PSY 300 - Exam 2

Sex

chromosomes, hormones, anatomy, assigned at birth

Gender

roles, expectations, identity (affected by social sanction or being outcasted)

Gender roles

function as powerful mechanisms of social control by prescribing the behaviors, traits, and emotional expressions deemed acceptable for each gender

Social learning theory

provides a foundation framework for understanding how gender roles are acquired and maintained through observation, imitation, and reinforcement

Individuals, espcially children, learn behaviors not only through instruction but also by watching others, particularly authority figures and socially valued models

Gender Socialization

Gender is taught everywhere; family, schools, peers, media, and institutions

Ex. teachers may consistently call on boys for problem-solving questions in math or science classes while directing girls toward reading, cooperation, or note-taking class

behaviors that are awarded increase while behaviors that are punished decrease

Gender identity

refers to an individual’s deeply held internal sense of self, which may include idenities such as cisgender, transgender, nonbinary, or gender-fluid

Gender expression

involves outward presentation through clothing, hairstyles mannerisms, speech patterns, and other behavioral choices

Ex. a person may identify as female but perfer clothing and hairstyles traditionally associated with masculinity

Societal institutions actively regulate gender expression by enforcing norms of appropriateness and sanctioning deviation

Ex. Schools may have dress codes that prohibit boys from wearing long hair, makeup, or skirts

Gender-role strain

occurs when expectations conflict with identity, or roles become restrictive

Ex. women who wants to be in a field that is dominated by male and have to work at a job that is suited within her role as a mother because of her child

Linguistic Sexism

operates by embedding gendered assumptions into everyday language, reinforcing cultural expectations and power dynamics

traditional male-default titles such as “chairman,” “policeman,” or “fireman” position men as the normative occupants of social and professional roles, while female forms “chairwoman,” “policewoman,” and “firewoman”) are linguistically marked as deviations from that norm

Indicates men are the default in positions of authority

Sexism

represents a structured belief system that sustains gender hierarchies by defining roles, traits, and expectations for men and women

Hostile sexism

involves overtly negative beliefs about women’s competence, intelligence, or authority

Ex. thinking that women are not suited for leadership positions

Benevolent Sexism

is subtler and often socially accepted, yet it reinforces inequality by portraying women as delicate, morally superior, or in need of protection

Ex. women should be cherished and protected by men

although they appear positive, such attitudes maintain restrictive social norms by discouraging women from seeking power, independence, or leadership

Ambivalent sexism

provides the emotionally and moral logic that makes unequal arrangements appear justified, protective, or even romantic

Applied situationally: hostile toward defiant women but benevolent toward compliant women

Institutional sexism

wage and leadership gaps, unequal parental leave policies, occupational segregation, health outcomes

Ex. tenure professors are predominately male because it takes 7 years and full-time

gender inequality is inevitable but shaped by policy decisions and social organization

repeated exposure to gendered status differences in schools, workplaces, and politics recalibrates what people see as “normal” or possible for themselves, reinforcing self-fulfilling prophecies about competence, leadership, and caregiving

Stereotypes as Cognitive shortcuts

simplify social information, create expectations about behaviors, influence evaluations of competence, shapes self-perception, and can become self-fulfilling prophecies

Ex. beliefs that girls lack mathematical ability or boys must suppress vulnerability shape academic and emotional development from early childhood

Schema in this context is a guide on how someone expects a woman or a man behaves

Expectation States Theory

explains how competence and status are socially constructed; people form expectations of competence based on social cues as gender, leading men to be granted more influence and leadership opportunities by default

Ex, male employees are more likely to be deferred to for decision-making, even when female colleagues have equal qualifications

status cue—competence assumptions—influence

Social Role Theory

links these expectations to historical divisons of labor, where men’s association with paid work and authority and women’s association with caregiving produce culturally ingrained assumptions about competence and appropriate behavior

Roles (i.e. women are seen as nurturer) — Expectations (bare children) — Outcomes — Reinforcement (maternity leave)

Symbols

Arbitrary words, images, or behaviors

represents ideas beyond their literal form (i.e. thumbs up)

Denotative

literal, dictionary sense

Ex. alligator

Connotative

the emotional, cultural sense

Ex. bitch, chick, or cougar

Language and Branding

shapes perception not only through description but also through labeling

Naming influences value, credibility, and even desirability

Ex. Prescription drugs like zolofit levarge letters such as “Z,” which are rare in English, sharp in sound, and visually striking

Euphemisms

mild indirect or soften words substitued for harsh words

Ex. enhanced interrogation techniques vs. torture

Doublespeak

deliberately vague to mislead

Ex. collateral damage vs. civilian casualty

Language and Control

because language structures how information is framed, those who control language exercise a powerful form of social control

by determining wich words are avaliable, acceptable, or discouraged, institutions can guide thought, limit alternative interpretations, and influence behavior

