Social and Multicultural Flashcards
Attributions theories focus on the causal expanations that people generate to explain why a particular event or outcomes has occurred
Internal or Dispositional attributions locates the cause of the behavior within the person. For example, a person failing a test is due to a lack of effort in preparation
External or Situational attributions- locates the cause of the behavior outside the person. For example, the person failing the test is due to the test’s unfairness.
Depression Attributions
Attribution theory has contributed to our understanding of depression and learned helplessness. When a person attributes negative events to internal, stable, and global causes, that person is more likely to experience depression, helplessness, and hopelessness. Internal-
Fundamental Attribution Error vs. Self-Serving Bias vs. Actor-Observer Bias
Fundamental attibution bias or error refers to a bias toward attributing the behavior of others (the actor) to internal or dispositional causes, while understimating the influences of the situational or external variables. This results in blaming the victim. An attribution about another’s behavior only, when the other fails.
Self-serving bias when we explain our own behavior, we tend to attribute our own success to internal or personal factors, and our failers to external or situational factors. We are motivated by a desire to maintain self-esteem as well as look good to others. Attributions about one’s own behavior only for success as well as failure.
The Actor-Observer Bias- describes a situation in which the person attribute their own actions to situational factors while minimizing the role of dispositional elements and attribute other’s behaviors to dispositional factors. Attributions about one’s own behavior as well another’s behavior when both fail.
Cognitive Dissonance vs. Self-Perception Theory
Cognitive dissonance proposes that people change their attitudes to reduce the aversive arosual they experience when they become awante of inconsistency in their cognition. Essentially, cognitive dissonance results in people change their attitudes to match their actions. The people that were paid $1 for lying felt more discomfort and therefore changed their attitudes more.
Self-perception theroy- people infer their attitudes as well as their emotions by observing their own behavior. They concluded that the people paid $20 assumed that they were lying for profit and those paid $1 assumed that wouldn’t be lying for such low payment and must have enjoyed the task.
Persuasion
Primacy Effect- speak first (long gap)
Recency Effect - speack last (short gap)
3 factors of persuasion: (1) charteristics of the source. (2) characteristics of the message, and (3) characteristics of the audience
Superordinate goals
Superordinate goals are higher than individual goals and are goals that only can be achieved with both groups working together and are of benefit to both parties. These types of activities are helpful in reducing prejudice and discrimination
Bystander apathy and diffusion of responsibility
Bystander apathy refers to the phenomenon of individuals failing to help a victim when other bystanders are present.
Bystander apathy most likely results from the diffusion of responsibility- the tendency to assume that someone else will respond and take action.
Theories of Aggression
Frustration-aggression hypothesis-states that aggression is always due to frustration
Social learning theory states that we learn to be aggressive by observing models behaving aggressively and by seeing others rewarded for aggressive behavior.
2 types of Social Influence
Conformity- involves changing one’s behavior as a result of real or imagined social or group pressure.
Obedience- involves following a direct command usually from someone in authority.
Foot-in-the-door vs. door-in-the-face request
The foot-in-the-door technique begins with making a small request and one the person agrees you make a larger request. While the door-in-the-face begins with a large unreasonable request and once the person rejects the request, a smaller more reasonable, and generally the desired request is made
Deindividualuation
Deindividuation refers to the process of suspending one’s private self-identity and adopting instead the identity of the group. This process involves both decreased self-awareness and self-regulation and creates conditions of anonymity. For example, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is based on this principle.
Social facilitation vs. Social Inhibition vs. Social Loafing
Social facilitation occurs when individual task performance is enhanced by the mere presence of others. It occurs most frequently when the task is simple or familiar.
Social inhibition occurs when task performance is compromised by the presence of others. It occurs when the task is novel or complex.
Social loafing occurs when people don’t work as hard on a task when they are part of a group as compared to when they are working alone.
Social buffer effect
The social buffering effect- is a process in which a psychosocial resource reduces the impact of life stress on psychological well-being. Having such a resource contributes to adjustment because persons are less affected by negative life events.
A good support network can reduce the risk of emotional distress. The size of the social network is not important, but the person’s perception of having an adequate social network
Inner-city teacher’s expectations of kids
Teacher’s expectations have an impact on the students’ academic performance (the Rosenthal effect)
Factors in interpersonal attraction
Physical attractiveness- is one of the most important factors in our initial liking or loving others.
The similarity hypothesis-proposes that people similar in social background and values tend to form intimate relationships.
The reciprocity hypothesis- suggests that people tend to like others who like them.
The propinquity or proximity hypothesis suggests that physical nearness appears to promote attraction largely because of mere exposure and familiarity appears to strongly enhance the attractiveness and overall liking.
The matching hypothesis states that people of approximately equal physical attractiveness are likely to select each other.
