Social Psychology Flashcards
Automatic Thinking vs Controlled Thinking
Automatic = quick, not conscious, no deliberation of thoughts or intentions
Controlled = errorful, deliberate, carefully selecting the right course of actions, thoughts about the self and the world
Schema
- Bartlett 1932
- Mental structures people use to organise knowledge about the social world
- Influence how people think, notice and remember
- Hierarchal
- Scripts: encompass knowledge / impressions of others, ourselves, social roles and events
Confirmatory Hypothesis Testing
Snyder and Swann 1978
- Selectively seeking info which supports one’s belief
Impression Formulation
Nativist View = mostly innate, emphasis on genes or evolution
Empiricist View = through senses, experiences and learning
Kantian Synthesis = experiences through schemas
Asch’s Configural Model
- People make holistic judgements based on specific traits
- Central Traits: characteristics which are disproportionately influential in impression formation
- 1946: warm vs cold
Judgmental Heuristics
Representative - select schema based on similarity between stimulus and schema
Availability - select info based on how easily it comes to mind
Anchor and Adjustment - selects a reference value and then revises it to estimate a conclusion
Conjunction Error - belief that a combonation of events is more likely to happen than 1 singuarly
Counterfactual Reasoning
Imagining alternative outcomes to make people feel better. It is easier to mentally undo the past then to deal with the current strong emotions
Rosenthal and Jacobson 1968/2003
Famous kindergarten study
Shariff et al 2015
Priming with religious beliefs hindered people’s behaviour, but only in those who were religious in the first place
Weber et al 1993
Doctors use availability heuristics when diagnosing
Social Perception
Thinking about people and their behvaiour helps us to understand and predict the social world
Lingering Influence
Primacy Effect = first traits we perceive in othres influence later traits
Belief Perserverance = tendency to stick to an initial judgement even in the face of info which forces us to reconsider
Thin Slicing = drawing meaningful infomation based on a small act
Negativity Bias = bad info has a stronger influence than good
Halo Effect = assumptions that if a person has positive traits, then they will have further positive traits
Attribution Theory
- Heider 1958
- Need to understand and control the environment so leads to attributions
- Describes how people explain the causes of behaviour
- Dispositional vs Situational
Covariation Model
- Kelley
- To form an attribution, we systematically note the pattern between the presence or absence of possible causal factors
- CONSENSUS = do different people have similar responses to the same situation?
- CONSISTENCY = does the same person react similarly over time?
- DISTINCTIVENESS = does the same person respond simiarly to similar stimuli
Attributional Biases
Actor Observer Effect = we perrceive our behaviour as influenced by the situation but others by a personal disposition as we can see within our minds
Fundamental Attribution Error = tendancy to consider behaviour to reflect underlying proprties of people, so overlook situations.
False Consensus = tendency to believe our own behaviours are wideley shared
Self Serving Bias = attribute our own success to our disposition but failures to situation
Jones and Harris 1967
Showed fundamental attribution error through writing pro and con essays on Castro, and those who were allowed to choose which view to write said the other person was Pro even though they knew the other person could choose
Dimensions of Emotions
Pleasantness scale and arousal scale
- We can distinguish dimensions easily but pleasantness slightly better
Non Verbal cues
Small amounts can convery substantial info
- Visible vs Paralinguistic
Lau and Russell 1980
Athlets were more likely to say wins were due to internal factors and losses to situations
James 1890
Me = self as observed, attitudes, traits, skills, possessions
I = self as observer, more than the sum of its parts, stream of consciousness and awareness
Self Concept vs Self Esteem
Self Concept = overall set of beliefs that people have about their personal attributes. Organised into the most complex schema
Self Esteem = global evaluation of the self, feelings of self worth and competence, stable individual difference
4 Functions of the Self
1) Self Knowledge = the way we understand who we are and organise info
2) Self Control = the way we make plans and execute decisions
3) Impression Management = the way we present ourselves to others and get them to see us how we want to be seen
4) Self Esteem = maintain positive veiws of ourselves
Sources of Self Knowledge
1) Reflected Appraisal = symbolic interactions in which we learn about outselves through others responses (Cooley 1902). Looking Glass Self means we see ourselves the way others do but Shrauger and Schoeneman 1979 said we see ourselves the way we think others see us
2) Feedback = direct accectance or failure, impacts self esteem
3) Self Perception Theory = Bem 1972, when we are uncertain about thoughts/feelings so infer from observing our own behaviour
4) Social Comparison Theory = Festinger 1954, obtain accurate evaluations of the self by measuring ourselves to others. USC v DSC
5) Self Fulfilling Prophecy
Self Control
Ability to subdue immediate desires to achieve a long term goal
- Form Implementation Intentions, arrange environments, ensure well rested to reduce depetion effect
Hart and Matsuba 2012
Self recognition develops around 18-24 months
Ross and Wilson 2003
Social Comparison Theory works with comparing old to current self
