Social Psychology Flashcards
What are Social Norms?
The uniformities in attitudes and behaviours between people
What is Social Influence?
A real or implied presence of other people impacting attitudes and behaviours
What is the difference between how minority and majority influence affects opinions/behaviours?
Majority influence causes conformity but unlike minority influence it does not cause a private change of opinion.
What did Asch (1978) find in their classic study on social influence?
Half of participants conformed to the majority view and gave an obviously wrong answer. This finding did not apply to participants who were allowed to privately write down their answers.
What is Moscovici observe about Asch’s study?
The majority in Asch’s studies was actually a minority, therefore the effect found was actually minority influence.
What was Moscovici’s model of minority influence?
The genetic model; Minorities generate change by provoking conflict.
What were the 4 behavioural styles of the genetic model that are needed for a minority success?
Consistency; the minority group is consistent and unanimous in their views.
Investment; Commitment to their views e.g financial or personal. Extreme cases are martyrdom
Autonomy; No ulterior motive
Rigidity/flexibility; rigidity is a disadvantage. Minorities perceived as inflexible are considered irrational and less credible
What is the dual process model in regards to minority influence?
Also known as the conversion theory, it is a modification of the genetic model. Majority view is passive and easy, requires little effort. Minority influence requires time and effort.
What are the 2 main components of the Dual Process Model in regards to minority influence?
Conversion: a change of private opinion
Validation: takes a while to produce attitude change as minorities must provide effortful consideration over a long time to cause attitude change.
How is group identity relevant to minority influence?
Individuals are more likely to be affected by a minority group if they can identify with the group.
What is social cryptoamnesia?
Even if a minority group causes social change this is often forgotten by society.
What is persuasion?
Change of attitudes through information processing in response to a message about the object
Does persuasion include attitude change, attitude formation or both?
Both
There are 3 factors to the Yale approach to communication & Persuasion; what are they?
Source characteristics: Who
Message characteristics: What
Audience characteristics: Whom
There are 3 PROCESSES involved in the Yale Approach to communication & persuasion; what are they?
Attention
Comprehension
Acceptance
what are the 4 outcomes of persuasion according to the Yale Approach?
Opinion
Perception
Affect
Action
What is the Third Party Effect in the context of persuasion?
We all assume that we are less susceptible to persuasion than everyone else
What are some characteristics of a powerful communicator? (7)
Attractive Popular Likeable Expertise Verbal skills Familiar Powerful
What is a 2 sided argumentation in regards to persuasion & what audience is it most effective for?
Shows both sides of an argument to come to a conclusion. Is more effective for an audience who is against you & are intelligent.
What is a 1 sided argument in regards to persuasion & what audience is it most effective for?
Only showing 1 side of the message. Works for an audience who is already on your side and is less intelligent.
What kind of relationship does self-esteem and persuasion have?
An inverted U - those with moderate self esteem are most persuaded
What kind of relationship does intelligence and persuasion have?
An inverted U - those with moderate intelligence most easily persuaded
What kind of relationship does gender and persuasion have?
Women are more easily persuaded for masculine topics
What mood causes people to be most easily persuaded
A sad mood
What are the two routes of persuasion in the Elaboration Likelihood Model? What are they?
Central Route: Results in a long lasting internal acceptance of the message: high likelihood of elaboration. Thinking about arguments in relation to own understanding of the situation.
Peripheral Route: A short term change of opinion; low elaboration likelihood.
What is Cognitive Dissonance?
an unpleasant state evoked by two conflicting cognitions
What are the assumptions of the Cognitive Dissonance Theory?
We seek harmony & to avoid dissonance (conflicting cognitions)
Selectivity Exposure Hypothesis: we avoid potentially dissonant information & avoid dissonance by changing one of the cognitions
What do we do to avoid choices in response to dissonance? What is an example of this?
Justify the choice. For example, if someone is asked to eat something unappealing by a nice person they will justify it as being for that person, but if someone is asked to do it by an unpleasant person they are more likely to say they enjoyed the grasshopper.
what is ingratiation in regards to persuasion?
A strategic attempt to get someone to like you in order to make them more compliant to requests. however, obvious flattery does not work well.
What is Reciprocity in regards to persuasion?
Doing an expected favour for someone so when a request is made compliance is more likely. e.g covering a shift at work because you need cover & they will be more likely to agree.
What is the Foot-In-The-Door approach?
Making a small request that the individual will agree to, and then making a bigger request. After the individual has already complied once, it makes it harder for them to say no to the big request.
An Example: you are asked to give £2 to charity so you do. You are then asked if you could give £2 a month & you agree because you have already agreed to the initial £2.
What is the Door-In-The-Face technique of persuasion?
The opposite of the foot in the door - make a big unreasonable request that gets denied, and then make a smaller request. The contrast between the big & small request makes compliance more likely.
What is the Multiple requests technique of persuasion?
Asking for low costs & then revealing hidden costs. They will be likely to agree to the more costly option.
what is Altercasting in regards to persuasion?
casting the alter ( change in character or composition in a small but significant way) in a particular social role so that the alter is inclined to behave according to that role
What is reactance in regards to persuasion?
A psychological stage we experience when we think somebody tries to limit our freedom. Takes place when we realise the persuasion is deliberately intended.
What is forewarning in regards to persuasion?
where there is prior knowledge of the persuasive intent, causing resistance to persuasion
What is inoculation in regards to persuasion?
exposure to weak counter arguments causing stronger resistance to persuasion.
What was Freud’s notion of what the ‘self’ is?
the self is hidden & repressed
What is self knowledge/concept?
A complete set of beliefs a person holds about themselves and who they are
What is self knowledge?
the complete set of beliefs a person holds about themselves and who they are as a person