Social Psychology Final

Front 1

What is social psychology?

Back 1

the scientific field that seeks to understand the nature and causes of individual behavior and thought in social situations

Front 2

What are some basic themes of social psychology?

Back 2

- the power of the situation
- importance of people's perception of the situation

Front 3

What are the basic human motives?

Back 3

- need to feel good about ourselves (desire to maintain high self-esteem)
- need to be accurate (desire to form an accurate picture of oneself and the social world)

Front 4

What are the qualities of a good hypothesis?

Back 4

- testable (empirical question)
- falsifiable
- parsimonious (little idea that explains a lot)
- generative (sparks new data and research)
- important

Front 5

What are some different kinds of research techniques?

Back 5

- observational method
- correlational studies
- experimental method

Front 6

Describe the observational method

Back 6

- the technique whereby a researcher observes people and systematically records measurements of their behavior - goal is description
- 3 types: 1) systematic observation, 2) participant observation, 3) archival studies

Front 7

Describe the correlational method

Back 7

- method whereby 2 or more variables are systematically measured and the relationship between them is assessed
- goal is predicition
- surveys: random sampling
*Correlation does NOT equal causation*

Front 8

Describe the experimental method

Back 8

- method of choice to study cause-and-effect relationships; the researcher randomly assigns participants to conditions and ensures that those conditions are identical except for the independent variable
- goal is to establish causality

Front 9

What is random assignment?

Back 9

- assigning participants to conditions in an experiment such that all persons have the same chance of being in a given experimental condition
- eliminates extraneous variables

Front 10

What is an independent variable?

Back 10

manipulated by the experimenter

Front 11

What is a dependent variable?

Back 11

measured by the experimenter to see the effect of the independent variable on it

Front 12

What are the types of realisms in experiments?

Back 12

- mundane realism: reflects the extent to which the experimental setting is similar to real-life settings
- psychological realism: reflects the extent to which the experiment involves psychological responses like those occurring in real life

Front 13

What are the types of validity of an experiment?

Back 13

- internal validity
- external validity

Front 14

Internal validity

Back 14

- insuring that nothing else besides the independent variable can affect the dependent variable
- important to control extraneous variables and randomly assign participants to conditions

Front 15

External validity

Back 15

- the extent to which results can be generalized to different situations and different people (usually cannot access generalizability with a single study)
- can test through replication and multiple operationalizations

Front 16

What precautions do researchers take to abide by ethical standards?

Back 16

- studies are reviewed by IRBs (Institutional Review Boards)
- informed consent
- ability to withdraw
- debriefing
- insure confidentiality
- protection from harm (physical or psychological)

Front 17

What is debriefing?

Back 17

explaining to participants, at the end of an experiment, the true purpose of the study and exactly what transpired

Front 18

What is informed consent?

Back 18

agreement to participate in an experiment, granted in full awareness of the nature of the experiment, which has been explained in advance

Front 19

What are Baumeister's three aspects of selfhood?

Back 19

1) executive function - a self is an active part of the world (self as an agent or controller; self-regulation as a muscle)
2) experience of reflexive consciousness - can turn our attention towards ourself (constructing a concept of onself; book analogy - we write the book but we also study it)
3) interpersonal aspect - self is shaped by others (self facilitates social interactions and relationships)

Front 20

What does it mean to be schematic for a certain trait?

Back 20

- attention is drawn to things that you are schematic on
- probably dimensions that are important to you
- think of yourself as extreme
- are sure that the opposite does not hold

Front 21

Self-concept

Back 21

- the ideas and knowledge that we have about ourselves
- can include traits, social categories, relationships
- changes as we go through different stages of life

Front 22

Self-schema

Back 22

- beliefs about oneself that guide the processing of self-relevant information
- cocktail party phenomenon: idea that your attention is drawn to things that are very self-relevant

Front 23

Self-complexity

Back 23

- thinking of the self in one or two predominant ways or in many ways
- studies have shown that if you have a high self-complexity, you have other things to fall back on if something doesn't go so great
- the less complex your self-complexity, the more you are affected emotionally by events that affect your self-conception

Front 24

Introspection

Back 24

the process whereby people look inward and examine their own thoughts, feelings, and motives

Front 25

Is self-knowledge always accurate? Why or why not?

Back 25

No because of the limits of introspection:

- we don't always know why we do what we do (panty hose experiment with right hand bias)
- biases can influence our perceptions of ourselves ("Lake Wobegon effect" - we all think of ourselves as above average; Totalitarian Ego - we remember the good stuff and downplay the bad)

Front 26

Impression management

Back 26

the attempt by people to get others to see them as they want to be seen

Front 27

Social comparison theory

Back 27

- states that we will compare ourselves to others when we are unsure of our standing on some attribute and there is no objective criterion we can use (usually compare ourselves to those similiar to us)
- upward social comparison: comparing ourselves to those who are superior on the relevant attribute, can help define what the standard of excellence is
- downward social comparison: comparing ourselves to those who are inferior on the relevant attribute, can make us feel better about our current plight

Front 28

Self-discrepancy theory

Back 28

- describes the consequences of particular kinds of possible selves
- motivated to reach a state where the self-concept matches what you think it could or should be
- 3 self domains: actual self, ideal self, ought self
- 2 standpoints on the self: own personal standpoint, other (what other people want you to do or be)
- ideal/own = disappointment
- ideal/other = dejection; lack of pride
- ought/own = guilt
- ought/other = shame
- discomfort varies by amount of discrepancy and accessibility of discrepancy (degree to which you are aware of it)

Front 29

Self-evaluation maintenance theory

Back 29

- reflection: feel better if associated with successful people
- comparison: feel worse if friend is more successful
- we reflect and compare when: our own performance is relative to another's, relevance to self-concept, closeness to the person
- more likely to compare if it's something relevant; if not, more likely to reflect

Front 30

Self-handicapping

Back 30

the strategy whereby people create obstacles and excuses for themselves so that if they do poorly on a task, they can avoid blaming themselves

Front 31

What are different views of the person in social cognition?

