Social Psychology: Dissonance, Conformity, Helping & Attribution

What are three problems with balance theory?

It doesn't explain how imbalance is resolved, the importance of relationships, or when imbalance triggers behavior.

What is cognitive dissonance?

Psychological discomfort caused by inconsistent beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors.

What are three ways to reduce dissonance?

Change a belief, change behavior, or add beliefs that justify the inconsistency.

What did Festinger and Carlsmith's subjects do?

Performed boring tasks, including turning pegs and moving spools.

Who found the discussion more interesting in Aronson and Mills?

Participants who experienced the severe initiation.

Why selectively seek information after making a choice?

To support our decision, avoid rejected alternatives, and reduce dissonance.

What is Bem's self-perception theory?

We infer our attitudes and feelings by observing our own behavior.

Why might organisms seek inconsistency, according to Pepitone?

Inconsistency may help mask more serious or painful feelings.

What is social facilitation?

The presence of others can energize or influence performance.

What is the coaction effect?

Behavior becomes energized when others perform the same task.

What happened in the running roach experiment?

Cockroaches ran mazes faster when other cockroaches were present.

When do audiences and coactors facilitate performance?

When the correct response is dominant or well learned.

What physiological changes can audience presence produce?

Increased heart rate and vasodilation; no significant blood pressure increase.

What is conformity?

Changing beliefs or behavior because of real or imagined group pressure.

What happened in Sherif's light-judgment experiment?

Participants' estimates converged toward a shared group judgment.

What did Asch participants experience when disagreeing?

Discomfort, self-doubt, and feelings of being an outsider.

What happened when one person disagreed with Asch's majority?

Group pressure decreased and participants were more likely to give their own answers.

What was a criticism of Asch's studies?

Their findings may be limited by the historical and cultural context in which they occurred.

What is the foot-in-the-door effect?

A small initial request increases the likelihood of accepting a larger request.

What is the door-in-the-face effect?

A large rejected request is followed by a smaller, more reasonable request.

What did Milgram's subjects think they were doing?

Teaching a verbal memory task using increasingly painful electric shocks.

What percentage of Milgram's Yale participants reached 450 volts?

65%.

What conflict did Milgram's participants face?

Defying authority versus obeying authority and potentially harming another person.

What is deindividuation?

Reduced personal accountability and self-awareness in certain situations.

What can obedience override?

Ethics, morals, and sympathies toward other human beings.

What is the real issue in bystander intervention?

The conditions under which people decide whether to help.

What are Latane and Darley's five helping stages?

Notice; interpret as an emergency; accept responsibility; decide how to help; act.

Why do people maintain calm expressions in public?

To avoid embarrassment from overreacting to a situation.

What is pluralistic ignorance?

Mistakenly assuming nothing is wrong because everyone else appears calm.

Who helped more: strangers or friends paired together?

The study-guide answer: strangers 20%; friends 70%.

What explains lack of bystander intervention?

Diffusion of responsibility: each person feels less individually responsible.

What happened after the seizure tape ended?

Eventually more participants reported the emergency, including those who believed others were listening.

Did Good Samaritan seminarians help more often?

False. Being in a hurry was more influential than speech topic.

Why might helping be egoistic?

Helping can reduce personal distress or provide emotional and social rewards.

What is the first basic assumption of attribution theory?

People are motivated to understand the causes of behavior and events.

What is the second basic assumption of attribution theory?

People want to understand and predict others' behavior.

What is the third basic assumption of attribution theory?

People seek stable, enduring explanations for behavior.

How do expectancies and attributions differ?

Expectancies predict future events; attributions explain past events.

How are Heider's dispositions divided?

Internal (personal) and external (situational) causes.

What is attributing behavior to stable characteristics called?

Dispositional attribution.

What is a major problem with Heider's approach?

It doesn't fully explain how people choose between specific causal explanations.

Undesirable behavior is more likely attributed to what rather than what?

Internal dispositions rather than external situational factors.

What do non-common correspondences reveal, according to Jones and Davis?

A person's intentions, motives, and underlying dispositions.

What did Kelley believe about attribution?

People use patterns of behavior across people, situations, and time to identify causes.

What does co-variation across time help us determine?

Whether behavior changes alongside a particular person or situation.

What are Kelley's three attribution dimensions?

Consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency.

What are Weiner's four achievement-related causes?

Ability, effort, task difficulty, and luck.

What is interesting about judgments of effort?

Effort is controllable, but people may misjudge how much effort they exerted.

Which of Weiner's causes are stable versus unstable?

Stable: ability and task difficulty. Unstable: effort and luck.

What do you expect after attributing success to ability?

Future success, because ability is considered relatively stable.

What emotions follow failure from insufficient effort?

Guilt and shame; negative-toned associations.

What is the self-serving bias?

Credit internal factors for success; blame external factors for failure.

