Social Psychology Wks 3-6

What is causal inferences?

Attribution: Theories that describe how people explain the causes of behaviour.

What did Fritz Heider (1958) claim?

We are all scientists. We observe, analyse and try to explain causes of behaviour.

What is Correspondent inference theory and who?

Edward Jones & Keith Davies (1965)

Our goal is to determine whether behaviour corresponds to an individual’s attitude or an enduring personal trait.

Inferences are based on 3 factors:

1. Choice

2. Expectedness

3. Effects

What is Covariation Theory and who?

Harrold Kelley (1967)

To attribute causes, we make multiple observations (in two or more settings) in which everything stays the same except the variables we are interested in testing (IV).

What is the covariation principle?

People attribute a behaviour or effect to a potential cause that occurs at the same time and changes together with it over time.
It assumes that people are rational.

What is Melvin Lerner (1980) belief?

Belief in a just world. Individuals get what they deserve in life - an orientation that leads people to disparage victims.

What is the availability heuristic?

The tendency to estimate the likelihood that an event will occur by how easily instances of it come to mind.

What is the false-consensus effect?

The tendency for people to overestimate the extent to which others share their opionions, attirbutes and behaviours.

What is the base-rate fallacy?

The findings that people are relatively insensitive to consensus information presented in the form of numerical base rates.

What is the fundamental attribution error?

The tendency to focus on the role of personal causes and underestimate the impact of situations on people’s behaviour.

What is priming?

The tendency to reduce cognitive uncertainty heightens the importance of first impressions. Asch.

What is the need for closure?

The desire to reduce cognitive uncertainty, which heightens the importance of first impressions.

What is the information integration theory?

Impressions are formed by combining all available information about a person, weighted by its importance.

What is Attribution theory?

A group of theories that describe how people explain the causes of behaviour.

What is the embodiment effect in social perception?

Our brain uses physical senses and motor systems to process social information. Warm-cold is one of the two most powerful dimensions in terms of the way we judge others. The other dimension is competent-incompetent.
For example, rating a target as having a warm personality while holding a cup of hot tea.

What is implicit personality theory?

A network of assumptions that people make about the relationships among traits and behaviours.
For example, If you meet someone who smiles and acts warm, you automatically assume they are also honest and kind, even without proof.

What is impression formation?

The process of integrating information about a person to form a coherent impression.

What is summation vs averaging? Who?

Summation model of impression formation: Your overall impression is the direct sum or cumulative total of the individual values of all observed traits.

Averaging model: Your overall impression is not a raw total, but the mathematical average of the values of all perceived traits.

Norman Anderson (1968)

What did McElwee et al., 2001 conclude?

People tend to see their own skills and traits as particularly desirable for others to have.

What was Bargh, Chen and Burrown (1996) study?

Priming individuals with stereotype-related words can unconsciously influence their physical behaviour.

Do attitudes predict behaviour - Allan Wicker (1969)

Attitudes hardly predict individual differences in behaviour.

Daniel Batson (1997) - Moral hypocrisy

The motivation to appear moral to oneself and others while avoiding the actual cost of being moral.

People want the social and personal rewards of morality without doing the hard work.

How is behaviour best predicted?

In a combination of implicit and explicit measures.

What are the principles of aggregation?

Combining multiple measurements of observations to create a more stable, reliable and accurate estimate, rather than relying on any single measurement.

Attitude specificity and Who?

Icek Ajzen and Martin Fischbein (1977, 2005)

The more specific the attitudes are, the more predictive they will be of behaviour.

What is the theory of planned behaviour?

A psychological model that states human action is guided by an individual’s intention to perform a specific behaviour.

What is cognitive dissoance theory?

People experience an aversive emotional state (dissonance or mental discomfort) when they hold conflicting beliefs or when their behaviour clashes with their values.

This tension causes individuals to restore balance by changing their actions, shifting their attitudes or rationalising the behaviour.

What is the self-affirmation theory?

People often experience a self-image threat after engaging in an undesirable behaviour.

They can compensate by affirming another aspect of the self.
If people’s self-concept is threatened in one domain, they will compensate either by refocusing or by doing good deeds in another domain.

What is insufficient justification?

Reduction of dissonance by internally justifying one’s behaviour when external justification is ‘insufficient.’

What is the Over-justification effect?

The result of bribing people to do what they already enjoy doing; causing them to view their actions as a chore and externally controlled, rather than intrinsically appealing.

What is Self-perception Theory?

When we are unsure of our attitudes, we infer them as much as someone observing us would, by looking at our behaviour and the circumstances under which it occurs.

What is selective exposure?

The tendency to seek information and media that agree with one’s views and to avoid dissonant information.

What is the Facial Feedback Effect?

The tendency for facial expressions to trigger corresponding feelings such as fear, anger or happiness.

Stereotypes vs prejudice

Stereotypes: Beliefs/associations that link whole groups of people with certain traits or characteristics.

Prejudice: Negative feelings about others because of their connection to a social group.

What is modern racism?

A form of prejudice that surfaces in subtle ways when it is safe, socially acceptable and easy to rationalise.

What is aversive prejudice?

A tendency to ignore the existence of discriminated groups, avoid contact and at most, be polite but correct and cold when dealing with groups.

What is ambivalent prejudice

Prejudice characterised by the coexistence of both positive and negative attitudes toward an outgroup, resulting in mixed and often contradictory reaction towards its members.

What is the Robber’s Cave Experiment?

In a 1954 study, researcher Muzafer Sherif divided boys at a summer camp. He then successfully reduced this conflict by introducing shared, cooperative goals that required both groups to work together.

What is ingroup favouritism?

The tendency to discriminate in favour of ingroups over outgroups.

What is social identiy theory?

People favour ingroups over outgroups to enhance their self-esteem.

What is the stereotype content model?

The relative status and competition between groups influence group stereotypes along the dimensions of competence and warmth.

What is the outgroup homogeneity effect?

The tendency to assume great similarity among members of outgroups than among members of ingroups.

Social dominance orientation

A desire to see one’s ingroup as dominant over other groups, and a willingness to adopt cultural values that facilitate oppression over other groups.

What is superordinate goal?

A shared aim that can be achieved only through cooperation among individuals or groups.

What is relative deprivation?

Feelings of discontent aroused by the belief that one fares poorly compared with others.

What are meta-stereotypes?

A person’s belief about the stereotypes that members of an outside group hold regarding their own group.

What was Michael Norton’s experiment?

White participants would rather lose the game than risk appearing racist by paying any attention to the race of the people in the photograph.