physiological arousal caused by threatened self concept signals that we must reduce dissonance
six types of social power (french & raven)
- reward power (eg: money, acceptance…)
- coercive power (eg: physical harm, rejection…)
- legitimate power: has the right to tell you what to do (eg: teacher, police…)
- referent power: copy the person/group you like
- expert power: has the knowledge to tell you what to do (eg: doctor, prof…)
- informational power: has more important info than you (eg: following a group to class)
*examples are unique to the individual (eg: not everyone thinks teachers have legitimate power)
influences on conformity + types of conformity
Normative influences:
- motivation: wanting to be liked, avoiding punishment
- situation: non-ambiguous
Conformity types (2)
- compliance (change immediate behaviour) for reward/to avoid harm, lasts while consequences are present
- identification (change behaviour/attitude) to be similar to liked person/group, lasts while person/group is viewed as influential/positive
Informational influences
- motivation: being correct
- situation: ambiguous
Conformity type:
- internalization (believe the behaviour/attitude is correct in situation)
pluralistic ignorance
- normative influence causes people to look calm while they decide what to do/if the situation is an emergency
- everyone looks calm, they believe it’s not an emergency
