Psychology 431 Psychology Of Adjustment Exam Three Study Cards Chapter Six

Front 1

Key Sources of Information about other people

Back 1

1)Appearance
2)Verbal Behavior- how much others self-disclose, how often they give advice, ask questions, and how judgemental they are.
3)Actions- In impression formation, people follow the old addage, "Actions speak louder than words."
4)Nonverbal messages- facial expressions, eye contact, body language, and gestures.
5)Situations- The setting in which behavior occurs provides crucial information about how to interpret a person's behavior.

Front 2

Snap Judgements

Back 2

Judgements made quickly and based on only a few bits of information and preconceived notions. To conserve their energy and time, etc. people often depend on automatic processing to make their perceptions of others, which is often of little consequence, because almost all of those that we do this to are immediately forgotten and never seen again. This is typically done to people the less relevant they are to you.

Front 3

Systematic Judgments of Others

Back 3

In forming impressions of those who can affect their welfare and happiness, people do this rather than form snap judgements. That is, they take the time to observe the person in a variety of situations and compare the person's behavior with that of others in similar situations. This is done through controlled processing, or mindfulness, which requires more cognitive effort, kicks in only when individuals expect another person to be relevant.

Front 4

Attributions

Back 4

Inferences that people make about the causes of their own behavior, other's behavior, and events.

Front 5

Internal attribution

Back 5

When people ascribe the causes of someone's behavior to personal dispositions, traits, abilities, or feelings.

Front 6

External Attributions

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When people ascribe the causes of someon's behavior to situational demads and environmental constraints.

Front 7

Attribution Theory

Back 7

People are most likely to make attributions when:
1)Inusual events grab their attention.
2)Events are personally relevant.
3)When they are suspicious about the motives underlying someone's behavior.
4)When others behave in unexpected or negative ways.

Front 8

Confirmation Bias

Back 8

The tendency to behave towards others in ways that confrim your expectations about them. Shortly after you begin interacting with someone, you begin forming hypotheses about what the person is like. In turn, these hypotheses can influence your behaviro towards that person in a way such as to confirm your expectations. Also occurs when individuals selectively recall facts to fit their views of others.

Front 9

Self-Fulfilling Prophecies

Back 9

Occurs when expectations about a person cause the person to behave in ways that confrim the expectations. Occurs in three stages:
1)The perceiver has an initial impression of someone.
2)Then the perceiver hehavees towards the target person in line with his expectations.
3)Occurs when the target person adjusts his or her behavior to the perceiver's hypothesis about the target person.

Both individuals are unaware of their expectations and of the effect they can have on others, they mistakenly attribute the target person's behavior to an internal cause.

Front 10

Categorizing (Cognitive Distortions)

Back 10

A way for people to effiecently process information is to classify objects (and people) according to their distinctive features (i.e. race, ethnicity, gender). People frequently take the easy path of categorizing others to avoid expending the cognitive effort that would be neccessary for a more sccurate impression.
Individuals perceive those like themselves as being members of their "ingroup", and those who are dissimmilar to be members of the "outgroup". Such categorizing has three important consequences:
1)People usually have less fovorable attitudes towards outgroup members then ingroup.
2)Individuals usually see outgroup members as being much more alike than they really are, whereas they see members of the ingroup as unique individuals. (explain the behaviros of those in the outgroup to being attributed to their similar characteristic, but those in the ingroup to inidvidual, internal personality traits.)
3)It heightens the visibility of outgroup members when there are only a few of them within a larger group.

Front 11

Stereotypes (Cognitive Distortions)

Back 11

Widely held beliefs that people have certain characteristics because of their membership in a particular group. The most prevailant ones in America are ones based on gender, age, and ethnicity. Stereotypes may also be based on physical appearance (attractive people more socially and intellectually adept).
Why do stereotypes persist?
1)They are cognatively functional, because they reduce complexity to simplicity.
2)Confirmation biases.
3)Self-fulfilling prophecy.

