Social Psychology Flashcards
Norman Triplett
First study of social psych
people perform better on familiar tasks when in presence of others than when alone
Who published first textbooks in social psych
1908
William McDougall and EH Ross
Who showed that the course of a conversation changes dramatically based upon feedback (approval) from others
Verplank
1950s
Reinforcement Theory
behavior is motivated by anticipated rewards
Social Learning Theorists
Challenged reinforcement
Albert Bandura - behavior by imitation
Role Theory
people are aware of the social roles they are expected to fill, much of their observable behavior can be attributed to adopting those roles
Consistency Theories
people prefer consistency and will change/resist changing attitudes based upon preference. Inconsistencies are viewed as stimuli or irritants, and are often resolved by changing attitudes.
Fritz Heider’s Balance Theory
Consistency theory
Triad POX, in order to balance, no disagreements. the -/+ must balance evenly
Leon Festinger’s Cognitive Dissonance Theory
Consistency Theory
Attitudes not in sync with behavior - dissonance
Free-choice dissonance
where you make a choice between alternatives (have to give something up).
Dissonance that emerges after a choice
post-decisional dissonance
spreading of alternatives
reduce dissonance
ex: case western had cold weather
Tulane has a nice catholic center
Forced-compliance dissonance
force to behave inconsistently with values
ex: eat dinner then dessert
Festinger and Carlsmith experiment
Boring task, given $20 or $1 to tell confederate that it’s fun experiment, but $1 actually think it’s interesting (less justification for why you lie)
Minimal (insufficient) justification effect
When behavior is justified by reward (ex: smoke a cigarette, I give you $10,000) no need to change internal cognition
Does pressure to change attitudes work?
- If pressured to do/say something contrary to his/her privately held attitudes, tendency to change attitude
- Greater pressure to comply = less change. Attitude change if behavior induced with minimal pressure.
Daryl Bem’s Self-Perception Theory
when attitudes are weak/ambiguous, you observe your behavior
I eat strawberries so I must like them
no discomfort/dissonance
Over justification effect
if you reward someone for something they like doing, they might stop liking it
Carl Hovland- attitude change and persuasion
more likely to be persuaded when
- Credible
- Expert
- Trustworthy
- Argue against self interest
Sleeper effect
High credible impact decreases, low credible source increases. over time, less or more persuasive impact
Two-sided messages
contain arguments for and against a position
Petty and Cacioppo’s Elaboration likelihood model of persuasion
- Central Route- issue important to us, need strong arguments
- Peripheral Route- how, by whom, in what surroundings argument presented (we don’t care much about this issue)
William McGuire’s analogy of inoculation
Attack of beliefs like attack on body. Need practice defending.
Cultural Truisms
Refuted counterarguments
Cultural Truisms
beliefs that are seldom attacked, thus vulnerable to attack
Refuted counterarguments
inoculation against cultural truisms
present argument, then counterargument
Belief Perseverance
hold beliefs even after shown to be false
especially if it’s your belief that you’ve defended
Reactance
rebellion against social pressure
if you try really hard to get someone to behave a certain way, the person will choose to belief the opposite of your position
Leon Festinger’s social comparison theory
we affiliate because we evaluate ourselves in relation to others.
less similarities, less tendencies to make comparisons
we change to match the group
Stanley Schachter’s
Greater need to compare abilities/opinions, greater desire to affiliate.
Greater anxiety = greater desire to affiliate
anxious people like anxious people
Reciprocity Hypothesis
we like those who like us
we dislike those who dislike us
Aronson and Linder: Gain-loss principle
evaluations that change have more of an impact than evaluations that stay constant.
(like someone more if their like for us has increased and vis versa)
Social Exchange Theory
person weights rewards/costs of interacting with another.
Maximize reward, minimize cost
Equity theory
in social interaction, own cost/reward and the others. If we’re getting less out of the relationship, perceived inequality
Correlation between affiliation and
similarity
Need complementarity
people choose relationships so they can mutually satisfy other’s needs (opposites)
However, even complementary relationships have similarities
Attractiveness stereotype
attribute positive qualities to physically attractive people
Spatial proximity
closer you are, the more attractive you are. increases intensity of initial interactions
Mere Exposure Hypothesis
Familiarity.
Repeated exposure to stimulus increase chance you’ll like it
Robert Zajonc
Altruism vs. Helping Behavior
Altruism- person’s intent is to benefit someone else at the cost to herself
Helping Behavior- altruistic motivations, but also behaviors motivated by egoism or selfishness
Darley and Latane on bystander intervention
Kew Gardens, kitty
1) social influence- if no one else is reacting, I won’t.
