Unit 5 - Social Psychology Flashcards
Social Psychology
scientific study of how a person’s behavior, thoughts, and feelings influence and are influenced by social groups
Social Influence
interactions provide opportunities for the presence of other people to directly or indirectly influence the behavior, feelings, and thoughts of each individual
Conformity
changing one’s own behavior to more closely match the actions of others
Soloman Asch Experiment
- experiment to see if person would pick same incorrect line as all other people in experiment
- participants conformed to group answer 1/3 of the time
- if participants knew there was at least one other person whose answer agreed with their own, the evidence of their own eyes won out over pressure to conform to the group
Conformity in Real-Life Examples
- collectivist cultures have greater effects of conformity
- cultural differences may only exist when face-to-face contact is part of task (disappears when Asch judgement task is in online format)
- gender differences are practically nonexistent unless situation involves behavior that isn’t private
- women tend to show more conformity in public situations when a public response is required
Normative Social Influence
the need to act in ways that we feel will let us be liked and accepted by others
Informational Social Influence
we take our cues for how to behave from other people when we are in a situation that isn’t clear/ambiguous
Social Norms
expected behavior in certain situations
Confederates
look like they’re subjects but they’re actually experimenters
Group Think
occurs when people within a group feel it is more important to maintain the groups cohesiveness than to consider the facts realistically
Symptoms of Group Think
- illusions of invulnerability/will always succeed
- group can do no wrong/is always correct
- group members tend to hold stereotyped views of those who disagree with group’s opinions; members think that those who oppose group have no worthwhile opinion
- exert pressure on individual members to conform to group opinion
- prevent those who disagree from speaking up
- censor themselves so that group’s mindset isn’t disturbed (don’t rock the boat mentality)
- self-appointed “mind guards” protect leader of group from contrary viewpoints
How to Minimize Group Think
- leaders should remain impartial
- entire group should seek opinions of people outside group
- voting should be done by secret ballot
- should be made clear that group members will be held responsible for decisions made by group
Group Polarization (Risky Shift Phenomenon)
tendency for members involved in a group discussion to take somewhat more extreme positions and suggest riskier actions when compared to individuals who have not participated in a group discussion (due to normative and informational social influence)
Social Facilitation
positive influence of others on performance; if a task is perceived as easy, presence of others improves performance (presence of others increases arousal just enough to improve performance)
Social Impairment
negative influence of others on performance; if task is perceived as hard, presence of others has negative effect on performance
Social Loafing
people who are lazy tend not to do as well when other people are also working on same task, but they can do quite well when working on their own (because easier to hide laziness when working in group since less likely that individual will be evaluated alone)
Deindividuation
- the lessening of their sense of personal identity and personal responsibility
- can result in lack of self-control when in group that isn’t as likely to occur if individual were acting alone
- people in a crowds feel anonymous/unidentified so they’re more likely to act impulsively as a result
Compliance
people change their behavior as a result of another person or a group asking or directing them to change (person/group asking for change in behavior typically doesn’t have any real authority/power to command change)
Obedience
behavior is changed as a result of authority
Foot-in-the-Door Technique
compliance with a smaller request is followed by a larger request; people are quite likely to comply because they already agreed to smaller request and want to behave consistently with previous response
Door-in-the-Face Technique
the larger request comes first, which is usually refused; this is followed by a second smaller and more reasonable request that often gets compliance
Lowball Technique
once a commitment is made, the cost (money, time, effort…) of that commitment is increased
Cult
any group of people with a particular religious or philosophical set of beliefs and identity (negative connotation)
Cult Techniques for Gaining Compliance
- love-bombing (shower recruits with affection/attention and claim to understand how they feel)
- isolate recruits from family who could change their minds
- teach members to stop questioning thoughts/criticisms which are seen as sins/undesirable
- use foot in door with small commitments then large commitments
Stanley Milgram Experiment
- experiment where learners faked doing a memory test and each time they got a question wrong the teacher had to shock them; the shock was fake but teacher was unaware; shock increased with every incorrect answer
- 65% teachers went to highest 450 voltage
- no personality trait that’s associated with obedience
- raised serious ethical questions
Compilation of Experiments
Asch - (Line Picking) Conformity Experiment
Festinger - (Turning Pegs and Lying) Cognitive Dissonance Experiment
Milgram - (Shocking) Obedience Experiment
Zimbardo - (Stanford Prison) Social Roles Experiment
No Scientist - (Robber’s Cave) Equal Status Contact Experiment
Attitude
tendency to respond positively or negatively toward a certain idea, person, object, or situation
- attitude can affect the way they behave toward those ideas, people, objects, situations and can include opinions, beliefs, biases
- attitudes influence the way people view these things BEFORE they’ve actually been exposed to them
- attitudes are learned through experiences and contact with others and through direct instruction from parents/teachers
- it’s possible to go into a new situation with one’s mind already made up
3 Components of Attitude
