PSYCH 221 EXAM 3 ULITMATE SET

Conformity

When we change our behavior to match the behavior of others, or the norms of the group

Informational conformity

Conforming because you want to be correct or accurate

Normative conformity

Conforming because you’re concerned about what others will think of you

Benefits of conformity

1. Signals smoother interaction

2. Very central to safety (in uncertain/dangerous situation, safest thing to do is what other people are doing)

Compliance

Changing because someone else is asking you to

Two mechanisms for gaining compliance

1. Mindlessness

2. Contrast principle

Mindfulness

Acting as a moderator that disrupts automatic, unthinking obedience to social influence

Contrast principle

We judge things relative to our most recent experiences

Six strategies of compliance

1. Reciprocation

2. Commitment and consistency

3. Social validation

4. Liking

5. Authority

6. Scarcity

Reciprocation

People feel obliged to return favors, gifts, or kindnesses received from others

Commitment and consistency

Individuals feel a strong inner pressure to align their behaviors with past commitments and self-image

Social validation

If other people are doing it, we’re more likely to do it (e.g., tip jars)

Liking

More likely to agree to requests from those they like (e.g., using friends to sell things)

Authority

More likely to comply with authority status people, job titles

Scarcity

Scarce things perceived as more valuable

Obedience

Specific to where an authority figure is asking or telling you to do something

Fundamental attribution error

Seeing others’ behavior as due to their dispositions/personality

Factors that affect conformity

1. Unanimous group

2. Public commitment

3. Group size

4. Social status of the other people

Four warning signs to predict divorces

1. Criticism

2. Contempt

3. Defensiveness

4. Stonewalling

Criticism

Criticizing dispositional attributions, focusing on their character

Contempt

More extreme version of a criticism, someone is viewed as worthless or inferior, recalling trying to insult someone

Defensiveness

Not accepting responsibility for something, response to someone else’s complaint or criticism, making an excuse

Stonewalling

A person shuts down and doesn’t say anything or very little

Complaint

Focusing on their behavior, something they did

Repair attempts

Behaviors aimed at decreasing negativity in arguments

Capitalizing

To respond positively and enthusiastically to it

Inattention blindness

Failure to notice things that you should notice

The four Preconditions for Helping

1. Noticing event

2. Interpreting situation as problem/emergency

3. Assuming responsibility

4. Knowing how to help

5. Actually providing help

Direct help

Doing something yourself, CPR

Indirect help

Calling for help, police and 911

That’s-not-all technique

A technique that increases compliance by “sweetening” an offer with additional benefits.

Social validation

An interpersonal way to locate and validate the correct choice.

Social influence

A change in overt behavior caused by real or imagined pressure from others.

Reactance theory

Brehm’s theory that we react against threats to our freedoms by reasserting those freedoms, often by doing the opposite of what we are being pressured to do.

Personal commitment

Anything that connect an individual’s identity more closely to a position or course of action.

Participant observation

A research approach in which the researcher infiltrates the setting to be studied and observes its workings from within.

Norm of reciprocity

The norm that requires that we repay others with the firm of behavior they have given us.

Low-ball technique

Gaining a commitment to an arrangement and then raising the cost of carrying out the arrangment.

Labeling technique

Assigning a label to an individual and then requesting a favor that is consistent with the label.

Injunctive norm

A norm that defines what behaviors are typically approved or disapproved.

Foot-in-the-door technique

A technique that increases compliance with a large request by first getting compliance with a smaller, related request.

Expert power

The capacity to influence other people as a function of a person’s presumed wisdom or knowledge.

Door-in-the-face technique

A technique that increased compliance by beginning with a large favor likely to be rejected and then retreating to a more moderate favor.

Disrupt-then-reframe technique

A tactic that operates to increase compliance by disrupting one’s initial, resistance-laden view of a request and quick reframing the requests in more favorable terms.

Descriptive norm

A norm that defines what behaviors are typically performed.

Bait-and-switch technique

Gaining a commitment to an arrangement, then making the arrangement unavailable or unappealing and offering a more costly arrangement.

Two-factor theory of love

The theory that love consists of general arousal (factor 1), which is attributed to the presence of an attractive person and labeled as love (factor 2).

Sociosexual orientation

Individual differences in the tendency to prefer either unrestricted sex (without the necessity of love) or restricted sex (only in the context of a long-term, loving relationship).

Secure base

Comfort provided by an attachment figure, which allows the person to venture forth more confidently to explore the environment.

Secure attachment style

Attachments marked by trust that the other person will continue to provide love and support.

Passionate love

A state of intense longing for union with another.

Nurturant love

Feelings of tenderness and concern, central to parents caring for their children.

Need to belong

The human need to form and maintain strong, stable interpersonal relationships.

Need-based rule

Each person in a social relationship provides benefits as the other needs them, without keeping account of individual costs and benefits.

Factor analysis

A statistical technique for sorting test items or behaviors into conceptually similar groupings.

