Social Key Terms Flashcards
Social Psychology
The study of people’s thoughts, behaviour and beliefs, how these things are constructed within a social context, and how they are influenced by others around them.
Schema
Mental models of the world; they organise knowledge, enable meaningful encoding of new information, and guide anticipation of additional information.
Stereotype
Beliefs about social categories regardless of their accuracy.
The 2 broad types of cognitive processes.
– System 1 (intuitive, automatic) – faster, less awareness, less effortful.
– System 2 (rational, controlled) – slower, more awareness, more effortful.
Dunbar’s Social Brain Hypothesis
More social information → larger capacity (specifically neocortex, outer-most part of the brain)
Dispositional Attribution
(internal), ‘explaining’ behavioural outcome by referring to stable, dispositional causes.
Situational Attribution
(external), ‘explaining’ behavioural outcome by referring to transient, situational causes.
Attribution
Explanations that we form spontaneously, often at an intuitive level without complete awareness of the process.
Correspondence Bias/Fundamental Attribution Error
We tend to assume that observable outcome corresponds to underlying disposition
Three types of self-awareness
Subjective self-awareness – distinguish self and environment, regulate own internal processes (all organisms?).
Objective self-awareness – become the object of one’s own attention, be aware of own state of mind, theory of mind ability (those capable of mirror self-recognition?).
Symbolic self-awareness – represent the self through language, communicate the self to others, set future goals for self, perform goal-guided actions, evaluate outcomes of those actions, possess extensive self-schemas (only humans?).
The watching-eye effect
Seeing one’s own mirror image makes people more prosocial and honest.
The spotlight effect
People tend to overestimate the extent to which others notice them.
The illusion of transparency
People tend to overestimate the extent to which their internal states (thoughts, emotions) are apparent to others.
Self control
The capacity to regulate thoughts and behaviours in the face of conflict (important for group living).
Delay of gratification.
Passing up a smaller immediate reward for a larger later reward, an eg of self-control.
Ego depletion and The Model of Self-Control (Baumeister et al.)
Self-control ability is a finite resource that can be temporarily used up.
Can train our self-control ability.
Self-esteem
One’s overall evaluation of one’s worth.
Maslow’s Hierarchy
Physiological needs
Safety needs
Belongingness and love needs
Esteem needs
Self-actualisation
Social pain
An acute aversive experience that demands immediate attention, may overlap with ‘state’ self-esteem.
Motives and Motivation.
Specific internal drivers of behaviour.
A state of arousal that promotes goal-directed behaviour.
Inter vs Intra sexual selection.
Intra = characteristics that facilitate direct competition eg weaponry.
Inter = seemingly useless traits that are attractive eg colour.
Fluid compensation
An attempt to restore one’s sense of meaning using any available means.
Mere exposure effect
Repeated exposure to a stimulus increases positive feelings, even when the exposure is subliminal.
Passionate vs Companionate love
Passionate love – an experience involving feelings of euphoria, intimacy, and intense sexual attraction (a few months ~ 2 years).
▪ Companionate love – also called compassionate love, an experience involving affection, trust, and concern for a partner’s wellbeing (slower to develop, much longer lasting).
Brennan et al’s model of adult attachment.
- Secure (low anxiety/avoidance) – It is easy for me to become emotionally close to others. I am comfortable depending on others and having others depend on me. I don’t worry about being alone or having others not accept me.
- Dismissing (low anxiety / high avoidance) – I am comfortable without close emotional relationships. It is very important to me to feel independent and self-sufficient, and I prefer not to depend on others or have others depend on me.
- Preoccupied (high anxiety / low avoidance) – I want to be completely emotionally intimate with others, but I often find that others are reluctant to get as close as I would like. I am uncomfortable being without close relationships, but I sometimes worry that others don’t value me as much as I value them.
- Fearful (high anxiety/avoidance) – I am uncomfortable getting close to others. I want emotionally close relationships, but I find it difficult to trust others completely, or to depend on them. I worry that I will be hurt if I allow myself to become too close to others.
The self-esteem movement
It was assumed (by policymakers) that low self-esteem is the cause of underachievement and anti-social behaviour.