Affective (emotion) - the way a person feels towards the object, person, situation
Behavior (actions) - the actions a person takes in regard to the person, place, situation
Cognition (thoughts) - the way a person thinks about themselves, an object, a situation; can include beliefs and ideas about the focus of the attitude
Attitudes in Relation to Predicting Behavior
- attitudes are poor predictors of actual behavior (what people say and do are very different)
- stronger attitudes are more likely to predict behavior than weaker ones
- the more important the attitude appears, the more likely the behavior will match the attitude
Attitude Formation
direct contact - attitude is formed by direct contact with person, idea, situation, object that is focus of attitude
direct instruction - attitude is formed by direct instruction by individual
interaction with others - attitude is formed because person is around other people with that attitude
observational learning/vicarious conditioning - attitude is learned through observation of other people’s actions and reactions to objects, people, situations
Persuasion
the process by which one person tires to change the belief, opinion, position, course of action of another person through argument, pleading, explanation
Components of Persuasion
Source - communicator delivers message; strong tendency to give more weight to people who’re perceived as experts/seem trustworthy/are attractive/similar to person receiving message
Message - message should be clear/organized; more effective to present both sides of argument to audience who hasn’t committed to either side; messages directed at producing fear more effective if produce moderate fear and info about how to avoid fear-provoking consequences
Target Audience - characteristics of target audience are important in determining effectiveness of message
Medium - form in which person receives message
Elaboration Likelihood Model
it’s assumed that people either elaborate based on what they hear or they don’t elaborate at all and prefer to pay attention to surface characteristics of message
Central-Route Processing
people attend to content of message
Peripheral-Route Processing
style of information that relies on peripheral cues (cues outside of message content)
Cognitive Dissonance
uncomfortable feeling due to an action that clashes with your beliefs/ideals
How to Reduce Cognitive Dissonance
1) change conflicting behavior to match attitude
2) change conflicting cognition to justify behavior
3) form new cognitions to justify behavior
Leon Festinger Experiment
people turn pegs for an hour and half of people receive $1 and the rest receive $20; then they are told to persuade people that the activity was fun; because of cognitive dissonance the people paid $1 convinced the people better that the activity was fun because they had to convince themselves
Self-Perception Theory
instead of experiencing negative tension, people look at their own actions and infer their attitudes from those actions
Attribution
process of explaining behavior
Situational Attribution
explaining behavior based on external/environmental factors
Dispositional Attribution
explaining behavior based on internal factors/personality
Fundamental Attribution Error
tendency for people observing someone else’s actions to overestimate influence of person’s internal characteristics on behavior and underestimate influence of situation
Saliency Bias
our tendency to make assumptions/attributions based on observations/what’s obvious
Self Serving Bias
our tendency to protect our own ego and self interests; take credit for successes, and blame external factors for failures
Impression Formation
the forming of the first knowledge a person has about another person
- includes assigning person to categories and drawing conclusions about what person’s likely to do
- kind of social cognition
- primacy effect in that form impression of person often based on physical appearance alone, which persists even if may have contradictory info later
Social Categorization
unconscious process of assigning person to some kind of category or group based on characteristics they have in common with people/groups the perceiver has had prior experience with
- natural process
- can lead of stereotypes
Stereotype
a belief that a set of characteristics is shared by all members of a particular social category
Implicit Personality Theory
sets of assumptions that people have about how different types of people, personality traits, and actions are all related and form in childhood
Implicit Association Test (IAT)
designed to measure implicit attitudes that make up one’s implicit personality theory; measures degree of association between certain pairs of concepts (reaction times compared)
Situational Cause
cause of behavior is assumed to be from external sources
Dispositional Cause
cause of behavior is assumed to come from within individual
Actor-Observer Bias
tend to use situational attribution to explain own behavior but use dispositional attribution to explain other people’s behavior
How to Make Less Errors Based on Actor-Observer Bias and Fundamental Attribution Error
- notice how many people are doing the same thing; more people makes it more likely to be situational
- what would you do in same situation? If similar, most likely situational
- look for causes that might not be obvious
Prejudice
when a person holds an unsupported and often negative stereotyped attitude about the members of a particular social group
Discrimination
when prejudicial attitudes cause members of a particular social group to be treated differently that others in situations that call for equal treatment
In-Group
people with whom a person identifies
Out-Group
everyone not in group person identifies with
Scapegoat
person or group, typically member of out-group, who serves as a target for frustrations and negative emotions of members of an in-group
Social Cognitive Theory
prejudice is seen as an attitude that’s formed as other attitudes are formed, through direct instruction, modeling, and other social influences on learning
Realistic Conflict Theory
increasing prejudice and discrimination are closely tied to an increasing degree of conflict between in-group and out-group when groups are seeking common resources (jobs, land, etc.)
