PSYCH111 Exam 4

Social Comparison Theory

we understand ourselves by comparing ourselves to others

Upward Social Comparison

comparing ourselves to someone better than us

Downward Social Comparison

comparing ourselves to someone worse than us

Enlightenment Effect

once we learn about a concept, it changes our real-world behavior for the better

Halo Effect

when someone has one good trait, we assume they have many good traits

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

once we believe in a concept, we may act in a way to make that concept happen (ex. stereotypes)

Affective Component of Attitudes

the emotional reactions someone has towards an object

• What does this item make you feel? 

• What is the emotional response?

Behavioral Component of Attitudes

the way your attitude influences your behavior; your feelings/actions towards the object

• What do you WANT to do with this item?

Cognitive Component of Attitudes

the beliefs, thoughts, or knowledge you have about the object; your logical evaluation of the object

• What do you think about the item?

Strong Dimension of Attitudes

how strongly you feel about something

• A strong attitude is unlikely to change, a weak attitude is open to change

• The stronger the attitude, the more influential it will be on your decision making

Accessibility Dimension of Attitudes

how easily an attitude comes to mind

• How easy is it to tap into this attitude?

• Your “favorite things” will easily come to mind

Ambivalence Dimension of Attitudes

the presence of mixed or conflicting attitudes towards the same object

• Times where we have both positive and negative feelings about the object

• You must deal with this balance to come to a decision

• Inconsistent behavior

Source

the person/company trying to cause change

Receiver

who is trying to be changed, who’s attitude you are trying to change

Message

what is said in order to create change

Channel

the way that you are delivering your message

Cognitive Dissonance

the discomfort a person feels when their behavior does not match their values/beliefs

Self-Perception Theory

we change our attitudes by looking at our own behaviors

Impression Management Theory

we express different attitudes based on the impression we are trying to portray

• you express different attitudes around both your friends and your family

Elaboration Likelihood Model

there are two paths needed to create an attitude change

Central Path

the focus is on the message; you have a strong message to create change

• promotes long term change, generates strong opinions

• ex. political campaigns

Peripheral Path

you are relying on everything BUT the message to create change; there is no good argument, so you distract them from the argument by whatever means (source, channel)

• creates quick change

• ex. kids breakfast cereal

Foot in the Door

starting with a small request, then moving to larger and larger requests until you reach the one that you care about most

Door in the Face

starting with a large/absurd request that you expect to hear “no”, then following it up with something more reasonable in comparison

Attributions

how we explain other people’s behaviors

Stable

if the cause of the behavior is unlikely to change

• ex. someone falling down a step because one is larger than the rest

• it is unlikely that the steps will be the same size

Unstable

if the cause of the behavior is likely to change

• ex. someone falling down a step because there’s coffee on it

• this is not permanent

Internal

about the person doing the behavior

External

about everything outside of the person doing the behavior

Individualism

focus is on the individual

Collectivism

focus is on the group and the betterment of the group

• focus is on the collective

Fundamental Attribution Error

occurs when people attribute others’ actions to their personality or character, while minimizing the role of situational factors

• ex. attributing a coworker’s lateness to the fact they are unreliable rather than that they got stuck in traffic

Defensive Attributional Error

we make internal attributions for successes and external attributions for failures

Stereotypes

schemas for people

• shortcuts where we can process other people

Subtype

a social group that contains atypical examples of a larger social group

Perceptual Confirmation

occurs when people’s expectations influence their perception of others or events

Illusory Correlation

occurs when people perceive a connection between two variables that are not related

Out-Group Homogeneity

we believe that out-group members are more similar to each other than in-groups

Outgroup

a group that we do not belong to

Contact Hypothesis

the belief that one way to decrease prejudice stereotypes and discrimination is through contact with outgroup members

Superordinate Goals

a shared goal that requires multiple groups to work together to achieve

Common Knowledge Effect

when you are put in a group, you are more likely to talk about information that all group members share

• shared information tends to be safe information

Social Loafing

you do not work as hard in a group compared to when you work by yourself

• you feel the group will pick up your slack

Group Polarization

the group’s opinion on a subject become more extreme than any individual member’s opinion

Groupthink

you are more likely to agree with others in the group rather than bring up a conflicting opinion

Deindividuation

your individual identity matters less than your group identity

• you begin to see individuals exhibit behavior that they would never do if the group did not exist

Conformity

you go along with the group’s opinion without being directly asked

Informational Influence

you go along with the group because you genuinely believe that the group is right

