Social Psych. First Exam

What is self expansion theory?

We have a drive to expand ourselves through relationships - Inclusion of others in our self concept

E.g., finding a partner and becoming one team

more schemas - more chances I am good at something!

Social identity theory?

Social groups in identity

Our self concept and self esteem are shaped by our membership in social groups

e.g. You want to belong to a Good group, like an esteemed school or a really good sports team

go oilers!

What is social competition?

Competing with a specific outgroup

e.g. 2 hockey teams

Domain relevance - Has to be relevant to what you care about

What is domain relevance?

The idea that we have our domains, e.g., playing hockey, and depending on domain relevance people succeeding or failing at hockey affects us negatively or positively

(I train at hockey forever and someone does bad, it’s relevant to my domain - I’m happy they didn’t do well. They do well, I feel bad)

What is individiual mobility? (your hockey team is doing poor)

Just leave! Support a new hockey team.

More harsh example - Mysogynistic power structures cause women to want to ‘leave’ the concept of being a woman, but that’s not really possible so they say ‘I’m not like other girls!!’

What is optimal distinctiveness theory?

We need to feel like we belong, but still unique individuals - I need to be distinct or else I can’t compare myself to others!

e.g. I hold the same positive values as everyone else, but I like this really niche band so I am special.

Independent versus interdependent selves?

Independent - Stable, internal, self expression, promote your own goals

interdependent - Flexible, connected with social context, external/public, promote other’s goals (relationships with others define you!)

What is automaticity?

Mostly unintentional - unconcious thought processes that guide you through the parts of your day you’ve repeated many times (Sometimes it makes errors, like putting milk in the pantry.)

Can be intentional/learned! E.g., playing instruments become automatic if you do it long enough.

What is cognitive misers? (View of people)

we are ALL cognitive misers, we are all naive scientists

Conscious processing takes energy and attention, and has limitations - We rely on mental shortcuts, herustics, schemas, stereotypes, etc.

WE CUT CORNERS

What’re motivated tacticians? (View of people)

Core idea - we DON’T cut corners, we are actually strategic thinkers

Rather than taking shortcuts, we evaluate all our goals and motives, and decide how much thinking power to invest in each thing

e.g. walking and talking, you might give more power to talking and walk a little funny

BOTH COGNITIVE MISERS (CORNER CUTTERS) AND NAIVE SCIENTISTS (ANALYTICAL AND LOGICAL REASONING)

What is priming?

preparing associations

e.g. watching a scary movie primes you to think a scary sound is an intruder

Hawthorne effect

What’s the halo effect?

Cognitive bias where a positive impression of a person or brand influences how we feel about them in unrelated areas

Good impression - Smart is a positive!

Bad impression - Elitist…

What’re maximizers and satisficers?

Maximizers: Do a lot of research and explore every option before deciding something

Satisficers: Pick something and say, “Good enough!”

Generally more happy with their choice

How do you measure the unconcious?

Implicit association test - quickly associating words and pictures (Racism, ageism, etc. tests)

Eye tracking

Psychophysiological measures (Biological processes in the brain, e.g. neurotransmitters)

What are heuristics?

Simple thinking strategies

Automatic and unconscious

ignores information

What’s the click-whirr heuristic?

Trigger response!

“Enjoy your movie!” “You too!”

What’s representativeness heuristic?

Mammals are smart in our mind, so when asked to think of a smart animal we would more likely guess dolphin than ant!

Availability heuristic?

When we assume things that are easier to think of (cognitively available) are more likely to be true or happen

E.g. Car crashes vs. heart attacks

we assume car crashes are more common because it’s easier to imagine

Anchoring and adjustment?

Comparison to anchor

e.g. You ask, is the moon more or less than 3 million km away?

People will guess around that mark!

Reality is 300,000 km

What is fundamental attribution error?

When we attribute other people’s actions to their identities rather than the environment or context

Persistent even when we know the context!

Cultural differences

What is belief perseverance?

