Unit 14: Social Psychology Flashcards
What do social psychologists study?
Study how we think about, influence, and relate to one another.
-Focus on situation and why same person acts diff. in diff. situations.
How do we tend to explain others’ behavior on our own?
When looking @ bad behavior we tend to blame the person and not the situation, more often we link the bad behavior to a bad personality w/ disregard of the situation. ( fundamental attribution error)
Define the attribution theory
Credit the situation to a persons quality or to the situation
Define fundamental attribution error.
Overestimating a persons qualities/ influence of personality and underestimate the influence of the situations they are in.
What did D. Napolitan and G. Goethals demonstrate w/ college students?
Despite knowing that a woman’s behavior was situational (she was instructed to act a certain way) they attributed her behavior to her personality NOT the situation of being instructed to act that way,
What did D. Napolitan and G. Goethals demonstrate w/ college students?
Despite knowing that a woman’s behavior was situational (she was instructed to act a certain way) they attributed her behavior to her personality NOT the situation of being instructed to act that way,
How do we explain our own behavior?
We are more lenient w/ ourselves. When explaining our bad behavior we blame the situation, not ourselves. If it is relating to crediting a good behavior it is our personality and now the situation.
Does what we think affect what we do, or does what we do affect what we think?
Our attitudes affect our actions and our actions affect our attitudes.
Feelings can influence our beliefs which lead to probable actions or most likely actions change our beliefs which are our attitudes.
Define attitudes
Attitudes are feelings often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose(make us likely) us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events.
What are the two main persuasion forms?
Peripheral route persuasion and central route persuasion
Define peripheral route persuasion
Using lowkey cues (speaker’s attractiveness) to influence ppl
This produces fast but unconscious changes in attitudes
Define central route persuasion
Uses evidence and arguments to trigger thoughtful responses
Usually towards ppl already related/interested in the topic
How do attitudes affect actions?
By being persuaded we can change our attitudes which change behavior.
What do many streams of evidence confirm?
Attitude follows behavior.
What is the foot in the door phenomenon?
To get ppl to agree to something big, start small and build up.
(It is easier for them to agree to a slightly bigger task if they previously agreed to a small one) Main thing is to start small and build
Define role
A set of expectations (norms) about social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave.
(How you should behave @ certain points in life)
What us another big take away from the foot in the door phenomenon?
What we do, we gradually become.
What is cognitive dissonance?
When we acknowledge that our attitudes and actions don’t match, so we experience tension (cognitive dissonance)
Define cognitive dissonance theory
Leon Festinger’s theory where we bring our attitudes into line w/ our actions
This is done to reduce discomfort (dissonance) from inconsistent thoughts (cognitions)
- attitudes don’t match w/ actions so we change attitude
What is encouraging about the attitude-following behavior principle?
We can’t directly control all our emotions, but we can influence them by altering our behavior.
What is automatic mimicry and how do conformity experiments reveal the power of social influence?
aka chameleon effect is when we unconsciously go along with the group. Conformity experiments such as Asch’s show that we are more likely to change our actions to match a group if that group all agrees w/ each other. We conform to gain approval (normative social influence) or bc we are willing to accept others opinions as new info (informational social influence)
What is the chameleon effect?
Tanya Chartrand and John Bargh:
When humans naturally mimic, unconsciously imitate others’ expressions, postures, and voice tones.
- a form of conformity
Define empathize
feel what others are feeling
Define conformity
Settling and adjusting behavior/thinking to match w/ group standard.
When are we more likely to conform?
When we feel less In a group of 3+ ppl Everyone in a group agrees Admire group status Haven't committed to a previous response Know we're being observed Our culture, if it values social standards
Define normative social influence
In order to avoid rejection or gain social approval we conform
our sensitivity to social norms(understood rules for accepted and expected behavior) is due to trying to get along.
Define informational social influence
Conforming bc we want to be accurate, we are willing to accept others’ opinions about reality.
What did Milgram’s obedience experiments teach us about the power of social infuence?
It can make a person do things that they never thought they would.