ap psych social psych

attribution theory

the theory that we explain someones behavior by crediting either the situation or the persons disposition

• attribution meaning giving

• disposition = persons biology/nature

fundamental attribution error

the tendency for observers, when analyzing others behavior, to underestimate the impact of situation and to overestimate impact of personal disposition

• people mainly think about who a person is, not necessarily why they are being like that (situation)

• fundamental meaning a base on how something is made, in this case how a belief is formed

peripheral route persuasion

occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues

• cues like speakers attractiveness

• peripheral nerves are those throughout your body, not just in your brain, so incidental cues normally are different then the ones picked up by your brain

central route persuasion

occurs when interested people focus on arguments and respond with favorable thoughts

• gives evidence and arguments that aim to trigger favorable thoughts

• occurs when people are naturally analytical or involved in the issue

• because it is more thoughtful and less superficial, it is more durable and more likely to influence behavior

foot-in-the-door phenomenon

the tendency for people who have first agreed to small request to comply later with larger request

• like if you put ur foot in the pool you are more likely to get your whole body in the pool

• done by Chinese captors

cognitive dissonance theory

the theory that we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts (cognitions) are inconsistent

• for example when we become aware that our attitudes and our actions clash, we can reduce the resulting dissonance by changing our attitudes

• basically we want to reduce conflict in our brain/thoughts

Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment

Zimbardo randomly assigned some volunteers to be guards and instructed them to enforce certain rules. Others became prisoners, locked in barren cells and forced to wear prison outfits. For a day, the volunteers self - consciously played their roles. Most guards developed derogatory attitudes, and made cruel and degrading routines. The prisoners broke down, rebelled, or gave up. After 6 days, study ended. Showed how some people succumbed to situation and others didn’t - person and situation interact.

• the point was to understand how people behave when assigned roles with changing degrees of authority, showing potential for normal people to have cruel and dehumanizing behavior when placed in a situation that encourages this behavior

• examine roles/effects of authority and powerlessness

Asch’s conformity study

as participant in what believe is study of visual perception, take a seat at table with 5 other people. the experimenter asks peopel one by one which of 3 comparison lines is identical to a standard line. you see that it is very easily one line, but eventually the 3rd trial seems as easy but the first person gives what seems is the wrong answer, the next 4 people give the same wrong answer so you get nervous and the experimenter causes you to hesitate but over 1/3 of time these college kids answered wrong with group that answering right alone

• conformity: adjusting out behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard

• showed people were likely to conform to group judgement even if it does not align with personal perception

Milgram’s obedience study

you respond to ads for Yale university study of effect of punishment on learning. asks you and another person to draw paper from hat to see who is teacher and who is learner, you draw teacher and sit in front of a machine which has series of labeled switches, the learner is led to another room and strapped to a chair and there is wires that run to your machine. you are given a task: teach and test learned on list of word pairs and if the learner says wrong answer you flip switch to deliver brief electric shock - starting with slight shock and as get more you move to higher voltage. if you continue after 8th switch learner cries and calls shocks painful (moderate shock), 10th shock (strong shock) says get me out of here, you draw back but experiment says continue you resist but experimenter keeps saying to continue. if continue keep hearing learner shriek in pain, at 220 volt learned doesn’t answer and is silent, experimenter keeps pushing to final 450 volt shock

• main point: investigate how far normal people would go in obeying an authority figure, even when it involved harming someone

• showed that many people were willing to give what they thought were electric shocks to someone, despite them screaming, when told to do so by an authority figure

social facilitation

improved performance on simpler or well-learned tasks in presence of others

• facilitation meaning do so do tasks

• last word is longer than first so get better as have more people

social loafing

tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal then when individually accountable

• people want best for them (do better when alone than in group)

• you are basically lazy when social, like a loaf of bread just sits there

deindividuation

the loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity

• lose sense of personal identity

• like what happens when people move to a popular friend group try to act cooler that who they really are

group polarization

the enhancement of a groups prevailing inclinations through discussion within the group

• talking about an issue → having stronger opinion about it

• polarize = strong view, very one sided

groupthink

the mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives

• people just want to agree, do not care for what

• literally the name: think in a group

norms/social norms

an understood rule for accepted and expected behavior

• prescribe “proper” behavior

• like women in old times norm was to be a stay at home mom and clean the house, couldn’t get an out of house job

just-world phenomenon

the tendency for people to believe the world is just and that people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get

• just meaning like a just legal system

• like karma and the golden rule

ingroup bias

the tendency to favor our own group

• ingroup: “Us” - people with whom we share a common identity

• in meaning in our own area

• bias meaning like one group over another, in this case our group

scapegoat theory

the theory that prejudice offers outlet for anger by providing someone to blame

• someone is the scapegoat (unfair person to blame)

