Lecture Review Flashcards
Embedded Figures Test
people who are field dependent (i.e., they rely on the environment and others to orient themselves) have more difficulty identifying the figure on the right as part of the figure on the left
Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)
according to the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion, attitudes can be formed through either of two routes
- the central, or systematic, route involves careful consideration of the quality of the argument put forward in the message
- the peripheral, or heuristic, route involves reliance on the message’s superficial features
Factors That Influence Persuasion
- the source who delivers the message (attractiveness, similarity, credibility)
- the content of the message (length, discrepancy)
- the audience who receives the message (demographic factors, personality)
Seven Principles of Persuasion
- Reciprocation
- Social validation
- Consistency
- Friendship/liking
- Authority
- Scarcity
- Unity
Four Factors of Resisting Persuasion
- Forewarning (making people aware that they will soon receive a persuasive message)
- Reactance (people react to threats to their freedom to engage in a behaviour by becoming even more likely to engage in that behaviour)
- Inoculation (exposure to a weak version of a persuasive message strengthens people’s ability to later resist stronger versions of the message)
- Attitude importance (attitudes that are important to us are more resistant to persuasion)
Subliminal Persuasion and Processing
Subliminal persuasion is persuasion that occurs when stimuli are presented very rapidly at an unconscious level
Characteristics of Group: Social Loafing
a group-produced reduction in individual output on easy tasks where contributions are pooled
Characteristics of Group: Social Facilitation
when people do better on a task in the presence of others than when they’re alone
Characteristics of Group: Group Polarization
when the initial tendencies of group members become more extreme following group discussion
Characteristics of Group: Social Dilemma
situations where if all individuals make self-interested choices the result will be the worst possible outcome for everyone
Types of Social Dilemmas
Common Resource Dilemmas, Public Goods Dilemma, and Prisoner’s Dilemma
Solutions to Social Dilemmas
- Regulate the use of resources
- Engage in open communication
- Activate altruistic motives
- Create small, connected groups
- Create consequences for competition
Deindividuation
the tendency to not follow normal rules of behaviour as a result of losing one’s self-awareness
Zimbardo’s Study
Stanford Prison Experiment (influence of group and intergroup relations on members)
Social Identity Theory
a theory that posits that each person strives to enhance his or her self-esteem, which is composed of two parts: a personal identity and a social identity
Factors Contributing to Stereotype and Prejudice
Social categorization, social learning, and cognitive biases
Social categorization
the practice of classifying people into in-groups or out-groups based on attributes that the person has in common with the in-group or out-group
Social Learning
an explanation for why people are often willing to express certain types of prejudice, but not others
Cognitive Biases
- Illusory correlation
- The ultimate attribution error
- The contrast effect
- Perceptual confirmation
- Confirmation bias
Research on Stereotype Threat
In this study, young participants were first shown an image of two White children in a park, the same image but with Black children, or the same image but with two dogs before completing a set of 30 multiple-choice vocabulary questions. Children were primed with the two Black children, especially if they were African American, performed worst on the test.
Different Types of Stereotypes
Prejudice and discrimination
Strategies to Avoid Stereotypes and Prejudice
- Provide training and education
- Increase self-awareness
- Adopt egalitarian goals
- Be motivated to be accurate
- Avoid trying too hard
Instinct Theory of Aggression
describes aggression as innate biological drive
Frustration-Aggression Theory
frustration always leads to the desire to behave aggressively, and that aggression is caused by frustration
Social Learning Theory
describes behaviour as learned by observing or modelling others’ behaviour as well as by the presence of punishments and rewards, or reinforcements
Genetics and Aggression
The role of genetics in predicting aggressive behaviour comes from longitudinal research indicating that children who are highly aggressive early in life are more likely to be aggressive later
How to Reduce Aggression
- Punishing aggressive behaviour
- Modelling non-aggressive responses
- Training in communication and problem-solving skills
- Increasing empathy
How Does Culture Relate to Aggression?
attitudes toward aggression vary among cultures, within cultures, and over time
Theories of Pro-Social Behaviour: Evolutionary Factors
People something act in altruistic ways to help someone, even at great personal cost. People act this way when such behaviour will help ensure the survival of their genes which can be passed on.
