Social Thinking and Social Influence ch 16

Question 1

Define what psychological scientists mean by social psychology

Answer 1

The study of how people behave in social situations

Question 2

What is an ingroup?

Answer 2

groups that you personally identify with

ex. being a Brock Student

Question 3

What is an outgroup?

Answer 3

A group with which a person does not identify

ex. UofT student

Question 4

What are social roles?

Answer 4

Expectations for how people who hold certain positions in a group ought to behave (example: expectations of a captain on a sports team)

Question 5

What are social norms?

Answer 5

A widely accepted standard of conduct for appropriate behavior (example: turn off your cell phone and not talk during a movie at the theatre)

Question 6

Describe the main finding from the study on littering and social norms

Answer 6

• Researchers manipulated the amount of litter in the parking lot (varying from 1 piece of litter to 8 pieces of litter) and handed them a flyer
• The more litter on the ground, the more likely people were to add to the litter on the ground and drop their garbage on the ground.
• Having the litter on the ground before/during being handed the flyer was done to try and show the “social norms” of the amusement park – and to see how those social norms affected peoples next actions

Question 7

What is social cognition?

Answer 7

The process of thinking about ourselves and others in a social context

Question 8

What is social comparison?

Answer 8

The process of evaluating our abilities, achievements, and attitudes by comparing ourselves to other people.

Example: asking your friends/classmates what they got on their exam – how do you feel if everyone did better or worse than you?

Question 9

Downward social comparisons:

Answer 9

Comparing yourself with a person who ranks lower than you on some dimension

Example: comparing yourself (got a 55%) to someone who failed
- Helps us feel good about ourselves (protects our self esteem)

Question 10

Upward social comparisons:

Answer 10

comparing yourself with a person who ranks higher than you on some dimension
- Motivating when you feel like you can reach their level (feels attainable)

Question 11

Who do the happiest people compare themselves to?

Answer 11

The happiest people will compare themselves to their own internal standards rather than looking to others
“Am I doing better today than I was doing yesterday?”

Question 12

Define what psychological scientists mean by attribution:

Answer 12

The act of assigning a cause to someone’s behavior

Question 13

Attribution Theory:

Answer 13

A theory describing how we assign attributions for other people’s behavior

Question 14

Dispositional attribution

Answer 14

Explaining a person’s behavior as being the product of their personality
- Example: if Jim is late to class – dispositional attribution are under Jim’s control

Question 15

Situational attribution

Answer 15

Explaining a person’s behavior as being the product of their situation
- Example: If Jim is late to class – situational causes are not under Jim’s control

Question 16

Fundamental attribution error

Answer 16

The tendency to attribute the behavior of others to dispositional causes, without regard for situational influences

Example: classmate sleeping through classes
- More likely to conclude that this classmate is lazy rather (product of their disposition) rather than considering outside factors such as working a late night job in order to pay for school, etc

Another example: Homeless people on the streets
- “if they just tried harder, they could get a job”

As humans, we have the tendency to focus on individual factors rather than outside factors

Question 17

What is the actor-observer bias?

Answer 17

The tendency to make dispositional attributions for the behavior of others and situational attributions for our own behavior.

Question 18

What is a self-serving bias?

Answer 18

Positive Outcome for Self:
- Explain it in terms of dispositional factors

Negative outcome for self
- Explain it in terms of situational factors

• Example: do bad on a test, see the test as unfair, rather than not studying hard enough – protective factor

Question 19

What is self-handicapping?

Answer 19

Placing obstacle in the way of your success to protect your self-esteem from possible future failure

• Going out the night before an exam – if we fail the test, we can blame it on going out the night before, and if you do well, your performance is “remarkable” – this is a strategy that people use
• Set up a situation that no matter the outcome, you can still protect your self-esteem

Question 20

What is cognitive dissonance?

Answer 20

The idea that people have a distaste for perceiving inconsistency between their thoughts and behaviors
- Cognitive dissonance theory occurs when we hold two cognitions that are psychologically inconsistent
- Dissonant thoughts cause psychological discomfort
- We try to reduce dissonance by making our cognitions more compatible

Question 21

Describe the various ways people reduce dissonance:

Answer 21

1. Change the behaviour: Stop smoking
2. Change the cognition: Smoking doesn’t cause cancer
3. Add consonant thoughts: Smoking reduces stress – help ignore the “smoking causes cancer” part
4. Change the importance of the dissonant thoughts: Smoking is cool

Question 22

What is social facilitation?

Answer 22

The tendency to perform better in the presence of other people

Question 23

Describe the main finding from Tripplett’s social facilitation study among children.

Answer 23

Children were faster at reeling in the cord when they were competing against others than when performing alone

Question 24

What is social loafing?

Answer 24

when a person exerts less effort knowing that their individual performance will be hidden in the group project

Question 25

Describe the main finding from the tug of war study on social loafing

Answer 25

• Participants told they would pull on a rope as individuals and as a part of a team
• Participants were blindfolded
• Participants led to believe they have teammates exerted less effort

Question 26

How are social facilitation and social loafing different from one another?

Answer 26

Social facilitation describes the tendency of a person to perform familiar tasks better when others are present.
Social loafing describes how the presence of others can reduce performance, particularly where group projects are concerned.

Question 27

What is conformity?

Answer 27

When we change our behaviors or opinions to be in agreement with other people

Question 28

Describe the main finding from Solomon Asch’s (1956) study of conformity.

Answer 28

• “which of the three lines is closest to line X?”
• You think C first, but then all of a sudden everyone before you says A, when it comes to your turn to answer, you now change your answer to A because of what others say
• 75% of participants conformed and gave the wrong answer at least once in the experiment

Question 29

What is compliance?

Answer 29

Bending to the requests of another person who has little or no authority over them

Question 30

What is the foot-in-the-door effect?

Answer 30

A person who complies with a small request is more likely to comply with a larger demand later.
EXAMPLE:
* First set of homes: “could we place this sign on your lawn” – 17% agreed
* Second set of homes: “Would you sign this petition that supports safe driving” – everyone complies
* Second set of homes (again with different researcher): “Could we place this sign on your lawn” – 55% agreed

Question 31

What is low balling?

Answer 31

You get a person committed to act then, once they are committed, make the terms less desirable
- Used by car and cell phone sales people lots

Question 32

What is the door in the face effect?

Answer 32

People are more likely to comply with a moderate request after they have first refused a much larger request
- Negotiating a raise

Question 33

What is obedience?

Answer 33

When you comply with the requests of a someone in a position of authority

Question 34

Describe the main finding from Milgram’s study of obedience.

Answer 34

• People were willing to give a fatal electric shock to another human (actor) when told to do someone by someone of higher authority (in this case, a man with a white coat)

Question 35

What is coercion?

Answer 35

forced to change beliefs or behavior against your will

Question 36

3 steps in brainwashing

Answer 36

1. Create a feeling of entrapment-Physically or psychologically trapped (away from others) escape is impossible.
   False claims may be provided to increase sense of feeling of isolation and trapped.
   Starvation and abuse may also be provided to increase the pressure.
2. Introduce new beliefs- When exhausted is at its peak, abandon the old beliefs and introduce the new beliefs. Very tired, feel like they have no escape, unwell, introduce new beliefs and ideas
3. Offer promises of leniency- Offer friendship, sympathy, and promises of leniency.
   Sign a confession or do what the people want and pair it with a “reward”, such as food, sleep, allowing them out of isolation
   - Similar process was used to police investigation (illegal in Canada, legal in the states)
   - Used to extract a confession