Avoidant attachment

Attachments marked by defensive detachment from the other

Anxious/ambivalent attachment style

Attachments marked by fear of abandonment and the feeling that one’s needs are not being met.

Social responsibility norm

The societal rule that people should help those who need them to help.

Reciprocal aid

Helping that ours in return for prior help.

Pure (or true) altruism

Action intended solely to benefit another.

Prosocial behavior

Action intended to benefit another.

Pluralistic ignorance

The mistaken impression on the part of group members that, because no one else is acting concerned, there is no cause for alarm.

Personal norms

The internalized beliefs and values that combine to form a person’s inner standards for behavior.

Mood management hypothesis

The idea that people use helping tactically to manage their moods.

Inclusive fitness

A measure of success in passing one’s genes, including directly, by producing one’s own offspring, and indirectly, by assisting one’s relatives who share common genes.

Empathy-altruism hypothesis

The presumption that when one emphasizes with the plight of another, one will want to help that other for purely altruistic reasons.

Empathetic concern

Compassionate feelings caused by taking the perspective of a needy other.

Diffusion of responsibility

The tendency for each group member to dilute personal responsibility for acting by spreading it among all other group members.

Arousal/cost-reward model

The view that observers of a victim’s suffering will want to help to relive their own personal distress.

You want to buy a digital camera for yourself. When you go to an electronics store, you find one on the shelf that’s priced low. As you’re about to buy the camera, you notice that it does not come with a power cord, memory card, or battery—so you purchase all of these separately. The total cost of everything is greater than what another store has listed the same camera as costing, but that camera included all the accessories. You may have been a victim of the:

Low-ball technique

A commitment that someone makes is most likely to be followed through when that commitment is:

Public

Chapter 6 describes the odd phenomenon where certain “resistance-skills” education programs (for example, teaching students to “just say no” to alcohol or drugs) have been found to increase (rather than decrease) the use of harmful substances. In other words, these types of programs tend to backfire. Why does this appear to happen?

These programs convey the message that these activities are what other people typically do.

Imagine that a saleswoman at a tropical resort says you can experience the thrill of a hand-gliding lesson for only $100. Then, before you can say anything or make a decision, the saleswoman says she’ll drop the price to only $50. The saleswoman may be trying to influence you using:

The that’s-not-all technique

A boss warns all of his new employees to never go into his office while he’s not there. However, these warnings only increase the employees’ desire to disobey the boss, and so they often go into his office when he’s gone and look around. The employees’ behavior is consistent with:

Reactance theory

The foot-in-the-door and the low-ball techniques both take advantage of the principle of:

Commitment and consistency

Your textbook describes a strange case of mass hysteria, where large numbers of Londoners left the city because a soldier named Bell had predicted that the city would be destroyed by an earthquake on a particular day. Your textbook points out that the hysteria was probably due to:

The London residents themselves, who copied each others’ behavior.

In research described in Chapter 8, how did men and women differ in their perceptions of a woman having a conversation with a man?

Females viewed the woman as less seductive than did males.

Companionate love is most likely to be felt toward:

Family members

The hormone testosterone is related to __________, whereas oxytocin is related to __________.

Sexual desire in both men and women; sexual orgasm in both men and women.

From what your textbook discusses, which statement is most accurate about how people view sexual and emotional infidelity?

Most men report that they would be more upset by a partner’s sexual infidelity than emotional infidelity.

__________ describes love as the misinterpretation of general arousal to an attractive person.

The two-factor theory

What reason is given by your textbook for why men tend to focus on women’s age and physical attractiveness (instead of their status and resources) as a determinant of heterosexual romantic attraction toward them?

Women’s bodies are invested in reproduction.

In a study (Clark & Hatfield, 1989) described in detail in the textbook, how did college students react to an attractive person of the opposite sex asking them to “go to bed” with them?

None of the women and a majority of the men agreed to have sex.

You’re a junior-high school teacher who wants to increase the amount of helping your students give to each other. According to research on labeling effects, which of the following strategies is most likely to be successful?

Tell the children that they are kind and helpful people.

Josh believes that people should help those who are in need of help. This belief would be central to:

The social responsibility norm

The arousal/cost-reward model tries to explain ___________ whereas the negative state relief model tries to explain ___________.

Helping in emergencies; helping in non-emergency situations

Kenny is walking downtown when they see a very drunk man sitting on the sidewalk. Kenny sees dozens of people walking by the man, and assumes that others don’t care about helping him because they don’t think the man’s condition is serious. Kenny’s assumption is best described by:

Pluralistic ignorance

People will occasionally avoid asking for help and avoid accepting help because these people are trying to:

Uphold a positive self-image

In one study described in the textbook, students at Florida State were put into different mood states and then given a chance to volunteer for a nonprofit organization. The researchers found that participants who were in a(n) __________ mood state were most like to consider the costs and benefits of helping, before deciding what to do.

Neutral

Chapter 9 explains how behavioral genetics are used to study prosocial behavior. For instance, research that compares identical and nonidentical twins have found that:

Identical twins are more similar in their helping behavior than nonidentical twins are.