Back 31

- naive scientist: assumption that people are rational thinkers
- cognitive miser: assumption that people take mental shortcuts whenever they can; people are lazy thinkers
- motivated tactician: assumption that people choose among their mental strategies based on their motivations, goals, or needs ("thinking is for doing")

Front 32

What are schemas and how do we use them?

Back 32

- schemas: organized systems of beliefs; abstract ideas
- help us view the world around us
- top-down processing: understanding the world by relying on previous knowledge or information

Front 33

What are the four functions of schemas?

Back 33

1) allow us to selectively attend to conceptually relevant or important features
2) help interpret information to have a certain meaning within a particular context
3) abstract general concepts from what we've interpreted
4) allow us to integrate new information with knowledge already in memory

Front 34

Heuristics

Back 34

- mental shortcuts
- often used to make decisions under uncertainity

Front 35

Representativeness

Back 35

- classify something according to how similar it is to a prototypical case
- people tend to ignore or underutilize base rate info
- ex: lawyer/engineer descriptions

Front 36

Availability

Back 36

- basing judgments on the ease with which something comes to mind (availability in memory)
- ex: 6 vs 12 assertive behaviors

Front 37

What affects availability (retrievability)?

Back 37

1) salience - does something really stand out in the environment?
2) vividness - provoke imagery and emotions?
3) recency - did something just happen?

Front 38

Anchoring and adjustment

Back 38

- judge likelihood or frequency of an event by using value of a known starting point and adjusting up or down
- often insufficient adjustment
- judgment is sometimes affected by irrelevant anchors
- personal experience often serves as an anchor
- related to overconfidence: often people do not correct enough for their own lack of knowledge

Front 39

Dilution effect

Back 39

- if diagnostic (relevant to judgment) information is given along with non-diagnostic information, inferences are less accurate
- ex: predicting GPA

Front 40

Hindsight bias

Back 40

the tendency for people to exaggerate how much they could have predicted an outcome after knowing that it occurred

Front 41

Automatic thinking

Back 41

thinking that is nonconscious, unintentional, involuntary, and effortless

Front 42

Thought suppression

Back 42

the attempt to avoid thinking about something we would prefer to forget

Front 43

Improving thinking

Back 43

- can avoid some biases in thinking with training in statistics
- can also avoid some biases by being aware of them (but not always)

Front 44

Lewinian (or attributional) equation

Back 44

Behavior = situation + disposition

Front 45

What is the correspondence bias?

Back 45

- the tendency to infer that people's behavior corresponds to (matches) their disposition (personality) which often leads to the fundamental attribution error
- overestimate the extent to which people's behavior is due to internal, dispositional factors and underestimate the power of situational factors

Front 46

What are the causes of correspondence bias?

Back 46

- usefulness of dispositions (sense of control, sense of predictability)
- misunderstanding situations (underestimate the power of the situation)
- misperceiving behavior (does not feel like a matter of interpretation, power of expectations)
- failing to use information

Front 47

Internal attributions

Back 47

- the inference that a person is behaving in a certain way because of something about the person, such as attitude, character, or personality
- also known as dispositional attributions

Front 48

External attributions

Back 48

- the inference that a person is behaving a certain way because of something about the situation he or she is in; the assumption is that most people would respond the same way in that situation
- also known as situational attributions

Front 49

Perceptual salience

Back 49

- the seeming importance of information that is the focus of people's attention
- people, not the situation, have perceptual salience for us

Front 50

Gilbert's Three-Stage Model of Attribution

Back 50

1) identification

2) automatic dispositional attribution

3) effortful correction for situational information (often people do not have the motivation or time to carry out this third step)

Front 51

Kelley Covariation Model of Attribution

Back 51

- explains how people decide whether to make internal or external attributions

- consensus: how other people behave towards the same stimulus

- distinctiveness: how the actor (person whose behavior we're trying to explain) responds to other stimuli

- consistency: the frequency with which the observed behavior between the same actor and the same stimulus occrus across time and circumstances

Front 52

Discounting principles

Back 52

a social perceiver discounts any one potential cause for an event to the extent that other potential causal candidates are available

Front 53

Augmenting principles

Back 53

- an augmenting effect occurs when you have a behavior that occurs, but there are factors that would have made that behavior less likely (inhibitory factors) and factors that would make the behavior more likely (facilitating factors)

- since the behavior occurred even though there are factors that would make it less likely, when you're making an attribution, you put a lot of weight on the facilitating factors

- inhibitory cause: interferes with the occurrence of a given event

- facilitative cause: increases the likelihood of an event's occurrence

- ex: rude job candidate in interview, runner who wins a race with the flu

Front 54

Actor-observer effect

Back 54

attribute own behavior to situational causes and others' behavior to dispositional factors

Front 55

Cultural influences on correspondence bias

Back 55

- people in Western cultures tend to view behavior in dispositional terms (do not take time to also look at situation)

- people in Eastern cultures tend to also make dispositional attributions but they often take the time to consider the situational causes of behavior

Front 56

Social facilitation

Back 56

the tendency for people to do better on simple taks and worse on complex tasks when they are in the presence of others and their individual performance can be evaluated

Front 57

Zajonc's theory of social facilitation

Back 57

1) being in a group increases physiological arousal

2) arousal enhances performance on dominant (well-learned) tasks

BUT...

