Week 11-Social Psychology Flashcards
Social Psychology
Study of how people influence others’ thoughts, feelings, behaviour, beliefs, and
attitudes
Lewin-product of BPE
B = Behavior
P = Person
E = Environment
Need-to-belong theory
◦ Biologically-based need for interpersonal connections
Isolation – or the threat of isolation
– has been associated with increased risk
for anxiety, abnormal eating behavior, reduced intelligence, reduced test
performance and other effect
Social Norms
◦ Standards of behaviour and attitudes expected of
members of group regarding attitudes and behaviors
in given situations
Social Roles:
◦ One of several socially defined patterns of behavior
that are expected of persons in a given setting or
group
Asch’s experiment (conformity)
◦ If you were one of eight participants, to pick the
line (1, 2, or 3) that matched the standard line,
which line would you choose? If the other
participants all chose line 3, would you
conform and answer line 3
Primacy Effect
◦ Overall impression of another.
◦ Influenced most by initial information we receive.
Actor-Observer Bias
◦ Our issues due to situational factors
Self-Serving Bias
◦ These arise out of a need to feel good about ourselves
Robert Zajonc explained that
- the presence of others heightens our
arousal - heightened arousal leads to better
performance on tasks we are good at and
worse performance on tasks that are
difficult for us
Social Loafing
◦ Tendency to exert less effort working with others than working alone.
◦ Disappears when individual output monitored.
◦ Studying in a group could lead to social loafing through a diffusion-of-
responsibility effect
Altruism
◦ Behaviour aimed at helping others
Low-ball technique (car dealers)
◦ Tactic for getting people to agree to something. People who agree to an
initial request will often still comply when the requester ups the ante
◦ Used by some car dealers
