Psych Exam 4 Flashcards
Intrapersonal topics
(those that pertain to the individual) include emotions and attitudes, the self, and social cognition (the ways in which we think about ourselves and others)
Interpersonal topics
(those that pertain to dyads and groups) include helping behavior, aggression, prejudice and discrimination, attraction and close relationships, and group processes and intergroup relationships.
Situationism
describes a perspective that behavior and actions are determined by the immediate environment and surroundings; a view promoted by social psychologists
Dispositionism
those that believe people’s actions are conditioned by some internal factor, such as beliefs, values, personality traits or abilities, rather than the situation they find themselves in.
ex:a dispositionist might explain bankruptcy as the largely self-inflicted result of personal laziness and/or imprudence. Situationists, in contrast, view bankruptcy as frequently caused by more complicated external forces, such as divorce or the medical and other costs of unanticipated illness.
Internal Factor
excuse
ex: a person who is late for work claims that heavy traffic caused the delay
a dispositional view tends to lay _________ for inappropriate behavior
blame
ex: a driver in a road rage incident claims the driver who cut her off is an aggressive person
Dispositional attribution assigns the cause of behavior to some internal characteristic of a person rather than to outside forces.
As a field, social psychology focuses on ________ in predicting human behavior.
situational factors
social psychology
the study of how people affect one another’s thought, feelings, and behaviors, with particular focus on the power of the situation
fundamental attribution error
the tendency to overemphasize internal factors as attributions for behavior and underestimate the power of the situation
ex: For example, if someone is late for a meeting, individuals might be inclined to attribute it to that person’s laziness or lack of punctuality (internal factors) rather than considering external factors such as traffic, unexpected events, or transportation issues.
individualistic culture
culture that focuses on individual achievement and autonomy
-these ppl have the greatest tendency to commit the fundamental attribution error
What are some examples of fundamental attribution error?
For instance, if you’ve ever chastised a “lazy employee” for being late to a meeting and then proceeded to make an excuse for being late yourself that same day, you’ve made the fundamental attribution error.
collectivist culture
culture that focuses on communal relationships with others such as family, friends, and community
individualistic culture (characteristics list)
- Achievement oriented
- Focuses on autonomy
- Dispositional perspective
- Independent
- Analytic thinking style
Collectivistic Culture (characteristics list)
- Relationship oriented
- Focus on group autonomy
- Situational perspective
- Interdependent
- Holistic thinking style
How would ppl from individualistic and collectivistic cultures differ in explaining why they won an important sporting event?
individualistic cultures- would attribute athletic success to individual hard work and ability
collectivistic cultures- would attribute athletic success to the team working together and the support and encouragement of the coach
actor-observer bias
the tendency to blame our actions on the situation and blame the actions of others on their personalities
ex:As you are walking down the street, you trip and fall. You immediately blame the slippery pavement, an external cause. However, if you saw a random stranger trip and fall, you would probably attribute this to an internal factor, such as clumsiness or inattentiveness
self-serving bias
the tendency for people to take personal credit for success but blame failure on external factors or other people
Attribution
explanation for the behavior of other people
Making internal attributions for your successes and making external attributions for your failures is an example of ________
self-serving bias
-The self-serving bias allows us to feel good about our successes (by thinking that we’re directly responsible for them) and discount our failures (by attributing them to forces outside of our control)
just-world hypothesis
the assumption that the world is fair and that therefore people get what they deserve and deserve what they get
social role
the pattern of behavior that is expected of a person who is in a particular social position
ex: men= more likely to hold positions of power like being CEO; women= more likely to take care of kids and do housework
social norm
group’s expectations regarding what is appropriate and acceptable for the thoughts and behavior of its members
script
person’s knowledge about the sequence of events in a specific setting
ex: how you act when you are at a restaurant
Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment
Stanford university’s experiment conducted in a mock prison- demonstrated the power of social roles, social norms, and scripts
What are the 3 components of attitude?
affective (feelings), behavioral (the effect of the attitude on behavior), cognitive (belief and knowledge)
cognitive component of attitude
Beliefs or knowledge about something
affective component of attitude
refers to the emotional reaction one has toward an attitude object. For example, ‘I feel scared when I think about or see a snake
behavioral component of attitude
the way a person acts/behaves with respect to something
Ex: ‘I avoid snakes and scream if I see one.
cognitive dissonance
the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change.
ex:I believe in eating health but i dont eat healthy all the time
experiment by Aronson and Mills- effort effect
college students met- assigned to 1/3 conditions: no initiation, easy initiation, difficult initiation.- found that ppl who went though difficult initiation to join the group rated the group more favorably.
