social psychology Flashcards
what are attitudes
“a person’s general feeling of un/favourableness toward a concept”
“general and enduring about person, object or issue”
where do attitudes come from
affect: feelings and values related to attitude object
cognition: person’s beliefs about properties of attitude object
behaviour: observation of how one behaves towards attitude object
types of attitudes
explicit: deliberate, controlled and conscious appraisal process of object and its evaluation
implicit: automatic, unconscious and intuitive association between attitude obejct and its evaluation
measuring attitudes
explicit: asked how +/- feelings are towards particular thing
implicit: implicit association test
when attitudes bets predict behavioru
- social influences minimised
- level sphericity of attitude and behaviour match
- attitudes strong
what are subjective norms
perception what others think you should or should not perfrom behaviour
perception of social pressure to perform or not perfrom behaviour
what is perceived behavioural control
perception fo degree to which can control performing behaviour
belief how easy or hard to perform behaviour
problems with theory of planned behaviour
intentions not great predictors
can predict rational and deliberate behaviours but not spontaneous ones
not take into account implicit attitudes
tells important factors but how to change them
what is cognitive consistency
-beliefs, attitudes, behaviours and mental representations are inter-dependent and are harmonious
maintaining this -consistency is a human motive
what is cognitive dissonance
state of emotional discomfort that comes from inconsistency between attitudes and behaviour
cognitive dissonance theory
based on idea we are sensitive to inconsistencies
if there is dissonance, we experience this as aversive
aversive experience motivates to reduce or eliminate the inconsistency
causes of dissonance
insufficient justification: forced to behave in way that contradicts our beliefs
effort: when put considerable effort into task and it doesn’t turn out as well as hope
decision making: forced to reject options that also had benefits
insufficient justification
-look for external justification for inconsistency, if can’t get it, motivated to reduce dissonance by generating internal motivation
post decision dissonance
typically reduced by enhancing attractiveness of chosen alternative and de-evaluating rejected alternatives and downplaying negative aspects of own choice
effort justification
tendency for individuals increase liking for something they worked hard for
if put in effort to achieve something and not do as well, dissonance created
factors that influence dissonance
the more important the belief/attitude is, the greater the dissonance
dissonance most powerful and upsetting when threatens self-image
decisions with greater consequences have greater dissonance
methods to reduce dissonance
change attitude or behaviour
decrease perception of conflict: add extra info to decrease inconsistency and decrease importance of conflicting cognitions
how to reduce dissonance by adding new info
- acquire new info that outweighs dissonant beliefs or makes conflicting behaviour more justifiable
- seek info to contradict belief
- add cognitions or behaviours consistent with attitude
- self-affirmation and thinking about own positive qualities
how to reduce dissonance by reducing importance
- rationalise
- devalue conflicting knowledge
- deny responsibility for dissonant behaviour
inter-changeable words for person perception
impression information
social perception
social judgement
social cognition
raw material for social perception
physical appearance behaviour situational factors communications from others communications from person themselves
sources of personality misinterpretations
- overestimate unity of personality
- success and failure
- stereotyped classifications
- limits of insight
- mechanisms of rigidity
- overestimate/underestimate role of personal/situational factors
primacy effects
first trait encountered in a identical lists influences the perception of individual (Asch 1946)
central traits
Asch 1946
two identical lists of traits except for warm/cold
greatly influenced perceptions
-warmth and competence are fundamental and universal dimensions of social judgement, social cognition and stereotyped content
common stereotypes
low comp/high warmth: elderly, children
low comp/low warmth: poor, homeless
high comp/high warmth: middle class
high comp/low warmth: rich, professionals
attribution theory
‘naive psychology’
concerned with how people make causal explanations for own and others’ behaviour
dispositional : individual
situational: the environment
correspondent inference theory
concerned with conditions under which people make dispositional attributions of others behaviour
-choice, social desirability, social roles
correspondence bias
-“tendency draw inferences about person unique and enduring dispositions from behaviours that can be entirely explained by situations in which they occur”
fundamental attribution error
-underestimation of impact of situational factors and overestimation of dispositional factors in controlling behaviour
cognitive load and attribution (gilbert and malone 1995)
attribution process occurs in two stages:
dispositional inference (automatic and instant)
situational correction (effort and attention)
increase in cog load undermines situational correction
thomas theorem
“if men defien situations as real, they are real in their consequences”
self-fulfilling prophecy
a false definition evokes new behaviours which prove/live up to the false definition
pygmalion in classroom
-phenomena where high expectations lead to improved performance
-rosenthal and jacobson 1968:
primary school students labelled as growth spurters in scholastic achievement, children labelled showed significant IQ gains
behavioural confirmation - attractiveness
effect of observer expectations on actor self-fulfilling prophecy effects snyder et al 1977 -F and M phone calls -F attractiveness manipulated with photo -M were deemed more sociable and sexually warm when talking to attractive female
behavioural confirmation - hostility
- male students
- labelling perceiver, target and naive perceiver
- labelling perceiver told target is hostile or non-hostile
- those labelled as hostile displayed more hostility
inter-changeable words for identity
self concept or personality
social construction of personality
- actor (characteristics residing in individual, hereditary and environmental influence)
- observer (how perceived by others)
- self observer (beliefs about own characteristics)
self-perception theory
-individuals come to ‘know’ their own attitudes, emotions and internal states by inferring from observations of own overt behaviour and/or circumstances it occurs in
according to self perception theory, when is effects on s elf-concept strongest?
