PSY 340: exam 3 (SDSU, Marx)

agression

textbook: physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt someone. In laboratory experiments, this might mean delivering supposed electric shocks or saying something likely to hurt another's feelings.

lecture: the intent to harm or hurt someone (not aggression if its an accident)

Ways to aggress

physical: to inflict harm

verbal: slander, insults, gossip

written: libel, emails, texts, letters

Types of aggression

hostile: anger-based

instrumental: goal-based

Aggression as biology

we are brutes

instinct theory & evolution

-aggression is instinctual

-like a volcano, we explode with aggression (freud - death instinct)

-but adaptive (Lorenzo - to protect).

neural influences: there is not an area of the brain that is totally responsible for aggression, it is all connected

pre-frontal cortex, prisoners on death row, it blocks impulses

genetic influences

biochemical influences

-alcohol

-testosterone

Frustration Aggression Theory

The theory that frustration triggers a readiness to aggress

frustration (goal) -> instigation to aggress or withdrawn -> outward aggression (yelling) or inward aggression (suicide) -> direct or displaced (you crash out on someone not bc of them)

-when we are frustrated..we can take it out on someone or something else

-frustration-aggression revised: irritation vs frustration, deprivation vs frustration

-relative deprivation: the perception that one is less well off than others with whom one compares oneself.

Aggression as learned behavior

learned behavior (social influences)

social learning theory: The theory that we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by being rewarded and punished.

rewarding aggression: means to an end, grabs attention

watch & learn (observe): family, culture

Hostile aggression

aversive situations

-pain (generally physical)

-heat (hot nights, heat waves)

-attacks (verbal insults)

Culture of honor

The social norm that condones and even encourages responding to insults with aggression

male participants: southern or northern

walk down crowded hallway: bump or no bump

measures to assess aggression: face ratings, scenario completion

measures of preparedness to aggress: cortisol levels, testosterone levels

Persuasion

The process by which a message induces change in beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors.

Routes to persuasion (central)

central route: Occurs when interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts.

audience: analytical & motivated

processing: high effort, elaborate, agree, or counter

persuasion: clear argument, long lasting, agreement

all leads to response

Routes to persuasion (peripheral)

peripheral route: Occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker's attractiveness.

audience: not analytical & involved

processing: low effort, peripheral cues, rules of thumb, heuristics

persuasion: cues trigger, liking acceptance, only temporarily

all leads to response

elements of persuasion

who says it: the communicator (credibility, attractiveness & liking)

what is said: message content (reason vs emotion, shallower processing, influence of peripheral cues, discrepancy, primacy & recency)

how it is said: channel of communication (active vs passive reception, personal vs media influence)

to whom it is said: the audience (how old are they, what are they thinking)

how to sell a banana

authority, scarcity, reciprocity, consistency, social proof, liking

stereotype

A belief about the personal attributes of a group of people. Stereotypes are sometimes overgeneralized, inaccurate, and resistant to new information (and sometimes accurate).

-mental representation (cognitions/beliefs)

-mixture of abstract knowledge & examples

-gained from life experiences, which are biased by our goals, moods, beliefs

-illusory correlation: often how we form stereotypes

prejudice

A preconceived negative judgment of a group and its individual members.

-its a feeling, the emotional side (affective/emotional)

-generally negative, can be positive

ABCs = attitudes, behaviors, cognitions

discrimination

Unjustified negative behavior toward a group or its members.

-unfair or biased treatment (behaviorally)

-often motivated by prejudice

-using someones background as a basis for how you behave around them

reverse discrimination

affirmative action: designed to right a wrong

-it sends a message to those people "ur not good enough"

-even w/ good intentions, things backfire

some aspects of stereotypes, prejudice,& discrimination

can apply to any group

-depends on the situation

-can be good or bad

can be overt (blatant) or covert (subtle)

-overt may be diminishing but covert shows it is not gone

Prime-to-Behavior Effects

Bargh, Chen, & Burrows (1996)

