Social Psychology Exam #2

Introspection

people look inward and examine own thoughts, feelings, and motives

Self-Awareness Theory

Focus attention on ourselves: evaluate and compare behaviours to internal values

Spot Light Effect

Belief others are paying more attention to our apperence/behavior then they actually are

Casual Theories

Theories about causes of one’s own feelings and thoughts

Self-Perception Theory

attitudes and feelings are uncertain: infer by observing behaviour and situation

Over-Justification Effect

trying to explain one’s own behavior by overemphasizing extrinsic reasons instead of intrinsic

Two-Factor Theory of emotion

Finding the right label for an emotion, experience then find explanation, can lead to missattribution of arousal

Social Comparison Theory

theory we learn about our own abilities by comparison to others

Upward Social Comparison

when you compare to people you believe are smarter/better

Downward Social Comparison

comparing to people you precieve are less fortune

Ingratiation

overally going out of our way to get people to like us

self-promotion

bragging

exemplification

focus on moral behavior

Intimidation

Seem tough: want to not be bothered

Supplication

put yourself down with expectation that other people will bring you up

Impression Management

careful use of self-presentation strategies to make a good impression

Self-Monitoring

individuals tendency to engage in self-presentation strategies

Self-Handicapping

creating a “handy” excuse for anticipated failure (physical or verbal)

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

a feeling of discomfort caused by preferring an action that is different from their beliefs

Hypocrisy Paradigm

Causes cognitive dissonance by making people aware of the conflict between action and belief

Self-Affirmation

theory stating that people are driven to protect their "self-integrity"

Justification of Effort

tendency for someone to increase their liking of something they have worked hard to get

Post-Decision Dissonance

convince ourselves the choice we made is more attractive

Counter-attitudinal advocacy

Stating an opinion/attitude that is counter to their own private opinion/attitude

Insufficient Justification Effect

phenomenon where people change personal attitudes to match a behavior they do not have strong external reason for doing it

Insufficient Punishment

Dissonance aroused when there is a lack of sufficient external justification → item/activity devalued

“Ben Franklin” Effect

doing someone a favor with little/or no external justification → can create a more favorable attitude toward person

Independent View of self

viewing yourself as a distinct, unique, and separate individual (western cultures)

Interdependent view of self

viewing oneself as fundamentally connected to, and defined by, one's relationships, social roles, and group memberships (eastern cultures)

Kim & Markus, 1999

• american cultures values uniqueness & freedom

• east asian cultures value conformity and connectedness

Gabriel & Gardner, 1999

• women define themselves through relationships → greater recall of relationally-focused emotional events & stronger intention to help close friends

• Men define themselves through teams → greater recall of group-based emotional events and strong inclinations to prioritize group-well being

Beaman et al. 1979

• self-awareness influenced older kids

• Mirror and asking name and address decreased transgression rate

• mirror has not affect on anonymous children

Gilovich et al, 2000

• spotlight effect

• overestimate how much actions and appearance are noticed by others

Automatic vs. Controlled Processing

Automatic - low effort, little to no conscious attention

controlled - high effort, required conscious focus

Representativeness Heuristic

mental shortcut that helps people estimate probability of an event by comparing to existing mental stereotype

Halo vs Horns effect

Halo - postive impression, make you assume person in good at everything else

horns - negative impression, make you judge the person as incompetent

Intrinsic motivation

The drive to preform an activity because you find it enjoyable

Extrinsic motivation

Drive to preform task to earn an external reward

Task Contingent

pre-planned backup task put into action when primary task fails

Performance Contingent Rewards

extrinsic incentives given to individuals based on how well they preform

Misattribution on Arousal

experiences physical symptoms and mistakenly identifies the wrong cause and labels it with a different emotion

Dutton and Aron

• suspension bridge effect

• demonstrated misattribution of arousal

False Consensus

cognitive bias where people overestimate how much other people share their beliefs

False Uniqueness

cognitive bias where people underestimate how many other people share their positive traits

Physical vs. Verbal self-handicapping

Physicals - actively creating concrete actions that sabotage your chance of success

Verbal - verbally decaring an obstacle before a performance rather then taking physical action

Consonant Information

data or ideas that agree with a persons existing attitudes

Dissonant Information

mental discomfort a person feels when holding two or more contradictory beliefs

Why is lowballing effective?

Effective because it exploits human psychological mechanisms surrounding commitment and sunk coast fallacy

Dissonance & Immoral behavior

mental stress you feel when your actual behavior contradicts your moral self image

Affectively based attitudes

• social identity products

• evaluation of a person that is rooted in emotions not facts

Behaviorally based attitudes

• attitude rooted in an individuals observation of their own behavior toward an attitude object

Cognitively based attitudes

• Utilitarian Products

• evaluation of an attitude object that is grounded in individuals beliefs

Who? - Yale Attitude Change Approach

• the communicator

• credibility

  • expertise & trustworthiness

  • sleeper effects

• Attractiveness

  • Physical Appeal

  • Similarity

What? - Yale Attitude Change Approach

• the message

• one or two sided

• Primacy vs Recency Effects

• Appeals to reason vs emotion

Whom? - Yale Attitude Change Approach

• the audience

• attentive vs. disengaged

• age

• intelligence/self esteem

• mood

Central route

person is persuaded by substance and logic of the argument

Peripheral Route

person is persuaded by surface-level cures (attractiness etc)

Motivation for each route?

central - when topic has high personal relevance

peripheral - when topic has low personal relevance

Heuristic - systematic Model of Persuasion

heuristic processing - relies on simple rules of thumb or surface level clues (lab coat etc)

Systematic processing - involve deep, analytical facts

Fear Appeals

arouses fear to change attitudes by highlighting a threat

When is using fear in persuasion most effective?

Most effective when combined with a clear solution rather then just raising panic