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77 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What are the main features of Social Psychology? |
Connected to real life
Social Psychological research is (often) experimental |
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Difference between Social Psychology and Sociology |
Sociology is the group study of human societies, organizations, and institution.
Social Psychology is the scientific study of how individuals think about, influence, and relate to other people. |
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What is the Bystander Effect? |
The tendency for an individual to be less likely to help in an emergency when other people are present.
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Whose death inspired the Bystander research? |
Kitty Genovese
(Apartment courtyard murder)
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What additional bystander experiments were conducted? |
variety of studies involving randomly assigning participants to be alone or with other people and then staging various emergencies.
Studies shown when alone take action 75% / 50% when another person was present. |
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What is Social Cognition? |
The area of social psychology exploring how people select, interpret, remember, and use social information.
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How do we form impressions of people? |
the characteristics of the person you are observing, the context of the situation, your own personal traits and your past experiences. People often form impressions of others very quickly with only minimal information.
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What is Person Perception? |
The processes by which an individual uses social stimuli to form impressions of others.
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What makes a face attractive? |
Averageness
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What do we assume about attractive people? |
A variety of positive characteristics, including being better adjusted, socially skilled, friendly, likable, extroverted, and apt to achieve superior job performance.
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What is self-fulfilling prophecy? |
Social expectations that cause individuals to act in ways that make the expectations come true.
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Example of a self-fulfilling prophecy |
If we expect attractive people to have positive characteristics, we treat them differently than others. This special treatment increases the likelihood that the attractive individuals might well develop enhanced social skills & be more self-confident that others.
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What is a stereotype threat? |
An individual's fast-acting, self fulfilling fear of being judged based on a negative stereotype about his or her group.
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What are a few strategies to overcome stereotype threat? |
- Reframing the task
- Deemphasizing threatened social identities - Encouraging self-affirmation - Emphasizing high standards with assurances of capability - Providing role models - Providing external attributions for difficulty - Emphasizing an incremental view of ability
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What is the Attribution Theory? |
The view that people are motivated to discover the underlying causes of behavior as part of their effort to make sense of the behavior.
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What are the 3 dimensions of attribution theory? |
- Internal (traits & abilities) & external (situational factors) causes- Stable and unstable causes
- Controllable and uncontrollable causes |
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What are the common attributional errors? |
Fundamental attribution error
Self serving bias |
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How do we treat others differently from ourselves (attributional errors)? |
We often explain our own behavior in terms of external (situational) causes, while with others we often explain their behavior in terms of internal causes (such as personality traits).
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Fundamental attribution error vs. self-serving bias |
Fundamental attribution error - when observers overestimate the importance of internal traits & underestimate external situations to explain another person's behavior.
Self Serving bias - The tendency to take credit for one's successes and to deny responsibility for one's failures. |
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Heuristics Pro's and Cons |
Pros
Can be helpful tools for navigating complex social situations quickly Cons Can lead to stereotypes & errors in judgement |
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False Consensus Effect |
The overestimation of the degree to which others think or act the way we do.
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When do attitudes change behavior? When do behaviors change attitudes? |
Attitudes guide behavior when - the person's attitudes are strong, - the person shows a strong awareness of his or her attitude & practices them - When the person has a vested interest Behavior change attitudes when - We notice an inconsistency between our beliefs and our actions - We make inferences about our attitudes by examining our behavior |
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Cognitive Dissonance Theory |
The psychological discomfort (dissonance) caused when we notice an inconsistency between what we believe and what we do.
(Recycling) |
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Explain the lies and money experiment |
College students were asked to do a series of boring tasks, and were asked to persuade another student by pretending it was actually interesting and enjoyable. Half were paid $1 for the lie, the other half were paid $20. After, they rated how interesting & enjoyable the task really was. Those paid $1 rated the task more enjoyable. Researchers reasoned those paid $20 attributed their behavior to the money they received, while those paid $1 experienced cognitive dissonance.
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What are 2 ways to reduce dissonance? |
Change our behavior to fit our attitudes
Change our attitude to fit the behavior |
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What are two examples of Effort Justification? |
Effort Justification a type of dissonance reduction - Rationalizing the amount of effort we put into something by increasing it's value.
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Self-perception theory |
We make inferences about our attitudes by examining our behavior.
