Social psychology Flashcards
What is the significance of ‘self’?
The capacity of thinking reflectively about our self distinguishes humans from all other animals
What can self/selves be viewed as?
Can be viewed as outcomes or consequences of social interactions or as antecedents that shape and guide subsequent social interacts
How do we study ‘the self’ in social psychology?
We use 5 questions :
who am I? how do I know who I am? how do I evaluate myself? why does the self matter? how do you know who I am?
Kuhn and McPartland carried out the first study of ‘the self’ what did they use? and what did they find?
They used TST (twenty statements test) and showed that students reflected on self in different ways :
1) consensual statements (e.g. student, girl, husband)
2) sub-consensual statements (e.g. happy, bored)
What do consensual statements involve?
It includes groups whose limits and conditions of membership are a matter of common law knowledge
What do sub-consensual statements include?
It includes groups, attributes, race or any other matter that would require interpretation by the respondents
What does self concept refer to?
It refers to the knowledge, idea or set of ideas, attributes, beliefs about who I am
What does self concept include?
1) individual (or personal) self-descriptions : traits, temporary states, experiences and actions, beliefs/ideas about self
2) collective (or social) self-descriptions : identities relating to group memberships
3) relational self-descriptions: connections with others and role relationships
What do social identity theorists distinguish between?
Distinguish between the personal and collective/group self
What did Yuki and Triandis discover about collective and relational selves?
Collective and relational selves are important in some cultures (collectivist cultures) than others (individualistic cultures)
What is the self-schemata?
Self-schemata are cognitive representations about the self (or self conceptions), derived from past experiences
i.e. represent the way the self has been differentiated or articulated in memory
Self concept changes in different situations and over time but most of us have a sense of ‘being the same me’. Baumeister 1989 describes that this is done in three steps, what are they?
a) restricting our lives to a limited set of contexts
b) revising and integrating our autobiographies
c) attributing change to the circumstance
What are the four sources of self-knowledge?
Introspection, self-perception, feedback from others and social comparisons
What is introspection?
We get info about our self by examining our thoughts, feelings, and reasons for behaving a particular way
What is self-perception?
When we make inferences about ourselves from our behaviours or imagined behaviour
What is feedback from others?
This can become a self-fulfilling prophecy
What is social comparisons?
Comparing one’s self to others especially with similar other or those who are slightly ‘inferior’ in some way
What does social comparisons provide?
It provides a positive evaluation of the self-concept
According to Sedikides why do we seek self-knowledge?
1) self-assessment motive : seeking accurate/valid info to find out what kind of person we really are
2) self verification motive: seeking info that verifies or confirms our prior beliefs about what we are like
3) self-enhancement motive: seeking/wanting favourable info about self
What are self-evaluations?
They refer to how we evaluate specific dimensions of self (e.g., appearance, intelligence, social skills)
How do we measure our overall sense of self-worth?
Measured by The Rosenberg Self- esteem scale
How do we maintain or enhance our self-esteem?
1 - Self-serving attributes
2- above average effect
3-false consensus and uniqueness
What are self-serving attributes?
They refer to how we evaluate specific dimensions of self
What is the above average effect?
We view ourselves as better than average on a range of different valued attributes
What is false consensus + uniqueness?
We tend to enhance our self-image by thinking that others will act the same as I do
What is the self categorisation theory?
This is where knowledge of the self is derived from group membership, which produces a sense of social identity
What are the three threats to self-worth?
Failures, inconsistencies and stressors
What do we develop in order to cope with threats?
We develop coping mechanisms
What are the coping mechanisms that we develop in order to cope with threats?
- escape physically or through denial
- downplay the threat by re-evaluating or affirming other aspects of self
- attack the threat by discredit it, denying responsibility or through self-handicapping
What is self handicapping?
Self handicapping involves avoiding behaviours that may increase our chances of success and also engaging in self destructive behaviour that may inhibit our success
What is self-efficacy?
