Notes Social Psychology Flashcards
Define Self Concept
What 3 factors make it up?
Theory of how we relate (personality), experience (traits), and function (behavior) within a vast range of significant experiences and contexts.
Made up of ABC- Affects (Emotions), Behavior (Actions), Cognition (Thoughts)
William James’ Self Concept Theory
What makes it up?
“I” - Consciousness
- Observer - Evaluating - Subjective Awareness
“Me” - Self- concept
- Observed
- Empirical
- Made up of self- representations: Social. Material, and Spiritual understandings
A. What is thinking?
Making sense of the world
A. What do we think in terms of
Concepts and Categories
A. Define Concept
Mental representation of real thing
A. Define Category
How we group these mental representations in our minds
A. Cognitive Processes that we undergo
Categorization (A), Reasoning/ Rationalization (B), Problem Solving (C), and Decision Making (D)
A. How does thinking happen
Integrate Perception and Memory
A. 4 Theories of Thought (How do we process information and categorize it)
- Necessary (must be true to belong) and Sufficient (if true, proves it belongs to category)
- Family Resemblance- similarities, not clone though
- Prototype Theory- compare to “best” member of category
- Exemplar Theory- compare new instance with stored memories of other
A. How are prototypes and exemplars processed (where in brain)?
- Category-specific organization = innate, no need for visual experiences.
- Prototypes: Left, Visual Cortex
- Exemplars: Right, Prefrontal Cortex
Vision or Language for memory?
- Verbal> Visual
-Language Capacity is
central for memory
encoding.
What is working self concept?**
- Situation draws different subset of self.
Define emotion
Ubiquitous, immediate response to a stimulus. I subjective (+ or -), and causes physiological activity
What three factors make up an emotional response?
- Cognitive
- Physiological
- Phenomenological
What do emotions provide to others?
- Behavior patters- People experience and identify others’ emotions (mimicry).
- Communications- voice, body, face show emotional state.
What are the three purposes of emotions in our lives?
- Adaptive- fight or flight
- Cognitive- decision making
- Relationships- Interpersonal. Cultures have different “display rules,” and honesty/dishonesty is hard to tell apart.
How are emotions produced?
Interaction of the cortex and amygdala.
Stimulus ->
amygdala (interprets) -> cortex (comprehensive analysis), may downgrade amygdala reaction
What are three theories for how these factors interact? Are they right?
- James–Lange= Stimulus> Physiological>
Phenonenological - Cannon–Bard=
Stimulus>
Physiological and Phenonenological (separate, simultaneous) - Schacter-Singer (Two-Factor)= Stimulus> Physiological> Cognitive Interpretation> Phenonenological
- None are entirely right (3 is the best)
Self- Esteem
FEELINGS about ourselves.
How we see ourselves, shaped how others see us
How is motivation related to behavior?
Motivation drives behavior
How does motivation drive behavior? (3)
Activates, Sustains, and Directs
Motivation is related to _____
Reinforcement
Types of Motivation (Broad Categories in notes)
- Physiological = Homeostasis (regulate)
Made of: Instincts, Needs, Drives - Cognitive = Goal/Expectation
Made of: Intrinsic (self-rewarding) and Extrinsic (rewarded)
Social Cognition
Make sense of oneself, the world, and our reality
Commonsense psychology
Always trying to understand/construct meaning.
Environmental and Personal factors are _____ related
inversely
What is the process of “Cognizing” the World (4) (AIJM)
- Attention
- Interpretation
- Judgement
- Memory (encoding)
We are ______ ________ when processing info
Motivated Tacticians
What are three ways we are Motivated Tacticians?
- Manage self-image- self-serving bias
- Conserve effort- heuristics (not algorithm)
- Accuracy- CDC
The first way is Managing Self Image. How do we do that (3)?
- Confirmation bias and Belief perseverance- look for things that agree with beliefs
- Self- serving bias
Self serving bias
Want to see ourselves positively
Take credit for good; downplay success
Extreme- narcissism
What 3 factors that influence how we self serve?
- Tendency to see oneself favorably
1. Objective vs. Subjective
2. Public vs. Private
3. Aschematic vs. Schematic
**How is self-serving bias manifested?
(3 ways)**
- Self-enhancing- want +
- Self-effacing- distance -
- Counter defensive- distance + , accept
What are 4 outcomes of self-serving bias?
- Fundamental attribution error: hold others to different standards than ourselves.
- Actor- observer divergence: ?
- False consensus: overestimate agreement w/ beliefs
- False uniqueness: underestimate agreement w/ “special” quality/talent
Why do we self-serve?
- We want to be higher subjective well-being, and avoid negatives.
Second way is Conserving Effort. What are four ways we do this? Why?
- Availability heuristics: choose easiest to recall (familiarity)
- Representativeness heuristics- choose one closest to your prototype
- Ignoring base-rate information: choose frequency (1 of 100) over probability (1%)
- Conjunction fallacy- choose 2 events together over a single event
- We place way too much value on OUTCOMES
3rd is Accuracy. Explain it.
- JUDGING OTHERS- Info can be used and explained SYSTEMATICALLY
Give a theory on how we are Accurate when making Judgements
- Covariaton/Attribution theory:
“Jack and Jill”
- Consistency- Often?
- Distinctiveness- Same with all?
- Consensus- Others?
Do cognitions always lead to behavior? Vise versa? Or both?
Not always, it’s a little of both.
Give examples of Situational moderators.
- Constraints
- Choice
Give examples of Attitudinal moderators
- Origins
- Strength
- Specificity
Give examples of how behaviors can lead to cognitions (3):
- Foot in the door phenomenon-
small favor -> big request - Roles we have to play in life
- Gradual escalation- gradually getting people to do things can change their values and cognitions
_____ is the affective component of Attitudes.
LIKING
What do we do when we like someone?
Agree with them and spend time with them.
Name the 5 Factors that predict what we like:
Proximity, Familiarity, Similarity, Attractiveness, Reciprocity
Define Attitudes
Evaluation of any aspect in our world
Define Conformity and Give 3 Examples
- Change in overt behavior caused by real/ imagined pressure from others
- Compliance,
- Obedience,
- Acceptance
What are the 5 factors that influence conformity?
- Social Roles- expecations for us
- Social norms- “rules”
- Status- lower = conform more
- Cohesiveness- attractiveness of group
- Unanimity- odd one out
Define social norms. Give 2 categories.
Standards for behavior that are widely shared by members of a culture (approval motive part).
- Descriptive: what SHOULD be done
- Informational: what MUST be done
What does inconsistency between attitudes and beliefs cause?
Cognitive dissonance, which is an unpleasant state that arises when a person recognizes the inconsistency of his or her actions, attitudes, or beliefs
To alleviate cognitive ______, people often change one of these things in order to achieve consistency:
dissonance;
-attitudes, beliefs, actions