Test 2 Flashcards
Motivation
Inferred process within a person or animal that cause movement either toward a goal or away from an unpleasant situation
Theories of Motivation
An over-arching explanation for why people do the things that they do
Instincts
Automatic, involuntary, and unlearned behaviour patterns triggered by particular stimuli (e.g., a cat knows how to catch mice)
Fixed-action patterns
An instinctual behavioural sequence that’s relatively invariant within the species (E.g., Mother Turkey’s)
Releaser
the triggering stimulus – what cues the fixed action pattern (e.g., the “cheep, cheep” sound of baby turkeys)
Drives
A biological trigger that tells us we may be deprived of something and causes us to seek out what is needed, such as food or water
Primary Drives
innate like thirst, hunger, and sex
Secondary Drives
needs that have been conditioned to have
meaning (e.g, like money)
Incentives
the stimuli we seek that can satisfy drives such as food, water, social approval, companionship, and other needs
Drive Reduction Theories
- We feel unpleasant tension when we stray from homeostasis (physiological equilibrium)
- We become motivated (driven) to restore that physiological equilibrium (satisfy the need)
Homeostasis
The body’s physiological processes that allow it to maintain consistent internal states in response to the outer environment
Drive Reduction Theory
- we have physical needs
- unmet needs create drive
- that drive pushes us to reduce the need
Arousal Theory
The body’s physiological processes that allow it to maintain consistent internal states in response to the outer environment
Yerkes-Dodson Law
Performance increases with arousal only up to a point, beyond which performance decreases
What happens when we preform simple or well-learned tasks?
Performance improves as arousal increases
What happens when we preform complex, unfamiliar, or difficult tasks?
relationship between arousal and performance reverses after a point, and performance declines as arousal increases
Abraham Maslow
Believed that individuals posses a constantly growing inner drive that has great potential (created the hierarchy of needs - purple pyramid)
Self-Determination Theory
proposes that people have three primary motives:
* Autonomy
* Relatedness
* Competence
Autonomy
To cause outcomes in your own life—act consistently with your self-concept
Relatedness
To feel connected with others who are important to you—care for others and experience caring
Competence
To feel mastery over your life - to perform tasks at a satisfying level
What is the key distinction with self-determination theory?
extrinsic and intrinsic motivation
Extrinsic Motivation
a person tends to do a task or activity mainly because doing so will yield some kind of reward or benefit upon completion (also known as performance motivation - gaining rewards) e.g., paycheck
Intrisnic motivation
characterized by doing something purely because of enjoyment or fun (also known as mastery motivation - overcoming challenges while enjoying it)
Over-justification effect
The addition of external motivation can undermine internal motivation
Self-efficacy
Confidence that one can plan and execute a course of action
Approach Goals
are enjoyable and pleasant incentives that we are drawn toward, such as praise or financial reward
Avoidance Goals
are unpleasant outcomes such as shame, embarrassment, or emotional pain, which we try to avoid
Three Motivational Conflicts
- Approach-approach conflicts * Conflicts that occur when you are equally attracted to two or more possible goals
- Avoidance-avoidance conflicts * Conflicts that require you to choose the lesser of two evils because you dislike both alternatives
- Approach-avoidance conflicts * Conflicts that occur when a single activity or goal has both a positive and a negative aspect
Hunger
The need to consume enough nutrients so that you have enough energy to function. it is our major drive
Ventromedial Hypothalamus
stimulation reduces eating (“off” switch);
destruction causes overeating
Lateral hypothalamus
stimulation increases eating (“on” switch);
destruction reduces eating to starvation level
What happens when the ventromedial hypothalamus no longer functions?
Hunger regulation no longer functions properly
Felling full is in the ________ not the _________
brain; stomach
The biology of weight
Research does not support the idea that people who are overweight are emotionally disturbed. Heaviness is not always caused by overeating
Set Point
Genetically influenced weight range for an individual. Varies 10% either direction
Basal metabolic rate
the rate at which the body burns calories for energy
Why does the ob gene cause obesity in some individuals?
