Social psychology (wk9) Flashcards
Social psychology
the scientific study of how people’s thoughts, feelings and behaviour influence and are influence by the behaviour of others
Social cognition
mental processes associated with people’s perceptions of and reaction to other people
Social influence
The process whereby one person’s behaviour is affected by the words or actions of others. Eg. fashion
Social influences on the self
people develop within a cultural, and this influences their (our):
self concept: the thoughts, feelings and beliefs we hold about who we are and what characteristics we have
–> social identity: the beliefs we hold about the groups to which we belong
Self esteem: the evaluations we make about how worthy we are as human beings
Social comparison
When we have no objective of evaluating ourselves we use:
Temporal comparison: consider the way we are now in relation to how we were in the past
Social comparison: evaluate ourselves in relation to others
Reference groups
: categories of people to which people compare themselves
Upwards social comparison:
- can decrease our self esteem
- can give us something to strive for
- relative deprivation
Downward social comparison:
- improves our self esteem
social norms
Social norms: letarned, socially based rules that prescribe what people should or should not do in the various situations.
- transmitted by parents, teachers, peers etc.
- -> descriptive norms: what most other people do
- -> injunctive norms: what you perceive other people approve of
- often cannot be verbalised
- one universal norm is reciprocity
- Can also lead to breakdown in order (eg. deindividuation)
Motivation and the presence of others
Social facilitation: the mere presence of other people can improve performance
Social interference: the presence of others hurts performance
Social loafing: exerting less effort when performing a group task than when performing the same task alone.
Zajonc (1965)
- arousal increases the tendency to display our most dominant behaviours
Social perception
Social perception: the process through which people interpret information about others, form impression of them, and draw conclusion about the reasons for their behaviour.
Schemas influence our perceptions of people
- influence what we pay attention too/ ignore
- influence what we remember about others
- influence our judgements about other people’s behaviour.
First impressions
Formed quickly
- people can make judgements about how trustworthy and competent a person is after seeing their face for 1/10th of a second
- SES from non- verbal cues in one minute
Long lasting
- slow to change
- partly the result of self- fulfilling phrophecies: a process through which our expectations about another person cause us to act in ways that lead the person to behave as we expected
- we might also avoid people after a bad first impression (so they don’t give us a chance to change it.)
Explaining behaviour: attribution
Attribution: the process of explaining the causes of people’s behaviour, including our own.
- internal causes: characteristics of the person
- external causes: characteristics of the situation
Kelley’s (1973) theory about how observers make attributions about the actions of actors:
–> consensus: the degree to which the observers behaviour is similar to the actors
–> consistency: the degree to which the behaviour is the same across time or situations
–> Distinctiveness: the extent to which the actor’s response to one situation stands out from responses to similar situations
Errors in attribution
Fundamental attribution error:
Fundamental attribution error: a tendency to over attribute the behaviour of others to internal factors, such as personality traits
Errors in attribution
Ultimate attribution error:
Ultimate attribution error:
- positive behaviours of a social or ethnic out- group are seen as a result of ‘luck’ or an external cause, while the negative behaviours are given an internal cause
- positive behaviours of a social or ethnic in group are given an internal attribution, while negative behaviours are given an external cause
Errors in attribution
Actor observer effect
the tendency to attribute other people’s behaviour to internal causes while attributing our own behaviour (especially errors and failures) to external causes.
Errors in attribution
self serving bias
the tendency to attribute our successes to internal characteristics while blaming our failures on external causes
Culture and Attribution
The biases are biased (ie. most research comes from the western cultures)
- westerners are more likely to make internal attributions of others than some other cultures
- people from asian cultures have a tendency to show the reverse of the self serving biases
- westerners tend to make less complex attributions than some other cultures
Attitudes
Attitude: a predisposition towards .a particular cognitive, emotional or behavioural reaction to objects.
Cognitive component:
- a set of beliefs about the attitude object
Affective component:
- feelings about the object
Behavioural component:
- the way people act towards the object
Implicit and explicit attitudes
Explicit: attitudes you are consciously aware of
–> influenced by what you think is right and wrong
Implicit: attitude that exists in your subconscious
–> strongly influenced by cultures
Implicit and explicit attitudes can be in contrast to one another
Implicit attitudes can predict behaviour
eg. higher implicit attitudes can mean avoiding eye contact with another race.
Changing attitudes: persuasive messages
Three factors of a message affecting attitude change:
- the person communicating the message
- the consent of the message
Elaboration likelihood model:
a model suggesting that attitude change can be driven by evaluation of the content of a persuasive message (central route) or by irrelevant persuasion cues (peripheral route)
High elaboration: careful processing of the content–> degree of attitude change depends on the quality of the argument
Low elaboration: low consideration of content–> degree of attitude change depends on the persuasion cues.
Changing attitudes: changing behaviour
Cognitive dissonance theory:
a theory asserting that attitude change is driven by efforts to reduce tension caused by inconsistencies between attitudes and behaviours.
eg. smoking is unhealthy+ i smoke= high dissonance
smoking is not dangerous + i smoke= low dissonance
Prejudice and stereotypes
Stereotype: a false assumption that all members of some groups share the same characteristics
Prejudice: a positive or negative attitude towards an individual based simply on membership to a group
Social discrimination: differential treatment of individuals who belong to different groups.
Theories of prejudice and stereotyping
Motivational theories
Adorno et al (1950) and Altemever (2004)
- Adorno et al (1950) and Altemever (2004) suggest prejudice enhances peoples sense of identity and helps them meet person needs
particularly likely among people who display authoritarianism:
- an acceptance of traditional or conventional values
- a willingness to unquestionably follow the order of authority figures
- an inclination to act aggressively towards individuals or groups identified by these authority figures as threatening the values held by one’s in group.
Theories of prejudice and stereotyping
cognitive theories
suggest that prejudice and stereotyping result from the social cognitive processes people use in dealing with the world
- this is good for cognitive efficiency
- use schemas
eg. terrorist attacks by islamic extremists have led people think of all muslims as terrorists and to discriminate against them.
Theories of prejudice and stereotyping
Learning theories
suggest that prejudice can be learned
- eg. parents
- biopreparedness: the theory that we are predisposed to learn to fear people who are strangers or who look different.
Reducing prejudice
Contact hypothesis: the idea that stereotypes and prejudice towards a group will diminish as contact with the group increases
- when SES of the groups is roughly equal
- when they have a superordinate goal
- contact has to occur on a one on one basis
Interpersonal attraction
keys to attraction
physical proximity:
the more we see a person, the more we tend to like them
similarity: people tend to like people they perceive as being similar to themselves
physical attractiveness
matching hypothesis: the notion that people are most likely to form relationships with those who are similar in physical attractiveness.
Intimate relationships
defining characteristics of intimate relationships:
interdependence:
the thoughts, emotions and behaviours of one person affect the thoughts, emotions and behaviours of the other
commitment:
the extent to which each party is psychologically attracted to the relationship and wants to remain in it
Love
Different from a strong form of liking
Robert Sternberg (1997) proposed the triangular theory of love
Predictors of Marriage success
Intimate relationship and shared values before marriage
fair and equitable
communication