Political correctness

illustrates how renaming can redirect moral judgment and emotional response

Ex. freedom fighter vs. terrorist

Language intensity

people frame information throught wording and affects how the public interprets the event

High-intensity wording: the president’s remarks were greeted by loud jeers (implies widespread opposition and emotional conflict)

Low-intensity wording: a small handful of people disagreed with the president’s remarks (minimize dissent and frames the reaction as insignificant)

Powerless language

Disclaimers, hedges, hesitations, intensifiers, excessive politeness, and tag questions

Disclaimers

preemptively lower expectations (i.e. “I' know this might sound stupid but…”)

Hedges

weaken commitment to a claim (i.e. “kind of”)

Hesitations

suggest nervousness or lack of confidence (i.e. um)

Intensifiers

can paradoxically reduce credibility by appearing emotionally driven rather than reasoned (i.e. “very”)

Excessive politeness

may signal subordination rather than respect (i.e. repeated apologies)

Tag questions

transform statements into requests for approval, reducing percieved authority (i.e. “This approach could work, don’t you think?”)

Language expectancy theory

persuasion depends on whether a communicator’s language use violates or confirms auidence expecations

Positive expectation violation: when high-status or expert speaker use confident and assertive language

Negative Expectancy violation: low-status speaker speaking too assertively

Mirroring

Chamelon effect: Mirroring involves subtly matching another person’s posture, gestures, facial expressions, speech rate, or mannerisms. Research consistently shows that individuals who are mirrored experience greater liking, rapport, and social connection, which in turn increases compliance and persuasion

Gestures

emblem, illustrator, adaptor, and regulator

Emblem

gestures with widely recognized meanings within a culture and can function as direct substitutes for words

Ex. a peace sign

Illustrators

movements that emphasize, clarify, or reinforce spoken language, such as using hand motions to indicate size (i.e. “this big”), direction, or intensity while speaking

Adaptors

gestures that reflect internal states rather than intentional communciation

Ex. nail biting — can indicate anxiety

Regulators

gestures that help manage the flow of conversation, such as nodding to encourage a speaker to continue, raising a hand to interrupt, or looking away to signal disengagement

Haptics

touch

can communicate warmth, reassurance, trust, or authority and has shown to increase compliance and prosocial behavior

Proxemics

space; how physical distances shapes influence and persuasion

Research indicates that requests made at closer interpersonal distances (approximately 12–18 inches) are often more effective than those made at greater distances because proximity increases arousal, attention, and perceived immediacy

However, violations of personal space can also provoke dis-comfort or threat, particularly when cultural expectations or power relations are misaligned.

Chronemics

time; conveys power and status

Control over time, such as making others wait, interrupting conversations, or setting rigid schedules, often signals author-ity, while those with less power are expected to be punctual and accommodating

Cultural norms strongly influence interpretations of time, with some cultures valuing strict punctuality and efficiency, whereas others prioritize relational harmony over schedules

Appraisal theory of emotions

individuals evaluate events in two stages: primary and secondary

Primary appraisal

rapid, automatic evaluations of an event relevance to well-being, such as perceiving a threat or an opprotunity

Ex. teacher says, “see me after class”

Secondary appraisals

involve a reflective, conscious evaluation of one’s ability to cope or respond effectively

experiences shapes reaction to threat

Cultural Shapes How Emotions is Shown

Cultural variation — one is more expressive while another is more subtle in showing emotions

Intensity (i.e. eye contact)

Timing — when you are showing emotion

Display rules — expressive vs. restrained

Anger

signals dominance, asserts authority, punishes defiance

Warmth

signals cooperation, builds trust, encourages connection

Outrage

signals injustice, mobilizes group, drives collective action

Facial Feedback Effect

Facial feedback — our brains read our faces; facial muscle activity can influence the subjective emotional experience.

Ex. In a classic experiment, Strack, Martin, and Stepper (1988) showed that participants who held a pencil between their teeth, thereby activating muscles involved in smiling, rated cartoons as funnier than those whose facial muscles were configured to inhibit smiling.

Fear appeals — Extended Parallel Process Model

Threat:

Severity — how serious is this threat?

Susceptibility — am I personally at risk? (i.e. smoking)

No perceived threat — message is ignored

Efficency

Response efficency: will the recommended action actually work?

Self-efficacy: can I personally do it?

Ex. smoke ad

Misinformation

false or misleading information that is shared without deliberate intent to deceive, distinguishing

Disinformation

spread intentionally

False information

travels farther and faster than accurate information online because it is typically more novel, surprising, and emotionally arousing, qualitites that enhance attention, memory, and social transmission

Novel claims, such as sudden warnings that a common food is “secretly toxic” or that a familiar public figure has committed an unexpected moral violation, violate expectations and trigger automatic orienting responses. These cognitive reactions increase the likelihood that individuals will stop scrolling, engage with the content, and share it with others.