Ob gene causes fat cells to secrete the protein leptin
What receptors urge us to eat?
receptors in the nose and mouth
What receptors urge us to stop eating?
receptors in the gut
Ghrelin
Makes you hungry
Leptin
Turns off appetite
What does sugar activate?
pleasure-inducing dopamine pathway
Prevalence of obesity in Canada
Approximately 26% of women and 35% of men
Social Facilitation
Eating more when we’re around other people –it’s a social activity
Impression Management
eating in order to fit in or not be embarrassed (E.g., eating less –ordering a salad on the first date)
Minimal eating norm
good manners—at least in some social and cultural settings—is to eat small amounts to avoid seeming rude
Modeling
eating whatever others eat
“Mindless Eating”
unintentionally influenced by container size or colour
Wansink & Kim “Mindless Eating” study
- gave away fresh popcorn for free
- moviegoers ate 45.3% more when it was given to them in a large container
- gave away free 14 day-old popcorn
even though it was disliked, they still ate 33.6% more popcorn - when asked 77% percent said size didn’t affect how much they ate
Van Ittersum & Wansink Dish Size & consumption study
Increasing the size of the dishes increases consumption by 18–25% for meals and 30–45% for snack foods
Wansink, Painter, & North Attention and Eating Study
Bottomless bowl of soup study:
* Individuals stopped eating after
consuming, on average, over 70%
more than those participants who
knowingly refilled their bowls
Master’s and Johnson’s four stages of sexual response:
- Excitement
- Plateau
- Orgasm
- Resolution
Sex differences: compared to women, men…
- Think about sex more often
- Initiate sex more often in relationships
- Desire sex more often in relationships
- Masturbate more
- Report fewer problems with low sexual desire
- More often pay money or offer gifts for sex
- More often watch (and pay for) pornography
- Have orgasms more reliably and easily than
women
Clark & Hatfield Study
- “go out with me tonight?”
- “come over to my apartment tonight?”
- “go to bed with me tonight?”
* women would more likely say yes to question 1, whereas men would most likely say yes to question 3 (but still 1+2 but not as high)
Problem with Clark & Hatfield’s Paradigm
- Riskier for women to agree
- Men and women are perceived
differently when they propose casual
sex (Conley, 2010) - Female proposers are perceived as
more intelligent, successful, and
sexually skilled than male proposers
Arousal in measured in what two ways?
- self-report
- Physical
Better sex results in…
- Men less likely to leave
- More satisfied wives two years later
- Men’s satisfaction fluctuated with frequency of sex
Better relationships result in…
- Higher sex satisfaction 18 months later, if relationship satisfaction and effective communication are high
- Greater sex satisfaction 1 year later if wife has open communication and high perceptions of stability
- More sexual satisfaction, following a 5-session marital communication intervention
People can engage in sex for approach/promotion reasons:
- To feel good
- To share intimacy/be closer with our partner
- To have fun
People can engage in sex for avoidance/prevention reasons:
- To stop our partner from leaving
- To stop our partner from being upset
- To stop feeling guilty
Human are innately social beings:
- The needs to belong affects thoughts, emotions, and behaviours
- Feelings of love activate the brain reward and safety systems
- Social isolation increase the risk from mental decline and poor health
Affiliation need
the need to build relationships and to feel a part of a group
The standard of a beautiful body has changed:
In the 1900-1950, larger and heavier women were considered more attractive than now. Now, thinner women are considered more attractive. However, waist-to-hip ratio has not changed
Waist-to-hip-ratio and fertility
Married women with higher ratio reported more difficulty becoming pregnant.
Low waist-to-hip ratio is associated with absence of major diseases
Matching Phenomenon
Men and women of similar attractiveness are
drawn to one another
Why does the Matching phenomenon work?
Attractive people and unattractive people have different standards. Highly attractive people have high standard. Less attractive people have lower standards.
Good News about Beauty and Matching
Regardless of the level of physical attractiveness, people generally rate their spouses as attractive
Speed-dating results
Participants self-reported traditional sex differences in hypothetical mate preferences
* Men – physical attractiveness
* Women – earning prospects
However, these did not pan out in actual ratings of partners
What can we conclude about Matching Hypothesis & Beauty/Status Trade?
