CCE: Social Psych

IMPRESSION FORMATION

Our impressions of other people are influenced by a number of factors, including the primacy effect and trait negativity bias.

PRIMACY EFFECT

The tendency to be swayed most by information received early in an interaction.

TRAIT NEGATIVITY BIAS

The tendency to weigh negative information more heavily than positive information.

SCHEMATA

Cognitive structures that organize past information and experience, providing a framework for processing new information.

PROTOTYPES

More abstract than schemata, prototypes consist of knowledge about the most representative or ideal example of a particular category.

SCRIPTS

Also known as event schemas, scripts provide knowledge about the appropriate sequence of behaviors in specific social situations.

CENTRAL TRAITS

Traits that influence impressions more than others, such as 'warm' and 'cold'.

SOCIAL CONTEXT

The environment surrounding an interaction that can impact impression formation.

PSEUDOPATIENT STUDY (ROSENHAN)

A study demonstrating the effects of social context on impression formation, where pseudopatients were viewed as schizophrenic despite normal behavior.

FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR

The tendency to overestimate dispositional causes and underestimate situational causes when making attributions about behavior.

ACTOR-OBSERVER EFFECT

The tendency to overestimate dispositional factors for others' behavior and situational factors for one's own behavior.

SELF-SERVING BIAS

The tendency to attribute our own successes to internal factors and failures to external factors.

DISPOSITIONAL ATTRIBUTIONS

Attributions that relate behavior to internal attributes of the actor.

SITUATIONAL ATTRIBUTIONS

Attributions that relate behavior to external factors in the environment.

STABLE ATTRIBUTIONS

Attributions that assume behavior is the result of enduring factors.

UNSTABLE ATTRIBUTIONS

Attributions that assume behavior is the result of temporary factors.

SPECIFIC ATTRIBUTIONS

Attributions that view behavior as restricted to a limited number of events or circumstances.

GLOBAL ATTRIBUTIONS

Attributions that view behavior as occurring in many different situations.

MOOD

A dispositional attribute that can influence behavior.

ABILITY

A dispositional attribute that can influence behavior.

DESIRE

A dispositional attribute that can influence behavior.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TASK

A situational factor that can influence behavior.

SOCIAL SITUATION

A situational factor that can influence behavior.

PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

A situational factor that can influence behavior.

Heider's Attributions for Failure

Used two types (dispositional vs. situational and stable vs. unstable) to describe attributions for success and failure.

Stable Dispositional Factor

A factor that is consistent over time, such as lack of ability.

Unstable Dispositional Factor

A factor that can change, such as lack of effort during the job interview.

Stable Situational Factor

A consistent external factor, such as a job market with too much competition.

Unstable Situational Factor

A variable external factor, such as bad luck.

Gender and Attributions

The impact of gender on the types of attributions people make in western societies.

Deaux and Emswiller (1974) Findings

Male and female participants attributed the success of a man on a masculine task to ability and a woman on the same task to luck.

Attribution of Success on Feminine Tasks

Both male and female participants attributed the success of a man or woman on traditionally feminine tasks to ability.

Men's Attribution of Success

Men tend to attribute their own success to high levels of ability and failure to a lack of effort or unfair treatment.

Women's Attribution of Success

Women attribute their own success to high effort or outside help and failure to a lack of ability.

Heuristics

Mental shortcuts or rules-of-thumb used when making attributions and social judgments.

Representativeness Heuristic

Basing judgment about the likelihood of a person, object, or event belonging to a category on how representative it is, ignoring probability data.

Availability Heuristic

Judging the likelihood or frequency of an event based on how easily information about it can be retrieved from memory.

Tversky and Kahneman (1973) Study

Participants estimated the number of men and women in a list based on the frequency of famous names, despite equal numbers.

Simulation Heuristic

Using mental simulations of an event to determine the likelihood that the event will happen.

Medvec, Madey, and Gilovich (1995) Findings

Silver medalists appeared less happy than bronze medalists because it was easier for them to imagine winning gold.

Anchoring and Adjustment Heuristic

Using an initial value (anchor) as the basis for making a judgment or estimate, then adjusting from that value.

Cognitive Errors and Biases

Baumeister and Bushman (2011) propose that, to deal with information overload, the human mind often relies on automatic processing that facilitates the quick understanding and integration of incoming information but may also lead to cognitive errors and biases.

Base Rate Fallacy

The base rate fallacy is the tendency to underutilize or ignore relevant statistical (base rate) data and to rely, instead, on irrelevant information when making probabilistic judgments about an event or characteristic.

Confirmation Bias

The confirmation bias is the tendency to seek or pay attention to information that confirms one's beliefs and ignore/invalidate information that does not.

Illusory Correlation

The illusory correlation is the belief that two characteristics, events, or other variables are related when they actually are not.

False Consensus Effect

The false consensus effect occurs when we overestimate the degree to which the beliefs, opinions, and behaviors of others are similar to our own.

Gambler's Fallacy

The gambler's fallacy is the tendency to believe that the likelihood of a particular chance event is affected by the occurrence of previous events when there is actually no relationship between the events.

Affiliation

Affiliation is considered to be an innate motive that contributes to the initiation and maintenance of interpersonal relationships.

Misery Loves Miserable Company

Schachter concluded that people like to affiliate most with others who are in similar circumstances.

Affiliation (Arousability)

According to Johnson and colleagues (1999), the degree to which a person's central nervous system is physiologically aroused by external stimuli affects his/her desire to affiliate.

