Quiz #1 Flashcards
What is Social Psychology?
The scientific study of the way in which people’s thoughts real or imagined presence of other people.
Describe evidence supporting the notion that humans are “social animals”.
Social interaction nurtures us without it we are not fulfilled as humans.
Ex 1: The child is fully taken care of, but no social interaction vs the socialized and taken care of the child. The unsocialized child does not develop as well and the socialized child is well developed.
Prolonged isolation often creates mental illness.
Ex 2: Supermax Prisons and the toll on inmates
Describe the historical timeline from the age of theology to the emergence of social sciences.
Governed by religious thinking->physics and chemistry (Galileo)->Biology (Darwin/Evolution) and Microscopes->Social Science (William Wundt/Experimental Psy; Freud/Psycho Analysis)
Who were the first psychologists and what did they do?
William Wundt: Experimental Psy; used scientific instruments on people for the first time
Freud: Psycho-Analysis (mommy?)
Describe specific events that occurred during WW2 that helped create the field of social psychology and the topics it examines.
Hitler and Churchill (leadership, propaganda, persuasion)
The Holocaust (prejudice, violence, obedience, altruism)
Kurt Lewin (founded the first social psy grad. program)
What is Gestalt psychology and how did it shape Kurt Lewin’s ideas (see ch. 1 in txtbook)
Stressing the importance of studying the subjective way in which an object appears in people’s minds rather than the objective, physical attributes of the object.
Lewin applied this theory to the social world instead of objects.
Describe Lewin’s B = P x E formula.
Behavior = Personality x Environment
Your behavior in a social situation is dependent on your personality or others and the environment in which you are in.
How do social psychologists, sociologists, and personality psychologists typically explain behavior and what types of variables do each focus on?
Social Psy.: number of people around, time of day, temperature, presence of alcohol and police, etc.
Sociologists: examine how large groups are affected by broad societal forces (race, class, etc.)
Personality Psy.: examine the behavior of individuals or small groups based on their stable, internal attributes.
Why is it important to have different types of social scientists study the same phenomenon?
It helps social scientists learn from all aspects of society
According to Hovland’s research on persuasion, what is credibility, and what are various ways one can maximize it?
Credibility: the influence of perceived expertise and honesty
Expertise: call attention to your degree, training, etc.
Speak 25% faster
Initiate Touch: power handshake, pat on the back, etc.
Describe the three necessary steps one must follow when persuading via “fear-arousing messages”.
- Introduce fear/anxiety inducing topic (ex: aftermath of smoking)
- A specific call to action
- Remedy the target can follow.
What is cognitive dissonance (CD)? When will we experience it?
-Discomfort is created by acting in ways inconsistent with a cherished self-belief (ex: I am honest, but I cheated on the test)
-When behaviors do not compliment the other or when there are two opposite beliefs (ex: toxic relationships, semper fi, love for the prodigal son.)
Provide examples of how CD can lead us to change our attitudes.
Attitudes can change when subject has found a consistent behavior that compliments or provides consistency with the behavior (cheated on exam because class is hard, etc.)
How can we reduce CD?
- changing the self-belief
- changing the behavior
- justification/rationalizing the behavior
Describe, in specific terms, the steps of attitude inoculation and how it strengthens a weakly held attitude (thus making that attitude likely to change).
- exposing small/ “invalid” doses of arguments on sustainable behavior that someone disagrees on
- larger, stronger arguments on encouraging sustainable behavior given later
- less likely to change ones attitude on not engaging in sustainable behavior
