Psychology Gre: Social

Front 1

Role Theory

Back 1

The perspective that people are aware of the social roles they are expected to fill and much of their observable behavior can be attributed to adopting those roles.

Front 2

Consistency Theory

Back 2

People prefer consistency, and will change or resist changing attitudes based upon this preference.

Front 3

Fritz Heider's Balance Theory

Back 3

Balance theory is concerned with the way three elements are related: the person whom we're talking about (P), some other person (0), and a thing, idea or some other person (X).
Balance exists when all three fit together harmoniously. When there isn't balance, there will be stress, and a tendency to remove this stress by achieving balance.

Front 4

Cognitive Dissonance

Back 4

The conflict that you experience when your attitudes are not in sync with your behavior.

Front 5

Free-Choice Dissonance

Back 5

Where a person makes a choice between several desirable alternatives.

Front 6

Post-decisional dissonance

Back 6

Dissonance that emerges after his choice.

Front 7

Spreading of Alternatives

Back 7

Way of reducing dissonance. Meaning the relative worth of the two alternative is spread apart.

Front 8

Forced-compliance dissonance

Back 8

When an individual is forced into behaving in a manner that is inconsistent with his or her beliefs or attitudes.

Front 9

Minimal Justification Effect
(insufficient justification effect)

Back 9

When behavior can be justified by means of external inducements, there is no need to change internal cognitions. However, when the external justification is minimal, you will reduce your dissonance by changing internal cognitions.

Front 10

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Back 10

1. If a person is pressured to say or do something contrary to his or her privately held attitudes, there will be tendency for him or her to change those attitudes.
2. The greater the pressure to comply the less this attitude change. Ultimately, attitudes change generally occurs when the behavior is induced with minimum pressure.

Hint 10

Festigner, L.

Front 11

Daryl Bem's Perception Theory

Back 11

Used to explain forced-compliance dissonance.
People infer what their attitudes are based upon observation of their own behavior.

Hint 11

Self-perception theory

Front 12

Overjustification effect

Back 12

Implication of self-perception theory.
If you reward people for something they already like doing, they may stop liking it.

Front 13

Carl Hovland's model

Back 13

Deals with attitudes changes as a process of communicating a message with the intent to persuade someone.

The communicator, or source, is someone who has taken a position on an issue and is trying to persuade someone to adopt his or her position. The communicator produces a communication (presentation of argument) that is designed with the intent to persuade others. The situation is surroundings in which the communication takes place.

Front 14

Sleeper Effect

Back 14

The persuasive impact of the high credibility source decreased while the persuasive impact of the low credibility source increased.

Front 15

Two-side messages

Back 15

Contains arguments for and against a position, are often used for persuasion, since such seems "balanced" communication.

Front 16

Petty and Cacioppo's Elaboration likelihood model of persuasion

Back 16

This model suggests that there are two routes to persuasion: the central route and peripheral route.
If the issue is very important to us, we're dealing with the central route to persuasion.
If the issue is not very important, or if we cannot clearly hear the message, we're dealing with the peripheral route to persuasion.

Front 17

Analogy of inoculation

Back 17

Inoculation process in the body is analogous to the mind--that people can be inoculated against the attack of persuasive communications.

Front 18

Cultural truisms

Back 18

Beliefs that are seldom questioned.

Front 19

Belief perseverance

Back 19

People will hold beliefs even after they have been shown to be false.

Front 20

Reactance

Back 20

If you try too hard to persuade someone of something that person will choose to believe the opposite of your position.

Front 21

Social Comparison Theory

Back 21

Suggests that we are drawn to affiliate because of a tendency to evaluate ourselves is relationship to other people. Festinger's theory has three principles. First of all, people prefer to evaluate their opinions and abilities by comparing them to other people. Secondly, the less the similarity of opinions and abilities between two people, the less the tendency to make these comparisons. Finally, when a discrepancy exists with respect to opinions and abilities, there is a tendency to change one's positions so as to move it in line with the group.

Hint 21

Festinger, L.

Front 22

Reciprocity Hypothesis

Back 22

We tend to like people who indicate that they like us. We tend to dislike those who dislike us.
We take into accounts the other person's evaluations of us.

Front 23

Gain-Loss principle

Back 23

The principle states that an evaluation that changes will have more an impact than evaluation that remains constant.

Hint 23

Aronson, E., Linder, D.

Front 24

Social exchange theory

Back 24

Assumes that a person weighs the rewards and costs of interacting with another. The more the rewards outweigh the costs, the greater the attraction to other person.