3) inhibits performance on secondary (difficult or unlearned) tasks

Front 58

Social loafing

Back 58

tendency for people to exert themselves less when they are working with groups rather than when they are working alone

Front 59

When is social loafing likely to occur?

Back 59

- happens more often with easy tasks
- around strangers (don't want to disappoint friends so you care more when you're with them)
- males more than females
- more in Western groups/cultures (not as focused on the group)

Front 60

Social compensation

Back 60

- working harder on a team task than on an individual task
- outcome is important to group and person believes his/her effort will help achieve it
- ex: sports teams

Front 61

Group performance with different types of tasks

Back 61

- additive tasks: sum of contribution (ex: collecting cans) -> groups do better than individuals

- conjunctive tasks: determined by poorest performance (ex: relay race) -> depends

- disjunctive tasks: determined by best performance -> groups do better but only if the best person is recognized and listened to

Front 62

Groupthink

Back 62

- a kind of thinking in which maintaining group cohesiveness and solidarity is more important than considering the facts in a realistic manner
- antecedents include: high cohesiveness (tight knit group), group structure (isolation, strong leader), stressful situations

Front 63

What are the symptoms of groupthink?

Back 63

- pressure for conformity
- "mindguards"
- illusion of unanimity
- illusion of invulnerability
- emphasis on justifying a decision rather than exploring alternatives

Front 64

How can groupthink be controlled?

Back 64

- leader encourages discussion
- leader should be impartial in the beginning (allow rest of group to think for themselves)
- having outside voices come in and speak to the group (allows for different viewpoints)

Front 65

Deindividuation

Back 65

- loss of sense and individuality and reduction of constraints against deviant behavior (almost like being invisible)

- may lead to deviant behavior because: less accountability, lowered self-awareness, arousal

Front 66

Conformity

Back 66

a change in behavior due to the real or imagined influence of other people; use others as a strong source of information

Front 67

Informational social influence

Back 67

- need to know what's right
- we view other people as a source of information to guide our own behavior
- ex: unfamiliar situations, being at a symphony performance
- can backfire!! (ex: "War of the Worlds" broadcast in 1938)

Front 68

Normative social influence

Back 68

- the need to be liked or accepted (may result in public compliance, but not always private belief change)
- ex: teenagers, fads, female body shape

Front 69

Sherif study

Back 69

- autokinetic effect
- optical illusion: if a small dot of light is shone in a dark room, the dot appears to move (even though it really doesn't)
- participants were asked to judge how far the dot moved, first by themselves and then with others present in the room
- found that people were influenced by how far others in their group had estimated the dot to move

Front 70

Asch studies

Back 70

- participants were put in a group of confederates and everyone was asked to say which line matched the stimulus
- confederates (after a couple of rounds) began picking the obviously wrong line
- 33% went along with the group on the majority of the trials
- 25% remained completely independent
- 75% conformed at least once
- if tested alone: 98% correct
- if tested with confederates: 66% correct

Front 71

What variations of the Asch studies reduced conformity?

Back 71

- if at least one other person gave the right answer
- if someone gave an even worse answer than the majority's
- if the subjects can understand why the others say what they say
- if subjects are asked to express taste and not opinion

Front 72

Injunctive norms

Back 72

people's perceptions of what behaviors are approved or disapproved of by others

Front 73

Descriptive norms

Back 73

people's perceptions of how people actually behave in given situations, regardless of whether the behavior is approved or disapproved of by others

Front 74

Social Impact Theory (Latane)

Back 74

- the likelihood that you will respond to social influence depends on: 1) strength (how important the group is to you), 2) immediacy (how close in time and space the group is to you during the influence attempt), 3) number (how many people there are in the group)

Front 75

Resisting (normative social) influence

Back 75

- being aware of it
- taking action
- having an ally
- "idiosyncrasy credit": past conformity to group allows you to behave deviantly occassionally

Front 76

Compliance techniques (Cialdini) and basic principles

Back 76

- "Door-in-the-face"
- "Foot-in-the-door"
- "That's not all..."

Front 77

"Door-in-the-face"

Back 77

- after someone turns down a large request, the same requester counteroffers with a more reasonable request
- works because of 1) contrast effect: things are put in perspective, 2) reciprocity norm: feel like we need to repay people for the things they do for us
- BUT... people won't be more likely to agree to subsequent requests
- works if... 1) the first request is large enough so that nearly everyone says no, but it should not change their self-perceptions into "I'm a person that says no," 2) same person should make both requests, 3) the two requests should have little to no delay between them so that the feeling of obligation is still there, 4) the "requestee" shouldn't realize what's going on

Front 78

"Foot-in-the-door"

Back 78

- tendency for people who have first agreed to a smaller request to comply with a larger request
- works because of a change in self-concept
- better for long-term compliance

Front 79

"That's not all..."

Back 79

- a large request is made, but the requester offers a discount or bonus before the initial offer is refused
- works because of: 1) reciprocity norm, 2) bargain hunting
- works if... 1) the first request is large enough so that it might be rejected, but the additional stuff should make it seem like a good deal, 2) the "requestee" should not have a chance to turn down the first request before the deal is "sweetened," 3) the same person should make both the request and "sweeten" the deal

Front 80

What are the 6 underlying principles of compliance techniques?

