Week 9 - Social Psychology cont'd Flashcards
What is the difference between compliance and obedience?
Compliance is changing behavior at another’s request without authority; obedience involves explicit demands from an authority figure.
What is the Agentic State Theory of obedience?
It states that individuals see themselves as instruments carrying out someone else’s wishes; they undergo a shift in perspective, thus absolving themselves of responsibility for their actions.
Describe Solomon Asch’s conformity experiments.
Participants conformed to group opinions on line lengths, even when the group’s answers were obviously wrong.
What are the two types of conformity identified by Asch?
Informational conformity (they believe the group has more information) and normative conformity (desiring social acceptance or avoiding rejection).
What is social facilitation?
Improved performance on tasks when others are present.
What is social loafing?
A reduction in individual effort when working in a group.
Define “groupthink.”
A tendency for group members to prioritize consensus over critical thinking.
What is the bystander effect?
People are less likely to help in emergencies when others are present due to diffusion of responsibility, where individuals feel less personally responsible when others are present, and uncertainty, where people hesitate to act due to fear of misinterpreting the situation.
What was the key finding of the Stanford Prison Experiment?
Participants quickly adopted behaviors associated with their assigned roles of guards or prisoners and it demonstrated the powerful influence of social roles and the potential for abuse of authority.
What later controversy emerged about the Stanford Prison Experiment?
Evidence suggested that guards may have been coached by research assistants.
What is the difference between internal and external attributions?
Internal attributions ascribe behaviour to dispositional factors, such as personality traits, while external attributions attribute behaviour to situational factors, such as environmental influences.
What is the fundamental attribution error?
Overemphasizing personal traits and underemphasizing situational factors in explaining others’ behavior. For example, assuming someone who cut you off in traffic is a jerk (dispositional) without considering they might be rushing to the hospital (situational).
What is self-serving bias?
Attributing one’s successes to personal factors and failures to external factors.
How do cognitive schemas influence person perception?
They create expectations and biases that shape our impressions of others.
Define the terms stereotype, prejudice, and discrimination.
Stereotype: Oversimplified ideas about a group; Prejudice: Negative evaluations based on stereotypes; Discrimination: Prejudice in action.