Cognitive Dissonance
Festinger 1957
- discomfort people feel when they have 2 conflicting cognitions that are inconsistent to self concepts
- threatens self image
- Festinger and Carlsmith 1959 = higher dissonance in group those told to lie and given a reward of $1 than those in a control and those rewarded $20
Postdecision dissonance
Feeling discomfort after making a choice between 2 alternatives. This is reduced by emphasising the benefits of the chosen option, then emphasising the negatives of the alternative
- Brehm 1956 = students in a high dissonance group will re-rate scores as higher
Justification of Effort
Aronson and Mills 1959 = those who put more effort into a group rated liking of the group higher
Punishment and Self Persuasion
If threat of punishment is severe than there is sufficient external justification from refraining from the behaviour but if punishment is less severe then it creates a greater need for internal justification so create a change in attitude via self persvasion
- Aronson and Carlsmith 1963 had children rate attractiveness of toys then told not to play with them. Those who had a severe threat rated toys as highly attractive but no change in attitude. Those with a mild threat rated them less attractive because they had to change internal justification
Davis and Jones 1960
If told someone is shallow and untrustworthy, then participants convinced themselves they did not like that person and they deserved the cruelty they faced
Self Evaluation Theory
Experience cognitive dissonance when someone close to us outperforms us in a central area to our self esteem. This can be reduced by becoming less close to them, changing our behaviour so we can outperform them or decide that area is no longer important to us
- Tesser and Smith 1980: more likely to give harder clues to friends than strangers if game had high relevance but switched if game had low relevance
3 Components of Attitudes
1) Affective - emotional, feelings of like/dislike
2) Behavioural - observable actions
3) Cognitive - thoughts / beliefs
LaPiere 1930s
92% of institutitions served a Chinese couple even though they had all previously said they would not
Mere Exposure Effect
If the stimulus is orginally neutral/positive then exposure breeds liking, even if it is subliminal
- Bornstein and D’Agostino 1992: people prefer pictures when shown for 5ms rather than 500ms
Attitude Behaviour Consistency
Factors influence the likelihood that people’s attitudes will be consistent with behaviour
- Knowledge: firsthand experience
- Personal Relevance: more investment in yourself
- Attitude Acessibility: easier to bring to mind to act on it
- Behavioural Intentions: specific aims which are intended / planned
Theory of Planned Behaviour
Ajzen and Madden 1986, Ajzen 1991
- People’s intentions are best predictors of their deliberate behaviours
-Specific Behaviours, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control
Elaboration Likelihood Model
Two ways in which persuasive communication can cause attitude change
CENTRAL = high motivation and ability to think, pay attention to quality and listen, lasting change
PERIPHERAL = low motivation and inability to think, don’t pay attention, focus on surface characteristics, temporary change, may fade
Wilson and Brekke 1994
Everyone thinks advertising works better on others them themselves
Conformity
Change in one’s behaviour due to the real or imagined presence of another
Informational Social Influence
See others as a source of info to guide our behaviour and their interpretation of an ambiguous intepretation is more correct
- Sherif 1936: estimates of light movement grew closer together the more people were in the room
Normative Social Control
Conform in order to be liked and accepted, results in public compliance but not necessarily private
- Asch 1951 = 75% conformed at least once with an average of 33% conformity
- However dropped to 23% when response given out loud in a private cubicle (couldn’t see other people) and to 5.5% when at least one person agrees with you
Referent Informational Influence
Identify as a group member by following their norms and rules
Milgram 1963
It wa estimated by Psych Major,s, middle class adults and panel of psychiatrists that only 1% would reach 450 volts but it was actually 62.5%. Average max shock was 360. 80% continued to give shocks after the confederate cried out in pain.
Conformity dropped when in office building -> teacher placed learners hand on shock plate -> experimenter worked remotely -> two teachers present -> teacher chose shock level
Links to Hofling 1966 where 21/22 nurses administered a lethal injection because a doctor told them too
Barch et al 1996
Those in high importance groups are more susceptible to informational social bias then lower social groups, more conformity
Burger 2009
Even though participants were told they were allowed to leave, obidience rates did not significantly differ to Milgram, 1963
Cartwright and Zander 1968, Lewin 1948
Group = two or more people who interact and are inter-dependent in the sense that their needs and goals cause them to influence each other
Baumeister and Leary 1995
Groups most likely form due to evolutionary needs as it allowed better hunting, finding mates and better care for children
Social Facilitation vs Inhibition
SF: tendency to do better on simple tasks when peple are present e.g. Triplett 1898 = children wound up a fishing line quicker when in the presence of other children
SI: tendency to do worse on hard tasks when people are present
Zajonc 1965 = due to arousal
Why does social facilitation/inhibition happen?
1) Become more alert and vigilant
2) Make us apprehensive about being evaluated
3) Distraction
