Social Thinking Flashcards
Interpersonal attraction
phenomenon of individuals liking each other
-affected by similarity, self-disclosure, proximity, reciprocity
Self disclosure
sharing thoughts, feelings, fears, goals etc.
Reciprocal liking
Phenomenon when people like others better when they believe that the person likes them back
Mere exposure effect
aka familiarity effect
-people prefer stimuli that they have been exposed to more frequently
Agression
defined as any behaviour that intends to cause harm or increase social dominance
-can be physical, verbal, or non verbal
Offers protection against perceived or real threats
Part of the brain responsible for associating stimuli and their rewards or punishments?
The amygdala
Reduced activity in the ____ is linked to increased aggressive behaviour
Prefrontal cortex
Cognitive neuroassociation model
We are more likely to respond to other aggressively when we are feeling negative emotions
-such as being tired, frustrated, in pain, or sick.
A secure parent is…?
Consistent, available, comforting, and responsive
Secure attachment
- Child has a consistent caregiver
- Child will be upset if caregiver leaves/comforted when they return
- Can be comforted by others but prefers parent
- Child is able to go out and explore
Avoidant attachment
Results when the caregiver has little or no response to the distressed child
•Children show no preference between strangers and their caregiver
•Shows no distress when the parent leaves or any relief when the caregiver returns
Ambivalent attachment
Occurs when the caregiver has an inconsistent response to the child’s distress
•Child is unable to form a secure base
•Child is very distressed when the caregiver leaves but has a mixed response upon their return
•Child is anxious about the reliability of the caregiver
Disorganized attachment
No clear pattern of response to the caregiver’s absence or presence
- associated with erratic behaviour and social withdrawal of the parent
- also reg flag for potential abuse
Emotional support
listening, affirming and empathizing with someone’s feelings
Esteem support
Affirming the qualities and skills of a person
Material/tangible support
Any type of financial or material contributions to another person
Informational support
Providing information that may help someone
Network support
Type of social support that gives a person a sense of belonging
Mate Bias
How choosey members of a species are while choosing a mate
Phenotypic benefits
Observable traits that make a potential mate more attractive to the opposite sex
Sensory bias
Development of a trait to match a pre-existing preference within the population
Fisherian/Runaway selection
The positive feedback mechanism in which a particular trait that has no effect on survival becomes more and more exaggerated over time
-ex: peacock feathers
Indicator traits
traits that signify overall good health and well being to a potential mate
Genetic compatibility
The creation of mate pairs that, when combined, have complementary genetics
-mechanism for the reduced frequency of recessive genetics disorders
Altruism
Form of helping behaviour that benefits the recipient at a cost to the donor
Cooperation
Where both the recipient and the donor benefit from the action
Spite
Both the donor and the recipient are negatively affected
Selfishness
The donor benefits while the recipient is negatively impacted
Inclusive fitness
Measure of an organism’s success in the population
-based on # of successfully supported offspring & the ability of those offspring to then support others
Social perception
aka. social cognition
Tools to make judgements about other people and situations
3 primary components: perceiver, target, and situation
Perceiver
Influenced by experiences, motives, and emotional state
Target
Person about which the perception is being made
Impression Bias
Focuses on how our selection of cues helps us form interpretations of others that are consistent over time
Primacy effect
First impressions are often more important than subsequent interactions/impressions
Recency effect
The most recent information we have about someone is the most important in forming our impression
Reliance on central traits
Individuals tend to organize the perception of others based on personal characteristics of the target that are most relevant to the perceiver
Implicit personal theory
There are a set of assumptions people make about how different people are related to their traits/behaviours
-making assumptions based on the category they are in is called stereotyping
Halo effect
Cognitive bias in which judgements about a specific aspect of an individual can be affected by one’s overall impression of the individual
- why people tend to be inaccurate when evaluating people to be generally good or bad
- attractiveness can also produce the halo effect
Just-World hypothesis
Cognitive bias that assumes good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people
- leads to victim blaming as there can be no innocent victims
- consequences are a result of a universal force
Self-serving bias
aka self-serving attributional bias
Individuals will view their own success based on internal factors while viewing failures based on external factors
- used to protect our self-esteem
- strangers engage in it more than close friends
Self enhancement
Focuses on the need to maintain self worth and can be done through the internal attribution of successes and external attribution of errors
Attribution theory
Focuses on the tendency for individuals to inter the causes of other people’s behaviour
Dispositional (Internal) attributions
Those that relate to the person whose behaviour is being considered
-their attitudes, beliefs, personality
Situational (external) attributions
Those that relate to the features of the surroundings
-threats, social norms, money, peer pressure
Consistency cues
Consistent behaviour of a person over time
-the more they perform that behaviour, the more we associate that with their motives
Distinctiveness cues
the extent to which a person engages in similar behaviours across a series of similar scenarios
Consensus cues
Relate to the extent to which a person’s behaviour differs from others
Correspondant inference theory
When are person unexpectedly performs an action that either helps or hurts us, we are more likely to explain the action with dispositional attribution
Fundamental attribution error
We are generally biased towards making dispositional attributions rather than situational attributions
-its the person rather than the situation
Attribute substitution
Occurs when individuals must make complex judgements but instead they apply a heuristic or a simpler solution
-common when dealing with size and colour in optical illusions
Cultural attribution
Culture is another important factor in attribution
Individualist cultures put a high value on personal goals an independence
-more likely to attribute behaviour to disposition
Collectivist cultures place high value on conformity and interdependence
-more likely to attribute behaviour to situation
Stereotypes
Viewed as cognitive
Occur when attitudes and impressions are based on limited and superficial information about a person or group of individuals
Stereotype content model
Attempts to classify stereotypes with respect to their hypothetical group using two dimensions
-warmth (not in competition with the attributer) and competence (groups with high status)
Paternalistic stereotypes
Those in which the group is looked down upon as inferior, dismissed, or ignored
High: warmth
Low: competence
Ex: disabled and elderly people
Contemptuous stereotypes
Those in which the group is viewed with resentment, annoyance, and anger
Low: warmth & competence
ex:Homeless and poor people
Envious stereotypes
Those in which the group is viewed with jealousy, bitterness, or distrust
Low: warmth
High: competence
ex: asians, jews, feminists, rich people
Admiration stereotypes
Those in which the group is viewed with pride and other positive feelings
High: warmth and competence
ex: other people in the group and close allies
Self-fulfilling prophecy
Stereotypes can lead to expectations of certain groups of individuals, which creates condition that lead to the confirmation of these expectations
Stereotype threat
Concept of people being concerned or anxious about confirming a negative stereotype about their social group
- can reduce performance
- vulnerability to this depends on how highly the person identifies with the stereotyped group
Prejudice
Irrational positive or negative attitude toward a person, group, or thing prior to any actual experience with that entity
Propaganda
way in which large organizations and political groups attempt to create prejudices in others
Power
ability of people or groups to achieve their goals despite any obstacles AND their ability to control resources
Prestige
Level of respect shown to a person by others
Class
Refers to socioeconomic status
-unequal distribution of power, money, prestige, and resources can lead to have and have-not groups
Ethnocentrism
Practice of making judgements about other’s cultures based on the values and beliefs of one’s own culture
In-group
Defined as a social group in which a person experiences a sense of belonging or identifies as a member
Out-group
A social group with which an individual does not identify
Cultural relativism
Perception of another culture as different from one’s own but with the recognition that the cultural values, mores etc. fit within that culture
-certain values etc. are not superior, just different between cultures
Discrimination
Occurs with prejudice attitudes result in individuals to act in a certain way and for members of a certain group to be treated differently from others
