Social Psychology Flashcards
Big ideas
- We construct our social reality
- Our social intuitions are often powerful, but sometimes perilous (conscious and deliberate or unconscious and automatic)
- Social influences shape our behavior
- Personal attitudes and dispositions come from social construction
- social behavior is biologically rooted
Principles of social psych
to help us know ourselves better, implications for human health, judicial procedures, influencing behaviors
Elizabeth Loftus
Demonstrated the malleability of memory (car crash experiment), showing how easy it is to get someone to give a false testimony by framing the question differently to them.
Hot vs. cold theories of social people
hot = emotional/motivational cold = cognitive and cerebral
Consistency seeker
hot model: we go about our business until we encounter inconsistency, then we try to fix it
self-esteem maximizer
hot model: someone who avoids situations where self-esteem is threatened
terror manager
hot model: behavior is a response to the fear of death
information seeker
cold model: someone who tries to understand the world around them, constantly looking for new information about themselves
information processor
hot and cold: someone who notes the inner cognitive work that happens when information is encountered
foolish mistake maker
cognitive mizer, uses shortcuts that result in occasional errors and mistakes
nondifferent individual or situational responder
only responds to their own situation/environment
impression manager
Someone who cares too much about what people think all the time
naturally selected animal
good explanation for sex, survival, success, group selection, etc.
cultured animal
culture is humankind’s biological strategy
The group member
An individual who identifies with a group, not as an individual
benighted layperson
someone who holds unpopular views; thinks or says things most people find pathetic or mrally bereft
Who is the Developer of field theory?
Kurt Lewin
What is Field theory
Behavior is a function of a person and their environment
1920 Floyd Allport
first social psych lab experiments
Thibaut & Kelley’s interdependence theory
we communicate/have relationships based on a rewards : cost ratio (like social exchange theory)
Solomon Ashch
- Conformity study with lines (people will conform to fit in even when they know it is wrong)
- We also form trait-based impressions of people
Festinger
- social comparison theory: people seek others to be around who compare similarly. We are always comparing ourselves to others.
- Cognitive dissonance: when we experience things that do not match well with our values or are counter-intuitive, we are uncomfortable and we do whatever we can to reduce the dissonance. We also avoid situations that provoke dissonance
Milgram
-researched the effect of authority on obedience
-concluded people obey out of fear or a desire to seem cooperative
(participants administered electric shocks)
You should know this one by now.
Diffusion of responsibility
With enough people around, no one will take responsibility for something that needs to be done, thinking that someone else surely will do it. Cause of the bystander effect
Causal attribution theories
- common sense approach
- covariation model (attributions are based on common variables [Englebert])
- personal construal
- correspondent interference theory (if other causes are plausible, we lose confidence in our attribution and we notice inappropriate behavior better)
Judgment and decision-making
- behavioral economics (risk vs. reward)
- heuristics (shortcuts)
- how we organize and use information
- social cognition
Main topics for Social Cognition
- attribution theory
- impression formation
- stereotyping
- attitudes
- the self
Attribution theory
How do people attribute causes of events and behavior?
Schema
how we understand things, people, events, etc. We bring these to bear when processing new info. They can be manipulated
Common attribution errors
- Actor-observer perspectives (when we act, we focus on situational attribution)
- camera perspective bias (who/what we watch affects our interpretation)
- self-awareness (self-conscious people attribute outcomes to their own behavior)
Fundamental Attribution Error
If someone else does something wrong, it’s attributed to them, not the situation. If they do something right, it is the situation, not them. It is opposite when we think about ourselves
Self-fulfilling prophesy
a belief that leads to its own fulfillment
Clever Hans
an example of experimenter bias
Rosenthal experiment
tricked teachers to think some kids were smarter than others, demonstrated self-fulfilling prophesy
behavioral confirmation
a type of self-fulfilling prophesy: people’s social expectations lead them to behave in ways that cause others to confirm their expectations (i.e. playing in to the role you’ve been given in society, like the nerd, jock, or slut)
Impression memory consistency
when someone made a positive impression, we tend to only remember their positive traits and vice versa
Big 5 personality traits
Openness to experience Conscientiousness Extraversion/introversion Agreeableness Neuroticism
elementist view of impression formation
impression is the sum of its parts averaged
holistic view
whole > sum of its parts
Zajonc
said emotion is primary to social cognition. Affect is informational and effects responses to questionnaires.
Affect infusion model (Forgas)
when situations get more complex, less predictable, we infuse more affect into our decision-making process.
