Social Psychology Flashcards
__________ examines how other persons (actual, imagined, or implied presence) influence our thoughts, feelings and actions.
Social Psychology
______ include attitudes and attributions
Thoughts
______ include attraction and dislike
Feelings
______ include social influence (conformity, obedience, compliance), aggression, and altruism
Actions
______ are statements that explain why people are related to their internal character
Attributions
What are dispositional attributions?
The actions of a person are related to their internal character. (“He hit me because he is a mean person”)
Attributing personality to a person’s actions without context
What are situational attributions?
The actions of a person are related to the external characteristics of their situation. (“He robbed the bank to save his family”)
What are 2 attributional errors?
1- Fundamental Attribution Error
2- Self-serving bias
The occurrence of the judgement of others’ behaviours due to dispositional factors (overemphasis on internal factors and underestimation of external factors when explaining behaviour) defines:
Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE)
underestimating context
The tendency to take undue credit for positive outcomes and attribute negative outcomes to external causes to maintain our self-esteem defines:
Self-serving bias
excusing behaviour in reason of factors beyond our control
Factors influencing attraction (PMSPR)
- Proximity or geographic closeness
- Mere-exposure effect
- Similarity
- Physical attractiveness (*** Matching hypothesis, Gofman)
- Reciprocity or reciprocal liking
_______ occurs when people yield to real or imagined social pressure.
Conformity
What is the name of the experiment when the psychologist Asch drew lines and asked a group (1 test subject + 20 actors) which line is longest/shortest and observes the answer of the subject depending on the actors’ answers?
Asch’s “line studies” → Asch’s Conformity Experiment
Examples of conformity in action:
Fashion, Architecture, Names, FADS (trends)
What is Normative Social Influence?
Conforming to the norms of society to be seen as “normal” → wanting acceptance
What is Informational Social Influence?
Need direction/information
Social pressure can _____ or ______
real; imagined
What is the Reference Group phenomenon?
Wanting to be like a group
What factors affect conformity (MAHUNOC)?
- Made to feel incompetent
- At least 3 people
- High-Status Group
- Unanimity (1 person with a different opinion can divide opinions)
- No prior commitment
- Our behaviour is in the open
- Cultural effects
Describe Zimbardo’s prison study
Undergraduate volunteers played the roles of both guards and prisoners living in a mock prison in the basement of the Stanford psychology building. Prisoners and guards rapidly adapted to their roles and went beyond the boundaries of what had been predicted (led to dangerous and psychologically damaging situations) → 1/3 of the guards exhibited “genuine” sadistic tendencies and prisoners were emotionally traumatized, so the experiment lasted less than its supposed given time
Describe Milgram’s study
Subjects were asked to deliver different voltages as a punishment to the learner (a commander tells and subject to inflict pain to a “learner”)
What was the purpose of Milgram’s study?
To what degree would subjects refuse to deliver shock to another person
What are the results of Milgram’s obedience test? (3)
1- 65% of test completed
2- Started a big debate about ethics
3- Most participants were happy to learn this scary thing about themselves
What are the obedience variables? (PDAM)
- Power
- Distance between learner and teacher
- Assignment of responsibility
- Modeling/Imitation