It is your sense of competence and effectiveness
What is locus of control?
Some people feel that what happens to them depends on external factors, others that it depends on their own efforts and skills
What does the regulatory focus theory propose?
It proposes that our self-schemata can influence our behaviours and emotions
What can lead to different kind of emotions and behaviours?
Perceived discrepancies between actual and ideal selves and actual and ought selves can lead to different kind of emotions and behaviours
According to Higgins, discrepancies between actual and ideal selves will lead to what?
It will motivate us to attain our ideals (hopes, aspirations) which generates sensitivity to presence and absence of positive events, and people adopt an approach strategy to attain our own goals
PROMOTION
According to Higgins, discrepancies between actual and ought selves will lead to what?
It will motivate us to fulfil our duties and obligations which generates sensitivity to presence or absence of negative events and people adapt an avoidance strategy
PREVENTION
How do others know who you are?
We need to present self or express who we are to others through what we do and say
How can we present self or express who we are to others?
This can be done by:
- authentic self-presentation so projecting an image consistent with our private self concept
- impression management so trying to shape the way in which others perceive us
How can impression management be done?
It can be achieved by either claiming desired identities or self monitoring
What do self presentation strategies do?
It can manipulate other’s view of self through self promotion, ingratiation, exemplification, supplication and intimidation
What is ingratiation?
Motivated by a concern to get along with others and be liked
What is exemplification?
Motivated by a concern to get others to regard one self as a morally respectable individual
What is supplication?
Attempt to get others to take pity on one’s self as helpless and needy
What is intimidation?
Attempt to get other to think that we are dangerous
What is social cognition concerned with?
Concerned with social thinking
What is social cognition about?
It is about how we think or view the social world and those around us
What does research on social cognition make a distinction between?
Makes a distinction between controlled vs automatic thinking
What is automatic thinking?
Our judgements and decisions are often more automatic, involving low-level thinking (without intention or awareness)
What is controlled thinking?
To put a lot of thinking effort into the judgements and decisions we make. It’s intentional and conscious
What are the two types of automatic thinking?
1) automatic thinking using schemata
2) biases in thinking
Schemata are cognitive structures. What do they represent?
Represent knowledge about a ‘concept or type of stimulus including its attributes and the relations among those attributes’
What do we have different types of schemata for?
We have different types of schemata for specific people, groups of people, self, roles and events
What is the function of schemata?
Helps organise our world, guide our perception, allow us to make sense quickly of people, events, situations on the basis of limited information, make our world predictable, help us interpret new and ambiguous information
How do schemata work?
Schemata facilitate an overall impression based on preconceptions and prior knowledge
How does schemata guide what we notice?
By filtering out information that is inconsistent with our preconceptions
For many situations, there are several relevant schemata that could be applied, how do we know what schemata to use?
This depends on:
- accessibility which in turn determined by frequency or recency
- priming which refers to the activation of certain associations
Why do schemata persist?
Schemata persists even when discredited by contradictory evidence, this is partly due to a confirmation bias
What is confirmation bias?
It is looking for evidence that confirms our beliefs
What is a self fulfilling propechy?
People act on their schemata and in this way make them come true
i.e. expectations about a person influence your behaviour towards him/her which causes him/her to behave in ways consistent with your expectations
What can biases in thinking include?
Overconfidence in judgements, false consensus, illusion of control, illusory correlation
What is false consensus?
We overestimate how typical our own behaviour is and we think others will behave or think as we do
What is illusion of control?
We think chance events are actually subject to our influence
What is illusory correlation?
When we make inferences about the co-occurrence of two things, we make judgement about correlation but we tend to overestimate the degree of correlation or see a correlation where non exists
What is attributional bias?
individuals often attribute their behaviour to the situation
e.g. violators often attribute their driving violations to the situation so would blame the driver in front going too slow
What is illusory thinking?