Theories of Pro-Social Behaviour: Personality
People show an increase in empathy and prosocial behaviour as they mature, but individuals also vary considerably in their frequency and types of helping
Theories of Pro-Social Behaviour: Social Norms
- Norm of Reciprocity = the idea that we should help those who are in need of assistance, because they will then help us in the future
- Norm of Responsibility = the idea that we have an obligation to help those who are in need of assistance
Theories of Pro-Social Behaviour: Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis
the idea that when we feel empathy for a person, we will help that person even if we incur a cost in doing so
Culture and Helping
- in all cultures, helping behaviour is more likely to be given to an in-group member than an out-group member
- the most helpful counties are Brazil, Costa Rica, Malawi, and India)
- people in cities from Latin America and Spain were more helpful than other international cities
Association Between Physical Attractiveness and Attraction
- Biological: humans have evolved preferences for physical features that indicate health or reproductive success
- Socio-Psychological: people may want to associate with attractive people because such relationships could lead to social profit
Model of Love (Sternberg)
According to the triangular model of love, passion, intimacy, and commitment are each distinct components of love, and relationships may have one, two, or all three of these components
Common Problems in Close Relationships
- Conflict
- Jealousy
- Loneliness
- Relationship dissolution
How Culture Influences Attraction and Close Relationships
- Definitions of beauty
- The nature of love
- Definitions of friendship
The Seven Principles of Persuasion
- Reciprocation
- Social validation
- Consistency
- Friendship/liking
- Scarcity
- Authority
- Unity
Stages of Competence
- Unconscious incompetence
- Conscious incompetence
- Conscious competence
- Unconscious competence
Paralinguistic Communication
- eye contact
- touching
- physical distances
Three Characteristics of Crowds (Le Bon)
- Anonymity
- Suggestibility
- Contagion
- described crowd as a source of power
Alternative View (From Allport based on Le Bon)
“The individual in the crowd behaves just as he would behave alone only more so”
Allport suggested that in crowd people reveal their true nature
Bon says that crowd makes people bad, Allport says that bad people join the crowd
Two Conditions of Deindividuation
- Group size
- Anonymity
Anonymity
As anonymity increases, inhibitions decrease, leading to a higher probability of violence in group
Pro-Social vs. Anti-Social
Anti-social behaviour such as stealing and aggression is more common than pro-social behaviour
Social Identity in Crowd
According to Reicher (1984) features of many crowd situations are:
1. crowd always involves two groups (intergroup behaviour)
2. People do not lose identity but assume a new social identity
Why Do We Categorize?
- To reduce complexity of the world
- Human cognitive capacity is limited
- Categorization is an efficient way to deal with wide stimuli
Factors Influencing Out-Group Homogeneity
- Different amount of information we have about in-group and out-group members (familiarity hypothesis)
- Different kinds of categories for members of in-group and out-group (in-group categories are more important to us and we have more concrete information about them)
Why People Don’t Help
Darley & Latane (1968) came up with an ingenious answer; they suggested that after noticing the problem, people have to make a sequential decision before helping
Sequential Questions Before Helping (Darley & Latane)
- What is the problem?
- Is it my responsibility?
- What can I do?