Back 80

1) friendship/liking
2) commitment/consistency
3) scarcity
4) reciprocity
5) social validation
6) authority

Front 81

Friendship/Liking

Back 81

- underlying principle of compliance techniques
- we are more willing to comply with requests from friends or family or people we like than from strangers or people we don't like

Front 82

Commitment/Consistency

Back 82

- underlying principle of compliance techniques
- once we have committed ourselves to a position or action, we are more likely to comply with requests for behaviors that are consistent with that position
- Foot-in-the-Door

Front 83

Scarcity

Back 83

- underlying principle of compliance techniques
- in general, we value and try to secure opportunities that are scarce or decreasing; we are more likely to comply with requests that make reference to "disappearing opportunities"
- "One day sale only!"

Front 84

Reciprocity

Back 84

- underlying principle of compliance techniques
- we are more willing to comply with a request from someone who has previously provided a favor or concession to us than someone who has not; we feel obligated to pay people back for what they have done for us
- Door-in-the-Face

Front 85

Social validation

Back 85

- underlying principle of compliance techniques
- we are more willing to comply with a request for an action if this action is consistent with what we believe others like ourselves are doing; we want to be correct, and one way to do this is to think or act like others

Front 86

Authority

Back 86

- underlying principle of compliance techniques
- we are willing to comply with requests from a legitimate authority (or even someone who looks like one)

Front 87

Obedience

Back 87

following orders or demands to do something

Front 88

Results from Milgram study (with first condition - experimenter in the same room as the "teacher")

Back 88

- average shock: 360 volts
- 62.5% of participants complied fully

Front 89

Influences on obedience

Back 89

- legitimacy of authority
- closeness of authority
- normative influence
- distance from victim

Front 90

Why did people obey in the Milgram experiment?

Back 90

- people seem to be following the wrong social norm (obey authority vs don't cause harm)
- informational influence (experimenter had expertise; confusion of situation)
- small increments of obedience (15 volts does not seem like a lot)
- responsibility appears to be with the experimenter

Front 91

Critiques of Milgram's studies

Back 91

- participants did not believe they were harming the other person
- participants had no choice
- participants did not feel responsible for their actions
- studies were unethical (too stressful for the participants)

Front 92

Replications of Milgram

Back 92

- Sheridan and King: puppy as an "authentic victim"; 10/13 men complied fully and 13/13 women complied fully
- Utrecht studies: participants asked to say derogatory comments to job candidates (who were confederates); 90% made all the remarks

Front 93

Types of power

Back 93

- coercive power: deliver threats and punishments
- reward power: potential to deliver positive reinforcement
- expert power: reputation for being knowledgeable (in Milgram experiment)
- legitimate power: role or position (in Milgram experiment)
- referent power: being liked or admired

Front 94

In-group

Back 94

the group with which an individual identifies with as a member

Front 95

Out-group

Back 95

any group with which an individual does not identify

Front 96

Ethnocentrism

Back 96

idea that we focus in on our group as being good and others as bad

Front 97

Robber's Cave studies (Sherif)

Back 97

- brought a group of boys to a summer camp in a naturalistic setting
- split the group of boys into 2 groups (each group did not know that there was another group at first)
- phase 1: in-group formation -> Eagles and Rattlers (group names, traditions, cheers, etc.)
- phase 2: competition -> pit the 2 groups against one another; intense dislike and competition arise
- phase 3: superordinate goal -> forced the boys to cooperate by creating a task which they all wanted to achieve but could not do by themselves

Front 98

Realistic Group Conflict theory

Back 98

- intergroup relations are driven by structures in the environment
- groups dislike each other because both want scarce resources

Front 99

Contact hypothesis

Back 99

you can get 2 groups to get along together by bringing them together (not that easy in reality)

Front 100

When does contact between groups reduce hostility?

Back 100

- equal status: everybody needs to have equal standing to get along well with one another
- situation must involve cooperation
- situation must be informal enough to allow group members to get to know one another as individuals
- interaction must permit disconfirmation of negative stereotyped beliefs
- persons involved must view one another as typical of their respective groups

Front 101

Social Identity theory

Back 101

- individuals strive to maintain a positive social identity
- positive social identity is based on favorable comparisons between in-groups and out-groups
- when social identity is unsatisfactory, individuals will strive to leave the group and join some more positively distinct group and/or make their group more positively distinct

Front 102

How does social identity theory explain group conflict?

Back 102

want our own group to look good so we shed negative light on other groups

Front 103

Optimal distinctiveness model

Back 103

- need for assimilation: belongingness, fitting in

- need for differentiation: being unique

- we want to stand out but we don't want to be the only one

Front 104

Social dilemmas

Back 104

if everyone follows their own self-interest then there would be no public goods (ex: tragedy of the commons)

Front 105

How can social dilemmas be resolved?

Back 105

make people feel a part of the group

Front 106

Stereotypes

Back 106

BELIEFS about a certain group of people; cognitive part; a generalization

Front 107

Prejudice

Back 107

ATTITUDES; emotional component; negative (occassionally positive) attitude towards a person because they belong to a certain social group

Front 108

Discrimination

Back 108

BEHAVIORS; putting stereotypes and prejudices to action

Front 109

What are the origins of stereotypes?

