Psychology And Society Flashcards
What is the social learning theory? Refer to the terms attention, retention, reproduction and motivation.
The social learning theory proposes that behaviours can be acquired by imitating and observing others. In this theory, human behaviour is perceived more as something we learn than acquire genetically. There are four processes that go between the stimulus and the response. These are attention: whether we notice the behaviour, retention: whether we remember the behaviour, reproduction: whether we can perform the behaviour and motivation: whether perceived rewards outweigh the perceived costs.
What is the theory of cognitive dissonance? Refer to the terms magnitude of dissonance, forced compliance behaviour, reactance and effort justification.
Cognitive dissonance is when a person holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas or values. Within this theory, the magnitude of dissonance is believed to be the level of discomfort caused to a person. Forced compliance behaviour is the theory that authority can force a lower-ranked individual to violate their better judgement. Reactance is an unpleasant motivational arousal that emerges when people experience a threat to or loss of their free behaviors. Finally, effort justification is a person’s tendency to attribute a value to an outcome, which they had to put effort into achieving, greater than the objective value of the outcome.
What is the theory of social facilitation? Refer to the terms co-action effects, audience effects, social lofting and the Yerkes-Dodson law.
The social facilitation theory is based on the idea that an individual’s performance can be improved by working together with others rather than alone. It can occur when merely in the presence of others. The co-action effect is when an individual’s performance changes in response to others being present or engaging in the same task. This change could be positive or negative. The audience effect is a change in behaviour caused by being watched by others or believing that you are being watched by others. Social lofting is a phenomenon where people don’t work as hard when in a group compared to individually. It is seen as a reason why groups are sometimes inefficient. Finally the Yerkes-Dodson law states that performance increases with mental or physiological arousal. This only applies up to a certain point, however.
What is the attribution theory? Refer to dispositional attribution, situational attribution and fundamental attribution error.
The theory is concerned with how ordinary people explain the causes of behaviours and events. It’s based on the idea that people tend to see cause and effect relationships even when there isn’t one. Dispositional attribution assigns the cause of a behaviour to an internal characteristic of a person such as personality wheras situational attribution is the process of assigning the cause of behaviour to a situation or event outside a person’s control. Fundamental attribution error is the tendancy to make dispositional attributions about others and unseretimate the situational influence.
What is interpersonal attraction?
Interpersonal attraction is the study of the atraction between people which leads to the development of platonic or romantic relationships. It’s related to how much one likes, dislikes or hates someone.
What is physical attractiveness?
Refers to the fact that human beings have preferences about physical appearances. It has social consequences being the stereotype that “what is beautiful is good.” What is physically attractive can change between different cultures. There are certain traits which influence attractiveness. Symetry and averageness.
What is violence?
A form of physical assault with intent to injure another person or destroy anothers property.
What is aggression?
Behhaviour aimed at harming others physically or psychologically. There are three different types of it:
1. Hostile aggression: Behaviour with a primary goal of intentional injury or destruction. 2. Instrumental aggression: Involves an action carried out to achieve another goal. 3. Affective aggression: An emotional response directed towards a source of distress.
What are the biological factors that affect aggression?
The levels of neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin and noradrenaline can impact aggression. Aggression is largely controlled by the amygdala. The amygdala helps us experience fear as well as learn from experiences which cause us fear. Because of this, it is vital to perceiveing and responding to danger. Certain responses can be aggressive but other parts of the brain are thought to help control this aggression. Regions of the prefrontal cortex are an example of this. Hormones are another biological factor. Testtosterone, the male sex hormone is associated with increased aggression and low serotonin levels have been found to preict future aggressions.
What are the cultural factors that affect aggression?
Differences in cultures can affect a person’s view on aggression. For example in a culture where violence is seen as a normal method for resolving conflicts aggression would be much more common.
What are the social factors that affect aggression?
One social factor is the gender stereotypes around aggression which we are effected by. For example women and girls use more non-physical aggression such as shouting whereas men and boys use more physical aggression such as hitting. As well as this there are social norms which people follow because they believe others will follow it. It’s because of this belief that breaking social norms is seen as unacceptable. This is relevant to aggression as a member of a youth gang would find violance to be normal and therefore see it as acceptable and necessary.
What are the effects of mass media on aggression?
Violence can appear in media through video games, movies, social media, e.t.c. It can desensitise people to violence in real life and generally cause more violent behaviour. Children are especially at risk of this because their minds aren’t developed enough to distinguish between fantasy and reality. As well as this boys are more at risk because males are more violent in the media.
Define Altruism
Unselfish concern for other people. Doing things simply out of desire to help and not out of obligation, loyalty or religious reasons.
Define helping behaviour.
Providing aid or benefit to another. The motivation doesn’t matter as long as the person is assisted.
Define egotism.
The drive to maintain and enhance favourable views of oneself and generally features an inflated opinion on ones personal features and importance.