Psychologists found unrealistic optimism of ‘it probably won’t happen to me’ which reduces chances of protecting self
What is illusion of control?
It is an inflated sense of their own ability was used to justify ignoring safe practices
What are the four types of social influence?
Conformity to norms, conformity to group pressure, (indirect) influence of a minority and obedience (conformity to the orders of an authority)
What is compliance?
It is when we publicly agree with someone’s attitudes, follow their behaviour and comply with their requests but privately we are not convinced
What is conformity?
It is when the norm is internalised and used as a standard behaviour. Here, people follow the norm because they truly believe that the actions, behaviours and opinions represented by the norm are correct, desirable
What are norms?
They are shared beliefs among a group about what is the appropriate way to behave
What do norms take the form of and what do they tend to be resistant to?
They take the form of statements of what we ought to do and they tend to be resistant to change which is a positive as there function is to provide stability and predictability
What is informational influence?
This is when there is no clear guidelines about correct views and/or we are uncertain because stimuli are ambiguous, we use other people as a valuable source of information
What is normative influence?
This is when we feel we’re being watched and so we follow other’s views to gain social approval and avoid costs (ridicule, standing out)
Why do people conform?
People conform due to the size of majority as well as unaniminity
According to Walker and Andrade, what effect does age have in conformity?
The younger the participants, the more they conformed
According to Eagly, what effect does gender have in conformity?
Females conform slightly more than males but the degree of conformity depends on the task
According to Bond and Smith, what effect does culture have in conformity?
Members of collectivist cultures conform more
According to LaLancette and Standing, what effect does time have in conformity?
Levels of conformity may have dropped over the decades as findings are not replicated
What is minority influence dependant on?
Minority influence depended on the behaviour style of the minority and how consistent, persistent and confident they are in their views.
What is majority influence?
It is thoughtless and involves passive acceptance
What is minority influence?
It is thoughtful, and it brings about indirect, latent and private change in opinion due to the cognitive conflict and restructuring of thought that confidently, persistently and consistently presented deviant ideas produce
Why do we obey?
- We have a long history of obedience and respect for authority
- agentic shift
- blaming the victim
- gradual slippage
- situations in which we obey may give people little time for reflection about what they are asked to do and the consequences
When does Allport term’s ‘social facilitation’ occur?
It occurs when others are present, whether they were co-actors (doing the same task and not interacting with each other) or a passive audience (just watching)
What do studies on social facilitation show?
It shows that others’ presence improves:
- speed of doing simple multiplication tasks
- accuracy of motor tasks
- production of word association
Sometimes the presence of others leads to worse performance. Give two examples.
- people are slower ta learning nonsense syllables
- doing complex multiplication
What is Zajonc’s drive theory of social facilitation suggest?
he suggested that others presence leads to arousal which strengthens dominant responses- either social facilitation or social inhibition
What is social facilitation?
It is when the presence of others enhances behaviour that we are good at
What is social inhibition?
It is when the presence of others impairs behaviour that we are not good at
What does Cottrell mean with his term evaluation apprehension?
He argued others make us apprehensive (aroused) because we expect that and wonder how they are evaluating us
How did Cottrell test whether evaluation apprehension exists?
Cottrell compared the effects on performing well-learned tasks of participants working alone, or in front of an inattentive audience, an attentive audience or mere presence.
- performance was boosted only with the attentive audience
What does Sanders argue with his distraction-conflict theory?
Sanders argues that the presence of others is a source of distraction; and arousal comes from conflict over whether to pay attention to the task or audience
What does Zajonc say causes arousal?
Mere presence of others
According to Sanders, when is distraction overcome by arousal?
Only when performing easy and similar tasks with co-actors
According to Sanders, when does conflict arise?
Conflict arises when what others are doing is a source of interest for us, which is more likely to happen when others are doing similar tasks to us
What is the Ringelmann effect?