Front 12

Fundamental Attribution Error (Cognitive Distortions)

Back 12

Tendency to explain other people's behavior as the result of personal, rather than situational, factors. It is different from stereotyping because it is actually based upon behavior; and behavior at a given time may or may not be reflective of their personality, but observers tend to assume that it is.
Making attributions is a two-step process:
1)Occurs automatically, observers make an internal attribution because they are focusing on the person.
2)Observers weigh the impact of the situation on the target person's behavior and adjust their inference.
The fact that the second step does not occur spontaneously like the first is the cause of people being distracted, or otherwise, and failing thte take the second step, and making this error.

Front 13

Defensive Attribution

Back 13

Tendency to blame victims for their misfortune, so that one feels less likely to be victimized in a similar way. Blaming victims for their calamities also helps people maintain their belief that they live in a "just" world where people get what they deserve and deserve what they get.

Front 14

Efficiency

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Key theme in person perception, because when forming impressions of others, people prefer to exert no more effort or time than is neccessary. Thus much social information is processed automatically and effortlessly.

Front 15

Selectivity

Back 15

Key concept of Person perception in which expectations influence perceptions.

Front 16

Primacy Effect

Back 16

In people's perceptions, it occurs when the initial formation carries more weight than subsequent information. Also, negative information is additionally difficult to overcome.
Several reasons:
1)Once people believe that they have formed an accurate impression of someone, they tend to tune out later information.
2)Confirmationa biases may lead people to discount later information that contradicts their inital impression.
3)People expect others to stay the same.

Front 17

Persuasion

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Involves the communication of arguements and information intended to change another person's attitudes. Influenced heavily by several main factors:
1)Source Factors
2)Message Factors
3)Receiver Factors

Front 18

Source Factors in Persuasion

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Persuasion tends to be more successful when the source has high credibility; obtained by either trustworthiness or expertise. Additionally, likeability of the presenter factors in; but is influenced heavily by physical attractiveness. Additionally, the presenter who is similar to the person who he is reaching (in a relative manner to the topic) is more likely to be more credible.

Front 19

Message Factors in Persuasion

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1)Acknowledging that there is another side
2)Emotional appeals, but not overtly about fear
3)Generating positive feelings

Front 20

Receiver Facrots in Persuasion

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1)Transient Factors-, such as forewarning a receiver about a persuassive effort and receiver's inital position on an issue.
2)Receivers are also harder to persuade when they encounter a osition that is incompatible with their existing beliefs. In general, people display a disconfirmation bias in evaluating such arguments.

Front 21

Elaboration Likelihood Model

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An individual's thoughts about a persuasive message (rather than the actual message itself) will determine whether attitude change will occur.

Front 22

Peripheral Route

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Persuassion that uses an alternate, nondirect route by which to influence and persuade a person. i.e. superficial aspects of advertising campaigns, often the more effective of the two.

Front 23

Central Route

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Receivers process persuassive messages mindfully, by thinking about the logic and merits of the pertinent or central arguements.

Front 24

Conformity

Back 24

Occurs when people yield to real or imagined social pressure. Is effected greatly by the size of the group one is within while the pressure is being felt, larger group then larger pressure. However, the presence of another dissenter in the group makes it easier to withstand the social pressure.

Front 25

Compliance

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Occurs when people yield to social pressure in their public behavior, even though their private beliefs have not changed.

Front 26

Normative Influence

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Operates when people conform to social norms for fear of negative social consequences.

Front 27

Informational Influence

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Operates when people look to others for how to behave in ambiguous situations.

Front 28

Bystander Effect

Back 28

Tendency for individuals to be less likely to provide needed help when others are present than when they are alone.

Front 29

Obedience

Back 29

Form of compliance that occurs when people follow direct commands, usually from someone in a position of authority. The tendency to obedience is found within the finding that human behavior is determined not so much by the kind of person one is as by the kind of situation one is in. Research also shows that personality variables that correlate with greater obeidience.