2) Diffusion of responsibility- if someone else could react, I won’t
Pluralistic ignorance
leading others to a definition of an event as a nonemergency
The ability to vicariously experience another’s emotions
empathy
Batson’s empathy-altruism model
we might feel distress or empathy
distress leads to leaving, but empathy leads to help
ex: shock experiment
Frustration-aggression hypothesis
Strength of frustration correlated with level of aggression observed
Bandura’s social learning theory
Aggression learned through modeling (Bobo Doll) or reinforcement
Sherif
used autokinetic effect
conformed to group norms so group agreed
Group conform to average
autokinetic effects
stare at point of light in room otherwise dark, light appears to move
Asch
conformity by line experiment, wrong answer 37% of time, 75%+ at least one wrong answer
Stanley Milgram Obedience
shocks. Most go on until the end.
what stops the shocks, someone else to defy with
compliance
change in behavior that occurs as a result of situational or interpersonal pressure
Foot in the door effect
compliance with a small request increase likelihood of compliance with larger request
Door in the face effect
refuse large initial request want smaller one
effects depend on nature of request
Clark and Clark: doll preference
prefer white dolls
flawed methods
Hierarchy of salience
more salient an identity (ex: only female/Catholic in the class) more we conform to the role
Albert Bandura- self efficacy theory/social cognitive theory
self efficacy- individuals belief in her ability to organize and execute a particular pattern of behavior
high self efficacy- more effort on challenging tasks
self efficacy based on past performance, social persuasion, emotion, vicarious experiences
Primacy Effect
First impressions more important
Recency effect
most recent interaction most important
Attribution Theory (Fritz Heider)
infer causes about other’s behavior
Dispositional vs. situational
Fundamental attribution error
Halo Effect
allow general impressions about a person to influence other more specific evaluations about a person
ex: I like Julia –> Julia is good a music
ex: I hate Julia –.> Julia is stupid
M.J. Learner’s Just world
Strong belief = increases likelihood of blaming the victim
Theodore Newcomb’s study at woman’s college in Bennington College
Students increasingly accepted norms of community
Edward Halls proxemics
proxemics- the study of how individuals space themselves in relation to others
intimate- about a foot
strangers- several feet apart
Zajonc’s arousal theory
presence of other’s increases arousal and consequently enhances dominant responses
Social Loafing
people put forth less effort when part of a group then when acting individually
Philip Zimbardo
prison experiment/simulation
anonymity- people are more likely to commit antisocial acts when they feel anonymous within a social environment
Deindividuation
loss of self-awareness and of personal identity
Irving Janis’ Group think
tendency of decision making groups to strive for consensus by not considering discordant information
Risky shift
group decisions are risker than the average of the individual choices
Why might risky shift occur?
Value hypothesis- risky shift occurs in situations in which riskiness is culturally valued.
What did James Stoner find out about risky shifts?
Group decisions can shift towards caution instead of risk
Nature of dilemma may determine the direction of the shift
More extreme, not more risky
Group polarization
explains group extremity
tendency for group discussion to enhance the group’s initial tendencies towards riskiness or caution
Leaders in group engage in more _____
communication
Kurt Lewin leadership styles
autocratic- more hostile, aggressive, and dependent on their leader
democratic- more satisfying and cohesive. higher work motivation and interest
laissez-faire- less efficient, organized, satisfying.
Cooperation
persons act together for their mutual benefit so that all of them can obtain a goal
Competition
person acts for her/his individual benefits so that she or he can obtain a goal that has limited availability
Prisoner’s Dilemma
used to test cooperation or competition
Muzafer Sherif: Robber’s cave experiment
2 boys camps
Superordinate goals- intergroup cooperation
Aronson and Linder
Proposed gain-loss principle (evaluation that changes will have more effect than an evaluation that remains constant)
Asch
conformity lines
Bandura
Social learning theory through social contexts
Bem
self-perception theory as alternative to cognitive dissonance theory
Clarks
doll preferences
Darley and Latane
Two factors that could lead to non-helping:
1) social influence
2) diffusion of responsibility
Eagly
Suggested that gender differences in conformity were not due to gender but differing social roles
Festinger
Cognitive dissonance theory and
Social comparison theory
Hall
studied norms for interpersonal distance in interpersonal interactions
Heider
Developed balance theory to explain why attitudes change
Attribution theory: dispositional and situational
Hovland
studied attitude change
Janis
developed concept of groupthink
Lerner
Belief in just world
Lewin
3 leadership styles
1) autocratic
2) democratic
3) laissez-faire
McGuire
studied how psychological inoculation could help people resist persuasion
Milgram
Obedience by asking subjects to administer electroshock
also proposed stimulus-overload theory to explain differences between city and country dwellers
Newcomb
political norms
Petty and Cacioppo
Developed elaboration likelihood model of persuasion (central and peripheral routes to persuasion)
Schachter
Studied relationship between anxiety and the need for affiliation
Sherif
Autokinetic effect to study conformity
Robber’s cave experiment
Zajonc
mere exposure effect
resolved problems with social facilitation effect suggesting the presence of others enhances the emission of dominant responses and impairs the emission of nondominant responses
Zimbardo
Prison simulation
Deindividuation to explain results
