Social Psych Exam 3 unsimplified

Emotion Regulation

A process by which individuals influence what emotions they have, when they have them, and how they experience and express them

• It can be both a conscious and unconscious process.

• It is not always about reducing emotions; it can also involve heightening them.

• The process is dynamic and fluid, often entailing multiple strategies at once.

Affective Forecasting

The ability (or lack thereof) to predict how we might feel in the future. Generally, humans are quite bad at this

Antecedent-focused vs Response-focused Strategies

Antecedent-focused Strategies: Regulation strategies that occur before the emotional response is fully generated (e.g., situation selection, reappraisal).

Response-focused Strategies: Regulation strategies that occur after an emotion has already been generated (e.g., suppression).

The Process Model

This model tracks the generation of an emotion through five distinct stages where regulation can occur:

1. Situation Selection

2. Situation Modification

3. Attentional Deployment

4. Cognitive Change (Reappraisal)

5. Response Modulation (Suppression)

Situation Selection

Deciding whether to enter a situation based on the expected emotional impact (e.g., a socially anxious person deciding not to go to a party)

Situation Modification

Actively changing a situation to alter its emotional impact (e.g., staying close to friends while at a party to feel less anxious)

Attentional Deployment

Directing attention toward or away from specific aspects of a situation

• Distraction: Focusing on something else to reduce an emotion (e.g., looking at the background of a video or using a phone)

• Concentration: Focusing intensely on the stimuli.

Cognitive Change (Reappraisal)

Changing how one interprets or thinks about a situation to change its emotional impact (e.g., viewing a scary video as "not funny" or "fake," or seeing a party as an "opportunity to make friends")

Response Modulation (Suppression)

Influencing the physiological, experiential, or behavioral response after the emotion is already triggered (e.g., "trying not to laugh" or hiding feelings so an observer wouldn't know you are upset)

Reappraisal vs. Suppression

In a study where participants watched a disgusting film (arm amputation), researchers compared three conditions: Watch (control), Reappraise, and Suppress .

• Effectiveness: Reappraisal was significantly more effective at reducing the experience of disgust compared to suppression.

• Daily Correlates: Tendencies to use reappraisal (vs. suppression) are associated with :

  • More daily positive affect and less negative affect.

  • Less psychopathology and increased psychological well-being.

  • Better physical health

The Reappraisal Conundrum

This study examined whether people choose distraction or reappraisal based on emotional intensity .

• Low Intensity Situations: People prefer reappraisal (used ~76.3% of the time).

• High Intensity Situations: People prefer distraction (used ~70.7% of the time).

• Reasoning: Reappraisal requires more cognitive bandwidth. Highly intense stimuli may overwhelm this bandwidth, making it harder to reappraise, so people default to the less taxing strategy of distraction.

Importance of Emotion Regulation

• Social Functioning: Critical for socialization and building support systems.

• Wellbeing: Directly linked to both physical and psychological health .

• Psychopathology: Many psychological disorders are characterized by emotion dysregulation.

Dehumanization

The conviction—which can be conscious or unconscious—that certain people lack the complex cognitions or emotions characteristic of humanity

Parochial Empathy

The tendency for empathy to be a "selective" or "limited resource" where individuals feel more empathy toward their ingroup than an outgroup. This "selectivity" can exacerbate social division and polarization

System Justification

The phenomenon of defending and justifying existing imbalances or inequalities within a culture

Gender Role Backlash

The strong tendency for perceivers to dislike "gender role violators"—people whose attributes are inconsistent with traditional, old-fashioned gender stereotypes (e.g., feminine men or masculine women)

Social Dominance Orientation (SDO)

Definition: Reflects a tendency to embrace the idea of "getting ahead of others" and the belief that an ideal society requires groups to be on top or bottom.

Findings:

• Empathy: SDO is strongly negatively correlated (-.40) with Empathic Concern.

• Demographics: Men tend to score higher than women; White individuals tend to score higher than other people of color.

Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA)

Definition: Reflects a tendency toward conformity, traditionalism, and the embrace of old-fashioned norms and values.

Findings:

• Empathy: Unlike SDO, RWA has no relation to Empathic Concern

• Correlation: SDO and RWA represent distinct aspects of conservatism but are positively correlated with each other (+.30).

• Demographics: Shows no consistent differences across gender or ethnicity.

Belief in a Just World (BJW)

Definition: The need to believe people generally "get what they deserve and deserve what they get".

• Findings: High BJW scores are linked to justifying pre-existing inequalities (e.g., blaming a group for their own lack of success).

Historical Trends in Stereotyping

Surveys of Princeton and Colgate students over 50 years (1933–1982) showed a significant fading of open stereotyping.

