Social Psychology Flashcards
What are some flaws about Kohlberg’s analysis of moral reasoning?
- People don’t deliberate about morality before they act.
- Most moral decisions are more emotional than logical.
Is cooperation or competition more likely in the prisoner’s dilemma?
Cooperation. People lean towards cooperation most of the time, and people who do cooperate punish those who don’t.
What is diffusion of responsibility?
Diffusion of responsibility suggests that we feel less responsibility to act when other people are equally able to act (can be seen in crowd situations).
What is pluralistic ignorance?
Pluralistic ignorance describes a a situation in which people say nothing, and each person falsely assumes that others have a better- informed opinion.
What is social loafing?
Social loafing is the tendency to work less hard when sharing work with other people.
It is rare in team sports as there are people observing your performance, or in situations where they think they can contribute something others cannot.
What is the frustration-agression hypothesis?
The frustration-aggression hypothesis suggests that the main cause of anger and aggression is frustration, when an obstacle stands in the way of doing or obtaining something.
What is the main cause of anger, according to Berkowitz?
Berkowitz’s theory suggests that unpleasant events excites both the sympathetic nervous system and its fight-or-flight response, thus igniting our impulse to fight and flee.
What are some factors that are correlational with violent behaviour?
growing up in a violent neighborhood
● having parents with a history of antisocial
behavior
● having a mother who smoked cigarettes or
drank alcohol during pregnancy
● poor nutrition or exposure to lead or other toxic
chemicals early in life
● a history of head injury
● Weaker than normal sympathetic nervous system responses (which correlates with not feeling
bad after hurting someone)
● high levels of testosterone coupled with low levels of cortisol
● a history of suicide attempts
How do people justify violent acts of behaviour?
- Deindividuation - perceiving others as anonymous, with no real personality
- Dehumanisation - perceiving others as less than human
- Decreasing their own sense of identity - creates distance between their real self and the perpetrator of the act
What is the primacy effect in social psychology?
Primacy effect is the tendency where the first information we learn about someone influences us more than later information does.
What is the implicit association test and what does it measure?
The implicit association test measures reactions to combinations of categories, and is meant to measure subtle prejudices.
Define attribution, internal attribution, and external attribution.
Attribution is the set of thought processes we use to assign causes to our own behavior and that of others.
Internal attributions are explanations based on someone’s attitudes, personality traits, abilities, or other characteristics.
External attributions are explanations based on the situation, including events that would influence almost anyone.
What are three types of information that influence us to make attributions, according to Kelley?
- Consensus information - how the person’s behavior compares with other people’s behavior
- Consistency information - how the person’s behavior varies from one time to the next
- Distinctiveness - how the person’s behavior varies from one situation to another
What is the actor-observer effect?
The actor-observer effect is the tendency to make internal attributions for other people’s behavior and external attributions for their own
What is the fundamental attribution error?
The fundamental attribution error is the error of making internal attributions for people’s behavior even when we see evidence for an external influence on behavior.
What are self-serving biases?
Self-serving biases are attributions that we adopt to maximize credit for success and minimize blame for failure
What are self-handicapping strategies?
Self-handicapping strategies are when people intentionally put themselves at a disadvantage to provide an excuse for failure.
What is cognitive dissonance?
Cognitive dissonance is a state of unpleasant tension that people experience when they hold contradictory attitudes or when their behavior contradicts their stated attitudes, especially if the inconsistency distresses them.
What are the two routes to persuasion?
The peripheral route to persuasion is based on emotions - positive feelings & associations leads you to form a more favourable attitude. This route is more quick and effortless.
Central route to persuasion requires investing enough time and effort to evaluate the evidence and reason logically about a decision.
What are some special techniques of persuasion?
- Liking and similarity - higher likelihood of persuasion if you like them or see them as similar to yourself.
- Social norms - people tend to do and follow what others are doing
- Reciprocation
- Contrast effects
- Foot in the Door
- Bait and Switch
- That’s Not All
- Fear messages
- Sleeper effect
What is the forewarning effect?
The forewarning effect is the tendency to be less influenced when they are aware that they are about to be persuaded. This activates their resistance and weakens the persuasion.
What is the inoculation effect?
The inoculation effect is when people first hear a weak argument and then a stronger argument supporting the same conclusion, they are usually reject the first and second argument.
What is the mere exposure effect?
The mere exposure effect is the principle that the more often we come in contact with someone or something, the more we tend to like that person or object.
What is the equity principle?
The equity principle suggests that social relationships are transactions in which partners exchange goods and services.
What is conformity?
Conformity is the altering one’s behavior to match other people’s behavior or expectations.
What is group polarisation?
Group polarisation happens when altering one’s behavior to match other people’s behavior or expectations
What is groupthink?
Groupthink occurs when the members of a group suppress their doubts about a group’s decision for fear of making a bad impression or disrupting group harmony