Beliefs that persevere in the face of contradiction

People come up with explanations for why their beliefs are real, usually leads to science denial

Explicit vs. implicit bias

Explicit:

Concious mind

Known to person

deliberate

questionnaires, interviews, etc.

Implicit:

Unconscious mind

Unknown to person

Automatic

Latency response, observational measures, etc.

Examples of biases?

Decision to shoot tasks (Life-or-death decisions, very quick)

Biased memories (memories aren’t always accurate, we remember what we want to)

E.g.s of memory accuracy?

Primacy and recency (We remember first and last)

Implanted memories (You can convince people things that didnt happen)

Rosey retrospection (We remember things more positively; link to nostalgia)

When does attitude predict behaviour?

Minimal social influences (E.g. social pressure)

attitudes are very specific to behaviour

Really strong attitudes

What is the theory of planned behaviour?

The idea that attitudes, subjective norms, and percieved control lead to a behavioural intention which then leads to behaviour

e.g.

I love animals

Everybody is going vegan

It’s not that tough for me to become vegan

→ I intend to become vegan

→ I become vegan

What’re some impacts of behaviour on attitudes?

Fake it til you make it (e.g. Gender roles, stanford prison study, you pretend to be something long enough you become it)

External and intrinsic rewards (E.g. Peg turning task - People paid 1$ instead of 20$ can’t say it was worth it extrinsically, so it must have been intrinsically rewarding/fun!)

Hazing (Makes groups look like they must be amazing for you to go through this terrible thing)

What’s the consistency motive?

The drive for our attitudes to match our behaviours

e.g. Schwarzenegger promised his son the turbo man, so he GOT his son the turbo man (In real life he would’ve bought it after christmas passed for his son)

What is cognitive dissonance?

When your attitudes don’t match your behaviours

e.g.

I love the environment → I don’t recycle

How do we fix cognitive dissonance?

1. We change our behaviour (Start recycling)

2. We justify our behaviour (But I drive an electric car)

3. Downplay our behaviour (recycling isn’t all it’s cracked up to be)

What is self-affirmation theory?

The importance of overall self-integrity; we’re motivated to be moral people

We protect our self worth and integrity against threats, failures, and negative feedback!

Threatened in one area, we try to affirm in another

E.g. I punched somebody, so I was kind to someone else

How to change attitudes - What’re some intervention styles? (not very effective)

Normative beliefs (e.g. people don’t like when you drive recklessly)

Behavioural beliefs (Driving recklessly is dangerous)

Percieved behavioural control (I’m in charge - I can choose to not drive recklessly)

Anticipated regret

DON”T IMPACT BEHAVIOUR

What is foot in the door phenomenon? Door in the face?

Foot in door - Saying yes to one little thing makes you more likely to say yes to something big (I must believe in this!) behaviour affecting attitude

Door in the face - Declining one big request to comply with a smaller one

WHY does behaviour affect our attitudes?

Self presentation; we care what others think of us

Dissonance theory (We don’t like being inconsistent)

Self perception theory (We make inferences about ourselves based off our actions)

What is self perception theory?

We figure out our own attitudes and feelings by watching our own behaviour, the same way people on the outside would

How does cognitive dissonance vary in cultures?

Collectivist cultures don’t really feel cognitive dissonance since they don’t need stable identities - they’re used to being variable for changing to what the community/group needs

more of an individualistic idea

Examples of things that actually changed behaviour?

Educating on social norms - people drink because they think everyone is, but in reality not very many people are.

(giving normative feedback)

small effect but prevalent

empericism vs. falsification?

Empericism is accumulating positive evidence to confirm a theory

Falsification is actively attempting to disprove a theory

What’s the hawthorne effect?

People change or improve their behaviour because they know they’re being observed or studied

What’s the main effect model?

States social relationships and social support improve health and well-being whether someone is stressed or not

What’s the stress-buffering model?

Social support protects you from the harm of stressful events when you’re super duper stressed