PL1035 Social Flashcards
A ‘self-schema’ is
an internalised cognitive framework or belief system relating to ourselves which inform our perception and attention. They can relate to personality traits, physical characteristics, and interests.
a renewable resource that will continually support many people provided that everyone shows restraint in ‘harvesting’ the resource
replenishable ressource dilemma
A study examining impression-management that evaluates the effectiveness of a certain type of bragging
Sezer, Gino & Norton (2018)
A study on temporal comparisons
Wilson and Ross (2001)
A study showing a real-world application of theory on possible selves.
Oyserman and Markus (1990)
Classical Study on Self-Discrepancy Theory
Higgins et al 1986
Cognitive dissonance as a public communication strategy Fear or morality appeals:
Adding dissonant cognitions (or drawing attention to them) to change attitudes and behaviour
Actual, Ideal and Ought Self
- how a person sees the self at the present time * how a person would like to see the self * how a person thinks they ought to be, based on ideals of duty and responsibility.
Shim, Lee-Won & Park, 2016?
people with public self-consciousness make more effort to present themselves positively -> posting pictures having fun or being with friends
Attentional bias
previous exposure to stimuli leads to increased identification of similar stimuli
attribution theory
the study of how people explain events
Availability Heuristic
making decisions based upon how easy it is to bring something to mind likely judging these outcomes as being more common or frequently occurring.
Beamer, Klentz, Diener and Svanum (1979) reported that:
children who believed they were alone were less likely to steal sweets when a mirror was placed in front of them. It is an example of how private self-awareness can be primed.
behaviourism
Approach based on explaining behaviours in relation to reinforcement
Bounded Rationality
describes the way that humans make decisions that departs from perfect economic rationality, because we’re limited by our thinking capacity, the information that is available to us, and time.
Consider that there is always a potential dispositional cause and a potential situational cause for any given action. Why does this statement potentially highlight a limitation to the translational value of the Fundamental Attribution Error in the real world?
Because it suggests that it is difficult to isolate either the actor’s attributes or environmental factors as the ‘true’ cause of any behaviour
Consider which email employs the gain frame and which employs the loss frame. According to Kahneman & Tversky, which version would make your pre-June ticket purchase more likely?
Individuals are loss aversive, and losses loom larger than gains. Paying the late penalty fee (loss = losing money) feels more ‘painful’ to an individual than the corresponding ‘pleasure’ of being awarded an early purchase discount (gain = saving money) of the same monetary value. Individuals may be more responsive to the version b) to avoid this perceived loss.
Discursive psychology
language is viewed as social action, through which people construct their social world.
Downward social comparison
I am ‘better’ than the other in a specific domain
Dual process model identifies two modes of decision-making (Kahneman, 2003)
- System 1: impulsive, fast, difficult to modify or control (more likely periphiral route to persuasion) * System 2: slow, effortful, guides behaviours through long-term goals and in-depth logic. (central route to persuasion)
ego depletion
self-control and willpower are a finite resource that can be used up (controversial to proof)
Experiments testing correspondent inference theory/FAE?
Jones & Harris 1967
Explain Cognitive Dissonance and resolution using the following.Belief: Monogamy is an important feature of my marriage. Problem: I’m having an affair. I don’t like experiencing this nagging and uncomfortable cognitive dissonance. I’m on edge.
Changing a belief: changing one or more of the inconsistent cognitions ‘What’s wrong with continuing if no one finds out?’ This can be facilitated by derogating the source of one of the cognitions: ‘Fidelity is a construct of religious indoctrination’. Changing an action: Stop having the affair. Changing the perception of the action: ‘My partner doesn’t understand me, so this was always going to happen’, which can again be facilitated by challenging the original perception of the action. ‘Fidelity is a construct of religious indoctrination and isn’t necessarily an ideal to aspire to. Extramarital activity is not indisputably wrong’.
Explain Lavin & Groarkes’ findings (2005)
Implementation intentions were not found to be an effective intervention in increasing dental floss behaviour. Results suggest that interventions should target an individual’s attitude and perceptions of control in order to increase dental floss intentions and behaviour.
What is the maxim of cognitive dissonance model?
