social cognition and influence Flashcards
what is social influence?
the process whereby one person’s behaviour is affected by the words or actions of others
what is social cognition?
the mental processes associated with people’s perceptions of and reactions to other people
what are two important components of the self?
self-concept and self-esteem
what is self-concept?
how you think of yourself
what is self-esteem?
your evaluation of your worth as a person
what is social comparison?
using other people as a basis of comparison for evaluating oneself
if we use temporal comparison what are we considering?
the way we are now in relation to how we were in the past
if we use social comparison what do we evaluate ourselves against?
other people
what is relative deprivation in social comparison?
the belief that in comparison to a reference group one is getting less than is deserved
what is a reference group in social comparison?
categories of people to which people can compare themselves
what are social norms?
socially based rules that prescribe what people should or shouldn’t do in various situations
what is deindividuation?
a psychological state occurring in a group members, that results in a loss of individuality and a tendency to do things not normally done when alone
what is social identity?
the beliefs we hold about groups to which we belong
what is social perception?
the processes through which people interpret info about others, draw inferences about them, and develop mental representations
how do schemas influence first impressions?
influences what we pay attention to and what we ignore
why does it not take much negative info to changing our mind about people?
most of us don’t expect others to act negatively to us, when this occurs it captures attention and leads us to believe this behaviour reflects something negative about the person
what is one schema that has a particularly strong influence on our first impressions?
we tend to assume that people we meet will have attitudes and values similar to ours
what is attribution?
the process of explaining the causes of people’s behaviour, including our own
what are the three key variables for understanding behaviours?
- consensus
- consistency
- distinctiveness
what is consensus?
the degree to which people’s behaviour is similar to that of the actor
what is consistency?
the degree to which behaviour is the same across time or situation
what is distinctiveness?
concerns the extent to which the actor’s response to one situation stands out from responses to similar situations
in summary what does Kelley’s Theory about sources of attribution suggest?
people are most likely to make internal attributions about someone’s behaviour when there is low consensus, high consistency and low distinctiveness
what is fundamental attribution error?
a bias towards over-attributing the behaviour of others to internal causes
what are internal sources of attribution due to?
a persons’ basic characteristics
what are external sources of attribution due to?
situational variables
what does ultimate attribution error refer to?
in-group vs out-group
according to the ultimate attribution error what do we attribute behaviours of the in-group to?
when they do good deeds we attribute their behaviour to integrity or other internal factors. If they do something bad we attribute it to external causes
according to the ultimate attribution error what do we attribute behaviours of the out-group to?
when they do something positive we attribute their behaviour to luck or some other external cause. However we attribute negative behaviour to an internal cause such as dishonesty
what is the out-group of ultimate attribution error?
those who we perceive as being different form ourselves
what is the in-group of ultimate attribution error?
those whom we perceive as being similar to ourselves
what is the actor-observer effect?
the tendency to attribute other people’s behaviour to internal causes while attributing our own behaviour (especially errors and failures) to external factors
what is self-serving bias?
the tendency to attribute our successes to internal characteristics while blaming our failures on external causes
what does the self-serving bias occur partly to?
motivation to maintain self-esteem
what is attitude?
a predisposition towards particular cognitive, emotional or behavioural reaction to objects
what are the three components of attitudes?
- affective/emotional
- behavioural
- cognitive
what is the cognitive component of attitude?
a set of beliefs about the attitude object
what is the emotional/affective component of attitude?
includes feelings about the object
what is the behavioural component of attitude?
the way people act towards the object
what plays a major role in attitude formation?
what people learn from their parents and others
what are the three factors that determine the success of a persuasive message to change attitudes?
- person communicating message
- the content of the message
- the audience who receives it
what does the elaboration likelihood model of changing attitude suggest?
attitude change can be driven by evaluation of the content of a persuasive message (central route) or by irrelevant persuasion cues (peripheral route)
what are the two routes of the elaboration likelihood model?
central and peripheral routes
what is the peripheral route of the elaborative likelihood route?
are affected by persuasion cues such as confidence, attractiveness or other characteristics of the person delivering message
what is the central route of the elaborative likelihood route?
when activated the content of the message becomes more important than the characteristics of the person delivering
what is the cognitive dissonance theory?
theory asserting that attitude change is driven by efforts to reduce tension caused by inconsistencies between attitudes and behaviours