General Psychology - Final (Dr. Herman)

Social Psychology

branch of psychology that studies how a person's thoughts, feelings, and behavior are influenced by the presence of other people and by the social and physical environment.

Sense of self

Who you are in relation to others,

which is influenced by social, cultural, and

psychological experiences.

Person perception

refers to the mental processes we use to form judgments and draw conclusions about the characteristics of other people.

Happens with minimal interaction, basically our first impressions. Can be a tenth of a second and evaluations are made.

How does person perception happen?

Four key components that influence decisions

1.Your reactions to others are determined by your perceptions of them, not by who they really are.

2. Your self-perception also influences how you perceive others and how you act on your perceptions.

3. Your goals in a particular situation determine the amount and kinds of information you collect about others.

4. In every situation, you evaluate people partly in terms of how you expect them to act. This comes from Social Norms.

Halo effect

Cognitive bias that once there makes it difficult to allow new information to provide a more accurate view

Social norms

the "rules" or expectations for appropriate behavior in a particular social situation.

Social categorization

the mental process of categorizing people into groups based on their shared characteristics (clothing, age, gender), it is conscious or unconscious

Explicit cognition

deliberate, conscious mental processes involved in perceptions, judgments, decisions, and reasoning.

Implicit cognition

automatic, unconscious mental processes that influence perceptions, judgments, decisions, and reasoning.

Usually triggered automatically by prior experiences or beliefs and can be both positive and negative.

How does implicit cognition happen?

There may be evolutionary origins for our automatic reactions to others. Ex: facial features considered attractive are similar across cultures and ages. Even babies less than one week old show facial preferences.

What are the origins of implicit cognition?

Implicit personality theory

assuming that certain types of

people share certain traits and behaviors; a network of assumptions or beliefs about the relationships among various types of people, traits, and behaviors

Based on previous social and cultural experiences that influence cognitive schemas or mental frameworks you hold about traits and behaviors associated with different "types" of people. Physical appearance is particularly influential.

What is the implicit personality theory based on?

Attribution

he mental process of inferring the causes of people's behavior, including one's own

Fritz Heider Attribution Theory

suggests how we explain someone's behavior is the result of either the situation or the person's disposition/internal characteristics.

Situational attribution

focus blame on the situation (environment, economy, traffic)

Internal attribution (Dispositional attribution)

focus blame on the person or the person's

characteristics or personality.

Fundamental attribution error

We overestimate the impact of the personal disposition and underestimate the impact of the situation.

Attitudes

feelings, based on our beliefs, that predispose our reactions to objects, people, and events.

Emotions, behaviors, cognitions; as a result, attitudes can affect actions, though actions can affect attitudes as well

Three components of attitudes

Roleplaying

What affects attitudes

Stanford prison experiment demonstrated the powerful influence of situational roles and conformity to implied social rules and norms. "What we do, we become"

What was the Stanford prison experiment

Cognitive Dissonance

unpleasant state of psychological tension (dissonance) resulting from two inconsistent thoughts or perceptions(cognitions).

Typically results from the awareness that attitudes and behavior conflict.

How does cognitive dissonance happen

we want to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when our thoughts (cognitions) are inconsistent with our actions.

Why does cognitive dissonance make us rationalize things

Sour grapes rationalization

defense mechanism where individuals justify their feelings of rejection or failure by suggesting that the situation is not as bad as it seems

Our attitudes

What can our actions lead us to change because of cognitive dissonance

Social influence

our conformity, our compliance, and our group behavior.

Conformity

adjusting opinions, judgments, and behaviors so that they match those of others or the norms of a social group or situation.

Conformity may happen early on in life but begins to peak in early adolescence.

When is conformity most common in life

Conformity takes place more often in collective cultures as opposed to individualistic cultures.

Where does conformity happen

1. You are strongly attracted to a group and want to be a member of it.

2. Your opinion is not the majority. (Involves at least 4 or 5 who are in agreement.)

3. It is difficult to speak out in front of a group.

Why do we conform

Normative Social Influence

influence resulting from a person's desire to gain social acceptance and approval or avoid disapproval.

Information Social Influence

influence resulting from a person's willingness to accept other's opinions about reality because we want to be correct but are uncertain or doubt our own judgment.

Goal: Would people still conform to the group if the

group opinion was clearly wrong.

Objective task: are simple lines the same size.

Results: participants will conform even when the

group judgment was clearly incorrect.

What was the Solomon Asch experiment?

obedience (compliance)

Milgram studied

1. Most complied to the very last shock.

2. People seemed to comply because orders

were given by a legitimate authority figure.

3. Some did stop but only when teachers

observed others refusal.

4. More likely to give shocks when teachers and

learner were in separate rooms.

Ultimately two-thirds of the subjects continued

to administer shocks all the way to the full 450-

volt level despite hearing protests from the

learner in another room.