Ringelmann found that the force exerted per person decreased as a function of group size
What is social loafing?
When individuals show less effort for clapping, shouting, and cheering as a group size increased
Who coined the term social loafing?
Latané et al
Why does social loafing happen?
Output of equity, anonymity and no evaluation apprehension
What does output of equity mean in terms of social loafing?
This is when we expect others to loaf and want to maintain equity
What is anonymity in terms of social loafing?
This is where we experience a loss of a sense of individual identity known as the deindividuation effect or diffusion of responsibility
How can we reduce social loafing?
1) make the output or effort of each individual identifiable
2) increase individual’s commitment to the task i.e. believing that own efforts are necessary for success
3) increase the value or importance of the task in which case we compensate for the anticipated loafing of others
What is the most common reasons for groups to come together?
Making decisions through discussion in a group gets groups to come together
What does Moscovici and Zavalloni mean with their term group polarization?
Group polarization is the tendency for the group to make decisions that are more extreme than the mean of individual members’ initial positions, but in the same direction
Why does group polarisation occur?
1) persuasive arguments/ informational influence
2) social comparison/ normative influence
What does informational influence mean in terms of causing group polarisation?
Like minded others produce supportive but new arguments and these will strengthen the already- held opinion
What does normative influence mean in terms of causing group polarisation?
We seek social approval of our views and try to avoid social pressure by comparing ourselves to others in the group. Group discussion indicates which views are socially desirable and valued; and thus, group members shift in the direction of the group to gain approval
What does groupthink describe?
It describes the common processes of leading to irrational decision-making in government, financial and military contexts
What does Janis recommend to prevent groupthink?
- be impartial
- encourage critical evaluation
- use breakout subgroups
- welcome outside critiques
- have a second chance meeting before deciding
How does Paulus et al. suggest that inferior performance in brain storming can be explained?
1) evaluation apprehension
2) social loafing
3) production matching
4) production blocking
How can you describe evaluation apprehension in terms of hindering brain storming?
People feel inhibited by wanting to make a good impression, may feel judged and don’t want to express ideas that may be thought of as silly
How can you describe social loafing in terms of hindering brain storming?
People feel less motivated to come up with lots of ideas in a group
How can you describe production matching in terms of hindering brain storming?
Use of the average group performance as a guide to how many ideas we should provide
How can you describe production blocking in terms of hindering brain storming?
Interference effects from having to contend with others
What is Altruism?
It is one type of prosocial behaviour that intended to help others (= behaviour with positive social consequences), which is motivated by a desire to benefit someone else (and with no benefit to self)
Why do people help others?
1) social exchange/potential rewards
2) social norms
3) evolutionary explanation (=ensure survival of our species)
4) genuine altruism
What is true altruism?
Helping which is motivated by empathy
According to Latané and Darley, what does the presence of others affect?
The presence of others can affect the series of cognitive decisions we need to make before intervening in an emergency situation
According to Latané and Darley, what do we have to do in an emergency?
- notice and attend to what is happening
- interpret the situations as an emergency
- assuming responsibility
- decide what to do
What leads to bystander apathy?
- diffusion of responsibility
- audience inhibition
- social influence
- ambiguity
- communication
What are other situational influences on helping?
- seeing someone else help
- time pressures
- perceived social similarity
- danger
What increases helping behaviour?
- reduce ambiguity of situation
- increase individual’s sense of responsibility
- personalise requests
- provide more altruistic models, teach altruism
Why study relationships?
Relationships are important, we need to affiliate with others
What type of needs to do relationships fulfill?
Relationships fulfil needs for security, self-worth, to express feelings, make social comparisons and be included
What can social exclusion result in?
Less effective cognitive functioning due to depression, feeling hurt, and feeling anxious
According to Argyle, what are the benefits of being in a relationship?
Happiness, mental health, bodily health including incident of physical illness, recovery from operations, length in life
What leads to liking another person?
