Social Thinking & Social Influence Flashcards
What is social psychology?
the scientific study of how the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, and implied presence of others
What is social cognition?
how people process, store, and apply information about other people and social situations
What is attribution and what are the 2 types of attributions that we can make?
Casual explanation for an event or behavior. Internal to the person and external to the person
What is the fundamental attribution error and why might it occur?
The tendency to attribute others’ behavior more to internal, dispositional causes and less to external, situational causes. When observing others, less is known about the situational factors.We prefer stable causes that will help us 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?
Negative psychological state that occurs when our attitudes and behaviors are inconsistent with each other. Individuals tend to change their attitude if they have acted in a way that goes against that attitude.
What is social influence and what are the 3 types?
fforts by one or more individuals to change the attitudes or behavior of one or more others. Conformity, obedience, compliance
What is the difference between normative and information social influence?
Normative: conformity motivated by a fear of social rejection Informational: conformity motivated by the belief that others are correct.
When are we more likely and when are we less likely to conform? What is reactance?
More likely when uncertain about corrrect answer, highly cohesive group, high status group. Less like when the group is three or less, making private and not public decisions, and there is an ally who agrees with you.
Reactance is the response to any thing that is threatening your thinking freedom.
What were the methods and implications of Asch’s line study and Milgram’s obedience study?
In ash’s study all people were told to give wrong answers when asked a simple question but one person had no instruction and were just to answer a question. The more people, the more you conform. In Miligram’s a person would be told to ask questions to a person hooked up to shock and told to raise the voltage every time an answer was wrong. 60% went all the way up to the highest voltage.
What is obedience and why did people obey in the Milgram study?
When behavior is influenced due to the direct command of an authority figure. Experimenter created the social norm for acceptable behavior and the one person was an expert.
What is compliance?
A form of social influence in which one or more persons accepts direct request from one or more others.
How are foot-in-the-door and low-balling different?
Foot in the door is a small request followed by a large one and low balling is concealing the price of something until commitment is made
What is social facilitation? How does it explain effects of others on performance?
How the presence of others affects performance. Simple or well learned tasks improve in front of others. For new or difficult tasks the performance worsens.
What is social loafing and what causes it?
How being in a group affects individuals performance. Caused by less accountability, overestimate own contributions and down play others, and expect others to pick up the slack.
