Social Psychology Flashcards
Crisis of social psychology
- late ’60s - early ’70s
- loss of the social aspect; increasing emphasis on the individual instead of groups/society
- lack of clear direction for the discipline
- over-reliance on experimental methods
- lead out by Henri Tajfel & Serge Moscovici
Critical social psychology
Result of the crisis (‘60s - ’70s)
Social constructionism, discursive psychology, phenomenological psychology
Social psychology
Study of how people think about something, relate to, and influence each other
Levels of analysis
- intrapersonal processes
- interpersonal relations
- intra-group processes
- inter-group relations
Group
Two or more people who interact and influence one another
Dyad
A ‘group’ of two individuals
Characteristics:
- reciprocity
- psychological safety
- empathy
Features of groups
- cohesion
- roles (informal or formal)
- status
- communication networks (e.g. all-channel communication, wheel communication networks, etc.)
Social facilitation
Performance on a task improves due to the presence of others
Social inhibition
Performance is impaired due to the presence of others
Zajonc facilitation model
Presence of others leads to arousal:
- facilitation of a dominant response
- inhibition of a non-dominant response
Yerkes-Dodson Law (1908)
Relationship between arousal and performance is a bell curve. Performance increases as arousal does, but after the optimal level of arousal has been reached, any further increases of arousal will impair performance
Optimal level of arousal is higher for an easier task, and lower for a harder task
Evaluation appraisal
People care about how they are being judged by others
Mere presence effect
The presence of others alone is enough to increase arousal (and thereby affect arousal)
Social loafing
Individual performance decreases in groups when working towards a common goal
Group polarisation
Tendency of individual opinions and beliefs to become more extreme due to membership & discussion in a group
Confirmation bias
Selective search for information that validates one’s own opinions
Risky-shift effect
Groups often make riskier decisions than individuals (not universal > cautious shift)
Groupthink
Making decisions on the basis of preserving the group/direction of the group
Characteristics:
- high group cohesion
- group isolation
- directive leader with a clear vision
Characteristics of effective minority influence
- consistency
- self-confidence
- defection from majority
Self
A complex web of psychological entities and processes concerning one’s own person
Spotlight effect
Tendency to put oneself in the ‘spotlight’, overestimating the attention from others towards them > overestimating the amount of judgement
Illusion of transparency
Thinking that concealed emotions can easily be read by others
Self-reference effect
Information relevant/related to ourselves is processed quicker and remembered better
Self-discrepancy theory
Various self-perceptions might not be consistent with each other; this creates psychological discomfort
Types of self-perception
- the actual self: traits someone believes they possess
- the ought self: traits someone believes they should have
- the ideal self: traits someones wishes/hopes to have
Social identity
One’s sense of self and identity based on membership in certain social groups
Downwards comparison theory
Strategy to repair self-esteem
If self esteem is threatened > compare downwards/lower expectations > restored self-esteem
Self-esteem
Overall self-evaluation
Narcissism
Uncontrolled, compulsive self-love; desire admiration and have an exaggerated sense of self-importance
- low views on other people
- mistrusting
- hostile
- Machiavellian (manipulative behaviour for self-gain without regard for others)
Self-serving bias
Successes tend to be attributed to our disposition; failures tend to be attributed to our situations
Defensive pessimism
Adaptive value of anticipating problems and harnessing one’s anxiety to motivate effective action
False consensus effect
Tendency to overestimate the commonality of one’s beliefs and (undesirable) actions
False uniqueness effect
Tendency to underestimate the commonality of one’s abilities, talents, and behaviours
Locus of control
Belief about responsibility of events/actions in life. Can be either internal (I control my life) or external (my life is controlled by other factors).