• prejudice: unjustifiable and usually negative attitude toward a group and its members, normally involved stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings, and a predisposition to discriminatory action (cognitive in nature)

other-race effect

the tendency to recall faces of ones own race more accurately than faces of other races

• also called cross-race effect or own-race bias

• more pronounced in adults but developed in infancy

bystander effect

the tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present

• think of the movie clips from health class in elementary school

• people think that someone else is going to help so they do not help

social-responsibility norm

an expectation that people will help those needing their help, even if the costs outweigh the benefits

• responsibility to help people

• like subway hero Wesley Autrey who jumped in subway to protect man having a seizure

social trap/prisoner’s dilemma

situation in which the conflicting parties, by each rationally pursuing their self-interest rather than the good of the group become caught in mutually destructive behavior

• harm collective well-being by pursuing out personal interests

• they just hurt each other and themselves because to selfish to adapt to others POV

mirror-image perceptions

mutual views often held by conflicting people, as when each side sees itself as ethical and peaceful and views the other side as evil and aggressive

• has high ego

• thinks they are supreme over someone who disagrees with them

self-fufilling prophecy

a belief that leads to its own fulfillment

• expectations that influence behavior

• A job applicant believes they will fail an interview so doesn't prepare well enough or performs bad during the interview, making their initial belief come true

superordinate goals

shared goals that override differences among people and require their cooperation

• see themselves as one group, not competing people

• like a group project in school or sport

actor-observer bias

humans tend to attribute their own behavior to situational factors, while attributing the behavior of others to their personality or character

• often blame external situations for our mistakes, while blaming someone else’s mistakes to their flaws

• making themself seem better than other people and pushing other people down

altruism

behaviors that benefit another person, at a cost to the person doing it, without any expectation of reward or reciprocity

• selfless concern for others, people who have a desire to help. 

• prioritize welfare of others over their own

base-rate fallacy

a cognitive bias where people tend to overestimate the likelihood of a specific event occurring, while neglecting the overall base rate or probability of that event in the broader population

• you forget how common something is and only pay attention to the details

• base rate = how common something is

diffusion of responsibility

the diminished sense of responsibility often experienced by individuals in groups and social collectives

• The diffusion has been proposed as a possible mediator of a number of group-level phenomena

• diffusion = getting rid of responsibility

door-in-the-face technique

a two-step procedure for enhancing compliance in which an extreme initial request is presented immediately before a more moderate target request

• Rejection of the initial request makes people more likely to accept the target request than would have been the case if the latter had been presented on its own

• persuasion tactic where start with a large request which is most likely to be rejected, followed by smaller request that you want the person to agree to

elaboration likelihood model

a dual-process theory of persuasion that explains how individuals process information and change their attitudes.

• 2 processes:

  • central route

  • peripheral route

• explains how attitudes form plus change

ethnocentrism

the belief that your own cultural or ethnic group is superior to other cultural or ethnic groups

• big thing in history with Europeans

• ethno = ethnicity, center meaning center of attention so supremacy

false consensus effect

cognitive bias where individuals overestimate the extent to which others share their beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors

• assuming own views are more common than they actually are

• consensus = agreement and false meaning agreement is not true

Latane and Darley decision tree

describe a five-step process during bystander situations:

• potential emergency (a) captures the attention of the individual

• (b) who evaluates the emergency

• (c) decides on responsibility

• and (d) belief of competence

• and (e) makes the decision to help or not

• model that explains how people decide whether or not to help in an emergency

• 5 words in name so 5 steps

Mere exposure effect

repeated exposure to a stimulus increases liking or preference for it

• suggests familiarity can lead to greater liking

• exposure to meerkats repeatedly would make me like them

out-group homogeneity bias

a cognitive bias where people perceive members of an out-group as more similar to each other than members of their own in-group

• more diversity in own group, out group = same (homo)

• out-group = a group they are not part of

self-serving bias

attributing our successes to our efforts but attributing our failures to external factors/other people

• like saying I did well in a gymnastics meet because of my hard work but I did bad because the lights in the gym were to bright

• there is bias towards yourself, to favor things to make yourself look good

social influence theory

the way people are affected by others thoughts, feelings, and actions, leading to changes in their behavior, opinions, or beliefs

• shapes how people think and act

• like how peer pressure influences people

social reciprocity norm

a social rule that people should return favors and other acts of kindness

• like golden rule

• like if my friend drove me to practice, I should drive her to practice sometime to return the favor