Social Psychology Flashcards
What are positive illusions?
Uncritically positive view of ourselves, illusions of control and unrealistic optimism.
What is cognitive dissonance?
Unpleasant state when attitudes don’t match behavior. (smoking, exercising)
What is the self serving bias?
We overestimate our own contributions and efforts. We overestimate our positive attributed compared to our negative attributes. We attribute our successes to internal traits, but our failures to circumstances of the situation.
What is the dissonance response?
Dissonance- 1) change behavior 2) explain away inconsistencies 3) minimize inconsistencies 4) change attitude
What does self control in childhood predict in adulthood?
Predicts higher intellectual performance, higher self esteem, less drug use, and better coping skills.
If you exercise self control in one area of your life, will it generalize to other areas of your life? Give an example.
Yes, when kids play sports and are taught to practice self control, they are more likely to display self control in all other areas of their lives.
In impression management, what is primacy?
The reality that first impressions are more influential than later impressions. Especially in regards to appearance.
What is the spotlight effect?
Our erroneous feeling that others are constantly analyzing you. In reality, hardly anybody is noticing you because they are too busy thinking about themselves.
What is attribution?
Determining the reason for peoples’ actions.
Is attribution accurate? Are our judgments of others usually wrong?
No, it is prone to error. Yes our judgments are usually wrong.
What is the fundamental attribution error?
We overemphasize internal traits (personality and character) and underemphasize the circumstances as the cause for peoples behavior.
What is the actor/ observer bias?
We attribute the behavior of others to internal traits but our own to circumstances of the situation.
What are most people driven by?
circumstances rather than personality
What is conformity?
The tendency to show/share the behavior and attitudes of other people.
Is conformity a good or bad thing?
Generally a good thing.
What was Asch’s study?
He used 1 subject with a group of confederates. Questions were asked in regards to length of lines. The confederates answered incorrectly to see if the subject would conform regardless of the false answer.
What did Asch’s study reveal?
75% confirmed at least once
5% confirmed on every answer
the rest never conformed
What affected Asch’s study results?
The number of confederates involved, the higher the number the greater the conformity.
What are the factors affecting conformity?
- uncertainty
- lack of knowledge
- low social status
- Degree to which the behavior is public
What is the reality with humans and obedience?
Human beings are highly obedient, even to the point of of committing atrocities.
What was Milgram’s study?
Milgram’s study was inspired by WWII atrocities to investigate obedience. Subjects were paired with confederates and were told that the study was on learning and punishment. Teacher helped strap the learner into the chair. Teacher was told to ask the learner questions and shock them every time they got the answer wrong. Voltage increased to dangerous levels with every wrong answer.
What were the results of the Milgram study?
100% of the people kept shocking until 300 volts
65% of the people finished the study at 450 volts
Humans are highly obedient.
What were some third variables in the study that were controlled? and what were the results?
Location: Yale or office in shady part of town produced almost identical results.
Contact with the learner: Learner heard: less than 70% finished
Learner seen: around 35% finished
Learner touched: around 23% finished
Being alone or with another person: 65% will obey alone
10% will obey when not alone.
What did Melgrim’s study inspire in regards to ethics during studies?
The Ethics Committee to protect participants from any psychological or physical damage during studies.
What is a group think?
Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people, in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome
What often results from group thinks?
disastrous results
