Social Psychology Exam 3

Front 1

Conformity

Back 1

A change in one's behavior due to real or imagined influence of other people

Front 2

Groupthink

Back 2

A kind of decision process in which maintaining group cohesiveness and solidarity is more important than considering the facts in a realistic manner

Front 3

Group Polarization

Back 3

The tendency for groups to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclinations of their members

Front 4

Informational Social Influence

Back 4

Relying on other people as a source of information to guide our behavior; we conform because we believe that others' interpretation of an ambiguous situation is correct and can help us choose and appropriate course of action

We conform because we:

1. See others as a source of information
2. Assume that people are correctly interpreting the situation
3. Use others to decide appropriate course of action

Front 5

Idiosyncrasy Credits

Back 5

The tolerance a person earns, over time, by conforming; if enough credits are earned, the person can, on occasion, deviate from the group without retribution

Front 6

Private Acceptance

Back 6

Conforming to other people's behavior out of a genuine belief that what they are doing or saying is right

Front 7

Mere Exposure Effect

Back 7

The finding that the more exposure we have to a stimulus, the more apt we are to like it

Front 8

Public Compliance

Back 8

Conforming to other people's behavior publicly without necessarily believing in hat the other people are doing or saying

Front 9

Social Facilitation (SF)

Back 9

When people are in the presence of others and their individual performance can be evaluated, the tendency to perform better on simple tasks and worse on complex tasks

Front 10

Social Loafing (SL)

Back 10

When people are in the presence of other and their individual performance cannot be evaluated, the tendency to perform wise on simple or unimportant tasks but better one complex or important tasks

Front 11

Social Norms

Back 11

The implicit or explicit rules a group has for the acceptable behaviors, values, and beliefs of its members

Front 12

Social Roles

Back 12

Shared expectations in a group about how particular people are supposed to behave

Front 13

Factors influencing informational social influence

Back 13

• When the situation is ambiguous
  
• When other people are experts
• When the situation is of high importance

Front 14

Normative Social Influence

Back 14

Conforming in order to be liked and accepted by others; Results in public compliance and private acceptance (AKA peer pressure)

Front 15

Factors influencing normative social influence

Back 15

• The importance of the group (Greater importance=more conformity)
• The immediacy of the group (More immediate=more conformity)
• The number of people in the group
• When you have no allies
• With collectivistic cultures

Front 16

Ostracism

Back 16

To be ignored and excluded from a group

Front 17

How to resist conformity

Back 17

• Be aware that it is operating
• Try to find an ally
• Understand that going against the group doesn't always lead to rejection (Idiosyncrasy credits)

Front 18

Two (primary) reasons we conform

Back 18

1. Need to know what's right

• We don't know the right answer, so we look to other's for info
• Increased conformity when others are experts, situation is ambiguous, task is important

2. Need to be accepted

• We aren't looking for the right answer. We are looking to fit in
• Occurs even when certain of correct answer
• Conformity decreases when task is important (as long as people are certain of answer)

Front 19

How is ostracism studied in the lab

Back 19

•Participantarrives at a waiting room with two other participants (actually confederates).

• Oneconfederate finds a ball and tosses it around.
• Atfirst, everyone tosses the ball.
• Later,the two confederates toss ball only to each other.
• After3-5 minutes, the researcher comes in and the study “begins”.
  

Front 20

Immediate consequences of ostracism

Back 20

Pain

Doesn't matter who is going the ostracizing

Doesn't matter who is being ostracized

Front 21

Why does ostracism hurt

Back 21

It goes against our:

• Desire to belong
• Desire for control
• Desire to feel good about ourselves
• Desire to be recognized (meaningful existence)

Front 22

Later consequences of ostracism

Back 22

• Rationalize
• If not rationalized, then two paths to help recover from ostracism

1. Path toward social inclusion

--Become a good group member

--Likely to conform, work hard for a group, cooperate, and express liking for a group

2. Path toward reclaiming control and recognition

--Become less helpful and cooperative

--More aggressive to those who ostracized them AND even to neutral others

Front 23

Importance of control in dealing with ostracism

Back 23

Ostracism will lead to one of two things:

1. Being more compliant and cooperative (when you have control)
2. Being less helpful and more aggressive (when you don't have control)

Front 24

Effects of people who do the ostracizing

Back 24

• Distress: Ostracizer and Ostracized felt strongly
• Shame and Guilt: Ostrazcizer felt strongly
• Anger: Ostracized felt strongly

Front 25

Causes of SF and SL

Back 25

Causes of SF:

• Individual is evaluated
• Alertness occurs
• Evaluation Apprehension: When others can see how you are doing you feel like they are evaluating you (Causes you to try harder and worry about performance)
• Distraction

Causes of SL:

• Individual is NOT evaluated
  
• Relaxation
• No evaluation
• Apprehension

Front 26

Consequences of SF and SL

Back 26

Consequences of SF:

• Enhanced performance with easy tasks
• Impaired performance on complex tasks

Consequences of SL:

• Impaired performance with easy tasks
• Enhanced performance with complex tasks
• Poorer memory for concepts
• Decreased effort on group projects

Front 27

Proximity

Back 27

We form relationships with people who are close to us

We become friends with people nearby because:

1. More likely to meet nearby people
2. Mere exposure: increased liking for things the more we see them
3. Experience similar circumstances

Front 28

On what dimensions does similarity matter?

Back 28

• Values and opinions (religious, political, life goals)
• Interests (music, clothing, major)
• Backgrounds (grew up in city vs. small town)
• Physical characteristics (attractiveness, height)
• Personality (similar personalities)

Front 29

Similarity leads to attraction because

Back 29

1. Similar people validate our own beliefs
2. We make negative inferences about people who disagree with us on important issues
3. Spend more time with similar people (intentionally and by chance

• Intentional: going to a concert with someone
• Chance: running into someone over and over at a local concert or gym

1. We think that similar people will like us, so we are more likely to initiate a relationship

Front 30

Differences between stated preferences and actual behavior

Back 30

Stated Preferences:

• Men (more than women) reported physical attractiveness important in ideal partner
• Women (more than men) reported earning potential important in ideal partner
• Both men and women stated attractiveness and earning potential were important

Actual Behavior:

• Physical attractiveness equally good at predicting interest for men and women
• Earnings potential equally good at predicting for men and women
• Attractiveness was a much better predictor than earning potential

Front 31

Attractiveness

Back 31

• Physical attractiveness important to everyone
  
• Earnings potential somewhat important ro everyone

Front 32

Interpersonal Attraction

Back 32

Extremely important in all societies. Absences of meaningful relationships makes people feel lonelily, hopeless, powerless, and alienated. Many factors influence who we form relationships with (proximity, similarly, attractiveness).

Front 33

Halo Effect

Back 33

A cognitive bias by which we tend to assume that an individual with one positive characteristic also possesses other (even unrelated) positive characteristics

Front 34

Cheating

Back 34

Most people cheat a little because they want to feel good about themselves and because they want to get as much as they can. Most people cheat a little (only a few people cheat a lot).