Behavioral Sciences MCAT Quick Sheets/Kaplan Ch.10 Social thinking

Interpersonal attraction

is what makes people like each other; influenced by physical attractiveness, similarity of thoughts and physical traits, self-disclosure, reciprocity & proximity

Golden ratio

humans are attracted to individuals with certain body proportions (1.618:1)

Self-disclosure

sharing one's fears, thoughts, and goals with another person and being met with nonjudgmental empathy; deepens attraction and friendship but must be a reciprocal behavior

Reciprocal liking

phenomenon whereby people like others better when they believe the other person likes them

Proximity

being physically close to someone factors in on our attraction to a person

Mere exposure effect (familiarity effect)

people prefer stimuli that they have been exposed to frequently

Agression

a physical, verbal, or nonverbal behavior with the intention to cause harm or increase social dominance; evolutionarily provided protection against perceived and real threats

Amygdala

part of the brain responsible for associating stimuli and their corresponding rewards or punishments (is it a threat or no?)

Prefrontal cortex

brakes of the amygdala, reduces emotional reactivity and impulsiveness; reduced activity of this brain structure has been linked to increased aggressive behavior

Cognitive neoassociation model

we are more likely to respond to others aggressively whenever we are feeling negative emotions, such as being tired, sick, frustrated, or in pain

Attachment

an emotional bond to another person; usually refers to the bond between a child and caregiver; four main types: secure, avoidant, ambivalent and disorganized

Secure attachment

requires a consistent caregiver; child shows a strong preference for the caregiver compared to strangers

Avoidant attachment

occurs when a caregiver has little or no response to a distressed child; child shows no preference for the caregiver compared to strangers

Ambivalent attachment (anxious-ambivalent attachment)

occurs when a caregiver has an inconsistent response to a child's distress, sometimes responding appropriately, sometimes neglectful; child will become distressed when caregiver leaves and is ambivalent when he or she returns

Disorganized attachment

occurs when a caregiver is erratic or abusive; the child shows no clear pattern of behavior in response to the caregiver's absence or presence

Social support

the perception or reality that one is cared for by a social network; can be divided into: emotional, esteem, material, informational, and network system

Emotional support

listening to, affirming, and empathizing with someone's feelings

Esteem support

affirms qualities and skills of person, reminding someone of skills they possess to tackle a problem can bolster their confidence

Material support (tangible support)

providing physical or monetary support; could be a meal or donating money

Informational support

providing useful information to a person (ie. explaining their diagnoses, treatment options, etc.)

Network support

providing a sense to belonging to a person

Foraging

searching for and exploiting food resources; driven by biological, psychological and social influences

Hypothalamus

lateral hypothalamus: promotes hunger (damage=lose interest in eating)

ventromedial hypothalamus: responds to cues that we are full and promotes satiety (damage=obesity b/c never satiated)

Mating system

organization of a group's sexual behavior; different systems include monogamy, polygamy and promiscuity

Monogamy

an exclusive mating relationship

Polygamy

polygyny: involves a male having exclusive relationships with multiple females

polyandry: involves a female having exclusive relationships with multiple males

Promiscuity

a member of one sex mating with any member of the opposite sex, without exclusivity

Mate choice (intersexual selection)

selection of a mate based on attraction; five mechanisms: phenotypic benefits, sensory bias, Fisherian (runaway selection), indicator traits, and genetic compatibility

Mate bias

how choosy members of the species are while choosing a mate; it is an evolutionary mechanism aimed at increasing the fitness of the species

Direct benefits

fitness of species; provide material advantages, protection, emotional support

Indirect benefits

fitness of species; promoting better survival in offspring

Phenotypic benefits

observable traits that make a potential mate more attractive to the opposite sex; traits usually indicate increased production and survival of offspring

Sensory bias

development of a trait to match a preexisting preference that exists in the population

Fisherian (runaway selection)

a positive feedback mechanism in which a particular trait that has no effect or a negative effect on survival becomes more and more exaggerated (ie. peacock)

Indicator traits

traits that signify overall good health and well-being of an organism, increasing its attractiveness to mates (ie. female cats like males with shiny coats over dirty coats)

Genetic compatibility

the creation of mate pairs that, when combined, have complementary genetics (ie. opposites attract)

Altruism

a helping behavior in which the person's intent is to benefit someone else at some cost to him or herself

Empathy

ability to vicariously experience the emotions of another, and it is thought by some social psychologists to be a strong influence on helping behavior

Empathy-altruism hypothesis

one explanation for the relationship between empathy and helping behavior; one individual helps another person when he or she feels empathy for the other person regardless of the cost

Game theory

attempts to explain decision-making behavior between individuals as if they are participating in a game

Evolutionary stable strategy (ESS)

a strategy that, if adopted by a population, cannot be trumped by another strategy because it yields the highest fitness; natural selection will prevent alternative strategies from arising

Hawk-Dove game

represents pure competition between individuals; social influences apply in nature and can result in four possible alternatives for competitors when dealing with strategic interactions: altruism, cooperation, spite and selfishness

