Social Psychology Flashcards
What is social psychology?
Seeks to understand, explain, predict how thoughts, feelings and behaviours influence and are influenced by the presence of others (actual, implied, imagined).
What is person perception?
The process of forming impressions of others
How does physical appearance play into person perception?
We pay more attention to “good-looking” people, and ascribe desirable personality traits to them.
What are cognitive schemas?
Idea structures that help guide information processing. Quick and simple ways of categorizing and making evaluations.
What are social schemas?
Organized clusters of ideas about social events or people.
What are self-schemas?
Memories, beliefs, and generalizations about one’s behaviour in a domain- affects information processing, ease of assimilation, judgement, and heightened resistance to counter information.
What are stereotypes?
Social schema about people due to group membership
What is illusory correlation?
Perceiving a relationship between two things even when no such relationship exists.
What is an example of selective recall?
Cohen’s 1981 study of the librarian and the waitress
What is the evolutionary perspective of attractiveness?
Attractiveness bias based in reproductive standards-female youthfulness and male physical vigour.
What are attributions?
Causal explanations for behaviour
What are internal and external attributions?
Internal- ascribe causes of behaviour to personal dispositions, traits, abilities, feelings.
External- Ascribe the causes of behaviour to situational demands and environmental constraints.
What is fundamental attribution error?
The tendency to explain the behaviours of others as dispositional- may be more cognitively available, situational pressures not readily apparent to observer.
What is the actor-observer effect?
Discrepancy between explaining others’ behaviours as dispositional and our own as situational. Actors tend to explain their behavior as situational, and observers explain theirs as dispositional.
What is self-serving bias?
Success is attributed to personal factors, failure is attributed to situational factors.
What is defensive attribution?
Blaming the victim for misfortune.
Culture and Attributions: Collectivism
Group identity and goals over personal identity and goals.
Culture and Attributions: Individualism
Personal goals and personal identity over group goals and identity. Higher rates of fundamental attribution error and self-serving bias, need for esteem and competitive perception.
What is interpersonal attraction, and what goes into that attribution?
Positive feelings towards another. Physical attractiveness and romantic attribution, similarity effects, reciprocity and self-disclosure, proximity.
What does the Triangular Theory of Love (Sternberg) consist of?
- Intimacy (warmth, closeness, sharing)
- Passionate (complete absorption of the other)
- Commitment (staying despite cost and hardship)
- Romantic Love (Intimacy+passion)
- Fatuous Love (passion+commitment)
- Companionate Love (intimancy+commitment)
- Consummate love (all three together)
What are the 3 adult attachment styles?
Secure, avoidant, anxious/ambivalent
Love and Culture
For the most part, people look for the same things in their partners (attractiveness, kindness, intellect)-although marriage and romance can be more passionate love in individualistic cultures.
What are attitudes?
Relatively stable and enduring evaluations of people, things, and events. 3 components-affective, behavioural and cognitive.
What are some of the ways that attitude develops?
Socialization and childhood, exposure to the attitudinal target, other people’s opinions of the attitudinal target.
Explicit vs Implicit attitudes
Explicit-attitudes that we are conscious of and can readily describe
Implicit-attitudes that we are not conscious of and have little control over
Components of persuasion
Message, source, and receiver. Takes either the central route (more intelligent people who value credible sources) vs peripheral route (less intelligent people who value likeable sources).
What is the mere thought effect?
When just thinking about something changes your attitude towards it.
What is the mere exposure effect?
When just being around something changes your attitude towards it.
Self-Perception Theory
Looking at behaviours as a sign of our attitudes
What is cognitive dissonance?
The result when we behave in a way that is different than the way we feel, or think contradictory thoughts.
What are norms?
Conventions of society guiding “right,’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviours.
What is conformity?
The tendency to yield to real or imagined group pressures
Asch Studies on conformity
7 people at a table judging the length of lines, only 1 of these people wasn’t a researcher. 75% of people gave at least one wrong answer when all researchers agreed on something incorrect. Size of group also shown to be more influential (anything under 4 doesn’t work).
What is obedience?
The act of following direct commands, usually from an authority figure.
What are social roles?
Set of norms ascribed to a persons social position.
What was the Milgram experiment and what did it seek to understand?
Seeking to understand ethical atrocities approved by nation states- electric shock study, told participants they were doing a study on learning, was actually on obedience. Showed extent of authority on behavior.
What was the Stanford Prison Experiment?
Conducted by Zimbardo, randomly assigned subjects as guards or prisoners. Within a few days, the guards began using demeaning punishment/reward, and abusing prisoners.
What is a group?
An organized collection of individuals in which the members are aware of and influence one another and share a common identity.
What is altruism?
Acting on behalf of others without expectation of compensation or reciprocity.
What are egoistic helping behaviours?
Acting on behalf of others to reduce ones own distress or receive rewards/recognition
What is the bystander effect (apathy)?
The more people are around, the less likely someone will help
How does productivity benefit from group size?
Additive tasks benefit from group size.
Conjunctive (“and”) tasks benefit from selective membership (limited by weakest member)
Disjunctive (“or”) tasks benefit from group size (benefit from strongest member)
What is social loafing?
When people exert less effort on a collective task than they would if it were an individual task
What is social facilitation?
When performance improves due to the presence of others
What is group polarization?
When attitudes in place become more intense due to group interaction
What is groupthink?
When agreement is valued at the expense of critical thinking
What is social neuroscience?
A field that works to identify the brain structures and systems involved in socially bound experiences.
How are rejection and pain related?
Rejection produces same neural substrate as physical pain.
How is the amygdala associated with stereotyping?
Fear response, IAT shows that amygdala is activated when black faces are shown.