Yale attitude change approach
people are most likely to change their attitudes in response to persuasive messages.
- Hovland demonstrated that certain features of the source of a persuasive message, the content of the message, and the characteristics of the audience will influence the persuasiveness of a message
Elaboration Likelihood Model
a theory of persuasion that suggests that there are two different ways (central route and peripheral route) people can be persuaded of something, depending on how invested they are in a topic.
An example of the Elaboration Likelihood Model is a consumer carefully evaluating the features and benefits of a new smartphone (central route processing) versus making a quick decision based on attractive packaging (peripheral route processing).- Instead of focusing on the facts and a product’s quality, the peripheral route relies on association with positive characteristics such as positive emotions and celebrity endorsement.
central route persuasion
Central route to persuasion occurs when a person is persuaded by the content of the message.
- ex: car company persuading someone to buy a car- they will emphasize on card features- this is a direct route to persuasion that focuses on the quality of the info
peripheral route persuasion
one person persuades another person; an indirect route that relies on association of peripheral cues (such as positive emotions and celebrity endorsement) to associate positivity with a message
ex:having a popular athlete advertise athletic shoes is a common method used to encourage young adults to purchase the shoes.
Foot-in-the-door Technique
persuasion of one person by another person, encouraging a person to agree to a small favor, or to buy a small item, only to later request a larger favor or purchase of a larger item
confederate
person who works for a researcher and is aware of the experiment, but who acts as a participant; used to manipulate social situations as part of the research design
Asch experiment on conformity
experimented how people would rather conform than state their own individual answer even though they know the group’s answer is wrong
ex: with diff length lines
conformity
when individuals change their behavior to go along with the group even if they do not agree with the group
Asch effect
is the influence of the group majority on an individual’s judgment
What are the 2 categories of the motivation to conform?
- normative social influence, 2. informational social influence
normative social influence
where a person conforms in order to be accepted and belong to a group. They do this because it is socially rewarding and/or to avoid social rejection (e.g. ridicule for not ‘fitting in’).
informational social influence
a type of social influence in which individuals modify their behavior, opinions, or beliefs based on the information they receive from others.
obedience
changing one’s behavior at the command of an authority figure or to avoid consequences
Stanley Milgram’s Experiment
- tested boundaries of obedience
- participants told to shock learners if they gave wrong answer
groupthink
the modification of the opinions of members of a group to align with what they believe is the group consensus
-phenomenon of group conformity
Group Polarization
strengthening of the original group attitude after discussing views within the group
-phenomenon in group setting
ex:a group of women who hold moderately feminist views tend to demonstrate heightened pro-feminist beliefs following group discussion.
social facilitation
improved performance when an audience is watching versus when the individual performs the behavior alone
Social Loafing
exertion of less effort by a person working in a group because individual performance cannot be evaluated separately from the group, thus causing performance decline on easy tasks
ex:if my friend and I are baking bread she can do more work but ill still say we both made the bread
bystander effect
occurs when the presence of others discourages an individual from intervening in an emergency situation, against a bully, or during an assault or other crime.
The greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is for any one of them to provide help to a person in distress.
pluralistic ignorance
a social phenomenon where individuals privately reject a norm but conform to it publicly due to a mistaken belief that others in the group accept it.
Individuals may conform to what they perceive as the majority opinion, assuming that others around them endorse a particular norm, while in reality, many individuals in the group may privately reject that norm as well.
diffusion of responsibility
when people who need to make a decision wait for someone else to act instead.
when deciding whether to help a person in need, knowing that there are others who could also provide assistance relieves bystanders of some measure of personal responsibility, reducing the likelihood that bystanders will intervene
cost-benefit analysis
a decision-making process that compares the cost of an action or thing against the expected benefit to help determine the best course of action
ex:drinking might bring you the benefit of managing stress
Reciprocal altruism
A behavioral strategy in which an agent sacrifices for the benefit of a recipient who is not closely related, where a return benefit to the agent may be reciprocated in the future.behavior that benefits another with the expectation that those benefits will be returned in the future
ex:vampire bats that are more likely to share their food (by regurgitation) with hungry social companions if they have received food from them in the past
- “we are better off in the long run if we help one another”