Front 25

Equity theory

Back 25

Proposes that we consider not only our own costs and rewards, but the costs and rewards of the other person. We prefer that our ratio of costs to rewards be equal to the other person's ratio.

Front 26

Need complementarity

Back 26

Claims that people choose relationships so that they mutually satisfy each other's needs.

Front 27

Attractive Stereotype

Back 27

Tendency to attribute positive qualities and desirable characteristics to attractive people, is a likely explanation.

Front 28

Spatial proximity

Back 28

people will generally develop a greater liking for someone who lives within a few blocks than someone who lives in a different neighborhood.

Front 29

Mere Exposure Hypothesis

Back 29

Based on familiarity.
That mere exposure to a stimulus leads to enhanced liking for it.

Front 30

Altruism

Back 30

A form of helping behavior in which the person's intent is to benefit someone else at some cost to himself or herself.

Front 31

Pluralistic Ignorance

Back 31

Leading others to a definition of an event as a non-emergency.

Front 32

Diffusion of responsibility

Back 32

Once an individual interprets that a situation constitutes an emergency, the person has to decide whether or not to help.
If others are present, however, then the responsibility, blame, and guilt can be shared. As the person weighs the costs and rewards of helping and attempts to resolves the conflict between helping and not helping, the fact that others are in a position to help may sway the person towards not helping.

Hint 32

Darley, J. Latane, B.
Social Influence

Front 33

Frustration-aggression Hypothesis

Back 33

When people are frustrated, they act aggressively.

Front 34

investigator: Sherif
Strategy Used: Autokinetic Effect

Back 34

Individuals' estimates of movements conformed to group's

Front 35

Investigator: Asch
Strategy Used: Comparing lengths of lines

Back 35

Subjects yield to group pressure and choose incorrect line.

Hint 35

Conformity

Front 36

Investigator: Milgram
Strategy Used: Experimeter prodded subject to give electric shock to other person

Back 36

Subjects shocked person; majority continued shocking up to maximum voltage.

Front 37

Foot-in-the-door Effect

Back 37

Demonstrates that compliance with a small request increases the likelihood of compliance with a large request.

Front 38

Door-in-the-face Effect

Back 38

This effect is one in which people who refuse a large initial request are more likely to agree to a later smaller request.

Front 39

Clark and Clark (1947)

Back 39

Studied ethnic self-concept among ethnically white an black children using famous doll preference task.

Hint 39

Doll preferences

Front 40

Primary Effect

Back 40

Refers to those occasions when first impressions are more important than subsequent impressions.

Front 41

Recency Effect

Back 41

Sometimes the most recent information we have about an individual is most important in forming our impressions.

Front 42

Attribution theory

Back 42

The tendency for individuals to infer the causes of other people's behavior.

Front 43

Fundamental attribution error

Back 43

When inferring the causes of others' behaviors, there is a general bias towards making dispositional attributions rather than situational attributions.

Front 44

Halo Effect

Back 44

It is the tendency to allow a general impression about a person to influence other, more specific evaluations about a person.

Front 45

M.J. Lerner

Back 45

Belief in a just world.

Front 46

Proxemics

Back 46

The study of how individuals space themselves in relation to others.

Front 47

Zajonc's Theory

Back 47

The presence of others increases arousal and consequently enhances the emissions of dominant responses.

Front 48

Social Loafing

Back 48

A group phenomenon referring to the tendency for people to put forth less effort when part of a group effort than when acting individually.

Front 49

Prison Simulation (Philip Zimbardo)

Back 49

People are more likely to commit antisocial acts when they feel anonymous within a social environment. When a person is anonymous, there is diminished restraint of unacceptable behavior.

Front 50

Deindividuation

Back 50

Refers to the loss of self awareness and personal identity (anonymity).

Front 51

Groupthink

Back 51

Refers to the tendency of decision-making group to strive for consensus by not considering discordant information (Group Decision Making).

Front 52

Risky Shift

Back 52

Refers to the finding that group decisions are risker than the average of the individual choices (Group Decision Making).

Front 53

Value Hypothesis

Back 53

Suggest that the risky shift occurs in situations in which riskiness is culturally valued (Group Decision Making).

Front 54

Group polarization

Back 54

Refers to a tendency for a group discussion to enhance the group's initial tendencies towards riskiness or caution (Group Decision Making).

Front 55

Cooperation

Back 55

Persons act together for their mutual benefit so that all of them can obtain a goal.

Front 56

Competition

Back 56

A person acts for his or her individual benefit so that he or she can obtain a goal that has limited availability.