Key terms (post-midterm)

Question 1

diffusion of evaluation

Answer 1

• we feel that others cannot judge our individual input, less pressure to perform well
• difficult to work hard when there are others working

Question 2

how to reduce social loafing

Answer 2

• allow for individual evaluation
• decrease group size

Question 3

predictors of social loafing

Answer 3

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

Question 4

social compensation

Answer 4

person works harder because they know others are loafing

Question 5

prosocial behaviour

Answer 5

any behaviour that helps someone else

Question 6

altruism

Answer 6

behaviour that helps someone else without benefiting the actor (pure altruism existence is debated)

Question 7

inclusive fitness

Answer 7

direct fitness: behaviours that increase our fitness
indirect fitness: behaviours that increase the fitness of those with our genes

Question 8

kin selection

Answer 8

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…)

Question 9

reciprocal altruism (examples)

Answer 9

• 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)

Question 10

bystander effect (definition + concepts which cause it)

Answer 10

chances of getting help decrease with the number of witnesses
- result of ambiguity, evaluation apprehension, pluralistic ignorance and diffusion of responsibility

Question 11

5 step bystander intervention model

Answer 11

1. notice event
2. interpret event as emergency
3. decide that you should help
4. decide what to do to help + whether you’re able
5. followthrough

Question 12

empathy-altruism model

Answer 12

help because of empathy (pure-altruism exists)

unlikely to drive help, but likely increases quality of help

Question 13

negative-state relief model

Answer 13

helping others boosts our mood, we help if there’s no easier way to boost mood

Question 14

reward model (attraction) 4 factors

Answer 14

• propinquity (physical proximity)
• familiarity
• similarity (to ouselves)
• attractiveness

Question 15

the pratfall effect

Answer 15

when someone we perceive as ‘superior’ (highly attractive, intelligent…) makes a mistake and we like them more because of it

Question 16

components of persuasion

Answer 16

• source
• message/medium
• target

Question 17

components of credibility + cues

Answer 17

• expertise
• trustworthiness
  Cues:
• discounting (reduces cred.)
• acceptance (increases cred.)

Question 18

normal decay

Answer 18

messages from trustworthy sources become less persuasive over time

Question 19

sleeper effect

Answer 19

messages from low cred. sources become more persuasive over time

Question 20

nonverbal cues

Answer 20

anything nonverbal (and non ASL/written) which can communicate a message/opinion

Question 21

elaboration likelihood model by petty & caccioppo

Answer 21

2 ways to process message:
- central processing: learn intently, think critically
- peripheral processing: quick decision, no deep thought

Question 22

Define groupthink & group polarization

Answer 22

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

Question 23

ways to reduce groupthink & group polarization

Answer 23

• assign a devils advocate
• anonymous voting
• divide into subgroups before large group discussion

Question 24

social facilitation
generalized drive hypothesis
evaluation apprehension hypothesis

Answer 24

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

Question 25

dissonance theory

Answer 25

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)

Question 26

the ikea effect

Answer 26

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)

Question 27

why is psychological inconsistency so uncomfortable? (2 theories)

Answer 27

• 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

Question 28

how to restore self esteem/concept (harm caused by psychological inconsistency)

Answer 28

• excuses (no choice…)
• justifications (it was my job…)
• harm done (no important people harmed = behaviour doesn’t matter)

Question 29

dissonance findings in collectivist cultures

Answer 29

• self inconsistency does not cause harm to self esteem in collectivist cultures (limits dissonance triggers)
• potential harm done to others will trigger dissonance

Question 30

arousal and dissonance

Answer 30

physiological arousal caused by threatened self concept signals that we must reduce dissonance

Question 31

six types of social power (french & raven)

Answer 31

• 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)

Question 32

influences on conformity + types of conformity

Answer 32

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)

Question 33

pluralistic ignorance

Answer 33

• 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