Social Psychology - Exam 4 topics

What creates conflict?

social dilemmas, competition, perceived injustice, misperception, simplistic thinking

Social Trap

situation in which conflicting parties each pursuing its self-interest, become caught in mutually destructive behavior

The Prisoner's Dilemma

a particular "game" between two captured prisoners that illustrates why cooperation is difficult to maintain even when it is mutually beneficial

Tragedy of the Commons

the tendency of a shared, limited resource to become depleted because people act from self-interest for short-term gain

Fundamental attribution error

tendency to attribute others' behavior to their dispositions and our own behaviors to our situations

Evolving motives

The reasons people do things are constantly changing

Non-zero-sum games

With cooperation, both can win

Resolving social dilemmas?

Regulation

Make the group small

Communication

Change the payoffs

Appeal to altruistic norms

Sherif's Robbers Cave Experiment

Created 2 groups of Boy Scouts that introduced competition; limited resources cause conflict

Equity

distribution of rewards in proportion to individuals contributions

What makes an inequitable relationship?

one in which resources, power, emotional labor, or rewards are distributed unevenly

Mirror-image perceptions

reciprocal views of each other often held by parties in conflict

Evil leader

good people illusion; leaders are bad, people are good

Simplistic thinking

When tension rises, rational thinking becomes difficult (sees to emotion)

- simplistic and stereotyped views of the enemy

How can peace be achieved?

contact, cooperation, communication

Contact

predicts decreased prejudice; friendship, equal-status contact (prerequisite)

Cooperation

common external threats build cohesiveness; superordinate goals

Ways of Communication are

bargaining, mediation, and arbitration

Bargaining

seeking an agreement to a conflict through direct negotiation between parties

Mediation

a neutral third-party attempts to resolve a conflict

Arbitration

a neutral third-party imposes a settlement

What influences the judgement of clinic judgements?

Hindsight & overconfidence, Self-confirming diagnoses, Clinical (intuition) vs. statistical prediction

What Cognitive Processes Accompany Mental Health Issues?

Depression, anxiety & shyness, loneness, stress

Depressive realism

the tendency of mildly depressed people to make accurate rather than self-serving judgments, attributions, and predictions

Explanatory style

one's habitual and usual way of explaining life's events

How we explain our behavior:

locus, stability, globally

No depression... (failure)

external, unstable, specific

Depression... (failure)

internal, stable, general

Self-presentation theory

we feel anxious when motivated to impress others but have self doubts

Over personalizing situations

tendency that breeds anxious concern and in extreme cases, paranoia

stress...

increases vulnerability to illness and disease

What feeds one another?

loneliness, depression, and shyness

Approaches to treatments include

breaking vicious circles, and maintaining change through internal attributions for success

Explanatory style therapy

reversing negative beliefs about oneself and future

Social skills training

getting practice in safe situations; develops confidence

Maintaining change through internal attributions for success

social interactions; weight loss; knowing that it's YOU that made the change

Close relationships

- Foster self-esteem and well-being

- less likely to die prematurely

- confiding is more beneficial than suppressing

Conviction rate for no eyewitness testimony =

18%

Conviction rate for eyewitness testimony =

72%

What case is related to strong emotions and traumas that may corrupt eyewitness memories?

Cotton Case

What case is related to the Misinformation Effect and false confessions?

Central Park Five

Retelling

people cannot separate real from false memories, retelling commits people to their recollections

To reduce error:

train police interviewers and minimize false identifications

When training police interviewers...

first, eyewitness gives unprompted recollections

then, interviewers ask evocative questions

To minimize false identifications...

automatic, quick identifications are more accurate (10-12 secs)

use foils similar to suspect, a no suspect-line up, a sequential lineup, a blind interviewer, and scripted and neutral questions

no post-identification feedback (no "good job", etc.)

Sequential lineup

suspects are shown one at a time; usually pictures

What other factors influence juror judgements? (Defendant)

Physical attractiveness, similarity to jurors

What other factors influence juror judgements? (Victim)

Attractiveness, suffering

What other factors influence juror judgements? (Judge)

Not ignoring inadmissible evidence (not allowable) -> reactance, sensitization to the inadmissible info

What influences the individual juror?

- Juror Comprehension

- Jury Selection

Juror Comprehension deals with...

increasing juror's understanding, giving access to transcripts, using more effective presentation methods

Jury Selection...

"Death-Qualified" jurors may produce a bias jury as they are more concerned with crime control, and more prone to favor the prosecution

Group polarization

deliberation (discussions) may make the group's initial leanings stronger

Leniency

When the majority does not prevail, it usually shifts to acquittal

Minority influence

minority jurors will be most persuasive when they are self-confident, consistent, and persistent

A ____ person jury is the most preferable

12

12-person juries...

have a greater chance of diversity, are easier to resist group pressure, and more accurately recall trial testimonies

Psychological effects of Climate Change

natural disasters (displacement and trauma), increased aggression (conflict), climate anxiety (a negative impact of functioning)

Increased materialism surged...

between the 1970s and the 1980s

Across _____________ GDP, happiness levels off

$20,000

World Happiness Report key factors are:

GDP per capita, healthy years of life expectancy, freedom from corruption, freedom to make life decisions, social support, and generosity

Adaptation-level phenomenon

our tendency to form judgments relative to a neutral level defined by our prior experience; getting "used" to a new level

Social comparision

upward comparison increases want; downward increases contentment and sometimes the desire to help others

Ways of enhancing happiness are...

acting happy, seek work and leisure that engages your skills, take control of your time, give your body the sleep it needs, exercise, experience nature, realize enduring happiness doesn't come from "making it", focus beyond the self, nurture your spiritual self, & give priority to close relationships