Social Psych Flashcards
effect of competition on performance; people perform better on familiar tasks in the presence of others
Triplett
McDougall and Ross
first textbooks
social approval influences behavior
Verplank
behavior is motivated by anticipated rewards
Reinforcement Theory
behavior learned through motivation
Social Learning Theorists (Bandura)
people are aware of the social roles they are expected to fill
Role Theory (Bindle)
people prefer consistency and will change or resist changing attitudes
Consistency Theories
Heider’s Balance Theory
balance exists when all three (P, O, and X) fit together harmoniously (one or three positives); without balance there will be stress (zero or two positives) and a tendency to remove stress to achieve balance
Festinger’s Cognitive Dissonance Theory
conflict that you feel when your attitudes are not in synch with your behavior
Free-choice dissonance
a person makes a choice between several desirable alternatives
Post-decision dissonance
emerges after choosing
Spreading of alternatives
relative worth of the two alternatives is spread apart
Forced-compliance dissonance
forced into behaving in a manner that is inconsistent with beliefs or attitudes
Festinger and Carlsmith
dissonance reduced by believing that they actually enjoyed the task
Minimal (insufficient) Justification effect
if external justification is minimal, one will reduce their dissonance by changing internal cognitions
Two main principles of Cognitive Dissonance
If a person is pressured to say or do something contrary to their attitudes, there will be a tendency to changes attitudes
The greater the pressure to comply, the less the attitude will change
Bem’s Self-Perception Theory
When attitudes about something are weak or ambiguous, you observe your own behavior and attribute an attitude to yourself
People infer what their attitudes are based upon observation of their own behavior
A person’s initial attitude is irrelevant and there is no discomfort produced by behavior
Overjustification effect
if a person is rewarded for doing something they already like doing, they may stop liking it
Hovland’s Model
Communication of persuasion–three components (communicator, communication, and situation)
The more credible the source, the greater the persuasive impact
Hovland and Weiss
high credibility sources were more effective
Sleeper effect
over time, persuasive impact of high credibility source decreased while the persuasive impact of low credibility source increased
Two-sided messages
contain arguments for and against
Sources can increase credibility by arguing _____
against their own self-interest
Petty and Cacioppo’s Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion
Two routes to persuasion–central (issue is very important to us) and peripheral (not very important or we cannot clearly hear the message)
strong arguments change minds more often than weak messages
Central persuasion
strength of argument doesn’t matter; how, by whom, or in what surroundings are more important
Peripheral persuasion
Resistance to Persuasion
McGuire–Analogy of Inoculation
Cultural truisms
beliefs that are seldom questioned
Refuted counterarguments
first presenting arguments against and then refuting the arguments
Belief perseverance
people will hold beliefs even after those beliefs have been shown to be false
Reactance
when sense of freedom is threatened, a person will act to reassert a sense of freedom
we are drawn to affiliate because of a tendency to evaluate ourselves in relationship to other people
Festinger’s Social Comparison Theory
Need for self-evaluation becomes linked to the ___
need to affiliate
greater anxiety lead to a greater desire to affiliate
Schachter’s
Reciprocity Hypothesis
we tend to like people who indicate that they like us
Gain-loss principle
Aronson and Linder; evaluation that changes will have more of an impact than an evaluation that remains constant
a person weighs the rewards and costs of interacting with another
Social Exchange Theory
we consider not only our costs and rewards, but the costs and rewards of the other person
Equity Theory
Need complementarity
people choose relationships so they mutually satisfy each other’s needs
tendency to attribute positive qualities and desirable characteristics to attractive people
Attractiveness stereotype
a greater liking is developed for someone that lives close by
Spatial proximity
mere repeated exposure to a stimulus leads to enhanced liking for it
Mere exposure hypothesis (Zajonc)
Helping behavior
behaviors that benefit other individuals or groups of people
Altruism
helping behavior that benefits someone else at some cost to themselves
Darley and Latane
Bystander Intervention; Kew Gardens; Kitty Genovese
Social influence
presence of others may lead to a different interpretation of events
Diffusion of responsibility
the more people present, the less the likelihood that any individual will offer help
ability to vicariously experience the emotions of another
Empathy
when faced with situations in which others may need help, people might feel distress and/or they might feel empathy
Batson’s empathy-altruism model
Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis
when people are frustrated, they act aggressively
Bandura’s Social Learning Theory