Back 109

1) cognitive: categorization; stereotypes are basically cognitive shortcuts; most likely to use stereotypes when we're tired, sick, busy, etc. and don't have time to get to know the person

2) motivational: social comparison (upward and downward); belief in a just world

3) social: social roles (can develop out of the social roles that people have been assigned); group conflict; media portrayal

Front 110

Outgroup homogeneity effect

Back 110

the perception that individuals in the out-group are more similar to each other (homogeneous) than they really are; as well as more similar than the members of the in-group are

Front 111

Social Comparison

Back 111

- the idea that we learn about our own abilities and attitudes by comparing ourselves to other people

- upward social comparison: comparing yourself to someone who is better off than you are; can motivate you to improve but can also be a blow to your self-esteem

- downward social comparison: thinking about yourself relative to others who are worse off than you; makes us feel better and boosts our self-esteem (putting others down to make ourselves feel better)

Front 112

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Back 112

the case whereby people: 1) have an expectation about what another person is like, which 2) influences how they act toward that person, which 3) causes that person to behave in a way consistent with people's original expectations

Front 113

Subtypes

Back 113

ex: have a stereotype concerning women but have a different stereotype concerning women lawyers

2 views:
- Weber and Crocker: maintains stereotypic belief; can put exceptions into a subtype and still protect the main stereotype
- Brewer: replaces stereotypic belief; if you break a stereotype down into several subtypes then you're getting closer to individualization

Front 114

Automatic vs controlled processes

Back 114

- stereotypes are automatic: people grow up knowing the stereotypes of their culture

- personal beliefs are controlled: people might know the stereotypes but they may not believe them

Front 115

How are stereotypes maintained?

Back 115

- priming: effects our attitudes more if it supports (reinforces) our stereotypes

- attribution: we make attributions that help to protect our stereotypes

Front 116

Consequences of stereotypes

Back 116

- stereotype vulnerability (or threat): fear of confirming negative view of the group; may lead to 1) distraction from task, 2) poorer performance

- tokenism/solo effects: being the only one of your "category" in a group may lead to cognitive deficits (people have extra burden of representing their group)

Front 117

How can prejudice and stereotypes be reduced?

Back 117

- societal reforms or historical events

- bookkeeping model: gradual change of stereotypes as you have more and more positive experiences with the group that you have stereotyped

- conversion model: abrupt change in views (not very common)

- Monteith's model of prejudice reduction: discrepant response (acting in a prejudiced way) -> awareness of discrepancy -> consequences (have to recognize it to change it)

- reduction of prejudice at intergroup level: decategorization/individuation; recategorization; cross-cutting identities

Front 118

Jigsaw classrooms

Back 118

a classroom setting designed to reduce prejudice and raise the self-esteem of children by placing them in small desegregated groups and making each child dependent on the other children in the group to learn course material and do well in the class

Front 119

Modern prejudice

Back 119

outwardly acting unprejudiced while inwardly maintaining prejudiced attitudes

Front 120

Subtle sexism

Back 120

can take two forms: 1) hostile sexism: stereotypical views of women that suggest that women are inferior to men, 2) benevolent sexism: hold views of women that are chivalrous in nature; tend to idealize women romantically and want to protect them when they don't need protection; assume that women are the weaker sex

Front 121

Characterisitics of individualistic cultures

Back 121

- independent self
- Western cultures
- "masculine" traits: assertiveness, uniqueness, etc.

Front 122

Characteristics of collectivist cultures

Back 122

- interdependent self (shaped by your relationships)
- Eastern/Latin American cultures
- "feminine" traits: nurturing, empathy, etc.

Front 123

Effects of individualism and collectivism

Back 123

- basis of self-esteem: relationships vs achievements
- interdependent selves tend to be more sensitive to others
- interdependent individuals are more sensitive to context and role obligations (less likely to show fundamental attribution error)
- emotional expression: independent individuals are more likely to feel and express strong emotions (interdependent individuals are less likely to do so because they do not want to cause a social disruption)
- self-presentation: self-enhancement is less acceptable to interdependent individuals

Front 124

Criticisms of individualism/collectivism approach

Back 124

- fosters prejudice: trying to group whole masses of people together
- exceptions
- globalization is diluting culture somewhat
- what people really feel vs what they tell you
- too broad: ignores within culture differences
- value spin: idea that one way is better than another (verges on negative stereotypes)
- research issues: translation

Front 125

Culture of honor

Back 125

- cultural complex that has an extreme concern with reputation and insults

- associated with male autonomy and freedom

- farming vs herding

Front 126

Consequences of culture of honor

Back 126

leads to a particular type of violence: violent response to insults

Front 127

What is an attitude?

Back 127

- an evaluative response to an object; the degree to which a person likes or dislikes an object

- A: affect (emotional/physiological responses); B: behavior (how do you act towards an object? approach it or avoid it?); C: cognition (what do you think about an object?)

Front 128

How are attitudes measured?

Back 128

- self-report: just ask the person
- physiological measures
- behavioral measures

Front 129

What are the strengths and weaknesses of different types of attitude measures?

Back 129

- self-report: social desirability issues (people want to look good), implicit or unconscious ideas/attitudes, social setting, bogus pipeline

- physiological measures: a "real" pipeline, labor intensive, expensive

- behavioral measures: lost-letter technique

Front 130

How do attitudes relate to behavior?

Back 130

attitudes do not always match up with behavior; illustrated through LaPiere study (Chinese couple, white man)

Front 131

When will our attitudes and our behavior match?

