Unit 4 Flashcards
Attributions
How people explain behavior and mental processes of themselves and others
Dispositional Attributions
Internal qualities of others (intelligence or personality)
Situational Attributions
External Circumstances that are experienced
Explanatory Style
How people demonstrate a predicable pattern of attributions. In other words, how they explain good or bad events in their lives and in the lives of others (can be optimistic or pessimistic)
Actor/observer bias
Biases we have in overestimating the role of external factors in our own behavior and overestimating the role of internal factors in the others’ behavior.
Ex. Judging others for their failures- we assume that the behavior of others is internal factors like laziness or lack of skill
Giving excuses for ourselves- tendency to overestimate the importance of external factors (late bc of bus, bad grade bc of teacher) for our behavior
Fundamental Attribution Error
People overemphasize personal characteristics and ignore situational factors when judging others’ behavior. (Can lead to misunderstandings and oversimplifications)
Ex. Coworker is late to work- we assume they are bad at time management instead of considering they could be stuck in traffic
Self-serving Bias
Tendency for individuals to attribute positive events to their own character or actions, but negative events to external factors. Helps to maintain positive self-image and protect self-esteem
Ex. Winning vs. losing sports- we think we won bc of skill but lose bc refs made bad calls
Mere Exposer Effect
Where people tend to develop a preference for things that they are exposed to repeatedly. Effect can occur even when person isn’t consciously aware of the influence is has on their preference. This is because the brain perceives familiar things as safe
Ex. Ads increase peoples familiarity and influences people’s preferences and attitudes toward that stimulus
Self-fulfillment Prophecy
Belief or expectation that influences people to act (continually or unconsciously) in ways that make the belief cone true, thereby confirming their initial expectations. Can create a cycle where beliefs directly or indirectly cause their own fulfillment
Ex. Bank failures during the Great Depression- false rumors suggesting banks were runnnig out of money and caused people to get their money out and then the banks actually did run out of money
Implicit Attitudes
Are those that people hold but may be unaware of or may not acknowledge. Can reflect negative evaluations of others like in the just-world phenomenon, out-group homogeneity bias, in-group bias, or enthocentlrism
Just-World Phenomenon
Tendency to believe the world is just and that people get what they deserve and deserve what they get
Ex. Rich people are considered good and through their good deeds become rich. Poor people are poor bc of their bad decisions
Outgroup Homogeneity Effect
When people mistakenly perceive that members of an outgroup are identical to one another
Ingroup Bias
Tendency to favor people that are in the same group as ourselves (also known as the affinity bias). Can be gender, race, age, etc.
Ethnocentrism
Belief that your culture is natural and correct while other people cultures are in correct or unnatural. They think the ways they do things is the “correct” way things should be don’t and every other culture is doing things “wrong”
Belief Perserveance
People maintain their belief or attitude even when faces with conflicting evidence or new data. Related to confirmation bias, concept that describes how people tend to give more weight to info supporting their existing beliefs and often ignore the evidence contradicting it
Ex. Political Bias- people look for info confirming their beliefs about certain political issues, overlooking evidence that challenges those views
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
Internal conflict that occurs in a person when they hold 2 conflicting beliefs simultaneously. Our minds go through a process of confusion and logical conflict when faces w/ new info that conflicts with existing info. We aim to resolve this to return to a state of cognitive equilibrium
Social Norms
Expectations or roles a society may have for its members in individual and social situations
Social Influence Theory
Proposes that social pressure to behave or think in certain ways can be normative or informational
Solomon Ashe Study
to test his theory that people will disregard their own perception of reality and go along with group consensus, even when the group’s answer is clearly wrong.
The elaboration likelihood model
Outlines 2 main routes to persuasion- central and peripheral
Central Persuasion
a logic-driven approach, using data and facts to convince people of an argument or product’s worthiness.
Peripheral Persuasion
concerned with cues around trustworthiness, emotions, and group identity rather than facts and logic
The Halo Effect
demonstrates the powerful impact peripheral route persuasion can have on our perceptions and behaviors
Ex. a person’s attractiveness or a website’s aesthetic appeal can create a positive first impression, leading us to view subsequent information more favorably
Foot-in-the-door vs door-in-the-face techniques
Persuasion can depend on how info is presented, (FITD) technique smaller requests are asked in order to gain compliance with larger requests, while (DITF) works in the opposite direction, where larger requests are asked, with the expectation that it will be rejected, in order to gain compliance for smaller requests.
Stanley Milgram Experiment
designed to test people’s willingness to obey authority, even when that obedience caused harm to others
Individualism (1) vs Collectivism (2)
(1) prioritizes the rights, independence, and self-interest of people, while (2) emphasizes the well-being of the group or community as a whole.
Multiculturalism
Refers to the coexistence of multiple cultures and celebrates diversity and promotes collaboration
Group Polarization
Tendency of groups to adopt more extreme attitudes that the initial attitudes of their members
Groupthink
Type of thinking when members of a group accept the group consensus uncritically
Bystander Effect
Refers to an emergency situation in which the people witnessing the emergency do not offer help
Social Loafing
When a person exerts less effort on a task bc others are also involved in that task. There is an inverse relationship b/n an individual’s effort and the number of people involved
Deindividuation
Occurs when people are part of a group. It involves losing your sense of self and simply conforming to the group norm
False Consensus Effect
Where people overestimate the extent which their opinions, beliefs, preferences, or behaviors are shared by others. This overestimation can stem from the inherent belief that one’s own views are “normal” or “common”. It can lead to a skewed perception of reality and underestimation of the diversity of perspectives
Ex. Fashion Sense- thinking everyone likes your style of clothing bc your close friends wear similar outfits
Superordinate Goals
Serve to unite disparate groups under a common goal and help reduce negative affect and stereotyping among groups
