Social Psych 1 Flashcards
social psychology
the scientific study of how a person’s behavior, thoughts, and feelings influence and are influenced by social groups
social influence
when the presence of other people directly or indirectly influences the behavior, feelings, and thoughts of each individual
conformity
changing one’s own behavior to more closely match the actions of others
asch’s study on conformity
subjects see lines, say which is most similar to original line, people conformed to wrong answers
more conformity when more confederates, less when write answer separately, less when one confederate give right answer
more conformity in time of study and in US
normative social influence
the need to act in ways that we feel will let us be liked and accepted by others
informational social influence
take cues for how to behave from other people when we are in a situation that is not clear or is ambiguous
groupthink
occurs when people within a group feel it is more important to maintain the group’s cohesiveness than to consider the facts realistically
make bad decisions
symptoms of groupthink
invulnerability, rationalization, lack of introspection, stereotyping, pressure, lack of disagreement, self-deception, insularity
group polarization
tendency for members involved in a group discussion to take somewhat more extreme positions and suggest riskier actions when compared to individuals who have not participated in group discussion
due to normative and informational
social facilitation
the positive influence of others on performance
presence if others increases arousal
social impairment
the negative influence of others on performance
presence of others increases arousal
social loafing
people who are lazy tend not to do as well when other people are also working on the same task, but can do quite well when working alone
easier to hide laziness and get good results when in group
deindividuation
the lessening of the sense of personal identity and personal responsibility when people are gathered in a group
act more impulsively because lose identity
consumer psychology
devoted to figuring out how to get people to buy things that someone is selling
compliance
occurs when people change their behavior as a result of another person or group asking or directing them to change
person asking for change typically doesn’t have any real authority
obedience
compliance when there is a power imbalance/authority figure
foot in the door technique
when compliance with a smaller request is followed by a larger request
people more likely to say yes to both because have already said yes and want to be consistent
door in the face technique
larger request comes first, refused, then smaller and more reasonable request that often gets compliance
lowball technique
common in sales
once a commitment is made, the cost of that commitment is increased
ex buying a car, initially see only down payment, then gas, taxes, warranties, etc
cult
any group of people with a particular religious or philosophical set of beliefs and identity
cult common association definition
a group of people whose religious or philosophical beliefs and behavior are so different from that of mainstream organizations that they are viewed with suspicion and seen as existing on the fringes of socially acceptable behavior
obedience
changing one’s behavior at the direct order of an authority figure
milgram’s research
memory test, shocked when wrong answer, voltage goes up
when want to stop but told by white coat person must continue, most continue
65% went all the way
social cognition
focuses on the ways in which people think about other people and how those cognitions influence behavior toward those other people
attitude
a tendency to respond positively or negatively toward a certain idea, person, object, or situation
developed through experiences
can affect way behave toward things
can affect how people view things before exposed to them
not born with them
abc model of attitudes
affective component, behavior component, cognitive component
affective component
the way a person feels toward the object, person, or situation
emotional component
behavior component
action that a person takes in regard to the person, object, or situation
cognitive component
the way a person thinks about him or herself, an object, or a situation
thoughts
include beliefs and ideas about the focus of the attitude
ways of attitude formation
direct contact direct instruction interaction with others vicarious conditioning (observational learning)
persuasion
the process by which one person tries to change the belief, opinion, position, or course of action of another person through argument, pleading, or explanation
important factors in seeing how influential the persuasion will be
source, message, target audience, medium
source
communicator = giving message
give more weight to people perceived as experts, trustworthy, attractive, similar, etc
elaboration likelihood model
assumed that people either elaborate (add details and information) based on what they hear (the facts of the message) or they do not elaborate at all, preferring to pay attention to the surface characteristics of the message (length, communicator, attractive, etc)
central route processing
people attend to the content of the message
peripheral route processing
style of information processing that relies on peripheral cues (cues outside of the message content itself), ex expertise of message source, length, etc
don’t pay attention to message itself
cognitive dissonance
when people find themselves doing or saying things that don’t match their idea of themselves
experience an emotional discomfort and physiological arousal
dissonance
inconsistency or lack of agreement
three ways to reduce cognitive dissonance
- change conflicting bx to match attitude
- change current conflicting cognition to justify bx
- form new cognitions to justify bx
festinger study
people given $20 or $1 to lie about boring activity being fun, people given $20 had less cog dissonance because understood why lying
people given $1 lie better and convinced selves fun bc had cog dissonance bc couldn’t understand why lying for $1
bem’s self perception theory
instead of experiencing negative tension, people look at their own actions and then infer their attitudes from those actions
areas of brain involved in cog dissonance
left frontal cortex particularly active when people have made a decision that reduces dissonance and then acted on that decision
cog disso yale
evidence for cog disso in 4 year old humans and monkeys
