SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Flashcards
What is Social Psychology?
The attempt to understand, explain and predict how the thoughts, feelings and actions of individuals are influenced by the perceived, imagined or implied thoughts, feelings and actions of others
What did Rousseau say about human kind?
“Man is by nature good and only institutions make him bad”
What did Hobbes say about human kind?
“Man is by nature solitary, poore, hasty and brutish”
What are the 5 approaches to social psychology?
1) Cognitive (how perception affects behaviour)
2) Learning (Reinforcement and imitation)
3) Motivational (emphasis basic human needs)
4) Biological (evolution and genetic disposition)
5) Cultural (how they affect social behaviours)
What are the 4 levels of explanation in social psychology?
1) intrapersonal level (yourself)
2) interpersonal level (two people interaction)
3) intergroup level (group behaviours)
4) Societal level (cultural affects on behaviour)
Freud was the first to draw attention to?
- The study of the unconscious
- The developmental aspects of personality
- Talking cures
What did Freud say about the human condition?
“Seething cauldron of pleasure seeking instincts”
What are the 3 subsystems involved in Freud’s theory with the unconscious mind?
1) ID
2) Ego
3) Superego
What is the ID?
The most primitive part of the psyche, most basic urges
What is the ego?
Works on the reality principle, tries to satisfy the ID safely
What is the superego?
The moral “policeman” of the psyche. Has internalized rules it makes you follow
What are the 4 defense mechanisms?
1) Displacement (redirect impulses, more safe)
2) Reaction Formation (wishes go to opposite)
3) Projection (urges projected onto others)
4) Isolation (memory awareness, not emotions)
What are the 5 stages of unconscious conflict?
1) Oral stage (0-2)
2) Anal stage (2-4)
3) Phallic stage (4-6): Electra/Oedipus complex
4) Latency stage (6-12)
5) Genital stage (12+)
What are some problems with Freudian theories?
- Never actually studied children
- Ideas not falsifiable
- Little experimental evidence to support ideas and what there is, is often flawed
Freud got a lot ______ but he has had a huge ___________ on social psychology today
Wrong; influence
What is Crano & Prisilin’s (2006) definition of attitude?
“It is a positive or negative reaction towards a stimulus, such as a person, action, object, or concept”
Attitudes determine how we ________ the world and influence our ___________.
interpet; behaviours
What are the 3 components associated with attitudes?
1) Cognitive
2) Affective
3) Behavioural
What does the likert scale measure?
It measures attitues
- Depends on honesty
What is the theory of planned behaviour?
The relationship between attitudes and behaviours
What did Himmelweit (1990) find?
Attitudes to capital punishment did not change
- 15 year study
How can attitudes be changed?
- Behavioural changes
- Credible sources (attractive, likeable, trust)
- Quick, long & without hesitation message
- Approached when happy or a sunny day
- Emotional appeals
What did Heider (1958) investigate?
The differences between internal and external attributions towards something/someone
Couples who experience marital distress tend to attribute their partners _______ behaviours to ________ characteristics
Negative; internal
What did Frey & Rogner (1987) find?
Following incidents individuals who thought they were to blame took longer to recover than those who thought they weren’t to blame
What is optimistic attributional style?
Positive events = internal, stable, global
Negative events = external, unstable, specific
What is pessimistic attributional style?
Positive events = external, stable, specific
Negative events = internal issues
What are the two motivational basis’s of attribution?
- Self esteem
- Control
If we attribute our successes to our ________ characteristics we may believe we are in ________
Internal; control
If we attribute our positive or successful outcomes to ________ qualities we can achieve and maintain ____-________
Internal; self-esteem
What is victim blame?
An example of the negative effects of the control function
What are the 4 levels of analysis?
1) Intrapersonal level
2) Interpersonal level
3) Intergroup level
4) Societal level
“Mr Brown is always hostile to you” is an example of?
Consistency
“Other people are normally hostile to you”
Consensus
What is the actor-observer effect?
- People tend to attribute the causes of their own actions to external factors
- They tend to attribute the cause of other actions to internal causes
What is the self-serving bias?
People taking credit for their successes but not their failures
What is the mere exposure effect? (Zajonc)
The repeated exposure to a stimulus (people, music, languages etc) making it more appealing
Men of all sexual orientations focused on the ________ attractiveness of potential partners
Physical
Women of all sexual orientations focused on the __________ characteristics of potential partners
Psychological
What are the benefits of attractiveness?
- Adults are less aggressive towards attractive children
- Higher rates of employment if attractive
- Better grades in attractive students
What is the drive theory of facilitation?
The presence of others leads to increased arousal
Our performance is ___________ if our dominant response is ____________
Enhanced; appropriate
What is diffusion of responsibility?
The idea that as a group size increases individual responsibility decreases
What is deindividuation?
How the presence of other people can have bizarre or negative effects
People will ____ other people if __________ to do so
Hurt; ordered
What was the focus of the Stanford prison experiment?
To examine how social roles affected individuals
Who instigated the Stanford prison experiment and in what year?
Philip Zimbardo (1970’s)
Why did the Stanford Prison experiment have to be stopped?
The participants acting as guards became increasingly aggressive towards the participants who were the prisoners.
What does the outcome of the Stanford Prison experiment suggest?
It suggests that ordinary people can be transformed by their immediate context to perform brutal acts
Who instigated the Milgram’s obedience study?
Stanley Milgram (1960s)
What was the focus of the Milgram’s obedience study?
To examine how people from a advanced Western culture could come to murder millions of innocent people during the holocaust
What does the outcome of the Milgram’s obedience study show?
It found that people do not blindly follow others. People either obey (because they agree) or disobey (question authority)
What is prejudice?
“The holding of derogatory attitudes or beliefs, the expression of negative affect or the display of hostile or discriminatory behaviour towards members of a group on account of their membership in that group”
- Brown & Lepore (1996)
You can still _____ someone but be sexist, homophobic, or ______
Love; racist
What is the Authoritarian personality?
“Overly differential to those in authority whilst hostile towards those perceived as inferior”
- Adorno et al (1950)
Aggression is a ________ behaviour. This undercuts the ________ ideas
Learned; Freudian
What is Realistic Conflict Theory?
Competition causes people to be more prejudice than usual. Leads to people adapting attitudes compatible with their group.
What did Sherif investigate?
How hostility and harmony developed between two group of young boys on camp when competing against each other and not competing
What is the minimal group paradigm?
A scientific attempt to create an “empty environment” where researchers could then systematically add variables that would elicit discrimination
Research shows that people show __________ against those who belong to _________ groups from themselves
Discrimination; different