- proximity
- physical attractiveness
- perceived similarity
- feeling liked
How does proximity affect relationships?
The closer we are in physical space and the more often we cross each others path (=functional distance) the more we like someone
Why does proximity have an effect of liking?
- mere exposure leads to liking because familiarity reduces feelings of uncertainty/ unsafety
- availability as people who live nearby are accessible so rewards of social interaction are gained at little cost to ourselves
- anticipation of interaction leads to liking
Why is physical attractiveness significant in relationships?
We believe that attractive people are more psychologically balanced, popular, intelligent, friendly etc.
What does the role of attractiveness depend on?
- perceived match as people tend to pair up with people who are about as attractive as they are
- self-esteem as the lower self esteem the more the partner chooses a romantic partner with objectively similar attractiveness
- social factors such as culture, gender and context
What are the limitations of interpersonal attraction research?
It’s based on the assumption that relationships are :
- just between 2 people
- based on feelings or liking
- based on the ‘match’ or ‘chemistry’ or partner attributes
- with passive people and ‘just happen’
What are key features of Duck’s approach about relationships?
Duck assumes that:
- people are active, they use skills and strategies to make relationships happen
- relationships are a process, and our skills, strategies and concerns change over time
- many things develop in a relationship such as liking, knowledge, intimacy, stories, interdependence, interaction and commitment
Understanding these features of relationships requires non-experimental qualitative methods. What did Duck use?
He used:
- self report
- role play
- interviews
- student’s diaries of daily ‘significant interactions’ kept over a term
What were Duck’s retrospective qualitative methods used for?
- identify the often tacit skills, strategies, and judgements we use to make relationships happen
- take account of how we reflect on and interpret actions and events
- address questions of when and how factors like similarity are important
What are the four phases in relationship development developed by Duck?
1) meeting people
2) getting acquainted
3) forming and developing a relationship
4) maintaining a relationship
What are the initial strategies related to trying to get other people to like/ appreciate us and checkout how we are doing?
1) managing other’s perception - self presentation strategies to show I have something to offer
2) uncertainty about other’s feelings - gauge other’s feelings by looking for indirect signals of interest
What are the four sets of strategies identified by Duck, for developing a relationship?
- seeking information
- affinity seeking
- increasing intimacy
- showing the relationship is growing
What are the two main concerns related to strategies for seeking information?
- uncertainty about the other as a person
- uncertainty about success of relationship
To address the concerns related to strategies for seeking info, we use three types of strategies, what are they?
passive- unobtrusive observation
active- asking third parties
inactive- conversation with other
What are the 8 strategies found by Douglas that are used to address our concern about the other’s liking?
confronting , withdrawing, sustaining, hazing, diminishing self, approaching, offering, networking
What does confronting mean in terms of affinity-seeking strategies?
direct questions that require a partner to provide immediate ad generally public evidence of their liking
What does withdrawing mean in terms of affinity-seeking strategies?
actions that require the other to sustain the interaction
e.g. be silent and see if other starts convoversation
What does sustaining mean in terms of affinity-seeking strategies?
Try to maintain interaction e.g. keep talking
What does hazing mean in terms of affinity-seeking strategies?
Provide them with an opportunity to do us a favour
What does diminishing self mean in terms of affinity-seeking strategies?
Actions that lower value of self
What does approaching mean in terms of affinity-seeking strategies?
Actions that imply increased intimacy
What does offering mean in terms of affinity-seeking strategies?
Create conditions favourable for them to approach
What does networking mean in terms of affinity-seeking strategies?
Ask third parties to acquire or transmit information
What is self disclosure?
It is the strategy used to increase intimacy
How do we maintain relationships?
We do this in a number of ways:
- attending to other’s needs and adhere to expectations
- continuing to use development skills
- shared routines (structure lives, shared experiences)
- via social network ( social pressure to stay together, using gossip to verify and air hassles)