• The Trend: The percentage of White participants describing African Americans as "superstitious" dropped from 84% in 1933 to 6% by 1982 .

• Caveat: These trends may be influenced by social desirability bias, where people become reluctant to openly admit prejudices they still hold.

The Stereotype Content Model

This model suggests stereotypes are based on two independent dimensions: Warmth and Competence.

• High Competence, High Warmth (HC-HW): Ingroups, middle-class Americans, Christians.

• High Competence, Low Warmth (HC-LW): Asians, Jews, the rich, British.

• Low Competence, High Warmth (LC-HW): Elderly, disabled individuals.

• Low Competence, Low Warmth (LC-LW): Homeless people, welfare recipients, Arabs.

Neuroscience of Dehumanization

• Method: Used MRI to track the medial frontal cortex, an area associated with social cognition typically activated by human faces.

  Results: Relatively low activation occurred when participants viewed pictures of disadvantaged outgroups, such as homeless people, suggesting a neural component to dehumanization.

Gender Role Violation & Sexual Orientation (Lab Research)

The "Inference" Hypothesis: Research with over 3,000 adults found that disliking gender role violators is actually an indirect effect.

• Findings:

  • Perceivers use gender violations to infer sexual orientation (e.g., assuming a feminine man is non-heterosexual)

  • Negativity is driven by this inference rather than the violation itself.

  • Liberal/LGBTQ+ participants showed strong evidence of stereotyping (making the inference) but no evidence of prejudice (they did not dislike the target).

Hostile vs Instrumental Aggression

Hostile Aggression: Aggressive actions where the primary underlying motivation is to inflict harm.

Instrumental Aggression: Aggressive actions performed in the service of a specific goal, such as in competitive sports.

Empathic Anger

Feeling angry on behalf of another person who has been mistreated or victimized

Culture of Honor

A belief system, more prevalent in the Southern and Southwestern U.S., defined by strong concerns about reputation . It involves a high sensitivity to insults and a greater willingness to use violence to avenge perceived wrongs

Catharsis (Venting)

The popular but largely mythical "hydraulic model" suggesting that expressing anger "releases pressure" and reduces future aggression

Predictors and Antecedents of Aggression

Environmental/Physiological: Heat, high testosterone levels, and frustration .

Alcohol: Indirectly increases aggression by loosening inhibitions in individuals already inclined toward aggressive behavior .

Income Inequality: Higher homicide rates are strongly correlated with higher income inequality . This may be due to feelings of rejection among those "at the bottom" or increased competition for scarce resources .

Political Polarization: Significant increases in partisan and personal animosity since 1994 have led Democrats and Republicans to denigrate the opposing side as close-minded, dishonest, or unintelligent

Traditional Models of Emotion

Models like Russell’s Circumplex Model or Watson and Tellegen (1985) classify anger simply as a high-arousal, negative emotion, making no formal distinction between it and fear

BIS-BAS Model

Unlike traditional models, this distinguishes between systems:

• BIS (Behavioral Inhibition System): Associated with avoidance and emotions like fear/anxiety

• BAS (Behavioral Activation System): Associated with approach and moving toward goals.

• Finding: Anger is part of the approach (BAS) system, whereas fear is part of the avoidance (BIS) system .

Action Tendency Models

Anger represents a reaction to a violation of "what ought to be" (e.g., a threat to dignity), whereas fear is a reaction to a perception of danger

The Weapons Effect

• Study: Participants ("teachers") delivered shocks to a "learner" after being shocks themselves .

• Findings: The mere presence of guns on a table increased the number of shocks participants delivered, but this effect was contingent on the participant already being angry (payback for previous shocks) .

Culture of Honor Experiments

• Cohen et al. (1996): Southern vs. Northern students were insulted by a confederate in a hallway .

• Findings: Southern participants were more likely to feel their honor was threatened, reported feeling more upset, and showed physiological spikes in cortisol and testosterone compared to Northerners .

Male Sexual Jealousy

A key factor in spouse abuse and homicide; evolutionary theory suggests it stems from paternity uncertainty ("cuckoldry")

• Findings:

60% of men find sexual infidelity more anger-inducing.

70% of women find emotional infidelity more anger-inducing.

Physiological data (heart rate/electrodermal activity) confirms these self-reports

Aggression and Media

Experimental (Anderson & Bushman, 2001): Playing violent video games leads to higher intensity "noise bursts" against opponents .

Correlational (Anderson & Dill, 2000): Found a correlation of r=0.46 between time spent playing violent games and aggressive delinquent behavior like vandalism .

