Psychology in society lecture 1

Question 1

What is a harsh base of power? (3)

Answer 1

• Use economic and physical outcomes.
• Work with outcomes that are more tangible and explicit
• rely on more obvious power differentials

Question 2

When are harsh bases of power more likely to exist and what do they require?

Answer 2

• when power is illegitimate
• require surveillance - have to keep demonstrating power to have an influence

Question 3

What are soft bases of power? (3)

Answer 3

• use social outcomes
• Work with outcomes that are more subjective and intangible
• rely on less obvious power differentials
• produce self-sustaining influence

Question 4

What are two harsh types of power?

Answer 4

• coercive - threaten punishment
• reward - reward for compliance

Question 5

What are 3 soft types of power?

Answer 5

• informational - influencer has more information than you
• expert - influencer is an expert
• referent - identify with or attracted to the source

Question 6

What type of power is both harsh and soft?

Answer 6

legitimate

Question 7

When are people approach motivated?

Answer 7

When they have high power

Question 8

What does it mean to be approach motivated? (5)

Answer 8

• attention to rewards
• positive emotions
• automatic cognition
• disinhibition
• state/trait driven behaviour

Question 9

When are people inhibition motivated?

Answer 9

When they have low power

Question 10

What does it mean to be inhibition motivated?

Answer 10

• attention to threats
• negative emotions
• systematic, controlled cognition
• inhibition
• situationally constrained behaviour

Question 11

In which state will people have lower basal cortisol levels and lower cortisol reactivity to stressors?

Answer 11

When feeling powerful - less generally stressed and less stressed in reaction to something stressful

Question 12

In the study by Galinsky, Gruenfeld, & Magee (2003) into how power changes the likelihood to take action, who took more cards when playing blackjack? (have to add to 21)

Answer 12

People in a high power position when building a lego structure as a group

Question 13

In the study by Galinsky, Gruenfeld, & Magee (2003) into how power changes the likelihood to take action, who dealt with an annoying fan?

Answer 13

People with high power in allocating lottery tickets

Question 14

In the study by Galinsky, Gruenfeld, & Magee (2003) into how power changes the likelihood to take action, who took more and returned more money from a pool that would be multiplied?

Answer 14

People with high power in allocating lottery tickets

Question 15

What is dominance as a motivation for power?

Answer 15

The degree of deference, respect, and attention one receives as a consequence of the perceived ability to coerce, intimidate and impose costs and benefits.

Question 16

What is prestige as a motivation for power?

Answer 16

The degree of deference, respect, and attention an individual receives as consequence of the perceived attractiveness as a cultural model or coalition partner.

Question 17

Which of dominance and prestige each relates to soft and harsh power?

Answer 17

Dominance = harsh
Prestige = soft

Question 18

What did Cheng et al (2013) find when looking into impression as dominant and/or prestigious leading to social influence within small groups?

Answer 18

• Both dominance and prestige independently predict influence.
• Both independently predict visual attention toward the dominant or prestigious target.

Question 19

How did Cheng et al (2013) measure dominance and prestige from the Lunar Landing task?

Answer 19

• Group member evaluations of each other
• Third party evaluations of each group member

Question 20

How did Cheng et al (2013) measure social influence from the Lunar Landing task?

Answer 20

• behavioural change of the group towards an individual
• third party eye gaze

Question 21

What did Cassidy & Lynn (1989) suggest are motives for dominance individuals?

Answer 21

• “I like to give orders and get things going.”
• “I would enjoy having authority over people.”
• “I enjoy planning things and deciding what other people should do.”

Question 22

What did Cassidy & Lynn (1989) suggest are motives for prestige individuals?

Answer 22

• “I like to have people come to me for advice.”
• “I like to be admired for my achievements.”
• “I would like an important job where people look up to me.”

Question 23

What key conflict can occur when power is unstable?

Answer 23

the leader’s interest in keeping power may be more important to them than group interests

Question 24

What did Maner and Mead (2010) find when looking into the effect of power type and stable and unstable leadership on the quality of clues to help others?