Altruism (Hawk-Dove game)

the donor provides a benefit to the recipient at a cost to him- or herself

Cooperation

both the donor and recipient benefit by cooperating

Spite

both the donor and recipient are negatively impacted

Selfishness

the donor benefits while the recipient is negatively impacted

Inclusive fitness

a measure of an organism's success in the population based on how well it propagates ITS OWN genes; also includes the ability of those offspring to then support others

Social perception (social cognition)

provides the tools to make judgments and impressions regarding other people; the way by which we generate impressions about people in our social environment; contains a perceiver, target and situtation

Perceiver

influenced by experience, motives, and emotional state

Target

refers to the person about which they perception is made

Situation

a given social context can determine what information is available to the perceiver

Social capital

the practice of developing and maintaining relationships that form social networks willing to help each other

Cognitive biases

primacy effect

recency effect

reliance on central traits

halo effect

just-world hypothesis

self-serving bias

Primacy effect

the idea that first impressions are often more important than subsequent interactions

Recency effect

the most recent information we have about an individual is the most important for forming our impressions

Reliance on central traits

tendency to organize the perception of others based on traits and personal characteristics of the target that are most relevant to the perceiver

Implicit personality theory

when we look at somebody for the first time, we pick up on one of their characteristics; we then take that characteristic and assume other traits about the person based off of that one characteristic we first picked up on; there are sets of assumptions people make about how different types of people, their traits and their behavior are related

Halo effect

cognitive bias in which judgments about a specific aspect of an individual can be affected by one's overall impression of the individual; tendency to allow a general impression about a person to influence other, more specific evaluations of a person

Just-world hypothesis

in the "just-world" good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people

Self-serving bias (self-serving attributional bias)

the fact that individuals will view their own success based on internal factors, while viewing failures based on external factors; all good things that happen are based on our good traits and behaviors and that all bad things are based on situational factors beyond our control

Locus of control

the tendency for people to assume that they either have control or do not have control over events and consequences in their lives and influences self-serving bias

Self-enhancement

the need to maintain self-worth and can be done through internal attribution of successes and external attribution of failures

Attribution theory

focuses on the tendency for individuals to infer the causes of other people's behavior; two causes for attribution: dispositional (internal) and situational (external)

Dispositional (internal) attribution

those that relate to the person whose behavior is being considered, including his or her beliefs, attitudes, and personality characteristics

Situational (external) atrributions

those that relate to features of the surroundings, such as threats, money, social norms, and peer pressure

Consistency cues

the consistent behavior of a person over time

Consensus cues

the extent to which a person's behavior differs from others; matches others' behavior (dispositional)

Distinctiveness cues

uses similar behavior in similar situations (situational)

Correspondent inference theory

focuses on the intentionality of a person's behavior; when someone unexpectedly does something that either helps or hurts us, we form a dispositional attribution; we correlate the action to the person's personality

Fundamental attribution error

the bias toward making dispositional attributions rather than situational attributions in regard to the actions of others

Attribute substitution

occurs when individuals must make judgments that are complex but instead substitute a simpler solution or heuristic

Actor-observer bias

tendency to attribute your own actions to external causes and others' actions to dispositional causes

Stereotypes

cognitive; occur when attitudes and impressions are made based on limited and superficial information

Stereotype content model

attempts to classify stereotypes with respect to a hypothetical in-group using two dimensions: warmth and competence

Warm groups

those that are not in direct competition with the in-group for resources

Competent groups

those that have high status within society

Paternalistic stereotypes

the group is looked down upon as inferior, dismissed or ignored; low competence/high warmth; low status, not competitive (housewives, elderly people, disabled people)

Contemptuous stereotype

the group is viewed with resentment, annoyance or anger; low competence/low warmth; low status, competitive (welfare recipients, poor people)

Envious stereotypes

the group is viewed with jealousy, bitterness, or distrust; high competence/low warmth; high status, competitive (Asians, Jews, rich people, feminists)

Admiration stereotypes

the group is viewed with pride and other positive feelings; high competence/high warmth; high status, not competitive (in-group, close allies)

Self-fulfilling prophecy

when stereotypes lead to expectations and those expectations create conditions that lead to confirmation of the stereotype

Stereotype threat

concern or anxiety about confirming a negative stereotype about one's social group; can cause reduced performance, encourage self-handicapping strategies, and lower one's personal investment in an activity

Prejudice

affective; an irrational positive or negative attitude toward a person, group, or thing prior to an actual experience

Propaganda

A common way by which large organizations and political groups attempt to create prejudices on others

Power

the ability of people or groups to achieve their goals despite any obstacles, and their ability to control resources

Prestige

the level of respect shown to a person by others

Class

socioeconomic status

Ethnocentrism

refers to the practice of making judgments about other cultures based on the values and beliefs of one's own culture

In-group

a social group with which a person experiences a sense of belonging or identifies as a member

Out-group

refers to a social group with which an individual does not identify

Cultural relativism

the perception of another culture as different from one's own, but with the recognition that the cultural values, mores, and rules of a culture fit into that culture itself

Discrimination

behavioral; when prejudicial attitudes cause individuals of a particular group to be treated differently from others

Individual discrimination

refers to one person discriminating against a particular person or group; conscious or obvious

Institutional discrimination

refers to the discrimination against a particular person or group by an entire institution