▪ This led to the implementation of interventions
designed to boost self-esteem (self-affirmations,
praising children regardless of performance, being
reluctant to criticise bad behaviour)
Altruism
A special type of prosocial behaviour that is characterized by:
➢ a particular motive, namely promoting the welfare of others without conscious regard of one’s personal benefits (even though such benefits may still be an unintended consequence…).
➢a personal cost to the prosocial actor (e.g., money, time, energy).
The Social-Exchange Theory of Prosociality
much prosocial behaviour can be described as a transaction between people who exchange rewards and/or costs.
… exchanged rewards/costs can be external (e.g., gain or loss of money, time, reputation etc.) and/or internal (e.g., gain or loss of self-worth, feelings of guilt/shame etc.)
… people are likely to act prosocially when they feel that the rewards of doing so outweigh costs (noteworthy exceptions: true altruism!)
… people do not consciously monitor costs and rewards for every single exchange, but often adopt a habitual approach.
Machiavellianism, Trait empathy, Agreeableness.
Personality factors affecting prosocial behaviour.
1. willingness to exploit and manipulate others to achieve one’s own goals (reduces prosociality).
2. ability and willingness to put oneself in the shoes of others to experience events and emotions as they do (enhances prosociality).
3. a person’s general tendency to be warm, friendly, and tactful as well as to
get along well with others (enhances prosociality).
Bystander Effect
Describes when numerous people fail to help a stranger in an emergency situation.
Instrumental, hostile and displaced aggression.
Instrumental Aggression: premeditated & goal directed.
Hostile Aggression: impulsive. A response to an unpleasant internal state, such as frustration, anger or pain.
Displaced Aggression: directed against an innocent target that is easily accessible/non-threatening, but that did not cause the internal state which triggered the aggression in the first place.
Violence
- a special type of aggressive behaviour that is characterised by
⇒ a particular motive, namely the intention to cause extreme physical or emotional harm eg extreme enough to require medical/psychological treatment.
Attitude
A relatively enduring (positive, negative, mixed, or neutral) evaluation of a given entity (including objects, events, issues or people).
Attitude strength
Term refers to the durability and the impact of attitudes (not their extremity) → strong attitudes characterized by…
❖ persistence over time
❖ strong resistance to change
❖ habitual impact on a person’s life
Belief
Assumed knowledge (that may or may not be true) about a given entity (including objects, events, issues, or people).
Theory of Planned Behaviour
Tries to understand relationship between a person’s cognition (i.e., beliefs) and behaviour. Argues that intention (willingness) to act in a certain manner is
determined by three types of beliefs (and how well they are aligned…):
❖Behavioural Beliefs: an individual’s belief that a behaviour will produce a
specific desired or undesired outcome (i.e., ‘Vaping will make me sick’)
❖Normative Beliefs: an individual’s belief that others expect them to perform
or suppress a specific behaviour (e.g., ‘my peers expect me [not] to vape’)
❖Control Beliefs: an individual’s beliefs about the factors that may facilitate or hinder
performing the behaviour (i.e., ‘I want to use vapes and I know where to buy them’)
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
- an unpleasant state that arises when a person realises the inconsistency of their affect, behaviour, and/or cognition.
- the theory argues that people who experience CD usually try to alleviate it (see also McGrath, 2017).
- one approach: restoring alignment within one’s attitudes via changing one’s affect, beliefs or behaviour
Types of persuation
systematic appeals/persuasion: a change in attitude brought about by appeals to logic or reason.
heuristic appeals/persuasion: a change in attitude brought about by appeals to emotion or habit.
Social Influence
A modification of a person’s attitudes, by a real or imagined other.
Thecontrolofoneperson’sbehaviourbyanother,andthosewhoknowhowtoexertsuchinfluencecanhaveandbejustaboutanythingtheyplease.
Conformity
A change in one’s behaviour to accord with others and/or social norms. This can either be due to:
▪ acceptance- conformity that involves both acting and believing in accord with others (e.g., an attitudinal change after feeling persuaded by others, such as joining in astanding ovation and meaning it).
▪ compliance- conformity that involves publicly acting in accord with others even if privately disagreeing (e.g., joining in a standing ovation but privately thinking the performance wasn’t that great).