People don’t seem to know why they fall for who they
Online dating services:
Customers typically end up going out with fewer
than 1% of the people whose profiles they study online
Speed-dating events
The average participant makes a match with at
least 1 in 10 of the people they meet; some studies have found the average is 2 or 3 out of 10
Why is there a difference in online dating services?
When you have all criteria to consider, and
so many people to choose from, you start striving for perfection
Why is there a difference in speed-dating?
People realize that there aren’t an infinite number of possibilities…If they want to get anything out of the evening, they have to settle for less than perfection
Stereotype about dating
- Men are indiscriminate pursuers who will go for anyone with a heartbeat
- Women are selectors—the romantic gatekeepers who thrive on saying “no”
Attractiveness and Time of Day
Men and women approached at 9, 10:30 or 12 PM to rate attractiveness of people in the bar at the time. Called “The Closing Time Effect”
Attractiveness and Time of Month
- Women who were not on hormonal birth control rated different faces at different times of the month
- During ovulation, greater preference for more masculine faces; at other times, more feminine faces
Bottom line of Attraction
Many factors play a role in what we find attractive, and we don’t always know why we are attracted to some people
Passionate Love
Aroused state of intense positive absorption in another, usually at the beginning of a love relationship
Compassionate Love
The feelings of intimacy and affection we feel toward someone with whom our lives are deeply intertwined
Intimacy
feelings of being close and bonded
Passion
arousal and sexual attraction
Commitment
short-term commitment to love your partner, long-term to maintain that love and stay with them
What are the three components of Emotion?
- A subjective thought and/or experience
- accompanying patterns of neural activity and physical arousal
- an observable behavioural expression
Emotion
a state of arousal involving facial and bodily changes, brain activation, cognitive appraisals, subjective feelings, and tendencies toward action.
Physiology of emotions
Physiological Changes in the Brain and Body
Routes of emotion: fast route
skips the visual cortex and goes strait to the amygdala for an instant emotional reaction
Amygdala
A brain structure involved in the arousal and regulation of emotion and the initial emotional response to sensory information “threat detector”
Assesses threat
Becomes activated during the perception of arousing or aversive/fear-inducing stimuli (e.g., Loud noises, Noxious odours, Bad tastes etc.)
Routes of emotion: slow pathway
Sensory input is routed to the cortex for analysis and then transmission to the amygdala
Prefrontal cortex
the most forward part of the frontal lobes of the brain
Emotional regulation
modifying and controlling what we feel, associated with emotional experience
Left prefrontal cortex
- more tuned to approach emotions
(e.g., happiness, enthusiasm) - Involved in motivation to approach others; damage results in loss of joy
- Also inhibits responses to unpleasant stimuli (bad feelings)
Right prefrontal cortex
- more tuned to unpleasant emotions
- Involved in withdrawal and escape from unpleasant and frightful stimuli (e.g., emotions like disgust)
- Related to depression and general negativity
Autonomic nervous system
A control system that acts largely unconsciously and regulates bodily functions such as the heart rate, digestion etc.
The autonomic nervous system: Sympathetic
“fight or flight”
The autonomic nervous system: Parasympathetic
“rest and digest”
Theories of emotion generally address what two major questions:
- Does physiological arousal come before or after emotional feelings?
- How do feelings and cognition interact?
James-Lange Theory
Emotions are caused by bodily sensations
E.g., “I feel sad because I cry”
What emotions result in sweaty palms, increased heart rate, and rapid breathing?
- Fear
- Anxiety
- Excitement
- Love
- Anger
- Exercise
Issue with James-Lange:
The physical experience of arousal is not uniquely distinct for each emotion
Cannon-Bard Theory
- Emotions and arousal co-occur
- Not causal, correlational
Cannon-Bard Theory: paralyzed WWII veterans
- Evidence from patients with spinal-cord injuries–experienced fewer subjective feelings of emotion like anger and fear
- Less intense emotions suggesting that the body plays a part in emotion, body is somewhat casual
What is interesting about emotions in certain situations?
