Social Thinking & Influence Flashcards
What is social psychology?
How the thoughts, feelings, and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others.
What is social cognition?
How people think about info related to other people and social situations
What is attribution and what are the two types of attributions that we can make?
Causal explanation assigned to an event or behavior
Internal - relate to enduring, stable traits
External - relate to the situation
Ex: Person falls - Why did they fall?
Internal - the person is clumsy
External - the stairs were slippery
What is the fundamental attribution error and why might it occur?
Attribute others’ behavior more to internal, dispositional causes and less to external, situational causes
Less known about situational factors
We prefer stable causes that help predict future behaviors
What are attitudes?
Feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that help guide our reactions to objects, people, and events
What is cognitive dissonance theory and how does it lead to change in behavior or attitudes?
A negative psychological state that occurs when our attitudes and behaviors are inconsistent with each other
Motivates us to change one or the other
What is social influence and what are the 3 types?
Efforts to change the attitudes or behavior others
Conformity
Obedience
Compliance
What is the difference between normative and information social influence?
Normative - conformity motivated by fear of social rejection
Information - conformity motivated by belief that others are correct
When are we more likely and when are we less likely to conform? What is reactance?
More likely:
Uncertainty about correct answer
Highly cohesive or high status group
Less likely:
Groups of three or fewer
Making private not public judgements
An ally who agrees with you
Reactance - feel control is threatened, behave opposite the influence
Ex) anti-maskers
What were the methods and implications of Asch’s line study and Milgram’s obedience study?
Asch - people need to fit in and believe other people are smarter or better informed
Milgram - over 60% of participants shocked the student at the maximum voltage
What is obedience and why did people obey in the Milgram study?
Behavior is influenced by direct commands of authority figure
Experimenter created the social norm for acceptance behavior - only one person, but an expert
Repeatedly insisted on correct conduct
Authority “must by correct” - removal of own responsibility
What is compliance?
Social influence where someone accepts direct requests from others
How are foot-in-the-door and low-balling different?
Foot-in-the-door: A small request is followed by a larger one
Low-balling: Same request, cost increases
What is social facilitation? How does it explain effects of others on performance?
When others’ presence affects our performance
- performance improves for simple or well-learned tasks
- performance worsens for new or difficult tasks
What is social loafing and what causes it?
People put in less effort when they are part of a group
- Less accountability
- Overestimate their contributions and downplay others
- Expect others to pick up the slack