➜ The maxim appears to be: The greater the dissonance, the stronger the attempts to reduce it.
familiarity heuristic
people tend to have more favorable opinions of things, people, or places they’ve experienced before as opposed to new ones
Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) findings on cognitive dissonance
Those paid less ($1) reported more positive attitudes towards task
Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) study on cognitive dissonance
Completed boring task for 30 minutes Paid $1 or $20 to convince fellow student that task was funControl group not asked to convince anyone later had to rate (task enjoyment, scientific importance and their willingness to participate in similar studies)
Findings and Methods of Higgins et al. 1986
gathered data on participants’ self-discrepancies had them describe differences between actual/ideal and actual/ought high actual/ideal discrepancy participants = dejection (sad, disappointed)high actual/ought discrepancy participants = agitation low discrepancy no significant changes
Four key points from Tversky & Kahneman (1981) on heuristics and biases
- Preferences change when the same scenario/problem is framed differently2. In a gain frame (lives saved, money gained), people prefer certain options for gains3. In a loss frame (i.e. lives lost, money lost), people prefer risky options for losses4. Loss Aversion: losing something (an amount of money, an item) feels more ‘painful’ to an individual than the equivalent ‘pleasure’ of acquiring the same thing. For example, the degree of pain associated with losing £20 is greater than the degree of pleasure of winning £20. It is a simple, but powerful bias.
What assumption can we make about Maxine, who feels like being a mother, someone who enjoys football and wine, is connected?
Maxine has an interdependent self-construal (and not social identity), which is typical in a collectivist culture
Froming, Allen and Jensen (1985) study
1st, 2nd and 3rd American graders donated M&M candies to other children: in private or in the presence of an evaluative adult (who watched the child), a nonevaluative adult (present but busy looking at papers), or in front of a mirrorevaluative presence => increased donations among older children (2nd and 3rd graders) less donations made in privatefindings by proposing that older children had learned that the social norm for helping behaviour was valued by adults, and so they complied with this norm in the presence of an adult. public self-awareness was activated in the presence of an attentive adult, and the older children showed more pro-social behaviour.
Gaining the benefits of group membership by avoiding costly obligations of membership and by allowing other members to incur those costs
free-rider effect
Gestalt psychology
partly emerged out of the limitations of behaviourism. focuses on a more holistic view as perception is important in determining attitudes and behaviours → Kurt Lewin’s force field analysis
Glassman & Albarracín (2006) As attitudes are being formed, they correlate more strongly with a future behaviour when:
attitudes are accessible (easy to recall) are stable over time People have had direct experience with the attitudes objectPeople frequently report their attitudes
goods are provided for everyone: for example, public health, national parks, the national road network, public radio and TV. Because public goods are available to all, people are tempted to use them without contributing to their maintenance. This describes what?
public goods dilemma
Hindsight bias
The tendency for people to see an outcome as inevitable once the actual outcome is known.
How are stereotypes helpful
Making sense of the diversity of thesocial world, reducing self-uncertainty, classifying social roles, power differentials and intergroup conflicts , contributing to positive sense of ingroup identity
How are the theory of reasoned action and planned behaviour linked
expansion of the reasoned action: if people believe they have control over a behaviour it’s easier to predict it from a measure of attitude; this expansion was needed because it wasn’t a good predictor behaviour
How can stereotype threat be diminished?
Know streotype threat Reduce degree to which identity is tied to performance which could then be used tomake inferences Sever self-esteem from performance Identify strongly with stigmatised group Extensive favourable intergroup contact with anxiety inducing outgrouo
How did Lavin & Groarke 2005 use the TPB
To look at techniques to encourage flossing among young people?
How do aggression and self-esteem relate?
There is no clear causal relationship between low self-esteem and aggressive behaviour, a correlational relationship may exist.
How do mood regulation and self-esteem relate to each other?
higher levels of self-esteem may show an improved ability to regulate their mood, compared with those with lower self-esteem.
How do people, according to Latané and Darley’s model, decide whether to help?
.
How does Festinger 1957 define cognitive dissonance
unpleasant state of psychological tension generated when a person has two or more cognitions (bits of information) that are inconsistent or do not fit together.
How does it relate to realistic conflict theory
Competetive intergroup behaviour also emerges when goal relations are not interdependent between groups, when the groups are explicitly non-competitive and explicitly cooperative
How does LaPiere (1934) touring USA with a Chinese couple relate to attitudes and emotions?
They visited - 184 hotels/restaurants visited 1 refused service. He contacted them 6 months later to check on changed attitudes?
How does mortality salience and self-esteem relate to each other?
Study participants who have chronically (enduring) high self-esteem, or whose self-esteem is temporarily elevated by an experimental procedure, are less susceptible to the effects of induced mortality salience.
