Social Psych Lecture Flashcards
what do social psychologists study
how the thoughts, feelings and behaviours of individuals are influenced by the presence of others
explain “the need to belong”
relationships in humans lives are the only things that matter
individual differences but there is a motivation to be apart of groups and accepted by others
lonliness = hard on heatlh
explain the bystander effect on smoke in a room
when they are alone in the room they seek help right away
when there are with more people they dont say anything because the responsibility disperses
- fear of being judged
- believing everyone has a different mindset
what is conformity
altering your behaviour to match those around you or to fit the social norm
contrast descriptive social norms and injunctive social norms
descriptive: what people ACTUALLY think, feel, do
- typical everyday behavior, like covering mouth when coughing
injunctive: what people SHOULD do, feel, think
- the best acceptable thing
- let eldery take a seat on a bus, but not everyone does it
why do people conform to social norms
- informational influence
- believing other people around you are right, and adopt the same action
- how to eat at a fancy dinner so you watch others to be right - normative influence
- to fit in/to be liked/to be accepted
- even if group is wrong we still copy as a fear of being judged
what is unanimity
when everyone in the group agrees on something its hard to go against them even if you know its wrong
- related to a group think - when group decision making is wrong because of a desire to maintain consensus
- needs 3 people to conform
whats the difference between compliance and obedience
compliance = a change in a person behaviour because the requester has NO authority other us
- doing it as a favour
obedience = when we say yes to the request because the person is someone with authority
- parents, police
explain milgrams studies of obedience
the learner = teaching them words
the teacher = a real person shocking the learner everytime they get a question wrong with increasing voltage
the experimenter is in the same room as the teacher telling them to keep delievering the shock even tho it may be too painful for the learner in the other room
what did they predict in the milgram experiment
they predicted more people to stop once the voltage started getting higher
but acc 65% of ppl were obedient at this level of 25-30volts
in milgrams study, what were some of the factors that lowered the obedience levels
- being in the same room as the learner to get more emotional and pity them
- proximity of the scientist telling them to keep going
- presence of the non-obedient confederates
when the person was in contact with the learner and needed to push down their hand to recieve shock, less obedience
t/f milgram’s experiment raised ethical concersn
true
distress
mistress
was there any gender differences in milgrams experiment
did it with men and women and there was no difference in their obedience with the same conditions
what are some ways we can form first impressions of someone
by using their appearance (if physically attractive they should be nice and smart)
stereotypes
slices of behaviour as examples of small pieces of info on their personality
positive < negative information
negative is weighed more than positive
uncommon behavious (ethical or against the norm)
how do we interpt behaviour
thru attributions
= judgments about the cause of a persons behaviour
what are the 2 types of attributions
- dispositional attributions = thats the type of person they are, they have these traits, internal characteristics
- situational attributions = explanations that refer to the external events - what kind of situation were they in
what are the 3 types of biases in attributions
- correspondence bias
- ppl overemphasis the personal factors (traits, personality, the way they are) and underestimate the situational factors (did they have to do this) when explaining other peoples behaviour
- there is cultural differences = north america tends to focus more on personal factors - actor observer bias
- self vs others
- We explain our own behavior differently than we explain others’ behavior.
- When we do something bad → we blame the situation
- When others do the same thing → we blame their personality - self serving bias
- We take credit for our successes, but blame external factors for our failures.
- get an A on exam - more likely to overemphasize “im so smart”
- fail an exam - blame it on sleep
what is a stereotype
cognitive bias
- that every person in that group is like this
- not always negative but can be overgeneralization
what is the difference between prejudice and discrimination
prejudice = negative judgments and attitudes towards a person because of their group
- feelings, envy, disgust
= emotional bias
discrimination = inappropriate treatment to people just because of their group
- employment, jail time
= behavioural bias
where do stereotypes come from
media
family and friends
direct experience
what can be done to change a habit
need to be motivated to change and to practice replacing the bad behaviour with the good ones
detect
reflect
reject