Social Identity Theory
social categorization - people assign themselves to social categories to determine how they should behave
identification - formation of one’s social identity (us vs. them mentality); part of self-concept that includes view of oneself as member of social group within social category (in-group)
social comparison - Festinger’s concept in which people compare themselves favorably to others to improve their own self-esteem (usually compare themselves to out-group)
Stereotype Vulnerability
effect that a person’s knowledge of another’s stereotyped opinions can have on that person’s behavior
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
effect that expectations have outcomes; when people are aware of stereotypes that are normally applied to themselves, their fear results in behaving in ways that support the stereotypes
Stereotype Threat
members of a stereotyped group are made anxious and wary of any situation in which their behavior might confirm a stereotype
Intergroup Contact
for example college students and faculty have different backgrounds but they got through the same experiences so they have common ground to build relationships with each other
Robber’s Cave Experiment
- 2 groups of boys kept apart and pitted against each other in competitive events
- groups then brought together to hopefully end in cooperation, but boys still hostile towards each other
- boys only lost hostility when forced to work together to solve problems with situations of equal status contact
Equal Status Contact
people are all in same situation with neither group holding power over each other
-reduces prejudice/discrimination and increases positive cooperation
Jigsaw Classroom
educational technique where each individual is given only part of information needed to solve problem, and are forced to work together to solve it
In-Group Favoritism
tendency to believe our in-group is better than the out-group
Out-Group Homogeneity
see in-group as better, but also see out-group as all the same
Interpersonal Attraction
liking or having a desire for a relationship with someone else
Rules of Attraction
Physical Attractiveness - physical beauty’s one of the main factor influencing one’s choice for selecting people they want to know better
Proximity - closer people are together physically the more likely they are to form a relationship
Similarity - the more people find they have in common with others, the more they tend to be attracted to them; similarity validates a person’s beliefs/attitudes since when people have the same beliefs/attitudes, it makes a person’s own concepts more correct/valid
Reciprocity of Liking - people have a very strong tendency to like people who like them
Love
strong affection for another person due to kinship, personal ties, sexual attraction, admiration, or common interests
3 Components of Love
Intimacy - feelings of closeness that one has for another person or sense of having close emotional ties to another (not physical but psychological)
Passion - emotional and sexual arousal a person feels towards another person; physical aspect of love
Commitment - involves decisions one makes about a relationship (short-term vs. long-term decisions)
Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love
intimacy = liking
intimacy + commitment = companionate love (binding tie that holds marriage together through parenting/paying bills/etc.)
commitment = empty love
commitment + passion = fatuous love
passion = infatuation
passion + intimacy = romantic love (basis for lasting relationship)
intimacy + commitment + passion = consumate love (seen as ultimate goal)
Just World Phenomenon
belief that fundamentally the world is a just place; rationalize bad things happening to people by saying they are bad people (blaming the victim)
Aggression
one person hurts or tries to destroy another person deliberately, either with words or physical behavior
Frustration
occurs when a person is prevented from reaching some desired goal
Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis
the concept of aggression as a reaction of frustration
Social Role
pattern of behavior that’s expected of person who’s in a particular social position
Matching Hypothesis
when choosing mates, people choose someone who’s the same level of physical attractiveness
Mere-Exposure Effect
notice things that are different because it could be dangerous so people prefer things that are well-known
Prosocial Behavior
socially desirable behavior that benefits others rather than brings them harm
Altruism
helping someone in trouble with no expectation of reward and often without fear for one’s own safety
Bystander Effect
likelihood of a bystander to help someone in trouble decreases as the number of bystanders increases
Diffusion of Responsibility
phenomenon in which a person fails to take responsibility for either action or inaction because of presence of other people who are seen to share the responsibility
5 Decision Points in Helping Behavior
1) Noticing
2) Defining an Emergency
3) Taking Responsibility
4) Planning a Course of Action
5) Taking Action
Egoistic Model
- personal gain
- reciprocity
- increase self-esteem
- decrease OWN stress/guilt
Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis
- concern/compassion
- decrease THEIR distress