How does narcisim relate to self-esteem?
high self-esteem (measured through positive self-reported evaluations) does not equate to a stable sense of self-worth, as measured through implicit association measures -> need for validation to maintain self-concept (Kernis & Paradise 2002) -> might lead to aggression when faced with criticism
How does social facilitation occur
because others might be doing the same thing as you, the audience –> goverened by physiological, cognitive and attentive factors like anxiety or focus
How might Bem’s self-perception theory offer a better explanation
Attitudes may be changed through a self-attributional process when the behaviour falls within a range of personally acceptable conduct. So when someone acts outside of this range of acceptable behaviour cognitive dissonance resolution accont better for attitude change
How was Schachter & Singer’s study 1962 structured
Some participants received adrenaline shot (increase in arousal) Others received placebo (salt solution)Some participants were told that injection would cause these effects, others remained uninformed or misinformed
How would Freud, LeBon and McDoughall?
crowds unlock the unconscious and strip the super-ego that is norm conformative of controlanonzmitz, contangion and suggestibility make us antisocial and violentmost widespread instinctive emotions are the simple primitive ones (e.g. fear, anger) primate sympathy leads to the snowballing also aggregated by depersonalisation
How’s the above-average effect a self-serving bias?
act of attributing behaviour in a distorted way to either enhance or protect our self-esteem (e.g. taking credit for success but explaining away failures). one inflates their own ability or performance in the above-average effect related to one’s self-esteem and self-image that the self-serving bias is protecting/enhancing.
Importance of attitudes
cognitive and behavioural effects social norms (reciprocal) which are subject to change
Impression management
active process of self-presentationpeople take steps to monitor their presentation of self in their interactions with others, so that they appear to others in the best possible light.
Impression-management describes
managing your self-presentation
In what ways has research in social psychology suggested that a person’s level of self-esteem influences how they think and act in life? (1)
Mood regulation, buffer against the inevitability of death, aggression, narcissism.
What is the interaction effect?
Different causes may interact with each other to produce changes in a dependent variable (e.g, contact between groups and equality of status between groups interact to predict reductions in prejudice) 💡 f1: contact between groups f2: equality of status between them interaction: f1+f2= outcome
Katz (1950) on functions and utility of attitudes?
high-functionality mechanisms in avoidance and approach of stimuli, protect self-esteem and consequently self-concept
LaPiere (1934) findings ‘Will you accept members of the Chinese Race as guests in your establishment?’
118 (92%): no 1 (0.8%): yes 7 (5%): ‘Uncertain, depends on circumstances.’
Lewandowski, Nardone and Raines (2010) Findings
self-concept clarity bolsters wellbeinglisting times when participants felt their behaviour was consistent with self-concept vs. participants that were assigned to self-concept confusion condition had to do the inversionparticipants in the clearity condition felt bettershows that it is not personality variable -> Nezlek & Plesko 2001 p.58
Lewis and Brooks-Gunn (1978) Study and Conclusion
the development of self-awareness:* placed a spot of rouge on the noses of infants aged 9- 12 months and sat them in front of a mirror* looked at their mirror image with no recognition and no effort to touch the rouge on their own noses. = lack of awareness, self-concept children around 18 months of age who performed the same task made a concerted effort to rub the rouge from their own noses. p.58
Loss aversion
people have a tendency to want to avoid losses much more than they would desire acquiring equivalent gains
Manu watches all the “Jaws” movies, in which sharks attack people at sea. Manu decides she will never swim in the sea again, because she worries about the possibility of getting attacked by a shark-> heuristic?
availability heuristic
mediation
effect of one variable on the outcome works through another interaction of groups -> anxiety about interaction with other groups(intermediate)= prejudice
meta-cognitive skills
skills needed to evaluate oneself and others
Miller (1984) Culture and the development of everyday social explanation what is the key finding?
As they grew older, American children were found by Miller (1984) to place increasing reliance upon disposition as an explanation of events observed. Hindu children of India, by contrast, based their explanations more on situations.
moderation
is part of the interaction effect and means that the effect of a variable on the outcome is changed by a third variable contact between groups * equal structures within groups = prejudice?
morality salience
The awareness of one’s own inevitable death
Multiple role theory
Theory asserting that it is beneficial for a person’s health and well being to have multiple self-identities.
Multiple Role Theory
self-identifying with different roles (parent, friend, employee)stabalising effect (growth and enjoyment vs. negative emotions)
One study illustrating self-perception theory?
Van Gyn, Wenger and Gaul (1990)
Optimism Bias
People believing that good things are more likely to happen to them than bad things
Possible selves (Oyserman, Markus 90)
future-oriented components of the self-conceptthe link between the self-concept and a motivation to actimagined selves we could, would like to become, or are scared of becoming. incentive future behaviours and function as criteria against which outcomes are evaluated.
Postmodernism
An intentionaI departure from previously dominant approaches of enquiry, emphasizing that apparent realities are only social constructs and are therefore subject to change.
Priming
Exposure to stimuli that activate a mental representation of a particular concept, value, goal or object.
Private Self-consciousness
Chronic private self-awareness and concern about pnvate aspects of the self.