Priming
Activating particular associations in memory
Kulechov effect
Control people’s perception of emotion by manipulating the context
Misinformation effect
Misinformation of an experience event might be included/reconsolidated into the memory
Controlled processing
Mental activities that require conscious, deliberate, and reflective thinking
Automatic processing
Mental activities happening with little or no conscious awareness; effortless and habitual
Types of social schemas
Self schemas: “who am I?” > own traits, values, mannerisms, and the sense of self
Person schemas: personality traits to categorise people by; specific traits related to specific people (e.g. a friend or family member)
Role schemas: information on behaviour and norms expected from someone in a certain role (e.g. doctor)
Event schemas: information on appropriate behaviour for certain events (e.g. a wedding)
Social encoding
Encoding social information into memory (also using past social experiences)
Overconfidence phenomenon
Overestimation of the accuracy of one’s beliefs
Representativeness heuristic
Presumption of someone/something belonging to a certain group due to resemblance to the prototype of a group
Availability heuristic
Likelihood of events is based on how readily something comes to mind
Counterfactual thinking
Imagining alternative scenarios and outcomes that could have happened
Illusory correlation
Perception of a non-existent relation or a stronger one than exists
Attribution theory
How people explain others’ behaviour, attributing it to either disposition (internal circumstances, e.g. personality) or situation (external circumstances, e.g. environment)
Heider’s theory of naive psychology (1958)
- tendency to assume behaviour is motivated and intentional
- dispositional & situational attributions
- tendency to ‘prefer’ internal (dispositional) factors as they assume that personality is stable
- ^varies by culture
Jones & Davis’ theory of correspondent interference (1965)
- actions are indicative of intentions and dispositions
- unusual behaviour tells more about a person than usual behaviour
- 5 sources of behaviour to judge explanation (if yes…)
- freely chosen behaviour? > internal
- unusual behaviour? > internal
- socially deviant behaviour? > internal
- serves own interests? > internal
- has a high personal impact? > internal
- preference for internal explanations of behaviour > makes people predictable > stable personality & traits
Kelley’s conversation model (1973)
- people use information on consistency, distinctiveness, and consensus of behaviour to make judgements and attributions
- high consistency > internal
- high distinctiveness > external
- high consensus > external
Self-perception theory
Attitudes are inferred from observations of one’s own behaviour
Fundamental attribution error
Tendency for observers to underestimate situational factors and overestimate dispositional factors
Impact bias
People have a tendency to overestimate the impact of emotional events
- psychological immune system: more resilient in the long-run than predicted
- true for both positive and negative events
Attitude
Cognitive representation that summarises our evaluation of an object
ABC model of attitudes
Affective emotional response (feeling)
Behavioural responses (doing)
Cognitive responses (thinking)
Mere-exposure effect
Tendency for novel stimuli to be like more or rated more positively after the rater has been repeatedly exposed to them
Demand characteristics
Participants correctly interpret the expected findings of an experiment and alter behaviour to fit accordingly
Modelling
Acquisition of behaviour on the basis of observing that of others
Heider’s Balance Theory (1946)
- people avoid having contradicting attitudes and evaluations of an object
- in the case of inconsistency, people adjust these
Festinger’s Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (1957)
- people are motivated to keep they attitudes, beliefs, and behaviour consistent
- if inconsistency occurs, dissonance will be reduced by changing their attitudes, belief, or behaviour or by justifying/rationalising the discrepancy
Four main functions of attitudes
- Knowledge: provide structure and order; help explain and understand the world (quickly)
- Instrumental: maximise rewards, minimise negative outcomes due to ‘good’ or ‘bad’ evaluations; if something becomes favourable, we change the attitude towards it
- Ego defence: protect threats to self by projecting insecurities onto others; defence mechanism for anxiety
- Value expression: express and reinforce sense of self and identity by displaying personally important attitudes
Thurstone Scale
- questionnaire > 22 independent statements on an issue
- rate feelings towards each statement from 1 to 11
Likert Scale
- simplification of the Thurstone scale
- scale of 1 to 5; ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’
Osgood’s Semantic Differential Scale
- scale of 1 to 7 with opposite adjectives at each side
- multiple scores per item
- 3 evaluative dimensions: activity, evaluation, and potency
Acquiescence bias
Participants consistently answering ‘yes’ in a questionnaire, no matter the question asked
Social desirability
Tendency for participants to answer in a way which is favourable/socially desirable
Bogardus’ Social Distance Scale (1925)
Measures people’s willingness to have close social contact with people from diverse social groups
Implicit Association Test (IAT)
Implicit method of measuring attitudes based on automatic associations that exist between objects and concepts
Issues exist:
- construct validity (does it measure what it aims to ?
- predictive validity (do the results predict results for a similar measure?)
