Psy 202 (2023)

Social Psychology

The scientific study of the way in which people's thoughts, feelings and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people.

Attitudes

(evaluations of people, objects or ideas) Cognitive Component (thoughts + beliefs): thoughts and beliefs that people form of the attitude object, Affective Component (emotion): emotional reactions to the attitude object, Behavioral Component: how people act towards the attitude object.

Automatic Thinking (Social Cognition)

Quick and automatic "without thinking" without consciously deliberately one's own thoughts, perceptions, assumptions. It is is nonconscious, unintentional, involuntary and effortless (based on past experiences and knowledge of the world).

Controlled Thinking (Social Cognition)

Controlled thinking that is effortful and deliberate, pausing to think about self and enviroment, carefully selecting the right course of action.

Schemas

Mental structures people use to sort and organize things (ex: schema of furniture: bed, chair, sofa).

Stereotypes

Created when schemas are applied to groups. Can be applied rapidly and automatically when we encounter people. Can be automatically triggered under certain conditions.

Implicit Association Test

A test that uses reaction times to measure people's automatic associations between attitude objects and evaluative words. Easier pairings (and faster responses) are taken to indicate stronger unconscious associations.

Prejudice

The attitude towards a group of people (cognitive component \= stereotype, attentive component \= prejeduce, behavioral component \= discrimination).

Explicit Attitude

Attitudes a person can report.

Implicit Attitude

Automatic attitudes we have towards others that influence a person's feelings and behavior at an unconscious level.

How are attitudes shaped?

Opinions, Beliefs, and feelings shaped by social contexts. Plays an important role in how we evaluate and interact with other people, shaped by direct experience of or exposure to things. Can be conditioned (advertisers take advantage of this).

Mere Exposure Effect

The more we are exposed to something the more likely we are to like it.

Cognitive Dissonance

The discomfort we feel when performing an action that opposes our beliefs. Confronted with info that implies we have behaved in ways that are irrational, immoral and stupid. (Example: The subjects in a study who were paid $20 had no problem lying telling a person it was fun when it wasn't but the $1 person thought after lying questioned if it was right since they lied for such a small amount of money).

How to reduce cognitive dissonance

1) Change the behavior to bring it in line with the dissonant cognition 2) Attempting to justify our behavior through changing one of the dissonant cognitions 3) Attempt to justify our behavior by adding new cognitions.

Postdecision Dissonance

Dissonance aroused after making a decision, reduced by enhancing the attractiveness of the chosen alternative and devaluating the rejected alternatives.

Attitude Change

People are likely to change their attitudes to as a result of dissonance to provide justifications (Example: the people who were given $20 to lie were less likely to think the task was fun compared to $1 who justified the task was fun).

The Central Route

People pay attention to arguments, consider all the information, and use rational cognitive processes. Leads to strong attitudes that last over time and are resistant to change.

The Peripheral Route

People minimally process the message. Leads to more impulsive action. Three critical factors influence this: source, context, reciever

Social Perception

The study of how we form impressions of and make inferences about other people

Impression Formation

The process in which an individual develops a schema of some object, person, or group

Attribution Process

How we use information to arrive at casual explanations for events

Display Rules

Particular to each culture and dictate what kinds of emotional expressions people are supposed to show

Emblems

Nonverbal gestures that have well-understood definitions within a given culture; they usually have direct verbal translations, such as the OK sign. They are NOT universal, each culture has their own.

Implicit Personality Theories

A type of schema people use to organize and make sense of which personality traits and behaviors go together. For example, many people believe that someone who is kind is generous as well.

Internal Attribution

The inference that a person is behaving in a certain way because of something about the person, such as attitude, character, or personality (ex: a person woke up late because they are lazy).

External Attribution

The inference that a person is behaving a certain way because of something about the situation they are in (ex: a person woke up late because they missed their alarm, or didn't get enough sleep the night before).

Fundamental Attribution Error

We tend to overemphasize the importance of personality traits and underestimate the importance of situation.

Just World Hypothesis

People are motivated to draw inferences in part by a basic need for order and predictability in their lives.

Stereotype

A generalization about a group of people in which certain traits are assigned to virtually all members of the group, regardless of actual variation among the members.