Back 131

- principle of aggregation: a general attitude may not predict a specific behavior but it will predict behaviors in the long run

- the more specific the attitude, the better at predicting the behavior

- strong attitudes predict behavior better than weak ones

- if there's cognitive dissonance

Front 132

Cognitive dissonance

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a drive or feeling of discomfort, originally defined as being caused by holding two or more inconsistent cognitions and subseqently defined as being caused by performing an action that is discrepant from one's customary, typically positive self-conception

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Dissonance effects

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- insufficient justification: Festinger and Carlsmith boring tasks study; if little external justification is present then more positive attitudes are adopted (internal justification)

- spreading of alternatives: dissonance aroused after making a decision is typically reduced by enhancing the attractiveness of the chosen alternative and devaluating the rejected alternatives

- severity of initiation: like things that cause us pain because we don't want to think that we suffered for no reason (justification of effort)

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Self-Perception theory

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- can account for findings without motivation
- people try to figure out what their attitudes are by looking at their behavior
- overjustification ("marker study")

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Dissonance theory vs Self-Perception theory

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Dissonance:
- clear knowledge of attitudes from the beginning
- attitude-discrepant behavior
- production of a motivational state

Self-perception:
- vague attitude awareness
- behavior not very discrepant
- no motivational state produced

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Yale Model

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- attention (source)
- comprehension (message)
- yielding (audience)
- retention (channel)

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Yale Model paradigm research

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- source of communication: trustworthy, credible, attractiveness, similarity
- credibility effects: if the source is credible, it's more persuasive
- sleeper effect: with time, credible sources become less persuasive and low credibility sources become more persuasive (dissociative cue hypothesis: forget source more quickly than the message)

- nature of the communication must be comprehensible
- one-sided vs two-sided messages: in most cases, two-sided arguments are more persuasive; one-sided arguments are only more persuasive if the other side of the argument is not going to be heard
- fear appeals: must be believable and give a recommended response

- nature of the audience: distraction (actually increased persuasion), intelligence, need for cognition (how much people like to think)

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Elaboration Likelihood Model

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there are two routes to persuasion: 1) central route - focuses on main arguments (naive scientist), 2) peripheral route - focus on peripheral cues, or surface factors (cognitive miser)

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What determines if the central route or peripheral route to persuasion will be taken?

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- motivation and ability
- if both, central route will be taken
- if only one, peripheral route will be taken
- stronger attitudes seem to rely on the central route whereas weaker attitudes rely on the peripheral route

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Resistance to attitude change

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- inoculation: making people immune to attempts to change their attitudes by initially exposing them to small doses of the arguments against their position
- forewarning: can already have a response; no surprise
- selective perception: we have some amount of control over what we're exposed to
- reactance: can occur when we feel that our freedom is being threatened (when people come on too strong)

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Subliminal advertising

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words or pictures that are not consciously perceived but may nevertheless influence people's judgments, attitudes, and behaviors (not very much evidence so far)

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What is political psychology?

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- interface of psychology and political science

- political vs politicized political psychology (what's the role of people's values when they do their research? value spin?)

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Sears critique of over-reliance on college samples

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compared to older adults, college students are likely to have:
- less crystallized attitudes
- less formulated senses of self
- stronger cognitive skills
- stronger tendencies to comply with authority
- more unstable peer-group relationships

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Accountability

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- expectation that you will have to justify your beliefs, feelings, or actions to others

- intuitive politician: might shift our beliefs or make our argument more complex depending on the audience's beliefs

- strategic attitude shifting: if the audience's attitude is already known, people may shift their own attitude so that it is more in line with the audience's

- pre-emptive self-criticism/ integrative complexity: if the audience's position is not known, people may come up with pros and cons to develop a more complete argument; try to bring the positive and the negative together

- decision evasion: if people are held accountable, there is more procrastination and buck passing (putting off the decision somewhere else)

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On-line vs memory based evaluations of candidates

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- on-line evaluation: running evaluation in your mind which you adjust as you learn new information about candidates

- memory based evaluations: try to remember everything that you can about a candidate at the polls; if you catch people after they've just voted, they sometimes can't tell you why they voted for a certain person

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Media effects

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- hypodermic model: idea that the media was like a big needle that injected beliefs into its viewers; gives the media a lot of power

- minimal effects model: media doesn't tell us what to think; does not effect us

- modern approach: sophisticated techniques, subtle effects; agenda setting

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Agenda-setting

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media can tell us what to think ABOUT (ex: "News that Matters" study)

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Personalities of leaders (Winter study)

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- personality assessment at a distance; looked at speeches and public announcements to find an underlying theme

- coded first inaugural address and matched it up with coding of cultural documents

- match of president and nation predicted popularity and electoral success

- mismatch predicted presidential greatness

MOTIVES:
- affiliation: concern for close relationships
- achievement: concern for excellence
- power: concern for impact and prestige

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Darwinian tradition

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emotions have adaptive functions; emotions come out of actions

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Facial expressions

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seem to be 6 cross-cultural emotions: sadness, happiness, surprise, anger, fear, and disgust

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Display rules

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culturally determined rules about which nonverbal behaviors are appropriate to display

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Basic emotions

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Izard criteria:

- specific neural substrate (should be certain brain activity that occurs)

- characteristic facial expression or neuromuscular expression (ex: happy -> smile)

- distinct subjective quality (should be a unique feeling state; not usually confused over whether we feel happy or angry)

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James-Lange theory

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Perception -> Bodily reponse -> Emotion

- not a very conscious experience; gives a lot of support towards biological basis of emotions

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Schachter two-factor theory of emotion

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Arousal + Cognition = Emotion

- the idea that emotional experience is the result of a two-step self-perception process in which people first experience physiological arousal and then seek an appropriate explanation for it

