Quiz 9 Review Flashcards
Social Psychology
- the study of how people influence thoughts, behaviors, and attitudes
- Humans are highly social
Attitudes
- fundamental attribution error (FAE)
- cognitive dissonance
Attribution:
- Process by which we assign causes to behavior
- (as humans we are prone to trying to explain why something occurs)
FAE:
- tendency to overestimate dispositional influences on others’ behavior
and underestimate situational influences on others behavior
Jones and harris (1967):
The castro study
-Debators: students were randomly assigned to defend pro- or anti- Castro positions in a debate
- REGARDLESS of their actual feelings
- Raters: subjects were asked to rate how actually pro- Castro they thought the debators were
- Raters thought pro- castro debators were actually pro- castro, DESPITE knowing topics were assigned
attributes behavior to internal rather than external causes
- When reasoning about ourselves, we do the opposite!
-Overestimate situational factors
- Underestimate dispositional factors
Cognitive dissonance theory
- unpleasant feeling of tension or unrest that results from conflicting thoughts or beliefs
- Humans dont like to feel this way. So, we use clever strategies for getting around it
dissonance reduction strategies
(all involved changing our minds after an action)
-Avoid dissonant information
-Firm up beleifs to justify an action (preference reports)
-Generate a new belief to reconcile the conflict (seekers cult)
-Change a beleif to justify an action (insufficient-justification effect)
Festinger and Carlsmith (1959):
- Participants completed extremely boring task
- Were paid to lie about experiment to next subject (either $1 or $20)
- Then they were asked to rate the study’s enjoyableness
- People offered $1 to lie rated the experiment as more enjoyable
(insufficient justification)
Social Influence
- When the presence of others influences our behaviors
- Conformity
o Asch’s conformity experiment - Bystander Non-intervention
Conformity
- tendency to alter behavior as a result of group pressure
o Face the rear video: confederates all face away from the elevator door and the candid subject will eventually turn away as well due to conformity
Why do we conform?
Two general reasons:
- Information influence: Others might know better
- Normative influence: we want to fit in
Asch Experiments
- Tested whether people conform and why
- Subjects seated in a group of 6-8 people
- Asked to perform a simple visual perception task
- BUT – all other people are confederates (actors)
- Confederates were instructed to give the wrong answer
- Actual subject seated second-to-last
Results: (asch)
- 75% of subjects conformed at least once
o Some on all, some only 1 or 2 trials - On average, subjects conformed about 40% of the time
But why did subjects conform?
- In another version, subjects were asked to write down their answers, instead of saying them out loud
o Much less conformity in written answers
o Suggests NORMATIVE influence is responsible
Factors that influenced conformity:
Unanimity: if another person gave the correct answer, conformity dropped
* Differences in wrong answer: if others differed from the majority, conformity dropped
* Group size: a larger group resulted in greater conformity, up to ~5-6 people.
Kitty Genovese
- “37 who saw murder didn’t call the police”
- She was attacked and chased after by a man. Tried to get away and get help but everyone just watched. Nobody helped.
Bystander Nonintervention
the presence of others makes us less likely to act in emergencies
Bystander nonintervention…why?
Two reasons:
- Pluralistic ignorance: error of assuming no one in a group perceives things as we do
When something strange happens:
o Social referencing: looks to others for cues
o We tend to act in accordance with others - Diffusion of responsibility: the presence of others makes each person feel less personally responsible