when behaviour interpreted as freely chosen
when prior self-conception is weakly held or uncertain
-when behaviour is observed by audience
-when meet expectations f observer
embodied social cognition
self perception can be subtle, automatic and implicit rather than conscious
- changing facial expressions : changing of emotions
- making a fist : feeling assertive or powerful
- open posture : feelings of power
self-verification theory (Swann 2005)
work hard to verify existing self-conceptions
cognitive strategies: self-consistent feedback
selective interaction: spend time with people who see us as we see ourselves
identity cues: clothing choice, body alterations
interpersonal prompts: emphasise self-consistent behaviour
identity negotiation
- self verification leads to stable self concept
- might conflict in the moment behaviour with behavioural confirmation and self perception
- over lifespan less conflict as others’ expectation help form self conception, self verification help maintain
sociocultural context
- societal discourse both enables and constrains identity formation
- identity categories/stereotypes/interpersonal experiences/identity compatibility/possible future selves
stereotype threat and performance
white and black people take verbal test
told test was strongly diagnostic or non diagnostic
participants stated their race on demographic questionnaire
threat: black < white
discourse and identity change
interviews with lesbians who had been in heterosexual relationship for more than 10 years
discursive analysis
barriers eg can’t be lesbian as have children
confirmation eg i am a lesbian
denial eg had a brief fling when young but that was years ago
self serving bias (Heider 1958)
people selectively attribute success internally and failures externally
social comparison theory
try to evaluate opinions and abilities accurately
if no objectives, compare to others
prefer downward comparisons especially after ego-threat threat
comparing upward can be threatening, but fine if assimilate or expect to improve in future
positive group distinctiveness
social identity theory
- strive for positive group distinctiveness
- routes to positive group distinctiveness include: individual mobility, social competition, social creativity
mnemic neglect
‘key to happiness is bad memory’
selectively worse memory for negative self relevant feedback
threatened feedback is prcoessed more shallowly
linked to experience avoidance
effects weaker when modifiable or when focused on self-improvement
self enhancement strategies
self-promotion function: greater among high SE people
self protection: esp. when SE threatened
subject to plausibility constraints: ‘strategic’ self-enhancement
four ‘self evaluative motives’
self enhancement
self assessment
self consistency
self improvement
cognitive affective crossfire
posivity of feedback predicts affective reactions: depressive, anxiety, hostility
consistency with self concept predicts cognitive reactions: perceived accuracy of feedback, competence of evaluator, attributions about feedback
benefits of positive illusions
three illusions: unrealistically positive views of self, exaggerated perceptions of personal control, unrealistic optimism
all illusions weaker or absent among depressives and low SE
promote happiness, ability to care, productive work
colvin and block’s critical evaluation of illusions
much research in labs on students
how is ‘reality’ operationalised
group level realities not individual
depressives but not psychotics lack the illusions
depressives not less accurate just more negative
characteristics of self enhancers (colvin, block and funder 1995 )
self enhancement is the discrepancy between favourability of won and other’s ratings
‘friends and accessors hold negative impressions of people who self enhance’
self enhancement associated with ego brittleness not ego resilience
global self-esteem
‘average tone of self-feeling’ it is ‘independent’ and ‘objective reasons for satisfaction and discontent’
implicit self-esteem
automatic, unconscious association
higher implicit MAY associate positive words with self ore quickly and neg words more slowly, may show greater liking for letters of own name in aphabet
predictors of global self-esteem
average of domain-specific self-evaluations are weighted by importance
self-evaluations important domains correlate with global self esteem
-athletic competence
-behavioural conduct
-physical appearance
-scholastic competence
-social acceptance
cultural values as moderators in self-esteem
cultural views moderate: controlling life doing my duty benefitting others achieving status
construction of self-esteem
socially: depend on social value of domains
depend on social comparison standards
individual: self-promotion and self protection strategies
heritability of self-esteem
genetic influence is ‘substantial’
protective benefits of self-esteem
low SE in adolescence predict neg outcome in adulthood
- poorer mental health
- worse job prospects
- more criminal behaviour
sef-esteem as sociometer
belongingness hypothesis: ‘desire to form and maintain … lasting, positive and sig interpersonal relationships’
selfesteem functions as the sociometer: monitor quality of relationships and motivates behaviour to maintain min. level acceptance
evidence of sociometer theory
state SE fluctuates with inclusion and exclusion
trait SE correlated with perceived appreciation or devaluation by others
public events affect SE more than private ones