Normative Influence

you go along with the group in order to avoid rejection

Compliance

you go along with the group with a direct request

Obedience

you go along with a direct request from an authority figure

• a type of compliance

Closeness

the closer the authority figure is to you physically, the more likely you are to obey

• the closer the time is that they want you to do the behavior, the more likely you are to do it

Legitimate Authority

if you do not find that this person has true authority, you are less likely to obey

Prestige

a person’s reputation in society is based on their achievements; can prove legitimate authority

Depersonalized Victim

an individual who is seen as an anonymous, faceless member of a group rather than a unique person with their own identity

Defiant Models

if someone else goes against the authority figure, it becomes easier for you to go against them

Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love

Intimacy: sharing emotion and deep feelings

Passion: hot, physical attraction (lust)

Commitment: your intent to stay in a relationship with another person

Matching Hypothesis

generally, people are in romantic relationships with people with matching attractiveness

Facial Symmetry

we find people with more symmetrical faces more attractive

Attitude Alignment

the longer you are in a relationship, the more similar your attitudes become

Proximity

predictive of both levels of attraction and remaining in a relationship

• difficult for long distance relationships to last

Relational Aggression

you are trying to harm someone else’s relationships

Physical Aggression

you are trying to cause physical harm to someone else

Hostile Aggression

spontaneous aggression

Instrumental Aggression

displaying aggression in order to accomplish a goal

Roles

can increase your likelihood of showing aggression

• depending on their role in a group, you can see people more likely to aggress

• ex. Stanford Prison Experiment

Kin Selection

we are more likely to help those that are biologically related to us

Reciprocal Altruism

you help me, I help you

Altruism

a selfless act of helping others without expecting anything in return

Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis

in order to help someone without giving any benefit to yourself, you have to be able to empathize with that person

Bystander Effect

you are more likely to give help if there are fewer people around

Social Responsibility Norm

we as a society have a responsibility to help those who are more vulnerable (children, elderly, sick people)

Cognitive Miser

humans are cognitively lazy, we do not want to use our cognitive resources if we do not have to (leads to poor decision making)

Inductive Reasoning

drawing general conclusions from specific evidence

• generally relies on guessing what the cause of an effect is

• tends to be wrong

• specific to general

Deductive Reasoning

we go from general statements to specific ideas

• ex. all men are mortal, Socrates is a man, therefore Socrates is mortal

Syntax

the rules for how we put sentences together

• tied to creating meaning in language

Grammar

the general rules for a specific language

Genie

• suffered childhood abuse and did not speak until she was 12

• through practice and learning, she was able to learn how to speak, although not to the same degree as an average 12 year old

Homesign

type of sign language that occurs where deaf children are born to hearing parents

Rules with Identifying something as a language

• Symbolic: has to use sounds or words in order to represent abstract concepts

• Generative: by using a small number of symbols, you can make an infinite amount of words/sentences

• Structured: there has to be rules that allow for infinite, but understandable creations

Semantics

different types of meanings behind words

Denotation

the dictionary definition of a word

Connotation

how you personally understand the word

• ex. slang words

Sociocultural Language Acquisition Theory

focuses on observational and interactive learning from those around us

• children who are spoken to more tend to have a larger vocabulary

• helps build connotative language

Behaviorist Language Acquisition Theory (Skinner)

language is learned through operant conditioning

• positive interactions with parents serve as a reinforcement

Nativist Language Acquisition Theory (Chomsky)

language is an innate skill for humans rather than being one that is learned through experience

Language Acquisition Device

biologic direction that allows us to facilitate speech

Interactionist Language Acquisition Theory

it is important to recognize all of these sources when observing language

Phonemes

sounds that we use for language; smallest unit of speech without meaning

Morphemes

smallest unit of speech with meaning

• prefixes, suffixes, root words

Receptive Vocabulary

the words that we understand

• will always be higher than productive vocabulary

Productive Vocabulary

the words that we use

Telegraphic Speech

how children begin to understand and use speech

• information that is presented as simplistic as possible

Overextension

children use a word more liberally than they should

• ex. learning the word “fork”, then calling every utensil a fork

Underextension

children use a word more conservatively than they should

• ex. learning the word “fork”, but only using it for pink forks rather than all forks

Overregularization

applying regular grammar rules to irregular examples

• ex. gooses not geese

Field Dependence

relying on the context of the situation in order to solve a problem

Field Independence

ignoring the context of the situation in order to solve a problem

Irrelevant Information

information that is presented as part of a problem but is not necessary to solve it, and can hinder the problem-solving process

Functional Fixedness

the inability of someone to use an object for something other than its intended purpose