What two motivations influence self-evaluation?

Accurately assessing our abilities and maintaining a positive self-image.

What is the false consensus effect?

Overestimating how many people share our beliefs and behaviors.

What did first-year students estimate about illegal drug use?

Users tended to overestimate other students' use; nonusers tended to underestimate it.

Why do actor and observer attributions differ?

They have different perspectives and access to different information.

What were subjects asked to do in Storms' experiment?

Observe interviews and view videotapes from different perspectives to examine attribution.

How did the Castro essay study demonstrate the Fundamental Attribution Error?

People attributed assigned essay positions to personal beliefs, ignoring situational instructions.

How does salience cause the Fundamental Attribution Error?

We focus on the noticeable person rather than the less noticeable situation.

What causes all behavior, according to Sabini et al.?

Person-situation interactions.

How did helpless children explain failure?

They attributed failure to lack of ability rather than lack of effort.

What attitudes and goals did helpless children develop?

Negative achievement attitudes and a tendency to avoid failure.

What goals do helpless versus mastery-oriented individuals seek?

Helpless: performance goals. Mastery-oriented: mastery goals.

How do entity and incremental theorists differ?

Entity: abilities are fixed. Incremental: abilities can develop through effort and learning.

How does stable versus unstable lack of control affect helplessness?

Stable: helplessness may persist. Unstable: helplessness is viewed as temporary.

What two alternate models did Baltes and Skinner present?

Reactive: environment limits control. Proactive: individuals actively seek control.

What is the utility of the Kelley-Weiner synthesized model?

Combines causal attribution with how causes affect emotions and future expectations.

What is unconditional positive regard?

Accepting and valuing someone regardless of their behavior or mistakes.

What is conditional positive regard?

Showing acceptance only when someone meets certain expectations.

What helps people become fully functioning, according to Rogers?

Unconditional positive regard.

What are Rogers' five characteristics of fully functioning people?

Openness, existential living, trust in feelings, freedom, and creativity.

What can we expect from fully functioning individuals?

Openness, adaptability, and choices based on personal experiences.

Name one criticism of Rogers' approach.

Its concepts can be difficult to measure and test scientifically.

How does Maslow view the unconscious differently from Freud?

Maslow emphasizes positive potential; Freud emphasizes repressed desires and conflicts.

Must Maslow's hierarchy be followed rigidly?

No. Needs can overlap and operate simultaneously.

What motivates self-actualized individuals?

Growth needs or being needs.

Where do self-actualized people's negative feelings arise?

From realistic reactions to situations in the world around them.

What are Maslow's two types of self-actualized individuals?

Transcenders and non-transcenders.

Why might people fail to self-actualize?

Fear of growth and change.

Name four criticisms of Maslow's theory.

Measurement difficulties, subjective selection, cultural bias, and lack of universality.

What is time competence?

Living in the present without being controlled by the past or future.

How do flow, peak experience, and peak performance differ?

Flow: absorption. Peak experience: intense fulfillment. Peak performance: unusually high achievement.

Why are people reluctant to discuss peak experiences?

They may feel too personal or difficult for others to understand.

458. How does Kenrick's hierarchy differ from Maslow's?

It emphasizes evolutionary goals such as survival, reproduction, parenting, and relationships.

459. What does White believe about children's play?

Play develops competence and allows exploration without external rewards.

460. What are origins versus pawns, according to deCharms?

Origins feel in control of their actions; pawns feel controlled by outside forces.

461. What is Bandura's reciprocal causation?

Personal factors, behavior, and environment continuously influence one another.

462. What produces both positive and negative behaviors?

Reciprocal causation.

463. What are Bandura's four features of human agency?

Intentionality, forethought, self-reactiveness, and self-reflectiveness.

464. What are proxy agency and collective agency?

Proxy: someone acts on your behalf. Collective: people work together toward a goal.

465. What is competence?

Effectively interacting with and influencing one's environment.

466. What are relatedness and autonomy?

Relatedness: connection with others. Autonomy: control over personal choices.

467. How do intrinsic and extrinsic motivation differ?

Intrinsic: doing something for enjoyment. Extrinsic: doing it for rewards or to avoid punishment.

468. What can happen when someone is rewarded for an enjoyable activity?

Intrinsic motivation may decrease.

469. What is internalization?

Beginning to recognize the value of an activity for its own sake.

470. How did Darwin explain the evolution of emotional expressions?

Expressions evolved from behaviors that helped organisms survive.

471. What is Darwin's principle of antithesis?

Opposite emotional states produce opposite behaviors and expressions.

472. What is Darwin's principle of direct nervous-system action?

Some expressions occur automatically from nervous-system activity.

473. What is the James-Lange sequence?

Stimulus → physiological response → recognition of bodily changes → emotion.

474. What is the Cannon-Bard theory?

Stimulus → brain processing → simultaneous physiological arousal and emotional experience.