▪ obedience- acting in accord with a direct order by an authority (occasionally without privately thinking anything other than that the order must be followed).
Informational vs Normative influence
Informational Influence = change of attitude/behaviour because other people’s behaviour provides information about what is the correct thing to do.
Normative Influence = change of attitude/behaviour because other people’s behaviour provides information about what is the appropriate thing to do.
Risky shift phenomenon
Groups tend to take more risks than individuals.
Group polarisation
Normative views become more polarised over time.
Group think
Extreme polarization that involves deterioration in mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment due to group isolation and an excessive desire to achieve/maintain consensus.
How groups are classified
size, entitativity, purpose…
entitativity considered particularly useful:
extent to which a group of individuals are perceived to be cohesive, interconnected, similar, interactive.
Social facilitation and inhibition
Social Facilitation (Triplett, 1898): improved individual performance (e.g., in athletics) in the company of others depending on…
Social Inhibition (e.g., Bond & Titus, 1983): impaired individual performance (e.g., memory)
in the company of others depending on…
a) how skilled people are at what they are doing.
b) how much people (over)estimate that others pay attention to them.
c) how worried people are that others will judge them.
Social loafing
People seem to expend less effort when working in a group than when working alone.
Intergroup behaviour
Loosely refers to any perception, cognition, affect or behaviour that is influenced by people’s recognition that they and others are members of distinct social groups.
Culture
An instance of group memory that lays out ideas about the world and ways to act in it that are considered appropriate by the group.
▪cultural ideas often guide our feelings, thoughts and behaviour so subtly that we hardly sense their existence (until we enter a new culture).
Minimal group paradigm
Minimum situation people consider themselves in a group.
People favour ingroup members (and may derogate outgroup members) even under conditions that erase past/societal structure.
Stereotyping
Repertory of fixed impressions” about other people based on their group memberships.
Exaggerated beliefs associated with a category” that can lead to prejudice as “an antipathy based on a faulty generalisation
Social categorisation
(Alleged) Knowledge of a person’s group membership.
Prejudice
Feelings towards individuals based on knowledge of their group membership.
Discrimination
Actions towards individuals based on knowledge of their group membership.
Hostile, benevolent, ambivalent sexism.
hostile sexism (HS) – negative attitudes towards women.
❖ benevolent sexism (BS) – positive attitudes towards women.
❖ ambivalent sexism – describes the state of being high in both HS and BS.
Cognitive biases in prejudice
▪ Accentuation Bias (Tajfel & Wilkes, 1963): people consider others who belong to the same group
more similar (= within-group assimilation) than people who belong to different groups (= between-group contrast).
▪ Correspondence Bias (Gilbert & Malone, 1995): humans tend to see others’ behavior as reflecting their inner dispositions (rather than social roles/situational pressures).
▪ Illusory Correlations (Hamilton & Gifford, 1976): humans inclined to associate members of minority groups with uncommon attributes and members of majority groups with common attributes (even when no actual association exists).
Motivational biases of prejudice
▪ Need for Distinctiveness (e.g., Brewer, 1999): people aspire to an optimal balance of inclusion and distinctiveness → group membership allows them to fit in (with ingroup members) and stand out (compared to outgroup members).
▪ Need To Belong (e.g., Baumeister & Leary, 1995): humans aspire to belong by forming groups → group
membership prompts them to prefer ingroup members over outgroup members.
▪ Need For Self-Enhancement (e.g., Sedikides et al., 2008): humans are motivated to perceive themselves positively and better than others => easily inclined to attribute positive qualities to ingroups, negative qualities to outgroups.
Tokenism
People make small concessions to members of certain social groups in order to deflect accusations of prejudice and discrimination
Biased impression formation
Stereotypic expectations influence how info about them is sought out, attended to, interpreted, and remembered.
Sociometer theory
Humans evolved to be highly sensitive to degrees of acceptance, and
self-esteem is a subjective gauge of social acceptance.
Ostracism
Intentional social exclusion. Increases conformity and cooperation.
Cultural anxiety buffers
Specify a set a rules for achieving symbolic immortality. eg leaving a legacy or life after death.