it is not just the other behaviour, but also your
interpretation of it, that generates your emotional response
The experience of emotion depends on two factors:
Physiological arousal and cognitive interpretation
Two-Factor Theory of Emotion
- Stanley Schacter and Jerome Singer
Emotion:
* Physical response
* Cognitive interpretation
* Conscious experience
Schacter and Singer’s (1962) classic study:
- All participants received an epinephrine injection (i.e., adrenaline)
- Told that it either causes arousal or has no effect
- Participants were then put in a waiting room with someone else who either acted angry or goofy
- If participants expected the shot would increase arousal, then it did not have an effect on their emotions
- However, if participants did not expect the shot to affect arousal, participants interpreted it based on the situation:
Capilano Bridge Experiment: Dutton & Aron (1974):
Capilano river:
* High, scary suspension bridge
* Low, stable bridge
* Approached by an attractive female
research assistant
Results: The males that met the
woman on the suspension bridge
found her more attractive and
were more likely to call her
(12.5% vs. 50%)
Bottom line of Appraisal of Arousal
- Emotion is determined, in part, by our
appraisal/interpretation of a situation - The same principle occurs for
evaluations of stressful events - An event is stressful for people
only if they interpret it as such
6 Basic Universal Emotions
- Happiness
- Sadness
- Anger
- Fear
- Surprise
- Disgust
Real vs. Fake Emotions
*Faked emotions use different groups of muscles than authentic emotions
* Pretend sadness: Only 15% of subjects manage to get the eyebrows, eyelids, and forehead-wrinkle exactly right, mimicking the way true grief is expressed spontaneously
Reward Smiles
are displayed to communicate positive experiences or intentions
Affiliative Smiles
Create and maintain social bonds and signal appeasement
Dominance Smiles
to signal status
Does a smile always mean you are happy?
no, a smile might not mean “I’m happy” but,
* I’m trying to pleasant” (affiliation)
* “HA! Loser! I was right you were wrong.” (dominance)
Body Language
nonverbal signals of movement, posture, gesture, and gaze (e.g, mood, status, liking vs. disliking)
Primary Emotions
- Emotions considered to be universal and biologically based
- Generally include fear, anger, sadness, joy, surprise, disgust, and contempt
Secondary Emotions
Emotions that develop with cognitive maturity and vary across individuals and cultures
Display Rules
Social and cultural rules that regulate when, how, and where a person may express (or must suppress) emotions
Emotional Dialects
Variations across cultures in how common
emotions are expressed.
Cross-Cultural Emotion Difficulties
Analysis based on 97 studies (22,148 participants):
Emotion judgments made within-culture were 13% more accurate than cross-cultural judgments (Elfenbein & Ambady, 2002)
Language and Emotional Variation
Some cultures have words for specific emotions unknown to other cultures:
* Japanese: hagaii, helpless anguish paired with frustration
Most common causes of death in the early 1900s
Influenza, pneumonia, tuberculosis, measles, and other contagious diseases
Most common causes of death in the early 2000s
Heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes are linked to unhealthy behaviours such as inactivity, obesity, and smoking
Health Psychology
is the branch of psychology concerned with the
promotion of health and the prevention of illness
Placebo effect
The perception that one has received an intervention improves one’s symptoms
Nocebo effect
An intervention that is expected to cause harm or side effects creates those effects
Stress
A psychological and physiological reaction that occurs when perceived demands exceed existing resources to meet those demands
Stressors
- An event, item, or experience that causes a stress response
- The stress response helps living things deal with stressors
What was the real name of ‘stress’ going to be if Salye’s english was better?
“strain”
Why would “strain” be a better choice word for stress?
“Strain” may have been a better word because in psychology we are interested not only in the stressors (another word coined by Salye) but also in the stress response
HPA axis
hypothalamus, pituitary, adrenal glands
Short Term: Fight-or-flight response
A set of physiological changes that occur in response to psychological or physical threats (Great for immediate responses!)
