Social Psychology Flashcards
what is social psychology
study of how people think, feel, and behave in social situations
- > i.e. how we explain others behaviour and how others behaviour affects us
2 main areas of study in social psychology
Social Cognition
- > making sense of the social world
Social influence
- > how behaviour is affected by the situation and by other
main areas of discussion
- > person perception
- > attribution
- > attraction and liking
- > attitudes
- > stereotypes
Person perception
process of informing impressions of other
- > either forming an impression or making an impression
- > we often make snap decisions based on expectations/social norms
social schemas
organized clusters of ideas about categories of people
- > sort ppl into “types”
Biases in person perception
- > implicit personality theory
*physical appearance/beautiful is good
- > primacy effects
implicit personality theory
personal beliefs about which traits or physical characteristics belong together
- > when you think hacker you probably think loser in their parents basement
relate physical appearance to person perception
- > a huge message in our culture is “beautiful is good” and attractive people are perceived to be more intelligent, sociable and happier
- > but there is really no difference
- > the beautiful is good stereotype (disney princesses can do no wrong and are good to their core)
Primacy effects
- > we are influenced more by info received earlier than info received later
the tendency to remember the first piece of information we encounter better than information presented later on (FIRST IMPRESSIONS)
ingroup-outgroup biase
Ingroup “us”
- > the group to which we belong
- > be biased towards groups that share similar attributes
Outgroup “them”
- > everyone else (the group which you don’t belong)
Outgroup homogeneily effect
we assume that everyone in the outgroup are “all alike”/very similar to eachother
Sherifs Robbers Cave Study
- > 11-12 boys at camp were divided into 2 groups
- > in created prejudice and hostile interactions between groups (outgroup homogeneity therory)
stereotype
cluster of characteristics associated with all members of a group
- > belief held by members of one group about members of another group
- > overgeneralization (ignore diversity of character in the population)
why do we stereotype
- > limited knowledge about outgroup members
- > humans are lazy (cognitive misers)
confirmation bias
interpret ambiguous info as confirming stereotype
- > dismiss disconfirming evidence
self-fulfilling prophecy
we create the response we expect
- > if I think I’m stupid then I will act stupid, reinforcing that view
prejudice
a negative attitude towards a group
- > usually built on stereotypes
- > blatant prejudice is not acceptable; implicit forms still exist (prejudice
prejudice vs discrimination
prejudice is the attitude, discrimination is the behaviour
- > when it becomes an action it is discrimination
discrimination
negative behaviour towards a group
- > start seeing these “out groups” as threatening
attribution
process of explaining behaviour
- > explanations you make about the causes of others (or own) behaviour
types of attributions
Internal attributions
- > traits, abilities, feelings, ect.
External attributions
- > situation, luck, ect.
Fundamental attribution error
- > behaviuour explained by internal causes (i.e. traits)
- > overestimate importance of personality
- > blind to the situation (left dishes because I was late to work and got home late)
*we do things a certain way because of the situation but others do it because they’re bad, lazy ect.
actor-observer discrepancy
more likely to use external attributions if we are the actor
- > i got the award because I earned but but they got the same one because they cheated/luck/ect.
belief in a just world bias
- > tendency to believe that life is fair (bad things happen to bad ppl)
- > leads to blaming the victim (defensive attribution); their misfortunes are their fault
self deserving bias
- > my success (i’m so smart); my failures (exam had trick questions)
attraction
liking, loving, sexual appeal (all have same basis)
- > to whom are we drawn to
key factors of attraction
- > physical attraction
- > similarity
- > reciprocity
- > mere exposure
physical attractiveness
key determinant of romantic attraction from men and women
- > especially in start of relationship
matching hypothesis
those of approximately equal physical attractiveness tend to select each other
- > especially for serious relationship, hookups might have more discrepancy of pairs
similarity
- > we are attracted to (and like) those who we are similar to us (and kind of look like us)
- > remind us of each other
- > we also become more similar over time
- > ***attitudes and core values are where we match the most
- > opposites don’t attract
reciprocity
- > we like those who like us (self-enhancement, self verification)
- > like those who like us (balance) and dislike those who dislike you
mere exposure effect
repeated exposure to a person/thing leads to increased liking
- > proximity (you might start to like your neighbour more and more because you see them all the time)
passionate love
- > intense absorption of 2 ppl in each other (sexual craving, euphoria, withdrawal when apart)
companionate love
affection between 2 ppl whose live are deeply intertwined (not as many highs and lows of passionate love, but still passionate)
- > powerful motivation force (people will die for love)
sternbergs triangular theory of love
love is composed of 3 components
- > intimacy (warmth)
- > passion
- > commitment
consummate love: presence of all three (ideal)
attitudes
- > a learned tendency to evaluate an object, person, or issue, in a particular way
- > set of positive or negative beliefs and feelings
attitude routes
Central Route
- > focus on arguments, high relevance (logic and information based arguments/opinion)
Peripheral route
- > focus on superficial cues (more emotion based argument)
cognitive dissonance theory
when people’s attitudes and behaviours are inconsistent
- > this is unpleasant, so we change our attitudes typically (tweak our behaviour to make ourselves feel better)
theories of attitude change
social influences on attitude
- > conformity
- > obedience
- > bystander effect
- > social loafing
- > group polarization
- > groupthink
conformity
- > change in behaviour (or attitudes) as a result of real (or imagined) pressure from others
- > Asch conformity experiment (everyone said wrong answer to see if participant conforms)
informational and normative social influence on conformity
Informational social influence
- > ambiguous or confusing situation
- > group must be right
- > other people seen as providing needed information
Normative social influences
- > to avoid rejection or discomfort; gain approval
- > desire to be accepted by group gives the group the ability to influence
obedience
- > complying to commands of an authority
- > Milgram’s classic studies
*has since been deemed immoral, developed a machine that delivers electric shocks; teacher and learner, teacher asks questions and deliver increasing levels of shock after each answer (no one ever stopped/ walked out even though they are volunteers)
when do we obey (obedience)
- > victim is distant (depersonalization)
- > authority is close
- > commands from legitimate authority
- > context
bystander effect
less likely to provide help in presence of others
diffusion of responsibility
- > as the number of others increase, less likely to help
- > assume others will help, so we don’t
- > murder of Kitty Genovese
components of persuasion and whether it works (changing attitudes)
Who (source factors)
What (message factors)
By what means (channel factors)
To whom (receiver factors)l
social facilitation
- > presence of others enhances performance on simple tasks; when you’re good at the task (worsens it on complex new tasks)
- > strengthens dominant response
social loafing
- > reduces effort when work in group (combining efforts)
- > feel as if you can’t be held accountable
- > deindividuation (loss of self)
- > if you’re in a group then you’ll slack off (if you’re alone your be more out there
group polarization
- > if we are in a group, group decisions are more extreme than where they started
- > groups make more extreme decisions than the individual
- > feel protected in the group brain
groupthink
groups make bad decisions in process of trying to ensure harmony/agreement
- > worsen in highly cohesive groups
- > anyone in the group that disagrees are suppressed