Appraisal Theory of emotion
- We have a goal, belief, or knowledge
- > an event occurs
- > we appraise the relationship between goals and event along many dimensions (expectedness, conduciveness, agency, etc)
- > this elicits an emotion (physiological/cognitive changes)
- > person perceives emotional sensations as a feeling
- > cope w/ feeling by taking internal or external action
Law of situational meaning
emotions arise as responses to the meaning we give events
law of concern
how important an event is to us motivates congruence vs. incongruences.
mood-congruent memories
we recall emotional memories better when we are in a similar state
impact bias
tendency for our pre-experience simulation process to be wrong
Self
an animal within a social world, not just our internal idea of who we are. Emerges from interactions with others, it sustains relationships, it exerts control over its environment, is socially aware and colored by judgments,
4 components of stigma
1) awareness of stereotype
2) agreement with it
3) applied to one’s self
4) personal impact: the “why try” effect
6 Determinants of self-concept
- roles we play
- social identities we form
- comparisons against others
- successes and failures
- how other people judge us
- surrounding culture
3 things needed to change the self
1) monitoring
2) feedback loop
3) willpower (executive functioning, thinking)
Attitude
a favorable or unfavorable evaluative reaction toward something or someone that is rooted in you beliefs and expressed through emotions and feelings
What Zimbardo taught us
when we say things, we believe them - when there is no compelling external explanation for one’s words, we start to believe our own lives
Foot in the door
get someone to agree to a small request, then ask for a larger one
lowball
people agree to something, then you up the ante
impression management
we try to make our attitudes be consistent with our actions
self-perception theory
when we are unsure of our attitudes, we infer them as much as someone observing us, by looking at our behavior and the circumstance under which it occurs
Central route to persuasion
focusing on the arguments and responding with favorable thoughts (the meat and potatoes route)
Peripheral route to opersuasion
when people are persuaded by incidental cues like attractiveness or tone. Focuses on cues that trigger automatic acceptance without much thinking (the presentation is everything route). Usually leads to superficial and temporary attitude change
Cults
“new religious movements” characterized by distinct ritual and beliefs related to devotion to a God or person, isolation from surrounding “evil” culture, and charismatic leader.
Evolutionary explanation for prosocial behavior
Kin protection - genetic relatedness predicts helping (kin selection) - altruism enhances survival of mutually shared genes. Selfish individuals rise to the top, but altruistic groups survive better.
Reciprocity norm
expectation that people will help, not hurt, those who have helped them. (social capital)
Norm of fairness
a deep aversion to unequal treatment. over-benefitted often feel guilty.
Types of aggression
-Hostile: reactive, hot blooded, driven by anger, is an end to itself
-Instrumental: proactive, cold blooded, is a means to some other end
Both can be physical, verbal, relational/social
Principles that predict conformity
- reciprocity (more willing to comply if you did something nice for them)
- social validation (if the requested bhx is consistent with what other similar others are doing)
- consistency (if we have already committed to something, we like to remain consistent)
- liking/friendship (more likely to comply with friends)
- scarcity (lower availability = increased value)
What causes attraction
- proximity
- anticipation of interaction (mere exposure effect)
- physical attractiveness
Social comparisons that influence attraction
- similarity
- complimentary
- attribution (flattery)
- self-esteem
- reward theory (if our bhx is rewarding in relationship)
- equity (if outcomes of relationship are equitable to input)
- self-disclosure (increase and increase intimacy)
Alternatives to exiting relationships
1) loyalty (waiting for conditions to improve)
2) neglect (ignore partner and allow relationship to deteriorate)
3) voice concerns/take action steps to improve relationship
Consequences of rejection
- increased aggression, decreased prosocial bhx
- primed to make new friends, we get dumber , passive, lazy, uncooperative, sad, hurt, jealous, etc (aka depressed)
Bowlby’s attachments
Secure, avoidant (dismissive), anxious (fear of rejection), preoccupied (sense of unworthiness and anxiety, ambivalence & possessiveness)
Sherif camping experiment
kids developed prejudice against other teams, in-group biases, when put in groups at camp for camp games
Integrated threat theory
perceived changes in environment motivate or don’t motivate action
relative deprivation
feeling deprived of something you feel entitled to
Evolutionary social psychology
traits that help us survive in a group get passed on. These are things like our ability to form coalitions (cooperation), status symbols, vigilance against members of out-groups that could be dangerous (hence our proneness to intergroup prejudice)
Primary control
we shape the world to fit our need (Western/individualistic)
secondary control
wee choose which realities to align with and control their impact on us (reframe/interdependent)
Whitehall study
Higher ranking British civil servants had way less health problems than those with lower status. Stress is bad for you only when it is perceived as distress
allostatic load
damage done from chronic stress
