Module 13 Flashcards
Social Psychology
External attributions are made when consistency is ___, distinctiveness is ___, and consensus is ___?
Low, high, high
Internal attributions are made when consistency is ___, distinctiveness is ___, and consensus is ___?
High, low, low
What is the actor-observer bias?
We are biased to think that others’ actions are more likely to be dispositional than situational.
What is the self-serving bias?
When individuals credit their successes to internal/dispositional causes and their failures to external/situational causes. By perceiving your successes to be internally derived and your failures to be the result of external causes, your self-esteem is preserved.
Explain why first impressions are so important
(i.e. last so long)?
The PRIMACY EFFECT makes first impressions more impactful and the CONFIRMATION BIAS adds to their impact by making them last.
What is the self-fulfilling prophecy?
When we are convinced of a specific future outcome (prophecy), we tend to unconsciously act in ways that create the expected outcome.
“If you think about it hard enough, it has more chances of happening.”
What was Solomon Asch’s classic study of conformity and what does it show?
It was a study where a participant was tested on whether they would conform with the confederate group’s wrong answer.
It shows that people will ignore obvious information in order to agree with other people in a group.
Explain the phenomenon of Groupthink.
When high degrees of conformity and consistency in a group are highly valued, leading to the exclusion of opposing information and ideas, groups overestimating themselves, underestimating others (being closed-minded), and putting pressure on their members to conform.
What was Stanley Milgram’s experiment and what does it show?
It was a study where a person, acting as a teacher, would administer shocks from 15V up to 450V to a confederate posing as a student.
This study shows that people’s obedience to and trust in authority can lead them to commit horrifying acts due to dispersion of responsibility, similarly to the people who were convinced to commit crimes against humanity that fascist regimes encouraged during World War II.
What was the Stanford prison experiment and what does it show?
The members of the group of participants were appointed either the role of prisoner or prison guard. It didn’t take long for the participants to settle in into their roles and for violence to escalate due to the “prison guards” taking advantage of their authority and humiliating/hurting prisoners.
The experiment shows that social roles can impact how we perceive ourselves and others and the kinds of actions that we take.
What is the bystander effect and what causes it?
When a person in need is less likely to receive help as the number of people who are present increases. This inaction is caused by diffusion of responsibility and pluralistic ignorance.
What is diffusion of responsibility?
The larger the witness group is, the less each member feels responsible for acting because each believes that someone else will take action. Each feels less accountable for the outcome of the situation they’re witnessing since they’re not the only witness and therefore may decide to not act, leading to the bystander effect.
What is pluralistic ignorance?
When a member of a group feels like any other member has more knowledge about how to handle the situation they’re witnessing and therefore may decide to not act, leading to the bystander effect.
What event caused the discovery of the bystander effect?
The murder and rape of Catherine ‘Kitty’ Genovese
What group is an example of extreme conformity, groupthink, obedience, social roles, and bystander effect?
Religious cults
What are the 3 components of attitude?
Cognitive, affective, and behavioral
True or False? The 3 components of attitude are always in agreement with each other in order to form an attitude.
False, these components can be in agreement or disagreement with one another.
What are stereotypes?
Attitudes and opinions about people based on their group affiliation
What is the scapegoat theory?
It is a theory that attempts to explain stereotyping and its effects by appealing to the idea that people feel empowered when exerting power over others.
Realistic conflict theory appeals to the idea that whenever groups exist, they will struggle over limited resources.
Name a way to reduce reliance on stereotypes and the incidence of prejudice and discrimination.
Promoting mutual interdependence
What explains helping behavior (altruism) or hurting behavior (aggression)?
Models that appeal to biological and evolutionary histories, and models that appeal to social learning through observation and the acquisition of social norms
What helps best achieve compliance with requests?
Implementation of commitment, the reciprocity norm
What is another term for self-serving bias?
Fundamental attribution error
What is the attribution theory?
A framework used to explain the actions of others as the result of either dispositional or situational causes
What is the main cause of external attributions when it comes to the self?
Access/history with self
What is the main cause of internal attributions when it comes to others?
Lack of exposure to them
Who knows the teacher better and why?
a) Students who followed the teacher for a whole semester
b) Students who followed the teacher for only one class
Both groups know the teacher about the same because of the THIN-SLICING phenomenon.
Explain the thin-slicing phenomenon.
