PBSI - 315 Final Exam

Social Psychology

The scientific study of how we think, feel, and behave in social situations

5-Step Scientific Method

1. Ask a question

2. Hypothesis

3. Test with experiments

4. Analyze Results

5. Formulate a conclusion

Social Facilitation

Norman Triplett

- people tend to perform better in the presence of others

- But when performing complex task level of performance decreases & when performing a non-complex task performance level increases

Social Loafing

Max Ringelmann

- As a group size increases, one's individual effort decreases

Textbook

William McDougall & Edward Ross

Name: Social Psychology

Kurt Lewin Formula

- Behavior is a function of the person, AND enviornment

- Who we are changes based on our social context

B = f (P,E)

b: behavior

p: person

e: environment

Nature

Physical world around us, biological drives & instincts, and genetic predisposition

Culture

Social learning & transmission, beliefs, meanings & values, ways of doing things

Drive to Prolong Life

1. Individual Survival

- Live as long as possible

- Avoid death & danger

2. Reproduction

- Make new life to carry on

Social Brain Hypothesis

Larger brains evolved to handle complex social relationships

Two Processing System

System 1 "Fast": Unconscious, automatic

- without self-awareness or control

System 2 "Slow": deliberate, conscious

- with self-awareness and control

- logical & skeptical

What is Self?

- Your sense of who you are

- Includes your thoughts, feelings, beliefs & memories about your self

Components of Self

- Self-Knowledge, Interpersonal Self, Agent Self

Self-Knowledge

also known as self-concept

- What you know and believe about yourself

- Your trait, abilities, values & experiences

- Used to know your limits, recognizing own strength, understand needs, learn from experiences

Interpersonal Self

also known as public self

- how you present yourself to others

- your reputation & social image

- Used to build connections, build trust in relationships, and taking on social norms

Agent Self

also known as executive self

- the "doer" part of yourself

- make decisions & controls behavior

- Used to make active choices, taking action on goals, controlling impulsive behavior

Introspection

- having the privileged access to your own mind

- you know your thoughts & feelings better than anyone else

Self-Esteem

- how favorably you evaluate yourself

- ones overall sense of self-worth

Looking-Glass Self Theory

1. You imagine how you appear to others

2. You imagine how others judge you

3. You feel emotions based on their imagined judgment

Three positive Illusions

- overestimate good qualities (underestimate faults)

- overestimate control over events

- unrealistic optimism about the future

Self-deception

- when a person lies to themselves to distort reality to protect their self-esteem

- self-serving bias

- selective memory

- flexible definitions

Self-serving bias

- Credit for success, blame external factors for failure

Selective Memory

- Remember good, forget bad

Flexible definitions

- Redefine "good" to include our traits

Omission bias

People prefer to do nothing rather than do something

Reactance Theory

When individuals perceive a threat to their freedom of choice, they experience an aversive motivational state called reactance

- when mom says "no" kid says "yes"

Risk Aversion

We avoid risk even when they're fair

- tendency to prefer avoiding losses over gaining equal rewards

Temporal Discounting

Overvalue immediate rewards & undervalue future rewards

Cognitive Miser

Human tendency to think and solve problems in simpler & less effortful ways

Mental short cuts:

Availability heuristic

Anchoring heuristic

Representative heuristic

Availability heuristic

- judging how likely or common something is based on how easily you can think of examples

Anchoring heuristic

Using a piece of information as a starting point & adjusting from there

Representative heuristic

judging how likely or common something is based on how much it resembles a typical example or stereotype

Hot hand

Tendency to believe that someone who has been successful in a task will more likely be successful again

Gambler's fallacy

Belief that the probability of a random event occurring in the future is influenced by previous instances

Emotion

Brief, intense, specific

- last seconds to minutes

- clear face expression

- ex: fear, anger, joy

Mood

Longer, no clear target

- lasts hours to days

- ex: irritable, gloomy, cheerful

Affect

Umbrella term for ALL feeling states

- includes emotions, moods, evaluations

James-Lange Theory

- Claims emotions follow from bodily reactions

Sequence: event - body reaction - emotion

Cannon-Bard Theory

- Claims body response are too slow & similar to explain differences

Sequence: event - simultaneous body + emotion

Schachter-Singer Theory

- Claims body arousal is ambiguous - we interpret it using context

Sequence: event - physiological arousal - cognitive label - emotion

Constructed Emotion

Lisa Feldman Barrett

- Emotions are not universal

- they are constructed using bodily sensations, past experiences, & cultural concepts of emotion

ex: how you express sadness depends on your culture, past, etc.

Hedonic Treadmill

- No matter what happens, good or bad, we usually always return to "baseline: level of happiness overtime

- treadmill because you "run" to feel happier but end up in the same emotional place

Attitudes

Evaluations of people, objects, situations or ideas

- three components: Affective, Behavioral, Cognitive (ABC Model)

Affective

- the emotional responses an attitude evokes (dislike, comfort, irritation)

- Rooted in emotion "How do I feel about it?"

