second topic Flashcards
Naive Scientist - Heider 1958
-Homo rationalis: a person has infinite capacity to make rational decisions.
-Three principles of the naïve scientist:
1. Need to form a coherent view of the world.
2. Need to gain control over the environment.
3. Need to identify internal (personal) vs. external (situational) factors.
Attributional Theory - Weiner
Things that attribute to success and failure:
-Locus (internal/external).
-Stability (e.g., natural ability/mood).
-Controllability (e.g., effort/luck).
People will interpret their environment in such a way as to maintain a positive self-image.
Correspondent inference theory, Jones and Davis (1965)
The correspondent Inference is acts that reflect the true characteristics of the person.
If the act wasn’t done for social approval, or fo practical reasons. -must produce a hedonic effect.
Co-variation model, Kelley (1967)
The Co-variation principle is used to attribute causality.
Something must be present when a certain behavior is present and absent when the behavior is missing for it to be the cause of that behavior.
TEST - use multiple observations to try and identify which factors co-vary.
Whether the behaviour is internal or external is key.
-Observations used include: consistency, distinctiveness, consensus.
Actor-observer bias, Jones and Nisbett (1972)
A shop-assistant is rude to you… They are a rude person OR simply stressed?
-You are rude to a shop-assistant… Are you a rude person OR simply stressed?
-This happens because of different perceptual focuses, and informational differences.
Self-serving bias, Olsen and Ross (1988)
-We see success in an exam as a result of being smart (internal).
-We see failure in an exam as a result of the exam being hard (external).
We do this because:
-Motivation: maintenance of self-esteem.
-Cognitive: intend/expect to succeed → attribute internal causes to expected events.
Attribution heuristics, Tversky and Kahneman (1974)
Cognitive biases result from people’s use of fast but fallible cognitive strategies known as heuristics.
proved that not all thinking was rational.
Cognitive shortcuts.
Availability heuristic: We can judge the probability of if something will happen based on our own experience of how it can happen and how much it happens.
Representative heuristic: occurs when we estimate the probability of an event based on how similar it is to a known situation.
Anchoring and adjustment heuristic: the starting point influences subsequent judgements.
example of AAH - If you first see a T-shirt that costs $1,200 – then see a second one that costs $100 – you’re prone to see the second shirt as cheap.
Three component model of attitudes, Rosenberg and Hovland (1960)
Affective: FEELINGS
expressions of feelings towards an attitude object.
-Behavioural: ACTIONS
overt actions/verbal statements concerning behaviour.
-Cognitive: BELIEFS
expressions of beliefs about an attitude object.
The Function of Attitudes - Katz
Function of Knowledge: organise and predict the social world.
Utilitarian function: help people achieve positive outcomes.
-Ego-defensive: protecting self-esteem.
-Value expressive: facilitates the expression of one’s core values and self-concept.
ORGANISE AND PREDICT SOCIAL WORLD
HELP PEOPLE
DEFEND SELF-ESTEEM
EXPRESS PERSONAL VALUES AND BELIEFS
Mere exposure effect (Zajonc, 1968)
Repeated exposure of a stimulus -> enhancement of preference for that stimulus (Zajonc, 2001).
-E.g. participants were more likely to say that familiar novel words meant something positive (Harrison & Zajonc, 1970).
Insko (1965) study on instrumental conditioning
-Showed that participants reported a more favourable attitude towards a topic if they had received positive feedback on the same attitude a week earlier.
-Based on the idea of instrumental conditioning:
behaviour followed by a positive consequence is more likely to be repeated.
Self-perception theory, Bem (1972)
Gain knowledge of ourselves by inferring attitudes from our behaviour.
-E.g. I read at least one novel a week →I must enjoy reading novels.
LaPiere (1934), study on racial prejudice
-When a Chinese couple visited more than 250 restaurants, coffee shops and hotels, they received service 95% of the time without hesitation.
-In response to a letter of inquiry afterwards, 92% of the establishments replied saying they would not accept members of the Chinese race.
Wicker (1969), study on attitude and behavioural correlation
Attitudes weakly correlated with behaviour, average correlation was .15 in a meta-analysis with 42 studies.
Gregson and Stacey (1981), study on attitudes and alcohol consumption
Small positive correlation between (general) attitudes and alcohol consumption.