Gives accurate judgment through…
1) Large enough groups
2) Independent ratings (makes biases even out)
True or False? The first person to speak in a brainstorming session affects the majority opinion the most.
True
What is the primacy effect?
Overweighting the first impression, it having the most lasting impression
Studies have shown that attractiveness gives the impression of better health, intelligence, salary, abilities, etc. What is this effect called?
The Halo effect
What is the (primary) confirmation bias?
When the observer seeks an impression of the actor that confirms what they already know about them or that confirms that the observer is right.
Explain the placebo and nocebo effects.
Placebo: Positive side effects are felt because they were suggested, even though the pills are inactive.
Nocebo (the opposite): Negative side effects are felt because they were suggested, even though the pills are inactive/cause effects that are not as bad.
What does Festinger’s cognitive dissonance theory suggest?
It is a theory that attempts to explain why attitudes and behaviors are changed or distorted when components of an attitude are in disagreement.
We have an inner drive to hold all our attitudes and behavior in harmony and avoid disharmony (or dissonance/mental discomfort caused by holding 2+ contradictory ideas). This is known as the principle of cognitive consistency.
People participate to a boring test. Afterwards, they’re being told that they’ll receive $ if they proceed to lie to someone by telling them that the test was actually interesting.
$ received by members of group A: 1$
$ received by members of group B: 1M$
Which group ends up finding the test more interesting?
Group A ($ = 1$) Since their lying compensation was a lot smaller, they feel more prone to try to identify with their lie than those in group B who got paid 1M$ (I got paid a million so I don't care about agreeing with my lie). Group A tries to rationalize/minimize their lie by trying to convince themselves that the test was as interesting as they sold it to be.
What are the 4 ways to change, regarding cognitive dissonance?
Change the attitude
Change the behavior
Distort attitude(s)
Distort perceived behavior(s)
What is social psychology?
The study of cognition and behaviors involved in social contexts
What is confabulation?
After-the-fact false explanation regarding the reason why you did something, false rationalization
Explain the phenomenon of choice blindness.
The participant makes a choice and someone swaps the choices, i.e. changes their choice, unbeknownst to the participant. Most participants won’t notice that the final choice isn’t theirs and will attempt to explain the final choice as theirs, i.e. confabulate.
The stronger they confabulate, the stronger the manipulated attitude. Strong method of manipulation.
Explain the phenomenon of social contagion.
If a person in a group does/feels/experiments something, the other members of the group are likely to do/feel/experiment the same.
ex. Yawning, emotional contagion (empathy), mass hysteria (mass psychogenic illness, mass symptoms, no organic cause)
What is social facilitation?
When we are being watched, we change our performance for the better or the worse.
Factors: Self-consciousness, need for approval
What is the opposite of social facilitation?
Social loafing: When individual performance is lower in groups because each member feels less responsibility as a result of less required individual effort.
Ex. Group work
Explain the Yerkes-Dodson law?
Low arousal: Low performance
Medium arousal: High performance
High arousal: Low performance
What is an internal/dispositional attribution?
When a behavior is assumed to be a result of one’s personality traits and characteristics
What is an external/situational attribution?
When a behavior is assumed to be a result of environmental causes that are beyond one’s control
Explain Kelley’s covariation model.
A single exposure to a person is insufficient to form accurate attributions, meaning multiple observations of behavior over time in a variety of different contexts are required to assess the source of another’s behavior.
What are the 3 factors of Kelley’s covariation model? Explain.
CONSISTENCY of behavior is about how a person acts in the same situation/context across time.
DISTINCTIVENESS of a person’s actions is about whether the person behaves similarly across different situations/contexts.
CONSENSUS is about the extent to which an individual’s behavior resembles the behavior of others.
What aspect of Kelley’s covariation theory considers the repeated late arrival of Student X?
Consistency
What aspect of Kelley’s covariation theory compares the late arrival of Student X to the on-time arrival of other students?
Consensus
What component of Kelley’s covariation model considers the similarity of Student X’s behavior in other courses?
Distinctiveness
What is the fundamental attribution error also known as?
The actor-observer bias
What is the false consensus effect?
When we overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs
True or False? Fundamental attribution error helps preserve self-esteem.
False, self-serving bias helps preserve self-esteem.
What is impression formation?
How we formulate opinions about individuals or groups