Public Self-awareness (Buss 1980)
a person becomes aware of the public aspects of the self and how they could be judged by other people
Public Self-consciousness
Chronic public self-awareness and concern about how one looks and is evaluated by others.
Replication
direct/exact: study is repeated as exactly as possible → way to verify the validity of research results or methods BUT: realistically impossible}} conceptual: ability to replicate the results after changing the methods used so that the results can be applied generally
Representativeness heuristic (Tversky & Kahneman, 1971)
- compare aspects of the individual incident to other mental examples* likelihood of an event depends on the similarity/ representativeness of said event -> stereotype
Scarcity heuristics
we view things that are scarce or less available to us as inherently more valuable. -> “limited time only”
Schachter & Singer (1962) empirical research study findings
Participants experienced their adrenaline surge differently depending on context. This supports the Schacter and Singer theory as it shows participants drew meaning from ambiguous changes in arousal and used that to construct emotions.
Schematic’ and ‘aschematic’ mean…
particularly important or unimportant to a person’s sense of self
Schwartz et al. (1991) conducted a compelling research study to show how a certain heuristic influences an individual’s thinking. Participants were asked to recall 6 or 12 times when they had been assertive or unassertive in their lives. What was the study’s conclusion?
Attributional processes underpin the availability heuristics
Self-awareness
state of being aware of one’s unique characteristics, feelings and behaviours, which develops in early childhood.
Self-Concept Clarity (Campbell et. al. 1996)
The extent to which self-schemas are clearly and confidently defined, consistent with each other, and stable across time.
Self-discrepancy theory
people’s awareness of between how they are, how they would like to be and how they think they ought to be (ideal, actual, ought)Higgins, 1987
Self-perception (Bem, 1972)
people may learn about themselves by examining their own thoughts, feelings and behaviours. behaviours are considered most important because they are more objective and easier to observe
Self-presentation (Goffman, 1959)
people make concerted efforts to create an impression (usually a good one) of themselves to others.
Self-presentation is
the way the self is presented to others (usually to a favorable effect)
self-regulation
changing aspects of their behaviour in order for their actual self to become more in line with the ideal or ought self
Self-schemas (Markus 1977)
beliefs people hold about themselves, and usually relate to dimensions of the overall ‘self’ (such as considering oneself as sensitive or assertive). =schematic vs aschematic set of self-schemas make up the overall self-concept
Sezer, Gino & Norton (2018)
asked participants (453) about experience of another person humblebragging (recency, type, prevalence, gender/age)416 brags where typed as either complaint based or humility basedhumblebrags failed because of a lack of sincerity
Social comparison
emphasises an individual’s need to compare themselves to other people. through such comparison, people learn information about themselves, and how to perceive themselves
Social constructionism
Approach emphasizing the way social phenomena develop in social contexts.
Social dilemma in which cooperation by all benefits all, but competition by all harms all
commons dilemma
Social representations
Socially shared beliefs or widely shared ideas and values associated with our cultures.
Spurious correlation
two variables have no direct connection but it is wrongly inferred they do, due to coincidences or boundary condition. Ex.: narcisism and well-being (moderated by self-esteem)
strength model of self-control
self-control cannot be maintained for an unlimited period of time and needs to be replenished
Study on Temporal Comparison
Wilson & Ross, 2000
Study relating FAE and Culture
Miller 1984
Study to Illustrate the Implications of the Availability Bias
Schwartz 1991
Symbolic interactionism
investigation of how people create meaning through social interaction and how they construct and represent the self and how they define situations when they are with others
Temporal comparison (Albert, 1977)
‘me’ compared with either actual past or anticipated future ‘me’
The dunning-kruger effect is a prime example of peoples limited self-knowledge and awareness as it
illustrates that in a series of questions people lacking certian skills disproportionatly overestimate themselves and others higher or lower for their competences and performance despite not having any knowledge (lacking meta-cognitive skills) 1999
The self-concept is
the image we have of ourselves, or who we believe we are and consists of our self-schemas
Trial and error heuristic
people use a number of different strategies to solve something until they find what works -> video gaming, driving
True Self
Characteristics of the self-concept that are essential for making a person who they are.
Three Gigerenzer (1996) critiques of Tversky & Kahneman (1981)
ignored contextual and environmental influece on choiceonly superficial descriptor for and no explanation for cognitive processes that lead to judgement = no true understandingaverage person’s capacity to make judgments is undermined by dismissal of heuristics as unsound
Two studies showing the effects of activating public and private awareness
Allen and Jensen 1985 public Scheier and Carver 1977 private
Two things to consider for Miller (1984)
Has society (and culture) changed since the study was conducted? If yes, in what way(s)? Consider the reasons why culture can influence individuals’ attributions.
Upward social comparison
the other is ‘better’ in a specific domain