Gender Differences in Affiliation

The research has shown that women generally spend more time than men engaged in conversation, are more likely to talk to people of the same gender, and may affiliate more than men do in public places.

Arousal and Introverts

Eysenck proposed that introverts are people who are high in arousability and are likely to avoid affiliating with others to keep their arousal from reaching an uncomfortable level.

Arousal and Extroverts

In contrast, extroverts are low in arousability and seek affiliations with others to stimulate their arousal to an optimal level.

Example of Confirmation Bias

has been used to explain a number of phenomena including paranormal beliefs, hypochondriasis and paranoia, and the persistence of stereotypes.

Example of Illusory Correlation

One explanation for this error is that it's the result of a schema that links the two variables.

Example of False Consensus Effect

As an example, Wolfson (2000) asked college students who did or did not use drugs to estimate drug use by their peers and found that students who used drugs provided significantly higher estimates of peer drug use.

Example of Gambler's Fallacy

The gambler's fallacy is illustrated by a gambler who is convinced that a string of losses must be followed by a win.

Example of Gambler's Fallacy in Parenting

Parents who think their next child will be a girl since they've already had four boys and no girls.

Factors Affecting Affiliation

Research on affiliation has confirmed that it is affected by several factors including anxiety, arousability, and gender.

Affiliation and Anxiety

Anxious people prefer to affiliate with other anxious people.

Affiliation in Public Places

Women may affiliate more than men do in public places.

Conversation Time by Gender

Women generally spend more time than men engaged in conversation.

Same Gender Conversation

Women are more likely to talk to people of the same gender.

Tend-and-befriend

A primary stress response for women characterized by seeking social support and nurturing relationships rather than engaging in fight-or-flight responses.

Factors impacting attraction

Competence, similarity, and reciprocity

Law of Attraction (Byrne)

Byrne's (1971) law states that we are attracted to others with similar attitudes because interactions with them are more rewarding.

Gain-loss effect

The gain-loss effect predicts that people are most attracted to individuals who show increasing liking for them.

Attraction in romantic relationships

Men focus on physical attractiveness while women are more interested in a potential mate's status and resources.

Evolutionary psychology theory of attraction

This theory emphasizes gender differences in reproductive strategies influencing attraction.

Men's primary reproductive goal

Men aim to pass on their genes by widely dispersing their genetic material, leading to attraction to young, physically attractive women.

Desirable physical traits for men

Research indicates men find traits like large breasts, narrow hips, and a waist-to-hip ratio of about 0.7 desirable.

Women's primary reproductive goal

Women aim to invest in a limited number of children, seeking men with adequate resources and traits like loyalty.

Sexual jealousy

Sexual jealousy is a universal phenomenon, though cultures may differ in behaviors that elicit it.

Gender differences in jealousy

Men's jealousy is primarily elicited by sexual infidelity, while women's jealousy is more provoked by emotional infidelity.

Physiological reactions to infidelity

Studies show that physiological reactions to both sexual and emotional infidelity are similar for men and women.

Emotional stability

A trait in men that women find attractive, as it helps ensure commitment to the relationship.

Reciprocity

The tendency to be attracted to those who like us back.

Competence

The quality of being competent or intelligent, which increases attraction.

Similarity

Having similar attitudes, which makes interactions more rewarding and increases attraction.

Close friendships in women

Female friendships are characterized by a reliance on verbal communication and self-disclosure.

Close friendships in men

Male friendships often develop out of shared activities.

Duration of friendships

Studies indicate that male friendships tend to endure longer than female friendships.

Physical attractiveness

A key quality that men focus on when attracted to potential romantic partners.

Status and resources

Qualities that women prioritize when selecting romantic partners.

Emotional infidelity

A type of infidelity that provokes jealousy in women due to concerns about resource availability.

Sexual infidelity

A type of infidelity that provokes jealousy in men due to threats to reproductive goals.

Gender differences in sexual jealousy

Affected, to some degree, by cultural expectations.

Emotion-in-Relationship Model

Berscheid's model that addresses events triggering strong emotions in close relationships and proposes an innate mechanism generating emotion when a partner's behavior violates expectations.

Social Exchange Theory

Predicts that a person's decision to leave a relationship depends on the relationship's costs and rewards.

Equity Theory

Our perception of equity in a relationship is more important than the absolute magnitude of inputs and outcomes.

Person Perception

Involves identifiability and personality as key concepts in understanding what it means for a person to be a person.

Online Communication

Allows opportunities to broaden and strengthen social relationships but may be impersonal and lack depth.

Core Self-Schemas

Relatively stable and salient across situations.

Peripheral Self-Schemas

Embedded in core self-schemas, more malleable, and tied to immediate social conditions.

Barnum Effect (Forer Effect)

The tendency to accept vague, general descriptions of oneself as accurate.

Self-Perception Theory

Proposes that people acquire information about themselves by observing their external behaviors when internal cues are insufficient.

Epinephrine Studies (Schachter & Singer)

Supported self-perception theory by confirming that people acquire information about themselves by observing their external behaviors.

Overjustification Hypothesis

Predicts that external rewards for a previously intrinsically interesting task will decrease intrinsic interest in that task.

Social Comparison Theory (Festinger)

Predicts that people use similar others as sources of comparison to evaluate their own attitudes and behaviors.

Strong emotional reaction example

A husband reacts strongly upon learning his previously faithful wife is having an affair.