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Aggression

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physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt someone

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Hostile aggression vs instrumental aggression

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- hostile (emotional) aggression: driven by anger; end in itself (ex: Columbine shooting)

- instrumental aggression: means to an end; a way to get something you want (ex: bank robbery -> want the money)

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Theories of the origins of aggression

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- instinct theory
- biological theories
- drive theories
- social learning theories
- cognitive theories

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Instinct theory

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aggression is fundamental (Freud, Lorenz)

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Biological theories

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- serotonin: lower levels of serotonin make it harder to control aggressive behavior (harder to suppress urges)

- testosterone: hormone associated with males; strongly correlated to aggressive behavior (if you act violently, your testosterone increases)

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Drive theories

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- motivation to harm others

**Frustration-Aggression theory: aggression arises when people get in our way of something

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Social learning theories

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- pick up aggression from our surroundings (see other people aggressing and we follow)
- Bobo doll studies (Bandura): model rewarded, model punished, boys vs girls

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Cognitive theories

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- how we think about situations; cognitive processes
- appraisals: interpretation of the situation (intent)

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Social determinants of aggression

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- frustration
- direct provocation
- aversive stimuli (such as heat)
- media

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Frustration

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- blocked from reaching goal
- displacement may occur (ex: mad at your boss but you can't get mad at him so you take out your anger on your roommate)

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Direct provocation

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respond to what others do in our environment

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How does media violence affect real aggression?

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- weakened inhibitions: seeing aggression through the media makes it seem more socially acceptable

- imitation: learn new and better ways to aggress by watching them on TV

- makes feelings of anger more available

- desensitization to violence

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Video games and violence

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- video games have been becoming more realistic
- an interactive experience
- violent video games are associated with: 1) increased aggressive behavior, thoughts, and affect, 2) increased physiological arousal, 3) decreased prosocial (helping) behavior

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Effect of violent programs on memory for ads

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memory for ads is WORSE if ads are in a violent (or sexual) program

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Weapons effect

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- cues for aggression can cause automatic thought
- implying that if guns or some other object associated with violence is lying around, people will automatically become more aggressive

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Catharsis

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- idea of getting it out of your system; engaging in aggressive behavior to let off steam
- not very well-supported
- research suggests that you might feel better in the short run but it does not reduce aggressive behavior (can actually increase aggression)

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Means of reducing aggression

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- apology: reducing aggression in others

- modeling non-aggressive behavior

- training in communication and problem-solving skills

- building empathy: take the perspective of someone else (textbook mentions attempts at trying to reduce bullying in schools)

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Alcohol and aggression

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- alcohol often serves as an inhibitor; it reduces our social inhibitions, making us less cautious than we usually are
- alcohol appears to disrupt the way we usually process information; miss the subtleties of situations
- study showed that when individuals ingest enough alcohol to make them legally drunk, they tend to respond more violently to provocations than those who have ingested little or no alcohol

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Violent pornography

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the viewing of pornographic material appears to be relatively harmless; however, if the pornographic material depicts hostile acts directed against women, it promotes greater acceptance of sexual violence towards women and is almost certainly a factor associated with actual aggressive behavior towards women

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Why do people help?

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- social exchange theory
- empathy-altruism hypothesis
- social norms
- evolutionary explanations
- reciprocity explanation

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Social exchange

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maximize rewards and minimize the costs (do a mental calculation)

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Empathy-altruism hypothesis

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- pure altruism comes into play when we feel empathy for a person in need of help (not doing the mental calculations, just thinking about the person)
- Carol study

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Social responsibility norm

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we are taught that we should help others

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Evolutionary explanations

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- it is beneficial to protect those like us
- kin selection: idea that behaviors that help a genetic relative are favored by natural selection (have genes similar to yours)

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Reciprocity norm

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the expectation that helping others will increase the likelihood that they will help us in the future

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Darley and Latane's five steps to prosocial behavior

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1) noticing - bystander must perceive the emergency
2) interpreting - bystander must interpret situation as an emergency
3) assuming responsibility
4) knowing what to do (expertise; direct vs indirect help)
5) making final decision to help

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Bystander effect

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the finding that the greater the number of bystanders who witness an emergency, the less likely any one of them is to help (ex: Kitty Genovese murder)

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Diffusion of responsibility

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thinking that someone else will take of the situation (often occurs as part of the bystander effect)

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Influence of mood on helping

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- positive mood increases helping when: 1) need for help is clear, 2) helping does not involve negative consequences

- negative mood increases helping when: 1) negative feelings are not too intense, 2) emergency is obvious, 3) act of helping is interesting or fun

- negative-state relief model: will help if it makes us feel better

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Natural selection

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genes that increase the odds of reproducing and leaving descendants will become more common

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Sexual selection

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natural selection operating on characteristics that contribute to an organism

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Parental investment

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- differences in minimum parental investment

- males invest "widely" (adaptative strategy to produce lots of offspring)

- females invest "wisely"

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Gender and mating preferences

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- both genders look for kindness and intelligence but...
- women look for good providers (good job, good income, etc.)
- men look for fertility (young, attractive, etc.)

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Jealousy studies (Buss theory)

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- paternity uncertainity vs loss of investment
- paternity uncertainity is a big threat to males; because fertilization is internal, there can be doubt concerning the father of a child
- loss of investment is a concern for women; do not want the father of their child to disappear because their help is needed in raising the child
- differential activiation: sexual infidelity vs emotional infidelity

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How do relationships begin?