Haddock et al. (1999), study on assisted suicide attitudes
Found attitudes towards assisted suicide was affected by people’s experience of having direct encounter with assisted suicide.
Davidson and Jaccard (1979), study on attitudes towards birth control
Found women’s general attitudes toward BC didn’t predict their use of the pill as well as specific attitudes towards using the contraceptive pill within the next two years.
Theory of planned behaviour, Ajzen (1991)
Proposes people make decisions as a result of rational thought processes.
Cognitive dissonance, Festinger (1957)
Counter-attitudinal behaviour → feel discomfort
= persons strives to reduce discomfort = which can reduce discomfort
e.g., changing inconsistent cognition.
Elaboration-likelihood model, Petty and Cacioppo (1986)
Central route → is when the argument is carefully analysed, using considerable cognitive effort - the decision that results is usually permanent.
Peripheral route → doesn’t pay much attention to the actual argument, other factors affect the decision e.g. how attractive the person is -the decision is more likely to be temporary.
-There two pathways are independent of each other
Heuristic-systematic model, Chaiken (1980)
Systematic processing = carefully evaluate the information - to determine an opinion. - requires a lot of time.
-Heuristic processing - use rule of thumb, base our decision of past experience as to weather the information is true or not.
-These two pathways can occur at the same time.
Minimal group experiment, Tajfel (1971)
-Boys were split randomly into two groups.
-Boys allocated more points to their own group they were a member of, even if it meant they group wouldn’t win overall.
This couldn’t be explained by:
1. Self-interest (as they didn’t get a share).
2. Existing friendships (as allocation was random).
Shows how easily in group favouritism can develop.
Triplett (1898), study on cyclist performance
Concluded by observing that performance was faster when cyclists were timed and racing alongside other cyclists.
-Hypothesised that the presence of the audience, particularly in a competition, ‘energised’ performance on motor tasks.
Mere presence, Allport (1920)
-Mere presence is defined as an “entirely passive and unresponsive audience that is only physically present”.
-Improvement in performance due to the mere presence of others as co-actors or passive audience.
-This has also been shown in animals.
Drive theory, Zajonc (1965)
Presence of others creates an increase in arousal and improves the performance of tasks usually done in this setting.
When people are anxious, they tend to do better on easy tasks (already good at) and worse on difficult ones (that they normally struggle at).
-If the dominant response is correct (easy), then performance will be facilitated.
-If the dominant response is difficult, then performance will be inhibited.
Evaluation apprehension theory, Cottrell (1972)
Social facilitation is an acquired effect based on perceived evaluations of others.
3 audience conditions:
(1) blindfolded;
(2) merely present (passive and uninterested);
(3) attentive audience.
-Tasks were well learned (i.e., easy).
-Social facilitation was found when the audience was perceived to be evaluative (attentive); wanting to perform well for their audience worked in their favour.
Markus (1978), unfamiliar clothes task
TASK - measured the time taken to dress in familiar clothes vs unfamiliar clothes as a function of social presence.
-3 conditions:
(1) alone;
(2) in the presence of an inattentive audience;
(3) in the presence of an attentive audience.
-Attentive audience speeded up performance in easy task.
-Inattentive and attentive not much difference in difficult task.
Scmitt et al. (1986), study on typing names
-Asked ppts to type either their name or a code backwards on a computer.
-Mere presence of others made people perform the simple task quicker and the difficult task slower.
-Adding in an evaluation apprehension condition made little difference to the typing speed.
Ringelmann (1913, 1927), study on social loafing
Found that men pulling on a rope attached to a dynamometer exerted less force than the number of people in the group.
Reasons for the effect:
-Coordination loss: as group size inhibits movement, distraction, and jostling.
-Motivation loss: participants did not try as hard; less motivated.
Why do people socially loaf, Geen (1991)
Output equity - When people learn others are not pulling their weight, they too can lose motivation and put less effort in.
-Evaluation apprehension Individuals only believe their efforts are being judged when they perform alone; in groups, people are not accountable.
The collective effort model, Karau and Williams (1993)
People will put effort into a group task when:
-When they believe their input has an impact.
-When completing a task that is likely to bring them something they value.
