Social Psych Flashcards
Attenuation
Stimuli not attended to are processed too weakly to be brought to conscious awareness
Attentional bias
Because not all information can be attended to, our mind chooses which stimuli is most important
What was the first comprehensive theory of attention?
Broadbent’s Filter Theory of Attention. The filter selects the incoming messages that will be further processed based on the physical properties of the message
Dichotic listening
A task in which a person simultaneously hears two different auditory stimuli,with one stimulus presented to each ear
What experiment determined that “misery loves miserable company?”
Schachter’s anxiety experiment
Factors that foster group cohesion
Presence of an outside threat; distinction between in-group and out-group; social in physical environment that is conducive to people frequently meeting and interacting with each other, similarity of members and interests or values; democratic leader who values good group feelings and group members’ input in decision-making
Groupthink
Tendency of a cohesive group to seek unanimity and suspend critical evaluation in making decsions
Role consensus
The degree to which the group agrees on the role of each member
Group polarization
The tendency of people in groups to hold extreme views and a group-produced enhancement of member’s preexisting tendencies or a strengthening of the average inclination of group members.
Deindividuation
Loss of self-awareness and evaluation apprehension, and weakened restraints against forms of prohibited behaviors
Social trap
The conflict that occurs when a behavior has a positive short-term consequences but negative long-term consequences
Group contagion
Transmission of emotion through a crowd or group
What are the three classifications for group tasks?
Combined contributions (additive or compensatory); comparing tasks based on best and worst members (disjunctive and conjunctive); and task classification (intellective, criterion, judgmental, and maximizing)
What is an additive task?
The inputs of each of the group members are added together to create the group performance, and the expected performance of the group is the sum of the group members’ individual input
What is a compensatory task?
The group input is combined, so that the performance of the individuals is averaged rather than added.
Disjunctive task
When the group’s performance is determined by the best group member
Conjunctive task
When the groups’ performance is determined by the ability of the poorest performing group member
Intellective task
Involves the ability of the group to make a decision or a judgment
Criterion task
The group can see that there is a clearly correct answer to the problem that is being posed.
Judgmental task
There is no clearly correct answer to the problem that is posed
Maximizing task
Involves performance that is measured by how rapidly the group works, or how much of a product they are able to make
Two defining task types
Divisible (work can be divided among individuals) and unitary (work cannot be divided)
Aggregate
People who are unaware of one another and do not interact with one another
Social inhibition
The tendency for people to do worse on complex tasks when observed by others
Diffusion of responsibility
The tendency for people to assume that someone else will respond to a situation and take effect
Schachter’s Two-Factor Theory of Emotion
Emotional reactions are based upon cognitive interpretations of arousal
Self-Verification Theory
We prefer to be right rather than happy
Consistency Paradox
The idea that variability in behavior from one situation to another is far greater than had been recognized by many early theorists
Cooperative Learning
The jigsaw technique. Children of defferent races brought together in cooperative groups. Each assigned a different portion of the lesson to learn and teach others. Promotes group learning and race relations.
Low vs. High achieving in cooperative learning situations
Low-achieving students derive maximum benefit; high-achieving students resist technique, complaining that the methods are not sufficiently challenging.
Muzafer Sheri
Founder of modern social psychology. Developed multiple techniques for understanding social processes, particularly social norms and social conflict. Autokinetic Effect experiment, and Robber’s Cave. Realistic Conflict Theory (conflict over limited resources).
Berkowitz and crowding
Posited that adverse conditions (such as heat) can amplify the effects of crowding
Gender and crowding
Women cope better in crowding situations that are set in the lab, while men do better in studies in naturalistic settings. High density situations typically produce negative moods in men, whereas women have more negative moods in low-density situations.
Proxemics
The study of measurable distances between people as they interact
Gender differences in leadership
Men tend to be more task-oriented and women tend to be more relationship-oriented.
Qualities of effective leaders:
Outgoing, energetic, conscientious, agreeable, emotionally stable, self-confident, and intelligent.
Minority influence
Has to do with a portion of the group disagreeing with the majority of the group. If first conforms to group and builds up idiosyncrasy credits, minority can influence group when consistent, persistent, and self-confident.
Normative influence
Going along with the crowd to avoid rejection, to say in people’s good graces, or to gain their approval; commonly leads to compliance, as one is concerned with social image
Informational Influence
Leads people to acceptance by the need to be correct; when a person is unsure of the accuracy of information, he may look to another person as a source of information
Social Comparison Theory
Evaluating one’s abilities and opinions by comparing oneself to others
Social-Exchange Theory
The theory that human interactions are transactions that aim to maximize one’s rewards and minimize one’s costs
False Consensus Bias
The tendency to overestimate the commonality of one’s opinions and one’s undesirable or unsuccessful behaviors
Brainstorming
People working individually are more likely to generate good ideas that when working in a group. Brainstorming is effective when the group is highly motivated and diverse, and when the groups are primed with categories of possible ideas.
Instrumental aggression
Aggressive behavior that is a means to some end
Hostile aggression
Takes place without any incentive; aggression for the sake of aggression
Reactive aggression
Emotionally driven (reaction to a perceived threat)
Proactive aggression
Involves initiating aggressive behavior with some goal in mind and no perceived threat
Relational aggression
Harms of threatens to harm relationships and more likley to be used by girls
Physical aggression
Physical attempt to hurt someone
Passive aggression
An indirect way of expressing anger while denying any purposeful wrongdoing
Dollard’s Frustration-Aggression Theory
Frustration creates a motive to aggress
Plutchik and Kellerman’s Circumplex Model
Variables that measure interpersonal relations are arranged around a circle in a two-dimensional space
Aggression and emotional reactivity
People who are emotionally reactive are more likely to show an escalation of aggressiveness when they are exposed to aggressive stimuli
Excitation-Transfer Theory
Anger is physiologically similar to all other emotions and, therefore, can be enhanced by any type of emotional arousal
Misattribution Theory
Arousal can be misattributed as anger and thereby lead to increased aggression
Kinesics
The interpretation of non-verbal messages through movement or expressions of the face or parts of the body.
Birdwhistell
Studied messages communicated through body language, argued that all movements are purposeful and can be read, claimed only 30-35% of communication is verbal.
Paralanguage
The use of accent, cadence, pitch, and tone to convey meaning
Kinesis
Undirected movement of a cell, organism, or body part in response to an external stimulus.
Theme interference
Process that occurs when a therapist loses his objectivity and takes on the subjective world of the client and in some cases projecting their own subjective world into the client’s situation.
Two techniques to overcome theme interference
Unlinking (Consultant provides insight by untangling the therapist’s past and their current interactions with the client) or Theme interference reduction (consultant assists the consulted in brainstorming additional outcomes for the client, broadening the consultee’s perspective)