Aggression is learned through modeling (direct observation) or through reinforcement
Bobo doll experiment
Aggressive behavior is selectively reinforced (act because of some reward)
Sherif’s Conformity Study
Autokinetic effect
Norm formation
Individuals conformed to the group
if you stare a point of light in an otherwise dark room, the light will appear to move
Autokinetic effect
Asch’s Conformity Study
Length of line study; no pressure to conform yet most did
Conformity
yielding to group pressure
Milgram’s Obedience Experiment
Confederate “received” shocks of increasing voltage for incorrect answers
Obedience to authority measured by the maximum shock a subject would administer
Two-thirds of the subjects were completely obedient
Tension (distress) due to a conflict between deeply ingrained tenets not to hurt others and the equally compelling tendency to obey authority
Drive to obey was stronger than the drive not to hurt
Compliance
change in behavior that occurs as a result of situational or interpersonal pressure
Foot-in-the-door effect
Compliance with a small request increases the likelihood of compliance with a larger request
Door-in-the-face effect
People who refuse a large initial request are more likely to agree to a later, smaller request
Clark and Clark Doll Preference study
Majority of children (regardless of race) preferred the white doll Negative effects of racism and minority group status on self-concept Subsequent research (since the 60s) has shown that black children hold positive views of their own ethnicity
Salience
that which holds the most importance for us in each particular situation
The more salient the identity, the _____ to the role expectations of the identities
more we conform
Self-efficacy
individual’s belief in their ability to organize and execute a particular pattern of behavior
Those with ____ exert more effort on challenging tasks
strong self-efficacy
Self-efficacy based on…
performance accomplishments, vicarious experiences, social persuasion, and physiological and emotional states
ways in which we form impressions about the characteristics of individuals and of groups of people
Social perception
first impressions are more important
Primacy effect
Recency effect
most recent information we have about an individual is most important
Attribution theory
Tendency for individuals to infer the causes of other people’s behavior
Dispositional causes
relate to the features of the person whose behavior is being considered
Beliefs, attitudes, and personality characteristics
Situational causes
external and relate to features of the surroundings
Threats, money, social norms, and peer pressure
when inferring the causes of others’ behaviors, there is a general bias toward making dispositional attributions rather than situational attributions
Fundamental attribution error
Halo Effect
tendency to allow a general impression about a person to influence other, more specific evaluations about a person
Belief in a just world
Lerner; good things happen to good people, bad things happen to bad people
Group norms
expectations of behavior in given situations
over time, students increasingly accepted the norms of their community
Newcomb’s study
Hall and Proxemics
Cultural norms that govern how far away we stand from the people we’re speaking to
study of how individuals space themselves in relation to others
Proxemics
presence of others increases arousal and consequently enhances the emission of dominant responses
Zajonc’s theory
Social Loafing
tendency for people to put forth less effort when part of a group effort than when acting individually
Anonymity (Zimbardo’s prison simulation)
people are more likely to commit antisocial acts when they feel anonymous within a social environment
Deindividualization
loss of self-awareness and of personal identity
Janis
Group decision making
Groupthink
tendency of decision-making groups to strive for consensus by not considering discordant information
Risky shift
group decisions are riskier than the average of the individual choices
Value hypothesis
risky shift occurs in situations in which riskiness is culturally valued
shift with group decisions toward caution; nature of the dilemma may determine the direction of the shift
Stoner
tendency for group discussion to enhance the group’s initial tendencies towards riskiness or caution
Group polarization
Autocratic leadership style lead to:
more hostility, more aggressiveness, and more dependence on the leader; quantity of work was greatest; Lewin
Democratic leadership style lead to:
more satisfaction and more cohesion; motivation and interest were strongest; Lewin
Laissez-faire leadership style lead to:
less efficiency, less organization, and less satisfaction; Lewin
Cooperation
person’s acting together for their mutual benefit
Competition
a person acts for their individual benefit
Prisoner’s dilemma
Betray or remain silent
Loss the most if they choose to cooperate and the other competes
Gain the most if they compte and the other cooperates
Lose the most if they both compete
Robber’s Cave experiment (Sherif)
Boys camp; group cohesion; outsider aggression; common goals brought them together, improved intergroup relations
Superordinate goals
best obtained through intergroup cooperation