Three Fundamental Forms of Egoistic Pro-Social Behaviour
- Gaining rewards
- Avoid punishment
- Reducing aversive arousal
Empathy Altruism Hypothesis (lecture definition)
refers to feeling empathy for a person in need which leads to altruistic motivation to relieve that need (Batson, 1991)
Empathy vs. Sympathy
- Sympathy drives disconnection while empathy fuels connection
- Empathy is feeling with people while sympathy is using a different situation to make the current one better
Beckes et al. (2012) Study on Empathic Brain
- Electric shock was delivered to the participant while they were either holding hands with their friend, a stranger, or no one
- The activity in people’s brains was almost identical when their friend was about to receive the shock as when they themselves were about to receive it
- There was relatively little activity in the threat response regions (left lateral prefrontal cortex) when they held a stranger’s hand
Cross Culture Differences in Helping Strangers (Levine et al. 2001)
- Sympathetic toward others include Brazil, Spain, Costa Rica
- Least helpful countries include Malaysia, United States, Singapore
Aggression: Nature vs. Nurture
Aggression can’t be only nature or only nurture
Cichlids
Lorenz (1966) observed the behaviours of cichlids, highly aggressive fish, which demonstrated similarity to evolutionary psychology
Frustration-Aggression Theory (Berkowitz, 1989)
Situational cues are associated with aggression by creating negative feelings (i.e., perception of the situation not the frustration itself) which trigger aggression
Types of Violence
- USA: gun related violence and it tends to involve individuals rather than group
- Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, and parts of South America: groups attack in political, ethnic, tribal conflict form
- Europe: violent mobs during football
Non-Violent Societies
- Balinese (Indonesian island of Bali)
- Inuit (Arctic regions)
- Tibetan Buddhist society in northern India
- Zapotec (Native American society in Southern Mexico)
Non-violent societies hold strong negative attitudes toward competition
Is Stereotype Inevitable?
Patricia Devine (1989) distinguished between automatic and controlled processes in stereotyping
Subliminal Processing (Devine, 1989)
information presented to you quickly without proper processing
Circadian Rhythm and Stereotyping
As circadian fluctuations in arousal levels affect motivation and processing ability, they may be linked to social perceivers’ tendency to stereotype others
Reduce Stereotype: Increasing Contact
Allport (1954) described conditions under which contact with members of a different group leads to reduction of tension or hostility
Reduce Stereotype: Re-Categorization
Form a new group with cross categorical membership (categorize in a way that you can be two at once)
Reduce Stereotype: De-Categorization
Form personalized contact and de-emphasize rigid group identities
Measuring Prejudice
Rely on non-verbal and indirect measures
Three Key Ideas of Affirmative Action
- It is targeted to entire groups, not just to individual
- There is a preferential treatment for members of groups that have suffered discrimination
- The effectiveness of the policy is judged by results, not intent
Three Facts of Attraction
- Physical proximity plays a large role in attraction and relationship formation
- We like those who are physically attractive
- We like others who are similar to us
Theories Related to Attraction: Conditioning
- Proximity increases the chances of classical conditioning
- It is pleasant to look at attractive people (associate the pleasant feeling with the attractive person)
- Similar people confirm our views
Theories Related to Attraction: Social Norms
Exchange Relationships = benefits are given with expectation of receiving comparable benefits in return
- Communal Relationships = benefits are given in response to the other’s needs or to demonstrate special concern for the other
Theories Related to Attraction: Self-Evaluation Maintenance
People strive to improve their self-esteem through:
- reflection process
- comparison process
Theories Related to Attraction: Arousal Attribution
Passionate love is an emotional state + labelling the state as love for someone
Biological Perspective of Love
Romantic love is associated with specific chemicals and networks in the brain
Chemical Associated with Love
- Dopamine = associated with focused attention, goal oriented behaviours, excessive energy, dependency, and sexual desire
- Norepinephrine = associated with excessive energy, sleeplessness, loss of appetite, increases memory for new stimuli
- Serotonin = associated with obsession
Arranged Marriage
- Worldwide, the most common method of mate selection is by arrangement
- Love based marriage is less present in extended family systems than in nuclear structures
Three Facts of Attraction
- Proximity
- Symmetry (physical attractiveness)
- Similarity
