Social psychology

Question 1

Functions of the self:

Answer 1

Functions of the self: Organization (develop a realistic self awareness); self-presentation (present a positive self); Emotion-triggering (Higgins): Ought self - actual self - ideal self; behavioral control (make decisions and plan future behavior)

Social-Interaction is defining for self-concept.

Question 2

Theory of social comparison (Leon Festinger):

Answer 2

Theory of social comparison (Leon Festinger):
Social interactions provides us information how we stand in society (we can influence, with which person we are comparing ourselves)

Question 3

Upward Comparison

Answer 3

Compare yourself with someone better to become better

Question 4

Downward comparison

Answer 4

Compare yourself with someone weaker to feel more strongly

Question 5

Cultural dynamics

Answer 5

In western world: Individualistic self image In eastern world: Interdependent self image

Men: Interdependence through group Women: Interdependence through close relationships

Cultural Dynamics: On-going to change individualistic and independent self-definition. Subcultures in cultures.

Question 6

Self Image

Attack on self image

Answer 6

Basic concept: having a positive self image / feeling

Attack on self-concept: completion: search for additional social confirmation/ self affirmation: confirmation of other aspects of the self-concept.

Self-worth helpful attribution: Success is internal, failure external attributed!

Hold self-concept/image up and leave a good impression
Unrealistic optimism: Blame the victim (live happier)

Question 7

Perception of others — Schemes

Answer 7

Perception of others — Schemes
Schemes are mental structures, which helps humans to organize their knowledge (car approaching fast —> immediate classification and reaction)

Influence schemes: Information recording (through attention); encoding (through elaboration - Save information); Call of scheme (reconstructive memory)

We do not save knowledge, which is inconsistent with the scheme

Question 8

Fundamental attribution error

Answer 8

Fundamental attribution error (tendency for internal attribution)

Question 9

Actor/observer difference:

Answer 9

Actor/observer difference: behavior of other people gets internal, own behavior external attributed

Question 10

Perceptual salience:

Answer 10

Perceptual salience: when it comes to others, the person is more salient (personality), but when it comes to our self, the situation is more salient (we know why we are in a bad mood)

The salience (also called saliency) of an item – be it an object, a person, a pixel, etc. – is the state or quality by which it stands out relative to its neighbors.

Question 11

Perception of others — Halo effect:

Answer 11

Perception of others — Halo effect:
Implicit theories of personality: he/she is beautiful —> he/she has to be nice and smart

We conclude from distinctive trait on to another, uncorrelated trait —> distorted perception —> what is beautiful is good

Question 12

Perception of others — prejudices (negativity against an out-group)

Answer 12

Perception of others — prejudices (negativity against an out-group)

Affective component: defines intensity and emotion (which is connected)

Cognitive component: stereotype = process information with schemes (human saves cognitive resources) —> stereotypes don’t have to be negative

Behavior component: unjustifiable negative behavior because of group membership of a specific person

Question 13

Possible problems of prejudices

Answer 13

Possible problems
Self-confidence of the Group declines

Self-fulfilling prophecy: girls often attribute their success in math externally and their failure internally

Stereotype threats: people fear to confirm a prejudice —> increased arousal —> decline in performance

Question 14

How can a prejudice arise?

Answer 14

How can prejudice arise?
Evolutionary psychology: we survived because of the fear of other people —> innate tendency to like things that are similar and to dislike things that are not similar

Social learning theory: education and social environment (internalization) (Media)

Realistic conflict theory: competition for resources creates conflict and prejudice

Frustration — aggression: frustrated and unhappy people search for minorities to blame (no consequences)

Social cognition: prejudice is a byproduct of categorization processes (humans have an extreme strong tendency to categorize) —> humans divide people into categories (in-group versus out-group on the basis of irrelevant factors —> minimal group paradigm)

In group bias: members of the own group get attributed better traits (self-esteem motivated)

Out-group homogeneity: members of out-groups are often viewed similar.

Question 15

Attribution of prejudices

Answer 15

Attribution: we tend to have dispositional judgments, when we try to explain the behavior of another group.

Affective components of prejudices cannot be changed by logic arguments

Question 16

Danger of illusory correlation:

Answer 16

Danger of illusory correlation: if multiple striking traits occur together, we memorize this especially well. (immigrants and crimes —> missing variable)

Question 17

Automatic activation of stereotypes and their influence:

Answer 17

Confrontation (with the prejudice) —> automatic activation of prejudiced knowledge —> {controlled processing (conscious suppression of prejudice related information)}

Question 18

Informational social influence:

Answer 18

Informational social influence: situation unknown —> need for exact information (how to behave/ what do the others do?) —> conformity (influence of others changes oh own behavior) —> private acceptance

Question 19

Normative social influence:

Answer 19

Normative social influence: everybody behaves different from my beliefs —> need for social integration (I don’t want to be excluded) —> conformity ( influence of others changes our own behavior) —> only public acceptance.

Question 20

Bystander effect:

Answer 20

Bystander effect: The more persons are present in a emergency situation, the less the probability for help (change: specifically address a single person)

Question 21

Social facilitation:

Answer 21

Social facilitation: people perform better on easy tasks and less good on difficult tasks, when other people are watching and rate the individual performance.

Presence of other people creates arousal, which makes very experienced behaviors easier (dominant response) and new behavior more difficult

Arousal appears from: presence of other people: alertness, evaluation apprehension, general distraction

Question 22

Social loafing:

Answer 22

Social loafing: people perform better on difficult tasks and less good on easy tasks, when other people are watching but do NOT rate the individual performance. (Example: Clapping in a group)

Question 23

Deindividuation:

Answer 23

Deindividuation: if people can submerge in the crowd, decreases of the threshold for impulsive, exuberant and violent behavior (other influence factors are masks and uniforms)

Question 24

Reference groups:

Answer 24

Reference groups: person/group, which is the primary measure for a person’s cognition, affective reaction and behavior. They can be tangible (direct contact) or intangible (superstars).

Associative groups (want to be part) versus dissociative groups (do not want to be part).

Informational reference group: source of behavior-relevant information

Normative reference group: assimilation of values and norms

Question 25

Brand communities:

Answer 25

Specialized, known geographically bound community, based on a structured set of social relationships among admirers of a brand.
Sponsored by customers —> no influence by management

Question 26

Theory of social identity

Answer 26

Theory of social identity:
Part of the self-concept is based on the membership of a social group and her emotional value

They form the identity of a human, by transferring certain characteristics of the group

Individuals like groups, which have a good fit towards their own personality, and additional characteristics, which the individual would like to obtain

Question 27

Advantages of brand communities from corporate point of view:

Answer 27

Advantages from corporate point of view:
Individuals of a brand community buy more, more often, and more expensive; are brand missionaries; forgive product errors; do not change the brand easily; are motivated to give feedback; are a market for license products and brand extension; do longer investments into stocks; are a valuable information source for market research; influence the image of the brand

Question 28

Disadvantages of brand communities from corporate point of view:

Answer 28

Disadvantages from corporate point of view:
Management has little to no influence on independent communities
Communities feel like they own the brand react negatively, when they get the feeling, the brand goes in the wrong direction or they are mistreated — important to communicate a not only commercial interest to the group
They can be risky — important to treat them as an equal partner for the brand

Question 29

Different roles in the brand community:

Answer 29

Different roles in the community:

Experts: generates relevant knowledge

Social hubs: create connections and distribute knowledge

Opinion leaders: influence the opening and position of a group