PSC 1 Midterm 3 SG

Dispositional Aspects of Social Psychology

i.e. Individual

• Personality

• Temperament

Situational Aspects of Social Psychology

i.e. context

• Environments/Surroundings

  • ex. people or culture

Both Dispositional and Situational

• Interaction

  • leads to behavior

Attitudes

overall evaluation of ourselves, other people, ideas, and objects in our world

Aspects of Attitudes

• affect

• behavior

• cognition

Affect

feelings and emotions about the subject

Behavior

predisposition towards acting a certain way

Cognition

beliefs, thoughts, or ideas about the subject

What Purpose Do Attitudes Serve?

1. Knowledge: make our lives more efficient

2. Defense: help us feel better about ourselves

3. Tools: seek rewards, avoid punishment

4. Identity: express ourselves

Persuasion

presenting information to essentially change one’s opinion or actions

Central Route

when people are motivated and able to process information (i.e. effortful)

Peripheral Route

unrelated cues guide decision (i.e. low effort)

Personal Attribution

• explanations that refer to internal characteristics

  • abilities, traits, moods, or effort

Situational Attributions

• explanations that refer to external events

  • weather, luck, accidents, or other people’s actions

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency for observers to underestimate the impact of the situation and overestimate the impact of personal distribution.

Just-World Hypothesis

• if you do good things, good things happen, and if you do bad things, bad things happen

Cognitive Dissonance

an unpleasant state of tension created when confronted by a discrepancy between attitudes and actions

• can either change attitude or action

Foot-in-the-Door

if you agree to a small request, you are more likely to comply with a large request later

Door-in-the-Face

if you refuse a large request, you are more likely to comply with a smaller request

Intrapersonal Factors (Within)

• emotions

• attitudes

• the self

• social cognition

Interpersonal Factors

• group processes

• helping

• harming

• relationships

Norms

unwritten rules of society

• guide our behavior without us knowing it

Social Role

• set of behaviors that is expected in a particular setting or group

Social Scripts

• how people behave in certain situations given where they are from

Normative Social Influence

• when you behave in a certain way to fit in with others

Informational Social Influence

• changing your behavior to match others and because you believe the others are correct

Conformity

adjusting our behavior or thinking to a group standard

Asch Conformity Experiment

studied how people change their behavior due to pressure from other people

People are more likely to conform if:

1. They are made to feel incompetent or insecure

2. They are in a group of 3 or more

3. All others in the group agree on an idea

4. There is admiration for the group

5. Others are watching their behavior

Milgram’s Obedience Experiments

• Experimenter: urges participant to keep going

• Learner: pretends to feel pain

• Teacher/Subject: administers “shocks”

People obey if:

• The person who is giving orders was close to the participant and was perceived to be an authority figure

• Authority figure backed up by a powerful or prestigious institution

• The victim/learner is depersonalized or at a distance

• No role models for defiance

Group Dynamics

how the presence of others affect our thoughts/behavior

Groupthink

we change what we want to say to match that of what others are saying

Group Polarization

we are more likely to shift towards the more extreme end of where most people tend to be after a group discussion

Social Loafing

the more people are added to a group, the more likely each person who has been in the group at the beginning are likely to contribute less

Deindividualization

• Increased responsivity to situational cues

• Loss of normal inhibitions

Social Inhibition

social pressure makes one fold

Social Facilitation:

social pressure makes one soar

Proximity

determines the quality of relationships

Mere Exposure Effect

repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases how much we like it

Physical Attractiveness Stereotype

attractive people are perceived to be smarter, funnier, and more likable than less attractive people

Homophily

• overall attractiveness

• age

• religion

• race

• education

• mental abilities

• personality traits

• social attitudes