Long Term: General adaptation syndrome (GAS)
A theory of stress responses involving stages of alarm, resistance, and exhaustion
* Hans Selye
Alarm
- Recognition of the threat and the physiological reactions that accompany it including increases in blood pressure, muscle tension, heart rate, and adrenaline release
- corresponds to the fight or flight response
Resistance
- Body attempts to resist or cope with stressor that cannot be avoided
- An individual uses his or her physical and mental resources to respond to the stressor in an appropriate way
Exhaustion
- When the stressful experience depletes your physical resources and your physiological stress response declines
- This leads to physical problems and eventually to illness
Acute Stress
- Enhances immunity (except for allergic responses)
- Increased number of lymphocytes (kills antigens) and macrophages
- Dependent on adrenal secretion; lasts 2-5 days
Chronic Stress
- Suppresses immunity
- Reduced number of lymphocytes and macrophages
- Increases the severity of common illnesses
What can chronic stress impair?
the body’s ability to heal itself
Stress and Wound Healing Experiment
- Independent Variable: Timing of wound: during summer vacation, or 3 days before first major exam (so each student served as his or her own control group)
- Dependent Variable: Length of time to heal
- Results: Students took an average of 3 days longer to heal during exam time! (40% longer)
How does Chronic stress affect the common cold?
Chronic stress lasting a month or more increases risk of illness and vulnerability to common cold
Common stressors: Frustration
blocked goal
Common stressors: Pressure
expectation to behave in certain ways
Common stressors: Change
having to adapt
Common stressors: Conflict
two or more incompatible motivations. Should I stay or should I go?
Common stressors: Financial
lack of money, unpaid bill
Common stressors: work/school
exams, project deadlines, traffic
Common stressors: physiological
lack of sleep, unhealthy eating, smoking/drinking
Common stressors: psychological
personal relationships, conflict, bullying
Common stressors: Social
family conflicts, life events
Common stressors: Societal
Racism, poverty, powerlessness
Stress and crowding
increases arousal levels, spread of diseases
Stress and poverty
is associated with reduced control over one’s
environment
How does crowding and poverty affect you?
- Increased stress levels
- Increased risk of heart disease
- Increased rates of depression and anxiety
- Poorer nutrition
- Reduced control over health care options
- Fewer educational opportunities
Type A personality
People who tend to be organized but, impatient and worry about time, and are ambitious, motivated, and competitive but easily angered
Type B personality
People who are more laid back and characterized by a patient, easygoing, and relaxed disposition
Clinical and antagonistic hostility
People who are mistrustful of others and always ready to provoke mean, furious arguments
Change Aspect
- Holmes and Rahe (1967)
- They suggested that stress is the degree to which people have to change and readjust their lives in response to an external event
Change as a source of stress
According to the social readjustment rating scale, Holems’ and Rahe’s research suggested that scoring over 300 produced a high likelihood of having a negative health effect (150+ linked to 50/50 chance for negative health changes)
Why doesn’t everyone get sick when they experience stress?
How we respond to stress may protect us or make us more vulnerable to illness. It is not stress necessarily that affects us, but how we respond to stress
Richard Lazarus perceived stress and health
It is subjective stress that causes health problems
Microstressors
cumulative effects of stress
The most stressful circumstances are the ones that people have little to no ________ over
control
Donnerstein & Wilson, 1976
- In this study, participants completed surveys while they experienced a loud or normal noise
- But twist: In one condition told they could press a button to stop the noise
- So, the environment was still loud, but they had control: they had the resources to cope with it (Nobody actually stopped the noise, but they thought they could have)
- Participants were then provoked by the experimenter (to increase their frustration) and given a chance to behave aggressively towards another subject in an experimental task
- Results: People were much more aggressive in the noisy environment –but not if they felt they could cope with it
Locus of Control
A general expectation about whether the results of your actions are under your own control (internal locus) or beyond your control (external locus)
Stressful Events
An event is stressful for people only if they interpret it as such
Appraisal
The cognitive act of assessing and evaluating the potential threat and demands of an event
Why is our cognitive appraisal of a stressor important?