Answer 24

• unstable leaders high in dominance gave lower quality clues
• high dominance generally gave lower quality clues than low dominance

Question 25

What did Maner and Mead (2010) find when they suggested that there were too many players and one needed to be voted to leave and they told the participant that one had a particularly high score?

Answer 25

Unstable dominant participants were more likely to exclude the skilled player, even though they would be helpful

Question 26

Group-based dominance occurs across many societies based on… (3)

Answer 26

• ethnicity
• religion
• gender
• etc.

Question 27

Group-based dominance exerts itself via… (3)

Answer 27

• force
• outgroup derogation
• ingroup bias

Question 28

Which theories try to account for group-based dominance?

Answer 28

• social identity theory
• social dominance theory
• system justification theory

Question 29

What do groups provide us with according to the social identity approach?

Answer 29

An identity of who we are and who we ostensibly should be

Question 30

What does group identity increase (negative things)? (3)

Answer 30

• self/stereotyping
• depersonalisation
• perceived group difference

Question 31

What are 3 ways in which we can strive for positive distinctiveness?

Answer 31

• Individual mobility
• Social creativity
• Social competition

Question 32

What do minimal group paradigms provide support for?

Answer 32

The social identity approach

Question 33

What happens in a minimal group paradigm?

Answer 33

• Gather participants that have never met and give them a new group identity
• They begin to show ingroup favouritism, even when the categories are ridiculous

Question 34

What does social dominance theory focus on that earlier theories don’t?

Answer 34

Hierarchies of groups within a society and how they are treated

Question 35

How is discrimination coordinated?

Answer 35

Legitimising myths - endorse the myth so you maintain your higher power status

Question 36

What is social dominance orientation?

Answer 36

An individual orientation toward group-based dominance

Question 37

What does social dominance orientation correlate positively with? (4)

Answer 37

• sexism
• racism
• nationalism
• support for the US invasion of Iraq

Question 38

What does social dominance orientation correlate negatively with? (4)

Answer 38

• tolerance
• egalitarianism
• support for human rights
• support for the military intervention in the Yugoslavian civil war

Question 39

What is system justification theory?

Answer 39

System justification is the process by which existing social arrangements are legitimised, even at the expense of personal and group interest.

Question 40

What does the system justification theory argue? (3)

Answer 40

• people have a general motive to justify the existing social order
• this is mostly at an implicit level
• it is sometimes strongest in people most harmed by it

Question 41

What did Jost, Banaji and Nosek (2004) find when looking at ingroup and outgroup favouritism in gay and straight participants?

Answer 41

Gay participants showed a high level of outgroup favouritism but only implicitly

Question 42

What was found when looking into political conservatism for gay and straight participants implicitly and explicitly?

Answer 42

As conservatism increases, straight increase ingroup favouritism and gay increase outgroup favouritism, especially implicitly

Question 43

What is the difference between obedience, conformity and persuasion?

Answer 43

• Obedience - response to a direct powerful request - doesn’t require internalisation
• Conformity - response to social norms - doesn’t require internalisation
• Persuasion - response to direct messages - requires internalisation

Question 44

How many participants delivered shocks all the way until the end of Milgram’s study?

Answer 44

65%

Question 45

What other factors increased disobedience in Milgram’s variations? (6)

Answer 45

• No explicit direction to increase shocks
• Confederates pressure them to disobey
• The teacher was proximal (closer) to the learner
• The experimenter was not there
• They were friends/relatives of the learner
• Experimenter instructions were inconsistent

Question 46

What variation increased obedience in Milgram’s study?

Answer 46

When the teacher simply read the words and someone else did the shocking

Question 47

What are some explanations for Milgram’s results? (5)

Answer 47

• Blind obedience to power
• Diffusion of responsibility
• Psychology of sunk costs
• Conformity to group norms
• Persuasion (by the experimenter)