PSY 210: Social Psychology

What is the fundamental attribution error?

An individual's tendency to attribute another's actions to their character or personality, while attributing their own behavior to external situational factors outside of their control

What is the interactionist perspective?

Traits depend on situation, and situation is impacted by our characteristics

Who was Walter Mischel? What were his three arguments?

Psychologist who focused on impact of situation during a time where traits dominated the conversation.

Three arguments:

• Unimpressive upper limit to predictive value of personality

• Situations are more important than traits to explain behavior

• No use to measure personality, as people display no consistency in behavior

What is the personality coefficient?

r=.30

What is an attitude?

A summary evaluation of an object

What is a mood?

A general state of feeling, not necessarily identified by a particular event or cause

What is an emotion?

A feeling experienced by a reaction to an event

Tripartite model of attitudes

Affect (feeling), Behavior (action), Cognition, (thoughts)

Attitude strength

How quickly attitude comes to mind

Attitude consistency

How much attitude aligns with the tripartite model

Self-Perception Theory

People determine their own attitudes and emotions by observing their own behavior and the context in which it occurs

Social Information Processing Theory

Use of environmental cues, including social interactions, to determine one’s attitude standing

Theory of planned behavior

Behavior is shaped by attitudes, subjective norms, and behavioral control, which lead to intentions, and then behavior. Behavioral control also has a direct influence on behavior.

What is persuasion?

The process by which a person or entity attempts to influence another to change their beliefs or behaviors

Six aspects of persuasion

Reciprocation, Consistency, Social Validation, Linking, Authority, Scarcity

Reciprocation

Expectation of mutual exchange

Includes the door in the face technique (ask for something big, then the smaller thing you actually want when they say no)

Consistency

Tendency to seek alignment in behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes

Includes foot in the door technique (ask for something small, then something bigger after)

What is forewarning in terms of persuasion?

A reminder to individuals that what they are seeing is a persuasive attempt

Prejudice

Unfair negative attitude toward a social group

Stereotypes

Overgeneralizations about a group or its members

Discrimination

Unjustified negative behaviors toward members of outgroups based on their group membership

Test for measuring implicit attitudes

IAT

What type of tests study explicit attitudes?

Self-report measures

Traditional forms of prejudice are____. What are some ways to combat it?

Explicit, education, emphasize norms that prejudice is wrong, direct persuasive strategies, present counter-stereotypic examples

Contemporary forms of prejudice are____. What are some ways to combat it?

Implicit, techniques for discovering inconsistencies, intergroup contact, social categorization

Contact hypothesis

Increased intergroup contact will reduce prejudice

Social categorization

Cognitive process by which we place individuals into social groups; often results in “us” vs “them” categories

Decategorization

Seeing others as individuals

Recategorization

Creating a new “we” (be careful to retain positive distinctiveness)

Self-concept

A knowledge representation of one’s beliefs about oneself

Self-complexity

The extent to which individuals have different and independent ways of thinking about themselves

Self-esteem

Positive or negative feelings we have about ourself

Self-affirmation theory

Interventions may fail when the messaging threatens people’s sense of self, but when feeling affirmed about our own value in one domain, we may be better able to handle a message that challenges us in another.

Response-efficacy

A person's belief in the effectiveness of a recommended action to prevent or reduce a specific threat

What was the result of the self-affirmation study?

Self-affirmation promoted acceptance of message (response-efficacy)

Why are close relationships important?

Higher self-esteem, human need, inadequate social support linked to decrease well-being

Interpersonal attraction

The level of attraction between people which leads to the development of platonic or romantic relationships

Similarity attraction paradigm

Tendency for people to be attracted to those who are similar to themselves (status, liking, proximity)

Altruism

Any behavior designed to increase another’s welfare, particularly when actions provide no benefit to those who perform them

Kin altruism

Behaving to benefit a genetic relative’s chances of survival at some cost to one’s own chances

Reciprocal altruism

Helping another in a hope of receiving something in return

Diffusion of responsibility

Assuming others will help