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
Social Traps
Occurs when people’s don’t unite and act in their own self-interest to the detriment of the group
Industrial Organizational Phsycology
Study of how people preform in a workplace. They study
best practices in management, relationships
among people working together or for a common company
or program, and how people feel about work (burnout)
Altruism
refers to selfless behavior, but some researchers
suggest that people act in prosocial ways due to incurring social debt (which is when you feel obligated to repay someone for a favor they did)
social reciprocity norm
social rule that maintains, among other things, that people should return favors and other acts of kindness
Social Responsibility
acting with integrity and honesty
Psychodynamic Theory of Personality
unconscious processes drive
personality
Defense Mechanisms
strategies people utilize to cope with anxiety or disturbing
thoughts and feelings. They can be unconscious and involve distortion of reality.
Although defense mechanisms are
often considered negative, Freud
believed they were necessary for
healthy human functioning.
Without them, the conscious mind
would be much more vulnerable
to negatively charged emotional
input, such as that pertaining to
anxiety and sadness
The 8 Defense Mechanisms
Denial, Displacement, Projection, Rationalization, Reaction Formation, Regression, Repression, Sublimation
Denial
Refusal to accept the reality because it is not aligned to
their liking
Ex. “No, I’m just a social smoker”
Displacement
Frustrations to one person/object/situation are displaced
to another person/object/situation that are less scary
Ex. If boss gets mad at you, you take it out on you yell at your kid
Projection
One’s own intolerable qualities are attributed to another
person
Ex. You feel like cheating, so accuse your spouse of cheating
Rationalization
Justifications of reckless behaviors by more acceptable reasons rather than the real reason
Ex. Student with a bad score might blame the teacher instead of themselves
Reaction Formation
Portrays the oppsite behavior of what the person feels
Ex. a young boy who bullies a young girl because, on a subconscious level, he’s attracted to her
Regression
Going back to infantile behaviors when anxious
Ex. An adult throwing a tantrum when man
Repression
Pushing back traumatic memories until the person
seemed to forget the said memory
Ex. A child was abused by their parents but when older they don’t remember
Sublimation
Immersing oneself to an activity that initially cause anxiousness
Ex. someone with anger issues may channel their aggressive urges into sports instead of lashing out at others
The Rorschach Inkblot Test
a projective psychological test in which subjects’ perceptions of inkblots are recorded and then analyzed using psychological interpretation
The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
a psychological personality test that focuses on the subconscious dynamics of a person’s personality
The Draw-A-Person Test
a projective psychological test that is used to assess a person’s personality, emotional functioning, and self-concept by drawing a man, woman, and themselves
The House-Tree-Person Test
measures the person’s psychological and emotional functioning.
The house reflects their experience of their immediate social world. The tree is a more direct expression of the person’s emotional and psychological sense of self and the person is the perception of oneself
Carl Rogers
the view we have of ourselves (self-image), what we wish we were like (ideal-self), and how much value we place on ourselves often defined as (self-esteem/worth)
Reciprocal Determinism
Suggests that you are influenced by your environment and that you also influence the environment around you (each impacts the other)
self-efficacy vs self-esteem
Self-efficacy- a person’s belief in their ability to complete a task or achieve a goal
Self-esteem- how we value and perceive ourselves
Trait Theory of Personality (Big 5 Trait)
suggests that individuals possess consistent patterns of
behavior, emotions, and thoughts that can be categorized into specific traits
Big 5 Trait Theory of Personality
proposes that traits of agreeableness, openness
to experience, extraversion, conscientiousness, and emotional stability make up
one’s personality
Openness
The tendency to appreciate new art, ideas, values, feelings, and behaviors
Consciousness
The tendency to be careful, on-time for appointments, to follow rules, and to be
hardworking
Extraversion
The tendency to be talkative, sociable, and to enjoy others; the tendency to have a
dominant style
Agreeableness
The tendency to agree and go along with others rather than to assert one’s own opinions or choices
Neuroticism
The tendency to frequently experience negative emotions such as anger, worry, and
sadness, as well as being interpersonally sensitive
Factor Analysis
a statistical technique that reduces a set of variables by extracting all their commonalities into a smaller number of factors
Drive Reduction Theory
People are highly motivated to satisfy their physiological and psychological needs. They want to restore their Internal Equilibrium (‘homeostasis’)
Ex. If hungry than more motivated to get food
Hull’s Drive-Reduction Theory
We are homeostasis (peace and calm)
Then we get interrupted out of homeostasis (hunger)
So we have a drive, or motivation, to get back to homeostasis (in this case to get food)
Arousal Theory of Motivation (sensation seeking theory)
Argues that people are highly motivated to maintain an optimal level of arousal at all times (increase or decrease so they have perfect balance)
Ex. Thrill seeker or urge to meditate
Yerkes Dodson Law
Says people preform best when their arousal is moderate (not too much or too little). Increased arousal benefits simple task, but moderate arousal is best for difficult tasks
Ex. Not too nervous for a test or you’ll over think but not too chill that you don’t focus
Moscow Theory (Pyramid)
Base if pyramid
1. Basic needs- Physiological needs (food, water, warmth, rest) and Safety needs (security, safety)
2. Psychological Needs- Belonging and love needs (friends, relationships) and Esteem needs (Prestige, feeling of accomplishment)
3. Self-fulfillment needs- Self-actualization (Achieving one’s full potential, like creative activities)
Top of pyramid
Self-determination Theory
Proposes that people are motivated by Intrinsic (internal) or extrinsic (external) motivations
Intrinsic Motivation
Wants to do the task for pleasure involved in doing the task itself (doing it for you)
Extrinsic Motivation
Wants to do the task in order to receive an external reward or avoid punishment (Hw/grades)
Incentive Theory Motivation
Humans are motivated by incentives in the form of rewards and punishments. They preform behaviors that will lead to personally desirable outcomes or avoid behaviors that lead to punishment (part of instinct Theory of Motivation)
Incentives
External stimuli or rewards that influence behavior
Expectancy
People’s belief about their ability to achieve a specific outcome
Valence
pleasantness or unpleasantness of an outcome
Lewin’s 3 Types of Motivational Conflicts
Approach-Approach: buy new car OR go on vacation (two good things)
Approach-Avoidance: buy a new house BUT have huge mortgage (good, but downside)
Avoidance-Avoidance: no drivers license for speeding OR $100 to keep it (pick better one out of the bad)
Social Script
Culturally modeled guide for how to act in situations (can be good or bad)
Ex. If you are constantly around people who act with aggression than you think that’s how to act
Biological Influences
Hereditary, Biological factors (alcohol), Neural factors (sever head injury)
Psychological Influences
Dominating behavior, frustration, aggressive role models
What hormones regulate feelings of hunger and satiety?
ghrelin and leptin (regulated by the hypothalamus via the pituitary gland)
Emotion
Complex psychological process that is distinguished from reasoning or knowledge. They reflect internal and external factors affecting a person
The Facial-feedback Hypothesis
Suggest that the experience of emotion is influenced by factional expressions, which supports theories that propose the the physiological experience of emotion happens before the cognitive judging (this hypothesis has mixed results)
The Broaden-and Build Theory of Emotions
Starts with positive emotions, leads to open- mindedness (broaden), then you take and action (build), then have it in mental, social, and physical resources
Negative emotions tend to _______ awareness and narrow thinking and action
Reduce
Display rules and elicitors for emotional expression
Can differ among cultures.
Display rules- standards as to how individuals display feelings within their given societies.
Elicitors- a facial emotional expression (a disgusted face) activates a response that is similar to responses to other emotional stimuli of the same valence