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- proximity
- need to affiliate
- physical attractiveness
- similarity

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Proximity (propinquity)

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the closer someone is to you in your enivronment the more likely you are to begin a relationship

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Need to affiliate

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- interpersonal relationships provide benefits
- Schacter study: effect of fear on affiliation (low anxiety group indifferent; high anxiety group wanted to wait with others in the experiment)

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Physical attractiveness

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matching phenomenon: people get in relationships with people at about their level of attractiveness

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Similarity

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balance theory show how similarity might lead to attractiveness - similarity eliminates cognitive dissonance

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Balance theory

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- relationships between 1) liking for another person, 2) your attitude towards a topic, 3) other person's attitude towards a topic
- want a balanced triangle to ensure cognitive consistency

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What is considered attractive?

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balanced faces, symmetry

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Physical attractiveness stereotype

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"What is beautiful is good" -> think that they are happy, successful, smart, etc.

ex: Disney movies

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Mere exposure theory

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the more times you see something, the more you like it (cognitive fluency, becomes safe)

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Loneliness

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- wanting close relationships but not having them
- can lead to health problems (depression, stress, etc.)
- social loneliness: have people around you but have no real relationships with them
- emotional loneliness: have relationships but feel as though no one understands you

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Cycle of loneliness

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fear negative evaluation -> safety behaviors -> rejection -> increased social fears

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How do you combat loneliness?

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- task appraisal

- behaviorial strategies: teaching people appropriate behavior in certain situations

- performance outcome

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Social exchange theory

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- economic based theory
- comparison level: what you want in a relationship; your satisifaction level
- comparison level of alternatives: do you have the best thing possible or are there better things out there

**look at graphs in notes**

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Categories of love

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- eros: passionate love
- storge: friendship love (no passion)
- ludus: game-playing love
- mania: possessive love
- pragma: logical love
- agape: selfless love

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Attachment styles

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- come from studying children's attachment to parents in developmental psychology

- anxious/ambivalent: parents sometimes there; child not sure

- avoidant: parents not supportive

- secure: parents supportive

- adult attachment styles: preoccupied (insecure), fearful, avoidant, secure

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Ways of dealing with relationship problems

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- negative behaviors are more hurtful than positive behaviors are helpful

- constructive ways to deal with problems: voice your complaint (active), stay loyal (passive)

- deconstructive ways to deal with problems: exit the relationship, neglect the relationship

- need a balance between approach (fight) and withdrawal (flight)

- idea of reciprocity

**look at charts in notes**

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Communication skills training

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- speaking and listening skills (slows down conflict and encourages positive behavior)

- active listening: focus more on the other person and what they're saying

- speaking skills: speak in short paragraphs that have a central point; make sure that the other person heard what you were saying

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Investment model of close relationships

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the theory that people's commitment to a relationship depends not only their satisfaction with the relationship in terms of rewards, costs, and comparison level and their comparison level of alternatives but also on how much they have invested in the relationship that would be lost by leaving it

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Triangular theory of love

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the idea that different kinds of love consist of varying degrees of three components: intimacy, passion, and commitment

*look at diagram in notes*

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Memory factors influencing eyewitnessing testimony

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- acquisition: the process by which people notice and pay attention to information in the environment; because people cannot perceive everything that is happening around them, they acquire only a subset of the information available in the environment

- storage: the process by which people store in memory information they have acquired from the environment

- retrieval: the process by which people recall information stored in their memories

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Accuracy (or inaccuracy) of eyewitness testimony

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many studies have shown a weak relation between confidence and accuracy

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Interrogation techniques

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- minimizing the severity of the situation: "good cop"

- maximizing the severity of the situation: "bad cop"

- "good cop": shows sympathy and understanding, can develop things that seem to justify or excuse the crime, offer a face-saving explanation for the guilty action

- "bad cop": confront the suspect with assertions of his or her guilt, interrupt statements of innocence and denial, keep an increasingly passive suspect from tuning out

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Inadmissable evidence

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extra legal information

ex: the judge makes the ruling - "the jury will disregard what the witness said"

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Why might jurors fail to disregard inadmissable evidence?

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- thought suppression: being told to suppress a specific thought increases the tendency for it to intrude upon our consciousness

- reactance: backlash against being told that evidence cannot be regarded; feel that freedom is being restricted

- wanting to reach the right decision

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False confessions

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- interrogation pressure may cause COMPLIANCE

- tactics may cause the suspect to INTERNALIZE the accusations (start to believe that they did it)

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Risk factors for false confessions

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- suspect lacks clear memory of event (because of intoxication, etc.)

- presentation of false evidence (legal in some states)

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Polygraph testing

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- polygraph: a machine that measures people's physiological responses; polygraph operators attempt to tell if someone is lying by observing that person's physiological responses while answering questions

- some people can control their responses to trick the machine; other people have physiological reactions to the stress of the situation and not necessarily because they are lying

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Recovered memory debate

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- recovered memories: recollections of a past event, such as sexual abuse, that had been forgotten or repressed

- false memory syndrome: remembering a past traumatic experience that is objectively false but nevertheless accepted as true

- people on both sides of the argument; some people think that recovered memories are legitimate while others argue that recovered memories cannot be accepted through faith alone

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Procedural justice

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- people's judgments about the fairness of the procedures used to determine outcomes, such as whether they are innocent or guilty of a crime

- people who feel that they have been treated fairly are more likely to comply with the law than people who feel that they have been treated unfairly

- it is often more important to people to maintain a sense of procedural justice than to receive a positive outcome