It explains why different individuals can have different emotional responses to the same stressors
Cognitive appraisal of a stressful event
- When we think we have the resources to overcome the stressor, we experience a “challenge” response
- When we think we don’t have the resources to overcome the stressor, we experience a “Threat” response
Problem-Focused Coping
- Attempting to reduce stress directly by changing the stressor or the way we interact with that stressor
- Deal with the micro stressors in your life that you can change and control
Emotion-Focused Coping
Trying to find ways of reducing effects of negative emotions
Problem Focused Coping Strategies
- Deal with the micro stressors in your life that you can change and control
- Intentionally participate in activities that put you in a positive mood
- adopt an optimistic outlook
Optimism
The general expectation that things will go
well despite setbacks
Pessimism
The tendency to have a negative perception of life and expect negative outcomes
Relative to pessimist, optimists tend to…
- Have lower HPA activation in response to stress
- Be less vulnerable to illness
- Live longer
- Be active problem-solvers
- Don’t give up or escape
- Keep a sense of humour
A pessimistic attribution style is really bad:
- Negative: “Bad things will happen”
- Internal: “They’re my fault”
- Stable: “They’re not going to change”
People with a pessimistic explanatory style are…
- more likely to get depressed
- more vulnerable to illness
- more likely than optimists to develop heart disease
Coping Strategy: Relaxation
Relaxation procedures can provide relief from headaches, high blood pressure, anxiety, and insomnia
Relaxation training
Has been used to help Type A personality heart
attack survivors reduce their risk of future heart attacks
Coping Strategy: Religious Involvement
Religiously active people tend to live longer than those who are not religiously active
Coping Strategy: Forgivness
- strategy to let go of grudges reduces physiological arousal and restores feelings of control
- Holding on to grievances increases blood pressure, heart rate, and skin conductance
- Forgiveness is linked to better physical outcomes
Coping Strategy: Confession
- (divulging private thoughts that make you ashamed or depressed) linked to better health
- Particularly helpful for those who have experienced traumatic experiences
Coping Strategy: Spend Time Outdoors
Research shows that spending 20 to 30 minutes sitting or walking in a place that provides you with a sense of nature at least 3 times a week significantly lowers cortisol levels
“Earthing”
- Grounding the human body to earth reduces cortisol
- Resynchronizes cortisol hormone secretion in alignment with the natural 24-hour circadian rhythm profile
- Improves sleep and reduces pain and stress (anxiety, depression, irritability)
Coping Strategy: Exercise
- Aerobic exercise lessens the negative effects of stress and has a host of positive physical and
psychological health benefits - It is particularly good for your health if you have a high level of stress
Coping Strategy: Maintain Social Connections
- Chronic social isolation is as great a mortality risk as smoking, obesity, and high blood pressure
- One estimate suggested that having social connections is associated with a 50% reduced risk of early death
Social Support is related to…
- Lower blood pressure
- Lower cortisol
- Better immune system functioning to fight illness
Need to Belong and Well-Being (Stinson et al., 2008)
- participants completed six bi-weekly surveys during first semester at university
- Measured Self-Esteem
- Measured Quality of Social Bonds
- Measured Health Problems: Concrete health-related behaviours
- Results: Higher self-esteem resulted in fewer health problems
Happy marriages have health benefits:
- Unmarried women are 50% more likely to die from heart disease, several forms of cancer, cirrhosis of the liver, and other preventable diseases than are married women
- The number rises to 250% for unmarried men…
- Better off being single than in an unhappy marriage though!!
- Unhappy marriages and marriage disruption because of a spouse dying are among the most stressful events one can experience
Central route persuasion
Offers evidence and arguments to trigger thoughtful responses, relies on cognitive elaboration:
* motivation
* ability
Peripheral route persuasion
uses incidental cues to try to produce fast but relatively thoughtless changes in attitudes, based on mental shortcuts:
* heuristic cues
* credibility, appearance cues, quality of arrangements
Motivation
People will be more likely to process information through the central route when
they are highly motivated, and when they have the knowledge or expertise to understand the
information
Opportunity
Central route is effective when people have sufficient time and freedom from distraction, and when the information is not overwhelmingly complex relative to their knowledge
Cognitive Dissonance
The tension (discomfort) that arises when our
attitudes are inconsistent with our behaviour or when we are simultaneously aware of two conflicting attitudes
Changing Behaviour vs. Attitudes:
- Either of these two methods will reduce dissonance
- People tend to use the easiest available method
- It is often easier to change attitudes than behaviour
Changing Behaviour vs. Attitudes:
- Either of these two methods will reduce dissonance
- People tend to use the easiest available method
- It is often easier to change attitudes than behaviour
Social Influences
shape our behaviour, thoughts, and feelings
Social Norms
Written/unwritten guidelines for how to behave in social contexts
Conformity
A change in behaviour due to the real or
imagined influence of others
Chameleon Effect
The non-conscious mimicry of the postures, mannerisms, and facial expressions of one’s
interaction partner
In the social pressure study, does the participant go along and give the wrong answer or do they give the answer they know to be correct?