(example: I complain about my job a lot. I must hate it) |
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How might the self-perception theory explain the lies and money experiment |
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Elaboration likelihood model |
Theory identifying two ways to persuade: a central route and a peripheral route |
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Elaboration Likelihood Model Pathways |
Central Route - works by engaging the audience thoughtfully with a sound, logical argument.
Peripheral Route - involves factors such as the attractiveness of the person giving the message or the emotional power of an appeal (advertising). |
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Persuasion inoculation |
Giving people a weak version of a persuasive message and allowing them time to argue against it can help individuals avoid persuasion
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Altruism vs. Egoism |
Altuism - Giving aid to another person with the ultimate goal of benefiting that person, even if it incurs a cost to oneself.
Egoism - Helping another person for personal gain, such as to feel good, or avoid guilt - or reciprocity meaning we help another person to increase the chances that the person will return the favor. |
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Biological factors impact on prosocial behavior |
- High levels of serotonin - Dopamine receptors - Neurohormone oxytocin (plays a role in social bonding); Increases trust, cooperation, and generosity - Midbrain is active; associated with nurturing & kindness |
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Psychological factors impact on prosocial behavior |
Empathy
Personality (agreeableness) Mood |
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Sociocultural factors impact on prosocial behavior |
Socioeconomic status (lower status help more)
Gender The media |
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Biological factors' impact on aggression |
- Genetics - Neurobiological Factors (limbic system, frontal lobe) - Lower levels of serotonin - Higher levels of testosterone |
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Psychological factors' impact on aggression |
- Personality (low agreeableness, low conscientiousness, high neuroticism)
- Frustrating and aversive circumstances - Cognitive Determinants - Observational Learning |
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Sociocultural factors impact on aggression |
- The culture of honor
- Gender - Media |
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How do experimenter's measure aggression in the laboratory when studying video game aggression? |
Acts of aggression int the laboratory are not generalizeable to real-world criminal violence.
Researchers might provide participants the opportunity to "aggress" against another by subjecting the individual to a blast of loud noise, dispensing a mild electrical shock or administering a large dose of Tabasco to swallow |
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Your friend asks for advice on how to encourage someone to find them attractive. Scientifically, what strategies might you suggest based on research? Provide at least 3 |
Proximity - to the same area
Acquaintance - allowing subject to learn of your interest prior to meeting Similarity - highlight shared similarities such as attitude, values, personality, lifestyle, behavior, etc |
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What is the evolutionary approach to attraction? |
The goal for men & women is to reproduce, which is the key to understanding gender differences that account for attraction. Men - more strongly attracted to younger women (youth indicates fertility) Women - focus on quality of partner that will invest in her & her offspring |
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What are the two types of love? |
Romantic Love - love with strong components of sexuality and infatuation (early relationship)
Affectionate Love - deep, caring affection for another person & desire to have that person near |
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Compare and contrast Social Exchange Theory and the Investment Model |
Social Exchange Theory - The view of social relationships as involving an exchange of goods, the objective of which is to minimize costs and maximize benefits.
Investment Model - long term relationships that examines the ways that commitment, investment, and the availability of attractive alternative partners predict satisfaction and stability in relationships. |
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What is the difference between conformity and obedience? |
Obedience is obeying an order from someone in authority.
Conformity is changing to meet the expectations or behaviors of a group of your peers (there is not a direct command/order in conformity).
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An example of a conformity experiment |
Asch's Experiment: comparing lines
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An example of an obedience experiment |
Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment
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Describe Asch's experiment |
An individual is brought into a room with 5 other people sitting at a table. Researcher presents an experiment on "perceptual accuracy" Group is shown 2 cards - 1st card has a single line, 2nd card has 3 lines of varying length. Individual must tell the researcher which line on the 2nd card matches the length of the line on the 1st card. Group of 5 worked with the researcher - first 3 trials everyone agreed on the correct line, but on the 4th trial the group of 5 selected a line that clearly did not match the length. Asch found that 35% of the time the individual conformed to the incorrect answers.
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2 Factors influencing confromity |
Informational Social influence - influence other people have on us because of our desire to be right.
Normative Social Influence - influence others have on us because we want to be liked. |
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Describe Milgram's experiment |
An individual was asked to deliver a series of electric shocks to another person if their answers were incorrect. Each time a mistake is made, the intensity of the shock was increased. "student" was a confederate & not actually being shocked but acted as if he was by yelling in pain & begging for the shocks to stop. Almost 2/3 of the participants delivered up to the full 450 volts to the level of unconsciousness/possible death.