Behavioral

- the way our attituded influence how we act or intend to act toward an object, person, or idea

- actual behavioral may not always match out attitude due to social pressures

- "How do i act?"

Cognitive

- Involves the beliefs, thoughts, and knowledge a person has about an object, person or idea

- Based on information, facts, or perceptions

"What do I think or believe about it?"

How are attitudes formed?

Classical Conditioning (Pavlov Dog Exp.)

Operant Conditioning

Observational Learning (Modeling)

Direct Experience (BEST WAY)

Beliefs vs. Attitudes

- beliefs are what you think is TRUE/FALSE

- attitudes are about what you LIKE/DISLIKE

Cognitive Dissonance

- Mental discomfort from holding two conflicting beliefs or attitudes

- We do this by:

- Changing our attitude to match out behavior

- Ex: Belief "Smoking causes cancer"

Behavior: Continue Smoking

Social Influence

- Process by which individuals thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are affected by others

Three types of Social Influence

- Conformity

- Compliance

- Obedience

Conformity

- Changing behavior to match the responses of others (whether they're present or not)

- We conform to fit in & avoid standing out

Compliance

- Responding favorably to an explicit request from another person

- request NOT order

- saying yes to keep things going smoothly

(ASKING YOU)

Obedience

- Following direct commands, typically from an authority figure

(TELLING YOU)

Why do we conform?

Normative influence

Information Influence

Social Norms

Normative influence

- To be liked or accepted by the group

- " I don't want to stand out"

Information Influence

- To be right when the situation is unclear

- " They probably know better than I do"

Social Norms

- Unwritten rules about how to evaluate

- waiting in line, facing the front of the elevator

Asch line study

- would you agree, even when you know its wrong

- conformity

Compliance

- Door-in-the-Face Technique

- Foot-in-the-Door Technique

- Bait & Switch Technique

Door-in-the-Face Technique

- making a large request that will be likely be refused, then following up with a smaller, more reasonable request

Foot-In- the- Door Technique

- securing agreement with small request first, then making a larger request

Bait & Switch Technique

- attracting people with an appealing offer, then making the original offer unavailable & presenting a different offer

How far will people go for obedience?

- Stanley Milgram's study (shock study)

- expected most people to stop around 150v

- but 65% administered the full 450 V

- 100% of participants went to at least 300v

Prosocial Behavior

- Any voluntary act intended to benefit others or society

- Characterized by concern for others

NOT ALWAYS Altruistic

What is Altruism?

- The motivation to increase another person's welfare as an end in itself, with no expectation of personal benefit

- goal to benefit the other person, even if it cost oneself

BATSON

What is Egoism?

- theory that all human actions are ultimately motivated by self-interest

CIALDINI

Psychological Egoism

- Argue that this is just how we are wired; humans are incapable of acting against our own self-interest

Ethical Egoism

- Theory arguing that we ought to act in our own self-interest

Groups

- two or more people who are interacting and interdependent

- Share common goals, identity, and norms

In-Group Favoritism

- We favor our own group members

Out-Group & Discrimination

- Out-group bias: negative attitudes toward "them"

- Can lead to stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination

Groupthink

- Desire for harmony overrides realistic appraisal of alternatives

- Common in highly cohesive groups

- Ex: Group decides on a restaurant that half the people don't want. Nobody speaks up because they don't want conflict, so everyone goes and complains quietly

Social Influence

- the process by which individuals thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are affected by others

- ways people change their behavior to "meet the demands" of a social environment

The Need to Belong

Humans are "wired to connect"

- Human beings have a fundamental psychological need to form and maintain strong, stable interpersonal relationships

- Belonging helps survival - cooperation, protection, reproduction

Complementarity

- Different but compatible traits that create a balanced team

- Opposites Attract

Halo Effect

One positive trait shines a "halo" influencing our judgment of their entire character

What is Rejectiong?

- The experience of being excluded, ignored, or devalued in a desired relationship or social interaction

- it's a threat to belonging

Love

is an emotional state that combines intimacy, attachment, and care - motivating us to seek closeness, maintain bonds, and invest in others

Multidimensional emotion

not just a single feeling - includes affective, cognitive, and behavioral components

Social Bond

Promotes connection, trust, and cooperation - essential for human survival and social cohesion

Motivational Force

Drives behavior like caregiving, attachment, and long-term commitment

Sternberg's 3 Componets of Love

- Passion

- Intimacy

- Decision/Commitment

What is Aggression?

the behavior intended to harm another person who is motivated to avoid that harm

Stereotypes

Cognition

- Beliefs about what group members are like

- Can exist without being negative

- Ex: Elderly people are wise

Prejudice

Cognition + Negative Evaluation

- Always involves NEGATIVE feelings or evaluations

- Goes beyond just believing something about the group

- Ex: Not just thinking " Women are bad at math" but DISLIKING them for it

The Outgroup Homogeneity Bias

- The assumption that outgroup members are more similar to each other than ingroup members are to one another

Allport's Contact Hypothesis

- when people from different groups interact regularly, their biases tend to decline