Social Psychology Flashcards

Question

Cognitive limitations and faults (bases of intergroup relations)

Answer 1

people are cognitive misers (Fiske and Taylor, 1991) - limited capacity to process social information leads to use of cognitive shortcuts e.g. stereotypes category accentuation - categorization accentuates differences between groups and similarities between groups outgroup homogeneity effect (Quattrone and Jones, 1980) - people are more familiar with members of their group and use category level info when judging other groups = other race effect 'they all look the same' illusionary correlation effect - distinctive behaviours of minority groups capture the attention of the majority group, and they focus on undesirable behaviours, believing they occur more frequently than they actually do

Answer 2

personality variables - people who score highly in these are more likely to be prejudice - dogmatism (Rokeach, 1956) = closed minded people that refuse to change their incorrect belief - personal need for structure - need for cognitive closure (desire for answers)

Answer 3

right-wing authoritarianism (Adorno et al., 1950) - more likely to be prejudice - authoritarian submission = tendency to yield to authorities - authoritarian aggression = support aggression towards those that defy convention - conventionalism = traditional values endorsed by authority social dominance orientation - measures people's preference for hierarchy - 'to get ahead in life sometimes you need to step on other groups' - higher scores = more prejudice + higher support for racism and violence

Answer 4

realistic group conflict theory - perceived competition for finite resources - prejudice toward immigrants - Sherif et al (1961) Robbers case study found that competition for scarce resources produced intergroup hostility and that it took superordinate goals to improve intergroup relations (contact alone was not enough) social identity theory - minimal group paradigm (Tajfel et al., 1971) = minimal condition for group biases is being a member of a group

Answer 5

A stereotype is a generalization about the thoughts, motives, feelings, and/or behaviours of a group of people (Wright & Taylor, 2003; Gardner, 1994) Social cognitive approach to stereotyping as a component of prejudice. Stereotypes are a knowledge structure that create (harmful) generalisations about characteristics of a group

Answer 6

- personality (Adorno et al, 1950s) - meaning-making (Tajfel and Turner, 1970s) - social cognitive approach - stereotypes simplify the world by categorisation

Answer 7

top-down approach = a group has certain characteristics, so we attribute group characteristics to individuals bottom-up approach = someone belongs to a group so attribute their individual behaviour to the whole group

Answer 8

Macrae et al (1994) Does stereotyping save cognitive eenergy? - Ps were given 4 people with descriptions of their character, half of Ps were also given a label for each person e.g. doctor/skin head - FOUND that labels that fit the stereotype of the characteristics improved recall Sherman et al (1999) If stereotypes save cognitive energy, are we more likely to stereotype when tired? - Ps were asked to remember a priest or skin head - the next day, they were given a list contain both stereotypical and non-stereotypical words - half Ps were asked to remember an 8-digit number (high cognitive load = less effort to not stereotype) - FOUND that those with more to think about were more likely to rely on stereotypes Macrae et al (1995) If stereotypes are designed for cognitive efficiency, we should be faster to think along stereotype lines - FOUND Ps were quicker on a lexical decision task when items aligned with stereotypes

Answer 9

how we learn we are more likely to pay attention to behaviours that reinforces a stereotypical belief than subverts it (Wigboldus et al., 2003) how we remember stereotype consistent info is recalled more easily and faster (Strangor et al, 1992) how we speak effect how we communicate with others (Kashima, 2000)

Answer 10

Payne (2006) = weapon misidentification task exposed Ps to pictures of black or white faces followed by pictures of guns or tools and Ps had to identify these as quickly as possible Ps were more likely to falsely say 'gun' when presented with black faces this shows how stereotypes can be harmful

Answer 11

can have negative effects on self-esteem and education for example, African Americans (Steele and Aronson, 1995) and women may both be aware that they are stereotyped as being stupid, particularly as being bad at maths Being seen as stupid is obviously undesirable. Members of this group may fear confirming this stereotype, and their preoccupation with it can hamper actual performance

Answer 12

contact hypothesis (Allport, 1954) - contact between different social groups reduces prejudice and discrimination optimal condition for contact to reduce discrimination: - equal status of the groups in the situation - common goals and intergroup co-operation - support of authorities, law or custom

Answer 13

Tropp et al (2017) conducted two surveys with Protestants/Catholics in N.Ireland and black/white people in south Africa and found that higher contact quality predicted significantly greater trust, more positive intergroup attitudes and greater engagement in reconciliation efforts - Even when taking into account reported exposure to violence if contact is not possible? - extended contact coefficient = if members of ingroups are friends with friends of outgroup members they are less likely to be prejudice - imagined contact effect (Crisp and Turner, 2009) = imagining contact with outgroup members reduces negative attitudes negative contact/experiences have stronger influences on attitudes than positive ones

Answer 14

Decatagorisation (Miller and Brewer, 1984) - can improve relations by promoting personalised relations with outgroup members common ingroup identity model (Gaertner and Dovidio, 2000) = trying to destroy categorisation is impractical as our world is categorised - group members see themselves as 'us' which is achieved by selecting a 'them' dual identity approach (Dovidio, Gaertner and Saguy, 2007) = people don't always want to think of themselves as part of the common group but may accept it if their individual identity is acknowledged

Answer 15

Values are beliefs, and related to goals, that transcend actions and situations (Schwartz, 2012) Facilitating and making salient certain values might improve intergroup relations e.g. tolerance, multiculturism, egalitarianism

Answer 16

Multiculturalism = belief that diversity should be acknowledged and celebrated Colour blindness = belief that differences between groups should be downplayed e.g. BLM vs 'all lives matter' multiculturalism is a better policy for reducing bias as it celebrates differences rather than erasing them

Answer 17

Paluck (2009) had Ps listen to either a control health soap opera or a bias NGO soap opera (prejudice messages) FOUND that listening to the bias soap opera did not influence personal beliefs but it did influence their perceptions of social norms and behaviours

Answer 18

advantaged group members who participate in collective action for disadvantaged group Allies can be helpful at improving social change and intergroup relations Tensions can arise in political movement if they are not genuinely interested in improving the status of the disadvantaged group (Radke et al., 2020)