Unit 9: Social Psychology

Attitudes

A settled way of thinking or feeling about someone or something, typically reflected in behavior

Mere-Exposure effect

we develop a preference for things merely because we are familar with them

Central Route of Persuasion

to persuasion involves deeply processing the content of the message

Peripheral Route of Persuasion

when we are persuaded by something other than the message’s content (ex. a image of a celebrity)

Cognitive Dissonance theory

the discomfort a person feels when their behavior does not align with their values or beliefs

• when their actions contradict their belief

Door-in-the-Face strategy

A strategy for gaining compliance by making an extremely large request that is sure to be refused so that a smaller subsequent request will seem reasonable

ex: when a friend asks to borrow an unreasonable sum of money, to which you say no, only to turn around and ask for a smaller sum that you agree to give

Reciprocity (Norm)

the act of responding to a positive action with another positive action

Attribution theory

states that there are two ways our brain seeks to explain someone’s behavior: their personality or their circumstances

ex:We may unconsciously apply this theory when we see someone shouting on public transport. You may blame their character, assuming they are an angry person

Consistency

refers to how similarly the individual acts in the same situation over time

False-consensus effect

The tendency for people to overestimate the number of people who agree with them

Self-Serving bias

involves taking personal credit for successes while blaming negative outcomes on external factors

Prejudice

attitudes toward persons, groups, and situations before there is any experience with or study of them

Ethnocentrism

the belief that one’s culture (e.g., ethnic, racial) is superior to others, is a specific kind of prejudice

In-group bias

the tendency to favor one’s own group over another

ex: supporting and favoring their team over rival teams

Contact theory

suggests that prejudice and conflict between groups can be reduced if members of the groups interact with each other

The Robbers Cave Experiment

illustrates both how easily out-group bias can be created and how superordinate goals can be used to unite formerly antagonistic groups

Instrumental aggression

aggressive behavior intended to achieve a goal

Hostile aggression

aggression that is committed in response to a threat or insult

Bystander effect

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

Conformity

the act of changing your thinking (opinions, judgements, behaviors) so that they match the thing of others or the norms of social groups or situations

Solomon Asch (1951)

experimented with investigating the extent to which social pressure from a majority group could affect a person to conform

social impairment

When the task being observed was a difficult one rather than a simple, well-practiced skill, being watched by others actually hurt performance

Social loafing

is the phenomenon when individuals do not put in as much effort when acting as part of a group as they do when acting alone

Group polarization

is the tendency of a group to make more extreme decisions than the group members would make individually

Groupthink

phenomenon in which members of a group will conform to majority opinion to maintain group harmony rather than stating their own opinions

Person Perception

mental processes we use to form judgements & draw conclusions about the characteristics & motives of other people

What are the 4 key principles of person perception?

1: Our reactions to others are determined by our perceptions of them

2: Our self perception influences how we perceive others & how we act on our perceptions

3: Our goals in a situation determine the amount of information we collect about others

4: In every social situation we evaluate people in terms of how we expect them to act in a situation

Fundamental Attribution Error

the tendency for observers, when analyzing one’s behavior to underestimate the impact of the situation & overestimated the impact of the person

ex: attributing a coworker's lateness to the fact that they are unreliable rather than that they got stuck in traffic

Actor Observer Bias

tendency to attribute our own behavior to external, situational characteristics while ignoring the effects of personal factors

ex: As you are walking down the street, you trip and fall. You immediately blame the slippery pavement, an external cause. However, if you saw a random stranger trip and fall, you would probably attribute this to an internal factor, such as clumsiness or inattentiveness

Blaming the Victim

tendency to blame an innocent victim of misfortune for someone having caused the problem or not taking steps to avoid it

Just-World Hypothesis

assumption that the world is fair and people get what they deserve

Halo Effect

when positive impressions of people lead to positive views about their character and personality traits

ex: attractiveness, and the tendency to assign positive qualities to an attractive person

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

you tend to behave in ways that reinforce your beliefs and actions, thus causing them to come true

The Rosenthal Effect/Pygmalion Effect

high expectations lead to improved performance, while low expectations lead to poor performance

Elaboration Likelihood Model

a theory in psychology that describes how attitudes are formed and changed through different routes of persuasion, namely the central route and the peripheral route

Leon Festinger

• published a theory of cognitive dissonance

• proposed that humans strive for internal psychological consistency to function mentally

• if we experience internal inconsistencies we experience psychological discomfort

Normative Social Influences

behaviors that are motivated by the desire to gain social acceptance & approval

Informative Social Influences

behaviors that are motivated by the desire to be correct

The Stanford Prison Experiment

Goal: to understand the development of norms and the effects of roles, labels, and social expectations

Results: the powerful role that the situation can play on human behavior

The Milgram Experiment

Goal: measure the willingness of study participants to obey authority figures who instructed them to perform acts that conflict with their personal beliefs

Results: Found at 65% of participants would continue to the highest shock value

Compliance

changing one’s behavior due to the request or direction of another person

Foot in the Door technique

when the persuader begins with small requests and gradually increases the demands of each request

That’s Not All Technique

presenting an initial large request and then before the person can respond immediately makes the request more attractive

ex: “You know what? I usually sell this for $10, but I'll give it to you for $5.”

Low-Ball Technique

an attractive offer is presented at first and when a person commits to it, it is changed at the last second

ex: when a car dealership lists a car for $14,000 to get you to agree to buy it and later changes the price to $16,000

Social Facilitation

improved performance of tasks in the presence of others

Social Inhibition

tendency to perform tasks more poorly or slower in the presence of others

Social Striving

enhanced work ethic while working towards attaining a shared goal

Deindividuation

a phenomenon in which people engage in antisocial behavior in situations in which they believe they cannot be personally identified

Social Trap

when individuals pursue their self-interest which in the long term end up in a situation that is not beneficial for anyone involved

ex: smoking, alcohol consumption

Diffusion of Responsibility

a person is less likely to take responsibility for action/inaction when other bystanders or witnesses are present

In Group & Out Group

In: groups of which we are members

Out: groups in which we do not belong

Discrimination

occurs when prejudice attitudes result in unjustified behaviors

Scapegoat Theory

prejudice provides an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame

Out-Group Homogeneity

tendency to see members of out groups as very similar to one another

ex: thinking all rich kids are spoiled

Superordinate Goal

shared goals that override differences among people and require their cooperation

Altruism

helping another period with no expectation of personal reward or benefit