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What do you think Milgram's experiment tells us about events like the holocaust? |
It shows the powerful human tendency to obey authorities and complete destructive orders that conflict with their moral principles. Once people have accepted the right of an authority to direct our actions, we relinquish responsibility.
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Describe Zimbardo's Stanford Prison experiment |
Zimbardo created a fake prison in the basement of the Psychology building on Standford's college campus. Hired students to play guards & prisoners, while Zimbardo observed behavior. Within 36 hours, a prisoner started raging uncontrollably & had to be released. 1/3 of the guards started behaving in sadistic ways. The study was stopped after just 6 days.
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What caused an end to Zimbardo's prison study? How many regretted it? Why? |
A graduate student expressed concern for participant safety. They did not express regret for participating and felt the study was worthwhile.
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What is deindividuation? |
The reduction in personal identity and erosion of the sense of personal responsibility when one is a part of a group.
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What is anonymity? |
state of being unknown |
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What is social contagion? |
The effects of others on our behavior involving the spread of behavior, emotions and ideas.
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Social Facilitation vs. Loafing |
Social Facilitation - When an individual's performance improves because of the presence of others.
Social Loafing - each person's tendency to exert less effort in a group because of reduced accountability for individual effort. |
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Example of Social Facilitation |
Giving a better presentation in front of a class , than during practice runs
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Example of Loafing |
Group projects.
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What conditions contribute to social facilitation? |
Presence of others arouses us - arousal produces energy and facilitates our performance in groups. Increased arousal betters performance of well-learned tasks.
Arousal is too high, we are unable to learn new or difficult tasks efficiently. |
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What conditions contribute to loafing? |
The larger the group, the more likely it is that an individual can loaf without detection
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What is Risky Shift? |
The tendency for a group decision to be riskier than the average decision made by the individual group members.
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What is Polarization? |
Solidification and further strengthening of an individual's position as a consequence of a group discussion or interaction. |
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What is Groupthink? |
The impaired group decision making that occurs when making the right decision is less important than maintaining group harmony
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How can you counter Risky shift, polarization or group think? |
Risky Shift
Polarization Groupthink - can be prevented if groups avoid isolation, allow the airing of all sides of an argument, have an impartial leader, include outside experts in the debate, & encourage members to speak out in dissent. |
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What is a Social Identity Theory |
the view that social identity is a crucial part of self-image and a valuable source of positive feelings about oneself.
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In-groups vs Out-groups |
In-group: The group we belong to
Out-group: a group that has special value in comparison with other groups Us vs Them |
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Ethnocentrism |
Taking pride in one's group AND asserting the group's superiority over the other groups. Ethnocentrism may underlie prejudice. |
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Prejudice |
an unjustified negative attitude toward an individual based on the individual's membership in a particular group.
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Give example of Positive and Negative prejudice |
Positive - African Americans are amazing athletes
Negative - African Americans are thugs and drug dealers |
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Prejudice - Job application study |
Researchers sent out 5,000 resumes in response of 1200 job ads placed in Chicago & Boston newspapers. Resumes were identical in qualifications, but had different stereotypical "white" or "black" names. Found that white sounding names were 50% more likely to be called for an interview.
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Why does a cell phone look like a gun? |
According to study results, participants were quicker to misperceive common items (such as a cell phone) as a weapon. Perhaps due to stereotypes that view ethnic minorities as dangerous, aggressive, or more likely to be criminals.
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What factors contribute in prejudice? |
- Competition between groups. - Cultural learning - Low self-esteem (may demean others in effort to feel better about themselves) - Limits on our information-processing abilities. |
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Stereotypes |
Generalizations about a group that deny variations within the group.
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Describe Robber's Cave Study |
Two groups of twelve-year-old boys at Robber’s Cave State Park, Rattlers & Eagles. Groups were arranged to compete in various sport activities - Negative attitudes between groups developed. When they were required to work together on projects, the groups formed more positive relationships with each other. |
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What explains the bystander effect? |
- People tend to look to others for cues on how to behave - Deindividuation: individuals feel anonymous and lose a sense of personal responsibility. |
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Define Attribution |
The process by which we come to understand the causes of others' behavior |
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Actor vs Observer in attribution theory |
Actor - The person who produces the behavior to be explained. Observer - The person who offers a causal explanation of the actor's behavior. |