Theory of Reasoned Action
Tp predict behavioural intentions:
1. expectation > subjective norms
+
2. attitudes towards the behaviour (+ or -)
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3. behavioural intention
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4. actual behaviour
Theory of Planned Behaviour
Determining intentions through behaviour
a. attitudes
b. perceived social norms
c. feelings of control
Insufficient justification effect
Reduction of dissonance through internal justification when external justification is insufficient
Persuasion
The process by which a message induces a change in beliefs, attitudes, or behaviours
Central route to persuasion
Argument is found to be persuasive due to the content of the message
Peripheral route to persuasion
Argument is persuasive due to incidental cues (e.g. the speaker’s attractiveness) instead of the validity of the argument itself
Primary factors of persuasion
- the communicator
- the message
- how the message is communicated
- the audience
Sleeper effect
Over time the content and the source of a message become disconnected
- thus the influence of the source’s credibility decreases over time
Two-step persuasion techniques
Door-in-the-face
- one big request is rejected
- a smaller request is therefore more likely to be accepted
- hard to say ‘no’ twice
That’s not all
- make a slightly exaggerated request
- if accepted, information is added > people are more likely to comply
- often used for purchases > normally €1.25, now €1.00
Low-balling
- make a request, then when accepted, add (unfavourable) information > people stay committed
- target consistency/commitment norm
Foot-in-the-door
- make a small request > accepted
- then make a larger request > people stay consistent and accept this one as well
- triggers consistency norm
Conformity
A change in behaviour or belief as the result of real or imagined group pressure
Compliance
Conformity that involves publicly acting in accord with an implied or explicit request ven if privately disagreeing
- insincere/outward conformity
- usually with the purpose of getting a reward or avoiding punishment
Obedience
Acting in accord with a direct order or command (usually from someone with higher status) > explicit social influence
Acceptance
Conformity that involves both acting and believing in accord with social pressure
- sincere, inward conformity
Factors of obedience (Milgram experiments)
- the victim’s distance
- closeness and legitimacy of the authority figure
- is it an institutional (reputable) authority
- agentic state theory
‘Banality of evil’
Anyone can be ‘made’ to do evil things > ordinary people can do horrible things
Steps in the definition of social identities that allow for acts of extreme inhumanity
- creation of a cohesive in-group through shared social identification
- exclusion of specific population from the in-group
- constitution of the out-group posed as a threat to the existence of the in-group
- representation of the in-group as uniquely virtuous
- celebration of out-group annihilation as the fence of in-group virtue
Normative influence
Conformity based on a person’s desire to fulfil others’ expectations, often to gain acceptance
Information influence
Conformity occurring when people accept evidence about reality provided by other people
Reactance
A motive to protect or restore one’s sense of freedom; arises from a threat to freedom of action
Aggression
Physical or verbal behaviour intended to cause harm
Theories of aggression
- aggression is the result of a biologically based aggressive drive
- aggression is a response to frustration
- aggressive behaviour is learned
Reciprocity principle
asserts that we should treat like with like; responses to a positive action should be positive, and responses to a negative action should be negative
Types of aggression
- physical vs verbal
- direct vs indirect
- offensive vs defensive
- instrumental vs hostile
Need to belong
A motivation to bond with others in relationships that provide ongoing, positive interaction
Proximity principle
Geographical nearness; proximity/functional distance is a powerful predictor of liking
Matching phenomenon
The tendency for people to choose partners who are a ‘good match’ in attractiveness and other traits
Assortative mating
The tendency for people to form relationships with those similar to themselves in social characteristics, such as education, political and religious views and social class
Physical attractiveness stereotype
The presumption that physically attractive people possess other socially desirable traits as well
Evaluative conditioning
How we can come to like or dislike something through an association with something we already like or dislike
Sternberg’s kinds of love (1988)
Passion (infatuation), intimacy (liking), decision/commitment (empty love)
- passion + intimacy = romantic love
- intimacy + decision/commitment = companiote love
- decision/commitment + passion = fatuous love
passion + intimacy + decision/commitment = consummate love
Factors of close relationships
- commitment: intention to maintain relationship as well as feelings of psychological attachment to the other
- equity: outcomes from a relationship are proportional to their contribution
Responses to relationship distress
___________________Passive Active
Constructive Loyalty Voice