They all look alike effect

People from different racial groups notice more variation among members of their own race and less variation among people of other races.

Social Identity Theory

The idea that ingroups consist of individuals who perceive themselves to be members of the same social category and experience pride through the group membership.

Ingroup Favoritism

The tendency for people to evaluate favorably and privilege members of the ingroup more than members of the outgroup.

Prejudice

Affective or attitudinal responses associated with stereotypes, usually involving negative judgements about people on the basis of their group membership.

Discrimination

Unjustified and inappropriate differential treatment of people as a result of prejudice against their group

Three steps of social facilitation

Organisms are genetically predisposed to become aroused by the presence of others of their own species, arousal leads to increased performance of the dominant response in that environment, simple dominant responses are improved but more complex responses are impaired because the presence of others may interfere with cognition.

Deindividuation

People lose individuality when they become part of a group. Occurs when people are not self aware or when there is diffusion of responsibility (stanford prison study).

Conformity

Adjusting one's behavior to fit the group majority (elevator test video where when the majority of the people were facing one way you turn the same way to match it).

Informational Influence

The tendency for people to conform when they assume that the behavior of to conform when they assume that the behavior of others represents the correct way to respond. Occurs when there is uncertainty or ambiguity about what is correct, appropriate, or expected.

Normative Influence

The tendency for people to conform in order to fit with the group. Can sometimes cause people to conform even when they believe the group is doing the wrong thing.

Obidience

When a person follows the order of a person of authority

Altruism

Helping without a reward for doing so

Counterbalancing

One way to help deal with possible confounds in experiments, such as "ordering effects" by giving different participants the tasks in different orders.

Personality Traits

A dispositional tendency to act in a certain way over time and across circumstances.

Lexical Hypothesis

Important personality traits willbecome encoded in language as single words.

Big Five

The basic dimensions of personality (created by Lew Goldberg): openness (open to experiences), conscientiousness (order, duty, self-discipline), extraversion (sociability, assertiveness), agreeableness (trust, kindness, cooperation), and neuroticism (anxiety, depression, moodiness, stress).

Greek Theory of Humors

Past personality trait model (made by Hippocrates and his student Galen), says that "humors" (body fluids) produce personality types.

The Myer-Briggs Type (MBTI)

Past personality trait model (based on Carl Jung), there are 16 different types of personality, helps people understand personality differences in the general population.

Limitations of Using Traits As The Units of Personality

Quick to measure but not very deep, Traits predict broad patterns of behaviors better than single instances of behavior, Behavior can vary by situation, but traits do not describe specific situations.

Motives And Goals

Instead of what the person does (traits), focuses on what the person is trying to do (goals/motives). Narrower goals in work, relationships, etc.

Big Three Motives

Power, affiliation, achievement

Narratives

Your personality consists of the stories you tell about yourself (and others tell about you). Includes: the specifics of your story (what happened), How you tell your story, Says something about you whether or not it is true.

Units of Personality

(Dan McAdams) Lvl 1: Dispositional Traits ("psychology of the stranger," no reference to context). Lvl 2: Personal Concerns (attributes that depend on time, place & role (motives, values, beliefs). Lvl 3: Identity ("Who am I?," evolving life story).

Actor/observer Discrepancy

The tendency to focus on situations to explain one's own behavior but to focus on dispositions to explain other people's behavior.

Attributions

People's explanations for why events or actions occur.

Bystander Intervention Effect

The failure to offer help by those who observe someone in need when other people are present.

Companionate Love

A strong commitment based on friendship, trust, respect, and intimacy.

Compliance

The tendency to agree to do things requested by others.

Conformity

The altering of one's behaviors and opinions to match those of other people or to match other people's expectations.

Deindividuation

A state of reduced individuality, reduced self-awareness, and reduced attention to personal standards; this phenomenon may occur when people are part of a group.

Elaboration Likelihood Model

The idea that persuasive messages lead to attitude changes in either of two ways: via the central route or via the peripheral route.

Group Polarization

The process by which initial attitudes of groups become more extreme over time.

Groupthink

The tendency of a group to make a bad decision as a result of preserving the group and maintaining its cohesiveness; especially likely when the group is under intense pressure, is facing external threats, and is biased in a particular direction.

