oppo: Social Psych Exam 2

Question 1

how others’ comments/actions/presence change our attitudes, beliefs, feelings and behavior

Answer 1

Social Influence

Question 2

change in behavior, belief, attitudes as a result of real or imagined group pressure

Answer 2

Conformity

Question 3

• Helps avoid conflict
• Helps us learn from others
• Helps us better navigate the world (conformity becomes so habitual we don’t even notice it)

Answer 3

Benefits of Conformity

Question 4

person’s outward behavior goes along w/ the group, but internal opinion remains unchanged
- reap reward
- avoid punishment

Answer 4

Compliance

Question 5

Person’s outward behavior goes along w/ the group, and their internal opinion falls in line as well

Answer 5

Acceptance

Question 6

illusion that a stationary pinpoint of light
shown in a completely dark room actually moves (Sherif’s Studies of Norm Formation)

Answer 6

Autokinectic Effect

Question 7

• uniformity of agreement
• cohesion (“we feeling”)
• size of group
• high status of group
• expertise of group
• low self-esteem of participant
• collectivistic culture
• Tightness (strong norms and little tolerance for deviance in culture)

Answer 7

Factors increasing conformity

Question 8

• Anonymity of own response
• high self-esteem of participant
• prior commitment (public statement)
• individualistic culture
• Looseness (less strong norms and more tolerance for deviance in culture)

Answer 8

Factors decreasing conformity

Question 9

• conforming for approval and acceptance
• social norm information powerfully sways behavior
• desire to be liked

Answer 9

normative influence

Question 10

• conforming for information and direction
• privately accept other’s opinions
• more likely in ambiguous situations
• desire to be correct

Answer 10

informational influence

Question 11

Changing behavior because of explicit pressure from person of power

Answer 11

obedience

Question 12

• high status of authority figure and setting
• belief that authority figure will be responsible
• no clear-cut point for switching to disobedience
• when harmful consequences become apparent, ‘in’ too deep
• low empathy with victim
• extreme uncertainty

Answer 12

processes involved in obedience

Question 13

• victim’s emotional distance
• authority closeness and legitimacy
• institutional authority
• group influence

Answer 13

Factors determine obedience

Question 14

1. Identification - creating a cohesive ingroup
2. exclusion - placing targets outside the ingroup
3. threat - the outgroup as endangering the enactment of ingroup identity
4. virtue - representing the ingroup as (uniquely) good
5. celebration - eulogizing inhumanity as the defense of virtue

Answer 14

‘The banality of evil’ a 5-step social identity model of the development of collective hate

Question 15

Sherif: conformity in highly ambiguous situations (private)
Asch: conformity in non-ambiguous situations (public)
Milgram: obedience to authority (deeper look: boundaries and mechanisms)

Answer 15

conformity and obedience studies

Question 16

conformity, obedience, compliance

Answer 16

Three types of social influence

Question 17

process by which a message induces change in beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors

Answer 17

persuasion

Question 18

1. the source
2. the message
3. the audience

Answer 18

aspects of persuasion

Question 19

• credibility
• attractiveness
• certainty
• identity (gender-women often scrutinized more, race, socioeconomic status)

Answer 19

persuasion: the source

Question 20

central route [explicit attitude]:
- focus on arguments and information (assumes an attentive, active, critical, and thoughtful audience)
- high motivation and ability, more enduring change
–> issue is personally relevant
–> person is knowledgeable in domain
–> quality of argument
peripheral route [implicit attitudes]:
- influenced by incidental cues (relies of heuristics, cues that trigger automatic acceptance without much thinking)
- low motivation and ability, easy but temporary
–> not personally relevant
–> person is distracted or fatigued
–> message is incolplete or hard-to-comprehend
–> source attractiveness, fame, expertise
–> number and length of arguments
–> consensus

Answer 20

persuasion: the method - 2 paths

Question 21

tendency to be more persuaded by the plight of a single, vivid individual than by more abstract aggregate of individuals

Answer 21

Identifiable victim effect

Question 22

people exhibit an emotional flatline to mass suffering

Answer 22

Emotional innumeracy

Question 23

• make the individual feel frightened and vulnerable
• make the fear-arousing event appear likely
• offer a solution to avoid the feared event
• make the solution appear doable