Algorithmic amplification

intensifies this effect by structurally favoring engagement over accuracy which results in outrage becoming more visible and even sharing, when you yourself don’t believe it, will boost up algorithms of the post and gets the attention of others

rely on clicks, shares, comments, and watch time

engagement generates ad revenue and emotionally charged account content keeps people on platforms longer

Propaganda

strategic communication aimed at shaping attitudes and behaviors in the service of a specific agenda, often through biased but not necessarily false information

Propaganda mechanisms

simplification, emotional appeals, identity cues, repetition

Simplification

good vs. evil, us vs. them, helps people remember info easier such as slogan

Emotional Appeals

fear, pride, and nostalgia, drive compliance by exaggerating threats or idealizing the past

Repetition

produces illusory truth effect, making repeated claims feel true regardless of their accuracy (repeated exposure increases familiarity)

Identity cues

message connect beliefs to group membership, agreement becomes a sign of loyalty

Deepfakes

intensifies these epistemic problems by enabling highly realistic synthetic videos, audio, and images of events that never occured

Ex. at Arup firm, employee transferred $25 million to people who he thought were his coworkers

Lifestyle media as persuasion

rarely instruct auidences directly on what to believe: instead, they model how to move, look, feel, and live, embedding persuasive influence into everday routines and habits

Ex. popular “That Girl” content on social media depicts an idealized young woman who wakes early, exercises, and maintains a calm, productive demeanor

Teaches norms, values, behaviors, and identity expectations

Echo chambers

exposure to similar view-points

Radicalization Pathways

Exposure to extreme ideas occurs gradually and incrementally rather than abruptly, making radical positions feel like logical or reasonable extensions of earlier content

Disinformation as a strategy

Supress participation: convince people voting don’t matter and increases cynicism(self-interest and distrust) and disengagement

Create confusion: flood information environments with contradictory claims and make people uncertain about what is true

Undermine trust: reduce confidence in journalism, science and democratic institutions

Reconstructive memory

shaped by emotion, expectations, social influence, and prior beliefs

what people remember strongly influences what they believe to be true, and those beliefs shape how memories are encoded, stored, and retrieved

Ex. remembering an interaction as embarassing — believing “I’m socially akward” — more anxiety in the future

Ex. Jennifer Thompson case

Misinformation Effect

information learned after an event can become incorporated into memory

Loftus studies: classic experiments involving automobile accidents

“How fast was the car going when they hit each other versus smash into each other” — participants later remembered faster speeds, some reported seeing broken glass that never existed

Flashbulb memories

vivid recollections of emotionally significant events (i.e. 9-11, natural disasters, school shootings)

people are often extremely confident and confident stays high even as accuracy declines

Ex. you remember the event but not details such as what you were wearing

Working memory

temporarily holds information while we actively think about it (20-30 seconds unless rehearsed)

Limited capacity: distraction interfere with performance and multitasking often reduces accuracy and learning

Schacter’s seven sins

Transience, blocking, misattribution, presistence, suggestibility, bias, absent-mindedness

Transience

forgetting over time (i.e. you remember your 1st grade teacher but not their name as absent of rehearsing it will make you forget)

Absent-mindedness

occurs when lapses in attention prevent proper encoding, such as forgetting where the keys were placed (attention failure)

You encode the information but failed to transfer from working memory to long-term

Blocking

temporary retrieval failures, not able to access information due to distracting stimuli (tip-of the tongue experiences)

Misattribution

involves assigning a memory to the wrong source, such as recalling a news story as a personal experience

Suggestability

refers to memory distortion resulting from post-event information or social influence

Bias

further shapes memory when prior beliefs influence recall, as when politically charged events are remembered in ways that align with ideology

Persistence

refers to intrusive memories that endure despite efforts to forget, such as recollections of trauma or loss

False memories

distorted recollections of events that never occured and it is created from suggestion, repetition, imagination excersises, and social influence

Ex. Lost in the Mall — participant came to believe they were lost in the shopping mall as children but the event never happened

Avaliability Heurstic

tendency to estimate the likelihood or frequency of an event based on how easily examples come to mind

Ex. after extensive news coverage, people often overestimate the danger of flying

Vivid examples are easy to recall because they feel common

Confirmation bias

leads individuals to perferentially attend to, encode, and later retrieve information that supports existing beliefs while ignoring, discounting, or forgetting contridictory evidence

Memory shaped by belief because it is rehearsed

Hindsight bias

furthers strengthens this process by making outcomes appear inveitable once they are known (“I knew it all along”)

Representativness heurstic

involves judging the probability that something belongs to a category based on how closely it resembles a mental prototype

“What does this seem like”

Stereotyping: when someone fits a familiar narrative or category, people assume characteristics based on resemblance rather than evidence