Social psychology Flashcards
Norman Triplett
Published first known social psych study
Studied competition: people perform better on familiar tasks in the presence of others
William McDougall
published one of the first textbooks on social psych
EH Ross
published one of the first textbooks on social psych
William Verplank
Studied how social approval influences behavior
Developed reinforcement theory, along with the behaviorists
reinforcement theory
behavior is motivated by anticipated rewards
social learning theory
behavior is learned through imitation
Albert Bandura
main proponent of social learning theory (that behavior is learned through imitation)
role theory
social behavior can be attributed to people’s fulfillment of social roles
cognitive theory
social behavior is influenced by perception, judgment, memories, and decision-making
balance theory:
What is it about? Who developed it? What are the main points?
A theory about attitudes
Developed by Fritz Heider
In a social situation, people strive for balance in their attitudes. This means they tend to want to agree with people they like and disagree with people they dislike. If this isn’t the case, they will change their attitudes toward people or things in order to achieve balance.
Heider depicts this with a triangle showing the person being considered, another person with whom they interact, and the attitude.
Leon Festinger
proponent of cognitive dissonance theory, social comparison theory
cognitive dissonance
Discomfort that arises when attitudes and behaviors are not consistent. Most likely resolved by a change in attitude, though the more difficult change of behavior would also resolve it.
free-choice dissonance
Occurs when someone chooses between multiple desirable alternatives. You can feel dissonance at not choosing a desirable alternative, even though the option you did choose is better.
spreading of alternatives
An approach to reducing free-choice cognitive dissonance. The person will either devalue what they didn’t choose, or exaggerate the value of what they did choose, or both.
Forced-compliance dissonance
dissonance that arises when someone is forced to do something inconsistent with their attitudes
Festinger & Carlsmith
Studied cognitive dissonance (forced-compliance)
Paid participants $1 or $20 to lie about a boring task being really enjoyable. Those who got $1 experienced dissonance and convinced themselves that they enjoyed the task more.
minimum justification effect
Relates to cognitive dissonance. When a sufficient external justification is found, there is no need to modify internal attitudes.
Example: The participants in the boring task study who got $20 could use the money to explain their lying. Those who only got $1 could not.
Two main principles of cognitive dissonance theory
If a person is pressured to do something inconsistent with their attitudes, there is a tendency for them to change their attitudes.
The greater the pressure to comply, the less the person’s attitude will change. Attitude change generally occurs when the behavior is induced with minimum pressure, because the behavior then can’t be explained by external justifications.
Daryl Bem
developed the self-perception theory of attitudes
self-perception theory (of attitudes)
When your attitudes about something are ambiguous, you observe your behavior to learn about them.
overjustification effect
If you reward someone for something they enjoy, they stop enjoying it as much.
An implication of self-perception theory.
Carl Hovland
Studied attitude change. Explained attitude change as a process of communicating with an intent to persuade another person.
sleeper effect
People tend to forget the sources of information on which they base their attitudes. This means that the persuasive power of credible sources decreases over time, while the power of less credible sources increases.
Petty and Cacioppo
Proponents of the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion
elaboration likelihood model of persuasion
Suggests two routes to persuasion: the central and the peripheral
Central route to persuasion
Think of Kahneman’s System 2: we evaluate arguments by closely following them and generating counter-arguments. Strong arguments are more likely to work this way. We use this route when we care about the thing being discussed.
Peripheral route to persuasion
Think of Kahneman’s System 1: We judge an argument based on easier cues, rather than its merit. Example: who said it and how they said it. We use this route when we don’t care much or can’t pay close attention.
William McGuire
Came up with the inoculation theory of persuasion
How easy is it to persuade people away from “cultural truisms?”
Cultural truisms are seldom questioned, so people don’t have practice defending them. This makes them vulnerable to attack. Persuading someone away from a cultural truism could be easier than one might guess.
belief perseverance
People can hold beliefs even after they are shown to be false.
For example, if someone is asked to justify the belief that chocolate causes acne, then discovers that chocolate does not cause acne, they are likely to continue to believe it anyway.
reactance
If you try too hard to persuade someone, they may believe the opposite of your position.
Social comparison theory
Three principles:
- People prefer to evaluate themselves by objective means, but compare themselves to others when that isn’t possible.
- People compare themselves with others who are similar.
- When a discrepancy in opinions or abilities is found, people try to line up with the group. The need to evaluate oneself is linked to the need to affiliate with others.
Stanley Schachter
Discovered that people feeling greater anxiety are more likely to seek contact with others - especially other anxious people.
Reciprocity hypothesis
We like those who like us and dislike those who dislike us.