Answer 23

Fear-arousing messages are more effective if they

Question 24

reasons why a persuasive message might be wrong

Answer 24

counterarguments

Question 25

two or more people who interact and influence one another (a perception of "us" vs "them")

Answer 25

what is a group

Question 26

degree to which members of a group feel connected to one another

Answer 26

group cohesiveness

Question 27

meet humans needs 1. affiliation 2. achieve 3. social identity 4. safety and security 5. meaningful information

Answer 27

purpose of groups

Question 28

improved effort and individual performance in the presence of other -- only for simple or well-practiced tasks - individual goal -individual effort evaluated

Answer 28

social facilitation

Question 29

- mere presence (produce social facilitation) - distraction - evaluation apprehension (produce social facilitation)

Answer 29

possible factors for arousal around others

Question 30

the tendency to exert less effort when working of a group task in which individual contribution cannot be monitored - common goal - individuals not accountable for effort To prevent: 1. difficult tasks 2. assess individual contributions --> avoid diffusion of responsibility 3. value the task --> reward individual contributions 4. group cohesiveness Why: process loss coordination loss decrease evaluation apprehension

Answer 30

social loafing

Question 31

reduction of effort in groups from lack of motivation

Answer 31

process loss

Question 32

lack of cooperation and communication weakens group's effectiveness

Answer 32

coordination loss

Question 33

- participants believe they are evaluated only when acting alone - group situation decreases evaluation apprehension by diffusing responsibility across all group members

Answer 33

decrease evaluation apprehension

Question 34

physical or verbal behavior intended to cause harm - physical aggression - social aggression - hostile aggression - instrumental aggression

Answer 34

Aggression

Question 35

any behavior or act aimed at harming a person or animal or damaging physical property

Answer 35

physical aggression

Question 36

social relationships and social status are used to damage reputations and inflict emotional harm on others, and centers on behaviors such as gossiping, ostracism, and threatening to end a friendship

Answer 36

social aggression

Question 37

impulsive, emotion-based intent to cause harm

Answer 37

hostile aggression

Question 38

reasoned, purposeful intent to harm as a means to some other goal

Answer 38

instrumental aggression

Question 39

nurture - frustration-aggression hypothesis (relative deprivation) unjustified frustration --> anger + aggression cues --> aggression - sociocultural influences (social learning theory, culture of honor) Nature - biological influences

Answer 39

Theories of aggression

Question 40

blocking of goal-directed behavior

Answer 40

Frustration

Question 41

outgroup targets vulnerable

Answer 41

displacement

Question 42

we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and being rewarded, family influences

Answer 42

learned social behavior theory

Question 43

perceive insult as threat to masculinity

Answer 43

culture of honor

Question 44

1. high levels of violence generally - history of frequent warfare - emphasis on machismo and male-toughness 2. women have unequal status - stereotypes and prejudice relegating women to lower status in society - women prevented from receiving education and participating in political decision-making

Answer 44

rape-prone societies

Question 45

- sympathetic nervous system reactivity (low resting heart rate) - brain influences (hypothalamus and amygdala) - genetic influences ( specific gene linked to aggression when provoked) - testosterone???

Answer 45

biological influences for aggression

Question 46

mere presence of weapons increases aggressive thoughts and behaviors

Answer 46

aggression cues: weapons effect

Question 47

viewing violence increases violence - especially among people with aggressive tendencies - especially when viewing an attractive person commit justified, realistic violence that goes unpunished and that shows no pain or harm to the victim

Answer 47

media influences: violence

Question 48

- desensitization - social scripts (culturally provided mental instructions for how to act) - altered perception of reality (media portrayals of violence in crease perceptions of threat) - cognitive priming (viewing violence primes aggression-related ideas)

Answer 48

media affects cognition

Question 49

* Increases in aggressive behaviors * Increases in aggressive thoughts * Increases in aggressive emotions (especially anger) * Increase blood pressure & heart rate * Habituation in the brain * Greater likelihood of carrying a weapon * Decreases in self-control and increases in antisocial behavior * Decreases in helping others and in empathy for others * Linked to dehumanization of others & self

Answer 49

impacts of playing violent video games