Social Categorization

Question 1

Define prejudice

Answer 1

Having an unjustifiable and usually negative attitude towards groups or individuals

Question 2

What are causes of prejudice?

Answer 2

1) Just world phenomenon
2) Social categorization
3) Group competition
4) Social influences

Question 3

Define stereotypes

Answer 3

Widely held but fixed and oversimplified categorization of a group of people

Question 4

Define social categorization

Answer 4

Process of identifying a person as a member of a certain group because of the features they share

Question 5

Define self-fulfilling prophecy

Answer 5

When a stereotype directly or indirectly becomes true of a person due to positive feedback from others

Question 6

Define just-world phenomenon

Answer 6

Tendency to believe the world is just and that people get what they deserve
E.g., viewing homeless people as at fault, as well as lazy and hopeless

Question 7

Fishbein and Ajzen theory of reasoned action

Answer 7

We behave in certain ways based on our social values and personal attitudes towards the behavior and evaluation of benefits/costs of engaging in the behavior

Question 8

Define conformity

Answer 8

A type of social influence involving a change in belief or behavior in order to fit in with a group. Pressure can be real or implied

Question 9

Identify and define the 3 types of conformity

Answer 9

1) Compliance: change of behavior without altering opinion
2) Internalization: change in behavior AND opinion
3) Identification: Changing opinion, behavior and now identifying with influencing group

Question 10

Asch theory of conformity and findings

Answer 10

PP in a room with actors. PP asked to state what line matched the length of the another. Actors all stated wrong answers.

• Providing a friend decreases conformity
• Making task harder increases conformity
• Written responses decreases conformity

Question 11

What did Crutchfield believe about conformity?

Answer 11

Believed people who conformed were:
-Less intelligent
-Less ego strength 
-Less leadership skills
-More narrow minded
(Widely disproven)

Question 12

Festinger: Social comparison theory

Answer 12

We have an innate need to compare ourselves to others. We do this in 2 ways:
Upward: we look at groups/people who perform better than us and use them to evaluate our skills/worth
Downward: we look at people who don’t match our skill set and use them to feel more confident about our abilities

Question 13

Why do we conform?

Answer 13

We conform to groups we believe we’re apart of.

• Need for social approval
• Avoid being embarrassed
• Publicly agree with the group but more likely to conserve opinions privately

Question 14

Define obedience

Answer 14

A form of social influence that involves performing an action under the orders of an authority of figure

Question 15

Define compliance

Answer 15

Changing your behavior at the request of another person

Question 15

Milgram’s obedience study and findings

Answer 15

-Learner + teacher (PP) placed in a room with a lab coated man (authority figure)
-Teacher had to give an electric shock to learner if word-pair was incorrect
Key finding: Diffusion of responsibility was found where responsibility was passed on to the authority figure

Question 16

What is the bystander effect?

Answer 16

A person is less likely to help when passive bystanders are present in an emergency situation

Question 17

What is diffusion of responsibility, what does it lead to?

Answer 17

The tendency to subjectively divide the personal responsibility to help by the number of bystanders, can lead to ‘the bystander effect’

Question 18

Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment

Answer 18

Interested in why people act in certain ways in jobs- was it their personal characteristics or the job?
-24 males allocated either guard or prisoner
Conclusion: status given to people is internalized

Question 19

What are factors that impact obedience?

Answer 19

• Social proximity
• Legitimacy of authority
• Group pressure

Question 20

What is deindividuation?

Answer 20

When you become so immersed in the norms of the group that you lose your sense of identity and personal responsibility. Can lead us to acting less self conscious, less inhibited and not think about potential consequences