-elderly stereotype = walking more slowly

-scrambled sentences

Where and how do stereotypes develop? Social sources

competence vs warmth

usually cannot have both

based on status hierarchy

low status seem warm (likable, sociable, caring, supportive)

high status seem competent (intelligent, in control, capable)

usually look down on low status, but can vary situationally

perceived as competent: non-traditional women, masculine men, germans

perceived as warm: traditional women, the disabled, effeminate men

depersonalize the enemy: view same group differently in peace

start to develop negatives about person to justify your behavior toward them

Where and how do stereotypes develop? motivational sources

taking it out on someone else

negative feedback (fein & Spencer, 1997)

our social identities

-ingroup (us) love

-outgroup (them) hate

need for status & belonging: it is good to be king or queen, is it insecurity

Where and how do stereotypes develop? cognitive sources

stereotyping is a normal cognitive process

-based on categorization (age, color, gender, status)

we do it more when: under time pressure, preoccupied (cognitive load), tired, emotionally aroused, too young

outgroup homogeneity effect: they are all alike, we are different, Perception of outgroup members as more similar to one another than are ingroup members. Thus "they are alike; we are diverse."

distinctiveness: physical deformity/aspects (ex: height), clues to ethnicity

interpretation of ambiguous behavior: "Donald is aggressive or assertive"

consequences of prejudice

self-perpetuating stereotypes

discrimination's impact

stereotype threat: the situational pressure posed by the prospect of being seen or treated through the lens of a negative stereotype

stereotype threat

any group to which a negative stereotype applies

how does threat work?

-be a member or stereotyped group

-care about task/ability to perform well

-stress/anxiety

-working memory capacity limited

-intrusive thoughts

-impression-related concerns

social dominance orientation

A motivation to have one's group dominate other social groups.

authoritarian personality

A personality that is disposed to favor obedience to authority and intolerance of outgroups and those lower in status.

realistic group conflict theory

The theory that prejudice arises from competition between groups for scarce resources.

social identity

The "we" aspect of our self-concept; the part of our answer to "Who am I?" that comes from our group memberships.

ingroup

"Us": a group of people who share a sense of belonging, a feeling of common identity.

outgroup

"Them": a group that people perceive as distinctively different from or apart from their ingroup.

in-group bias

The tendency to favor one's own group.

own-race bias

The tendency for people to more accurately recognize faces of their own race. (Also called the cross-race effect or other-race effect.)

group-serving bias

Explaining away outgroup members' positive behaviors; also attributing negative behaviors to their dispositions (while excusing such behavior by one's own group).

just-world phenomenon

The tendency of people to believe that the world is just and that people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get.

subtyping

Accommodating individuals who deviate from one's stereotype by thinking of them as "exceptions to the rule."

subgrouping

Accommodating individuals who deviate from one's stereotype by forming a new stereotype about this subset of the group.

sleeper effect

A delayed impact of a message that occurs when an initially discounted message becomes effective, such as we remember the message but forget the reason for discounting it.

attractiveness

Having qualities that appeal to an audience. An appealing communicator (often someone similar to the audience) is most persuasive on matters of subjective preference.

Foot-in-theDoor phenomenon

The tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request.

lowball technique

A tactic for getting people to agree to something. People who agree to an initial request will often still comply when the requester ups the ante. People who receive only the costly request are less likely to comply with it.

door-in-the-face technique

A strategy for gaining a concession. After someone first turns down a large request (the door-in-the-face), the same requester counteroffers with a more reasonable request.

primacy effect

Other things being equal, information presented first usually has the most influence.

two-step flow of communication

The process by which media influence often occurs through opinion leaders, who in turn influence others.

need for cognition

The motivation to think and analyze. Assessed by agreement with items such as "The notion of thinking abstractly is appealing to me" and disagreement with items such as "I only think as hard as I have to."

attitude inoculation

Exposing people to weak attacks upon their attitudes so that when stronger attacks come, they will have refutations available.

hostile aggression

Aggression that springs from anger; its goal is to injure.

instrumental aggression

Aggression that aims to injure, but only as a means to some other end.

instinctive behavior

An innate, unlearned behavior pattern exhibited by all members of a species

displacement

the redirection of aggression to a target other than the source of the frustration. Generally, the new target is a safer or more socially acceptable target.

prosocial behavior

Positive, constructive, helpful social behavior; the opposite of antisocial behavior.

catharsis

Emotional release. The catharsis view of aggression is that the aggressive drive is reduced when one "releases" aggressive energy, either by acting aggressively or by fantasizing aggression.