PSYC100 - Social Psychology Notes

define social psychology

the study of how people influence other people (whether it's behavior, believes, or attitudes)

humans are VERY social beings

what to know involving social psychology

1. we love to assign causes to behaviors

2. we love to think that we are special

3. we are super likely to discriminate others -> us vs them

4. we conform

5. you must obey

what does attribution mean

assigning cause to behavior

describe fundamental attribution error

Overestimate the impact of dispositional influences on behavior

Attribute the behavior of others to internal (or dispositional) causes (personality, likes, and so forth), while ignoring or underestimating the effects of external (situational) factors. We underestimate how the environment effects behavior and overestimate how the behavior of others causes behavior.

give an example of the fundamental attribution error

He chocked; she is a coward; they are just lazy; these students do not want to learn or study; that professor is just mean.

describe self-serving bias

attribute successful outcomes of one's own behavior to internal causes and unsuccessful outcomes to external situation causes

give an example of self-serving bias

A student gets an "A" on a test, so s/he feels great, intelligent, and studied hard. However, if the student did not do well, then it is because the teacher grades too hard, the test was too difficult, or there was not enough time, etc.

describe in-group bias

a social group to which one belongs and feels a sense of membership. basically, you favor those you identify with

describe out-group homogeneity

a social group to which one does not belong. you tend to view the individuals in that group as being very similar to each other

describe prejudice

a harmful conclusion about a group of people (internal, you have prejudice thoughts)

describe stereotype

an over-generalized idea about a group of people (can be positive or negative)

describe discrimination

an action taken from prejudice (external, an actual action)

describe adaptive conservatism

the reason we tend to do this (prejudice/stereotype/discrimination) is due to evolutionary reasons. as we evolve, it was dangerous to come in contact with people who are different than you (different tribe would kill you). we developed this evolutionary bias to like people like ourselves and dislike people who are different

what is the tactic used to combat prejudice

contact theory

describe contact theory

contact between hostile groups will reduce animosity if they are made to work towards a superordinate goal

describe conformity

tendency to alter behavior as a result of group pressure

describe the asch studies

whole group gives wrong answers about line height and one participant changes behavior even though they know it's wrong

what fraction of participants conformed in the asch studies

about 1/3 of the participants conformed

what percentage of participants conformed at least once in the asch studies

70% conformed at least once

what strengthened conformity in the asch studies

(1) when the group is unanimous and (2) size: 5-6 most likely (any larger was not much of a difference)

describe the milgram obedience experiment

Shows that regular people would do murderous things. Had a teacher and a learner, only one real participant, errors led to shocks which increased with each shock → found that vast majority of people would go so high with the voltage that it could kill somebody. He did this study over and over in different settings and people were more likely to obey.

describe social roles

the kind of roles you take on in life

describe de-individuation

engage in uncharacteristic behavior because of a new identity you take on

describe stanford prison experiment

showed how we de-individuate AND become the roles we are given. philip zimbardo has students play the roles of the prisoner and prison guards in the basement of psychology building. they were given uniforms and numbers for each prisoner

what was the psychological mechanism shown in the stanford prison experiment

people tend to adopt the identity of the role that they are given

what is social cognition

how we store and retain information about other people and ourselves

describe self-fulfilling prophecy

when our expectations cause us to act in a manner to bring about behaviors that confirm our expectations. if you believe a certain thing, that thing is more likely to happen

describe hindsight bias

tendency of people to overestimate their ability to have predicted an outcome that could not possibly have been predicted. saying you knew something that was unlikely to happen would happen AFTER the fact.

"i knew it all along" effect

describe cognitive dissonance

holding inconsistent cognitions arouses psychological tension that people became motivated to reduce.

is an unpleasant state of psychological tension or arousal (dissonance) that occurs when two thoughts or perceptions (cognitions) are inconsistent; typically results from the awareness that attitudes and behavior are in conflict