They would give the wrong answer
Social psychology
Is the scientific study of how we think about,
influence, and relate to others (or the imagined presence of others)
Social psychologists
- Use scientific methods to study social behaviour
(empirical approach) - They study the social influences that explain why the same person will act differently in different situations
Major themes in psychology:
- Social thinking
- Social influence
- Social relations
Attributions
The reasons we provide for why others do what they do
Attribution theory
People are motivated to explain their own and other people’s behaviour by attributing causes of that behaviour to a situation or a disposition
External/Situational attribution
something in the situation or environment caused the behaviour
Internal/Dispositional attribution
something in the person (e.g., traits
or motive) caused the behaviour
Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE)
The tendency, when analyzing others’ behaviour, to over-estimate the influence of personal traits and underestimate the effect of the situation
“self-serving biases
habits of thinking that make us feel good about
ourselves
The HUGE exception to the FAE:
We’re NOT prone to the fundamental attribution error when explaining our OWN behaviour
Why does FAE explain negative behaviour in some cases?
- We think others do things because of their personality: internal attribution
- Other person: “He’s a jerk!”
- We think we do things because of the situation: external attributions
- You: “I’m having a bad day!”
Happy Couples
- Make situational explanations for negative behaviour
e.g., “He forgot about our date because didn’t
get much sleep last night” - Make dispositional attributions for positive behaviour
e.g., “He got me flowers because he is such a
thoughtful person”
Unhappy Couples
- Make dispositional attributions for negative behaviour
e.g., “He forgot about our date because he is a
thoughtless jerk” - Make situational attributions for positive behaviour
e.g., “He bought me flowers out of obligation”
Think before you blame:
- Research shows that that we make the fundamental attribution error automatically,
but once you’re aware of it, you can consciously compensate - When you find yourself blaming your partner’s mistake on a character flaw or permanent
problem - Force yourself to consider more compassionate explanations: then give your partner the benefit of the doubt
FAE according to newlyweds
Those prone to attributing their partners’ slipups to permanent internal characteristics rather than temporary external factors were much more likely to wind up divorcing
Obedience
Social influence in which a person complies
with a direct request
Obedience to authority:
to leaders, bosses, parents, police, doctors, experts, teachers…
Need for social acceptance (normative social influence):
People sometimes conform because they want to be liked or they fear rejection
Need for information (informational social influence):
But sometimes they also conform to be right: because they believe others know what to do better than they do
Bystander Effect
The greater the number of bystanders who witness an emergency, the less likely any one of them will help
Diffusion of responsibility
- The thought: “Someone else will do something!”
- Everyone assumes that someone else will help, and as a result, no one does
Pluralistic ignorance
A false impression of how others are thinking, feeling, or responding
Why does pluralistic ignorance happen?
- Everybody individually is confused
- But because nobody else is letting-on that they’re confused, everybody ALSO thinks that everyone else is understanding the article
Social Facilitation
The presence of others arouses people,
improving performance on easy or well-learned tasks but decreasing performance on
difficult tasks
Social Loafing
Tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward
attaining a common goal than when individually accountable
Causes of social loafing
- Acting as part of group and feeling less accountable (their individual performance can’t be evaluated)
- Feeling individual contribution does not matter
- Taking advantage when there is lack of identification with the group
Symptoms of Groupthink
- An illusion of invulnerability
- Self-censorship
- Pressure on dissenters to conform
- An illusion of unanimity
Groupthink
a tendency for all members of a group to think alike for the sake of harmony and to suppress disagreement
1. Ignore criticism
2. Social pressure
3. Overconfidence
Group Polarization
If a group is like minded, discussion strengthens, rather than moderates, prevailing opinions
Deindividuation
The loosening of normal constraints on behaviour when people are in a group, leading
to an increase in impulsive and deviant acts because of a reduced sense of self
