Social Psychology Flashcards
Core motivations
belong and to form trusting relationships with others, perceive ourselves and the groups we are part of positively, understand the world and feel a sense of control over our actions and outcomes
Social vs personality psych
personality focuses on individual’s stable characteristics and their effects on behaviour, social psychology focuses on how the immediate environment changes individuals’ behaviour
Conformity
the process by which people implicity mimic, adopt, or internalize the behaviours and preferences of those around them
Social norms
patterns of behaviour, traditions, and preferences that are implicitly approved of by a given culture
Conformity experiment: minority of one against unanimous majority
all but one participant were instructed to give the same wrong answers, sole participant often responded with the same answer as the others (motivation to adapt to a social situation)
Biggest difference between how parents treat boys/ girls
encouraging them to participate in activities based on their gender assigned at birth
Dominant response
most likely behavioural outcome of a given situation
Social facilitation
enhancement of the dominant response when performing a task in the presence of others
Easy vs difficult task
difficult tasks typically involve mistakes, which means that they’re more likely to be done incorrectly with others, easy tasks are typically completed successfully, which means that they’re more likely to be completed successfully for others
why do we choke under pressure (social)
presence of a critical audience causes a threat response → regardless of personality traits, social pressure can increase stress
social loafing
the tendency to put in less effort on a task when they are doing it with others, compared to doing it alone (more likely for a simple task)
Appeal to authority fallacy - Milgram experiments
The experimenter represented a dominant authority figured, obeyed by over 60% despite vocalization of pain from the “learner”
Why did so many obey? (Milgram)
Pressure created by experimental environment
Replications revealed that anything that made the experimenter seem less authoritative reduced the amount who obeyed
aggression
any behaviour directed toward the goal of harming another living being
how is anger often triggered?
when we perceive a threat to our belonging/ acceptance
Aggression model
personality + situation –> trigger –> reaction –> decision
what makes altruism easier
we find it easier to empathize with a single identified person in crisis than a large group of people in crisis
prosocial behaviour
acting in a way that assists others toward their goals (can involve hindering our own)
norm of reciprocity
automatic tendency to help others who have helped in the past, or are expected to help in the future
other-race-effect
tendency to see individuals of other races as more similar looking and harder to distinguish than people of our own racial background (people are more likely to help a member of their racial group)
stereotype
mental representation or schema we have about a group (learned in early life)
analysis of television news
white people overrepresented as victims, black/latino as perpetrators –> viewers form stronger stereotypes of different racial/ ethnic groups based on inaccurate information
why can stereotypes be inaccurate?
we use average differences between groups to judge the characteristics of a single member of that group
why do we use stereotypes
energy-saving: automatic system is always engaged first, and we have to willfully switch to the controlled system when needed
stigmatizing
describing or regarding someone as worthy of disgrace or great disapproval
prejudice
an adverse opinion formed without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge
contact hypothesis (Gordon Allport)
proposal that prejudice can be reduced through sanctioned, friendly, and cooperative interactions between members of different groups working together as equals toward a common goal
ways to reduce prejudice
contact with groups we are prone to prejudge, shifting social norms towards inclusion
Effect of online socialization
Perception of having a broad social network is related to lower stress/ higher well-being, but if you only see posts detailing ideal circumstances you might see your own life negatively in comparison
informational social influence
conformity to others’ actions/ beliefs in order to behave correctly or gain an accurate understanding of the world
normative social influence
conformity to gain approval or avoid disapproval (can –> deindividuation)
deindividuation
losing sight of own individuality
kin selection
strategy of assisting those who share genes
empathy gap
inability to accurately simulate mental suffering of another
complementary stereotypes
help us justify the current social system by attributing both positive and negative traits to certain groups
Elements of positive contact
1.working together
2.as equals
3.toward a common goal
4.where those in authority support social change
Affect of violent video games
Generally desensitizes people to suffering of others and violence in the world. However no clear evidence between aggressive behaviour