Destructive Neglect Exit
Biological outfit
The biological processes, including genetic heritage, that shape living organisms
Brain plasticity
The changes that occur in the organisation and structure of the brain as a result of experience and individual physical or psychological activity
Natural selection
Th evolutionary process by which heritable traits that best enable organisms to survive and reproduce are passed to ensuing generations
Theory of mind
The ability to attribute mental states to others and oneself; to be able to see the world from someone’s else point of view
Gender
The socially constructed attributes and expectations by which people define male and female
Sex
The biological characteristics, including hormones, genes, and physiology, that determine whether an individual is understood to be of male or female sex
Intersex
The appearance of sex characteristics including hormones, chromosomes, and sexual organs, in an individual which do not conform to traditional definitions of male or female
Cultural norms
Standards for accepted, typical, and expected behaviour
Cultural dimensions (Hofstede)
- individualism vs collectivism
- power differences
- masculinity & femininity
uncertainty reduction
Behaviour for liars
- less smiles > artificial smiles
- more errors when speaking
- slower talking, more hesitation
- higher pitch of voice
- longer response time
- short responses
- use of generic words
- vague, abstract, and non-verifiable information
Social categorisation
The cognitive partitioning of the social world into relatively discrete categories of individuals
Prototype
A social category member who is believed to possess the typical features of the social category
Accentuation effect
Differences between members of different categories are exaggerated, as are similarities between members of the same category
Black sheep effect
The deviant in a group is viewed much more harshly by in-group members than outgroup members
Schism
The partition of a social group into separate factions and the ultimate succession of at least one faction from the group
Social identity motives
- collective self-esteem
- distinctiveness
- belonging
- symbolic immortality
- uncertainty reduction
Outgroup homogeneity
Members of a different group(s) are perceived as homogenous > similar to each other
Prejudice
A preconceived judgement of a group and its individual members
Discrimination
Unjustified negative behaviour towards a group or its members’ social identity
Authoritarian personality
A personality that is disposed to favour obedience to authority and intolerance for outgrips and those of lower status
Social Dominance Theory (SDT)
Some social groups are placed higher in society than others, have access to more power and resources, and are therefore valued more positively than other social groups
Social dominance orientation
A motivation to have one’s group dominate other social groups
Meta-stereotype
The stereotype that we believe a specific outgroup holds about our ingroup
Deracialisation
The justification of the racial marginalisation of groups on the basis of non-racial features
Conflict
A perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or values between two or more parties
Realistic Conflict Theory (Sherif & Sherif)
Negative relations between social groups are based on real competition for scarce resources
In-group bias
The tendency to favour one’s own ingroup
Deindividuation
Loss of self-awareness and evaluation apprehension; occurs in group situations where responsiveness to group norms is increased or where anonymity is increased
Superordinate goal
A shared goal that necessitates cooperative effort > overrides differences between groups
Bargain
Seek resolution to a conflict through direct negotiation between parties
Mediate
An attempt by a neutral third party to resolve a conflict by facilitating communication and offering suggestions
Arbitrate
Resolution of a conflict by a neutral third party who studies both sides and imposes a settlement
Altruism
A motive to increase another’s welfare without conscious regard for one’s self-interest
Social-exchange theory
The theory that human interactions are most accurately described as social transactions between people, where people exchange rewards and costs
Egoism
A motive to increase one’s own welfare
Reciprocity norm
An expectation that people will help, not hurt, those who have helped them
Social-responsibility norm
An expectation that people will help those in need of it
Social-role theory
Proposes that differences between the genders is due to social conditioning and cultural values, rather than biological sex
Filial piety
A child’s acknowledgement of the cost borne by their parents in raising them, and repaid in terms of reciprocal care for those parents
Empathy
The capacity of sharing or vicariously experiencing other people’s feelings
Bystander effect
The finding that the presence of several bystanders makes it less likely that people will provide help to someone
Moral exclusion
The perception of certain individuals or groups as outside the boundary with which one applies moral values and roles of fairness
Overjustification effect
The result of bribing people to do what they already like doing; they may then see their actions as externally controlled rather than intrinsically appealing