Additive Effects: Aggression is highest when three variables align: male gender, high trait aggression, and recent exposure to violent media

Aggression Management: What Works and What Doesn't

What Doesn't Work: Catharsis. Venting "feeds the flame" by priming the brain for future aggression and reinforcing the behavior through temporary dopamine rushes .

What Does Work: Counting to ten, communicating emotions clearly without venting, increasing self-awareness, and diffusing anger through apologies

Moral Foundations Theory (MFT)

A theory suggesting that individual moral reasoning is based on five basic "foundations":

1. Preventing Harm: Values compassion for the suffering and the belief that killing is never right

2. Fairness: Emphasizes justice, equality, and the principle that everyone should be treated fairly by the law .

3. Ingroup Loyalty: Prioritizes group concerns over individual ones and supports the well-being of one's nation .

4. Purity: Values chastity and the idea that the government should help people live virtuously and avoid sin .

5. Authority: Emphasizes respect for authority and the preservation of a country's traditions and heritage .

Motives for Helping

Social Rewards: Helping to gain extrinsic benefits or status for oneself.

Personal Distress: Helping to alleviate one's own negative feelings or discomfort.

Empathic Concern: A "pure" form of altruism where help is given solely for the benefit of the other person.

Diffusion of Responsibility

A phenomenon where people are less likely to take action in an emergency when they believe others are also present and might intervene.

Game Theory

A mathematical approach to capturing behavior in situations where an individual's success depends on the choices of others.

The Latane and Darley Model (Bystander Intervention)

This model outlines the cognitive steps a bystander must go through before helping in an emergency. Failure at any stage leads to no help being given:

1. Notice the event: Bystanders must first perceive that something is happening.

2. Interpret the event as an emergency: Bystanders must decide if the situation requires help.

3. Assume responsibility: Bystanders must believe it is their personal duty to act.

The Good Samaritan Study

Method: Seminary students were asked to walk across campus to give a talk under different levels of time pressure.

Findings: Time pressure was the primary predictor of helping. 63% helped when in "no hurry," while only 10% helped when in a "high hurry" .

The Seizure Study

Findings: The more people believed to be witnessing an emergency, the less likely they were to help and the longer they delayed acting .

Trend: 85% helped when they thought they were the only witness, compared to only 31% when they thought four others were present .

The Smoke-Filled Room Study

Findings: Participants were much less likely to report smoke in a room when with unresponsive confederates (10%) than when alone (75%) .

Morality and Politics

Graph Findings: Research shows that liberals prioritize the "Harm" and "Fairness" foundations, while conservatives value all five foundations relatively equally.

The Voter’s Paradox

From a purely rational, self-interested perspective, the costs of voting exceed the minuscule chance of one vote impacting the outcome. However, if everyone acted this way, the system would collapse

Nash Equilibrium

A situation where individuals follow a strategy that is best given the choices of others. For example, people obey traffic lights not just because of the law, but because breaking the rule dramatically increases the risk of an accident for everyone .

Stress

A state that impacts the self across four primary domains:

• Physiological/Neurological: Affects the nervous system, hormones (like cortisol), immune function, and can lead to fatigue or disease.

• Affective: Involves emotional responses such as shock or distress.

• Behavioural: Can lead to coping behaviors like smoking or the use of alcohol and illicit drugs.

• Cognitive: Results in poor attention, errors in decision-making, and hypervigilance for threats.

Cortisol

A hormone released by the adrenal glands during the stress response.

• Increases heart rate and blood pressure.

• Central to the "fight or flight" response.

• Suppresses the immune system.

• Plays a role in the formation of "flashbulb memories" and scanning the environment for danger.

Adaptive vs. Chronic Stress

While short-term "fight or flight" responses can be adaptive for survival, chronic stress (a persistent sense that demands cannot be met) leads to long-term health problems.

Stress and the Common Cold (Cohen et al., 1991)

This famous study investigated the direct link between psychological stress and physical illness.

• Method: Participants were exposed to a cold virus after completing a psychological stress index.

• Findings: There was a clear correlation between stress levels and the probability of catching a cold. Participants with the highest stress scores were significantly more likely to develop the illness.

• Mechanism: The researchers proposed that stress causes immunosuppression, making the body less capable of fighting off viruses.

The "Third Variable" Problem in Health Research

Lecture materials emphasize that the co-occurrence of stress and illness does not always prove a direct causal link due to potential "third variables" like personality.

• Spurious Relations: A personality trait (e.g., being chronically argumentative) might cause both a stressful life event (e.g., getting fired) and the resulting health problems.

• Situational Selection: People may choose or place themselves in certain high-stress situations based on their personality, which then drives health outcomes.