Inclusive Fitness

An explanation for altruism that focuses on the adaptive benefit of transmitting genes, such as through kin selection, rather than focusing on individual survival.

Modern Racism

Subtle forms of prejudice that coexist with the rejection of racist beliefs.

Nonverbal Behavior

The facial expressions, gestures, mannerisms, and movements by which one communicates with others.

Outgroup Homogeneity Effect

The tendency to view outgroup members as less varied than ingroup members

Passionate Love

A state of intense longing and desire.

Personal Attributions

Explanations of people's behavior that refer to their internal characteristics, such as abilities, traits, moods, or efforts.

Persuasion

The active and conscious effort to change an attitude through the transmission of a message.

Prosocial Behaviors

Actions that benefit others, such as doing favors or helping.

Situational Attributions

Explanations of people's behavior that refer to external events, such as the weather, luck, accidents, or other people's actions.

Social Facilitation

The idea that the presence of others generally enhances performance.

Social Identity Theory

The idea that ingroups consist of individuals who perceive themselves to be members of the same social category and experience pride through their group membership.

Social Loafing

The tendency for people to work less hard in a group than when working alone.

Social Norms

Expected standards of conduct that influence behavior.

Stereotype Threat

Fear or concern about confirming negative stereotypes related to one's own group, which in turn impairs performance on a task.

"what is beautiful is good" stereotype

The belief that attractive people are superior in most ways.

Freud Beliefs

Unconscious forces, such as wishes and motives influence behavior.

ID

selfish individual, childish, primitive. Wants rewards, avoids punishment (I take it because it is mine).

Ego

Rational part of mind, gives reasons (maybe ask for it before taking it).

Superego

Morality (It's wrong to steal).

Topographical Model of the Mind

conscious (aware), preconscious (below the level of immediate conscious awareness), unconscious (unaware)

Sexual Instincts

Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, Genital Psychosexual Stages

Typologies

Discrete categories in which we place people

Traits

Behavioral dispositions that endure over time and across situations

Eysenck's Hierarchical Model of Personality

Three superordinate traits (Introversion-extraversion, emotional stability, psychoticism (or constraint)

The Big Five

Five basic personality traits: Openness to experience (imaginative vs down to earth, variety vs routine, independent vs conforming), Conscientiousness (organized vs disorganized, careful vs careless, self-discipline vs weak-willed), Extraversion (social vs retiring, fun-loving vs sober, affectionate vs reserved), Agreeableness (softhearted vs ruthless, trusting vs suspicious, helpful vs uncooperative), Neuroticism (worried vs calm, insecure vs secure, self-pitying vs self-satisfied).

Idiographic

Person-centered focus on individual lives and how are characteristics integrated (the self)

Nomothetic

Focused on traits comparing to others (us vs others)

The Objectified Self

Researchers have differentiated between the self as the knower ("I") and the self as the object that is known ("me")--called the objectified self

The Theory of Objective Self-Awareness

Self-awareness leads people to act in accordance with their personal values and beliefs

Self-Discrepancy Theory

Awareness between personal standards and goals leads to strong emotions. Self-awareness dependent on frontal lobes.

Self-schema

Network of interconnected knowledge about the self. Memories, beliefs, generalizations about the self-help filter information.

Working Self-Concept

The immediate experience of self, limited to the amount of personal info that can be processed cognitively at any given time.

Self-esteem

Whether people perceive themselves to be worthy or unworthy, good or bad.

Carl Rogers

Believed that people's self-esteem is based on how they believe others perceive them (reflected appraisal)

Sociometer Theory

An internal monitor of social acceptance (high self-esteem) or rejection (low self esteem). Monitors the likelihood of social exclusion. Like a gas meter, we mainly tend to notice it only when it's low.

Better-than-average effect

The finding that most people think they are above average on various personality trait and ability dimensions.

Unrealistic perception of their personal control over events, Unrealistically optimistic about their futures

People think they have more control than they do (people fear flying more than car accidents because they think they are safe because they have control over the situation).

Self-evaluative Maintenance

people can feel threatened when someone close to them outperforms them on a task that is personally relevant (must distance yourself from the relationship or select a different aspiration).