Milgram's shock experiments results

1. A previously well-established framework to

obey

2. Gradual, repetitive escalation of the task

3. Experimenter's behavior and/or reassurance

4. Physical and psychological separation

What caused people to obey in Milgram's experiment

foot-in-the-door phenomenon

if you first agreed to a small request, you would later comply with a larger request.

door-in-the-face technique

first persuader makes a large request that you're certain to refuse. Later makes a much smaller request and you feel obliged or more likely to comply.

That's not all technique

make a request and before they can refuse, lower the request or add an incentive.

Low-ball technique

the persuader gets a person to commit to a low-ball offer they have no intention of

keeping, then the price is suddenly increased

social facilitation

stronger performance on easy or well learned tasks in the presence of others (as well as poorer performance on difficult

tasks.)

Even if you don't want to do something in front of others, if it's well learned will perform well and poorly if not when others are present.

what is an example of social facilitation

social loafing

phenomenon when people in a group exert less effort than they would if working independently

social striving

phenomenon when people tend to work harder when they are in groups than when they are alone

Deindividuation

abandon self-awareness and self-restraint in anonymous group situation. Key is feeling both aroused and anonymous

more likely to do something wrong or something they normally would find uncomfortable

if someone feels anonymous they are

group polarization

groups that share opinions, ideas and attitudes become more extreme over time

group think

when desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic discussion of alternatives

prejudice

means prejudgment a negative attitude toward a specific social group

stereotypes

a generalized belief about a group of people. Often underlie a prejudicial emotions. hard to change. They simplify complex human traits and behaviors, leading to misconceptions.

discrimination

unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group or its members. Ultimately, when prejudice is displayed behaviorally

ingroup-outgroup phenomenon (ingroup - people that are similar to us; outgroup - people that are different from us)

why can't prejudicial attitudes be changed

Ethnocentrism

the belief that one's culture or ethnic group is superior to others

the cross-race effect

the tendency to recall faces of one's own race more accurately than faces of other races; believe that members of a race look alike

when establishing meaningful relationship with all races/cultures

when is the cross-race effect mitigated

scape goat theory, blaming the victim, just-world hypothesis

why is there prejudice

scape goat theory

prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing some to blame

blaming the victim

tendency to blame an innocent victim of misfortune for having caused the problem or not avoiding it

just-world hypothesis

belief that the world is just, that people get what they deserve and deserve what they get, and the world needs to be fair, victims of the world deserve to suffer

hindsight bias

the tendency to overestimate one's ability to have foreseen or predicted the outcome of an event; telling someone else a bad event was obviously going to happen

self-serving bias

the tendency to attribute successful outcomes of one's own behavior to internal causes and unsuccessful outcomes to external/situational causes

in group

social group to which a person belongs

out group

social group to which a person does not belong

in our in group we view people as varied and diverse, in our out group everyone is similar (the out group homogeneity effect)

how do we view people in the in/out groups

in group bias

the tendency to judge the behavior of the in groups members favorably and out group members unfavorably

one to believe their in group is dissimilar or diverse in character or content

what does in group bias cause

1. proximity: geographic nearness/familiarity. mere exposure effect: when we are repeatedly exposed to something or someone (novel stimuli) our liking to them/it increases

2. physical attractiveness

3. similarity (less important in some eastern cultures

4. the situations in which we interact: happy, intoxicated, physically aroused by exercise, more likely to rate others as attractive. (if we anticipate that they like us, we are more likely attracted to them

5. socio-economic and cultural environment - food in short supply, prefer heavier women, opposite where resources are abundant

what is the hierarchy of attraction

feel good, do good effect

why do bystanders help

feeling guilty, seeing others who are willing to help, perceiving the person as deserving help, knowing how to help, a personalized relationship

what increases the likelihood of bystanders to help

reciprocity norm

expectation that we should return help to those who help us; if someone gives you something or does you a favor, you feel obligated to return the favor

foot in door, door in face, thats not all, and low ball

what work with the reciprocity norm

social-responsibility norm

we should help those who need our help

altruism

the unselfish regard for the welfare of others

the rule of commitment norm

once you make a public commitment, there is psychological and interpersonal pressure on you to behave consistently with your earlier commitment

bystander effect, diffusion of responsibility

why people dont help

bystander effect

when someone is less likely to give aid because others are represent. Assume someone else will do it or if no one does anything, you dont as well

diffusion of responsibility

phenomenon in which the presence of other people makes it less likely that any individual will help someone in distress because the obligation to intervene is shared among all the onlookers

being in a big city or very small town; vague or ambiguous situations; when personal costs outweigh the benefits; embarrassed to step up in front of other; afraid to do the wrong thing

reasons for the diffusion of responsibility