Unit 4

Social psychology 4.1 - 4.3e and a slide show

What does social psychology study?

It studies the effects of social variables and cognitions on individual behavior and social interaction

What does social psychology look at between people?

It looks at how people 's thoughts, feelings, perceptions, motives, and behaviors are influenced by other people

What is social context?

It is real, imagined, or a symbolic presence of other people; it is a three way triangle between social interactions, behaviors (consequences), and personal influences

What are the three major themes of social psychology?

1) the power of social situations 2)subjective social reality 3) the promotion of human conditioning

What are social roles?

Patterns of behavior that are expected of persons in a given group or setting

What are social norms?

A groups expectation regarding what is appropriate and acceptable for its members’ attitudes and behaviors in a given situation(s)

What is social pressure?

Can create powerful psychological effects such as, prejudice, discrimination, blind obedience, and violence

What is conformity?

When people interact in groups there are specific psychological effects that happen; when people adapt their behaviors, attitudes and opinions to fit the actions of other members of a group

What is normative social influence?

Influence resulting from a person's desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval

What is the Asch effect?

A form of conformity in which a group majority influences individuals judgements

What was the Asch experiment?

The line length test, where 4 people would purposefully choose the wrong answer to see if the 5th person would follow along or be the minority. The results showed 75% to conform with group and 25% would stay independent

The three characteristics that promote conformity..

1) the size of the majority 2) the presence of a partner who dissented from the majority 3) the size of the discrepancy between the correct answer and the majority's

When does conformity increase?

When you feel incompetent or insecure, you are in a group of three or more, you are impressed by the status of the group, you have made no prior commitment to a response, you are being observed by the others in a group, your culture strongly encourages respect for social standards

What are informational social influences?

Influence resulting from one's willingness to accept other's opinions about reality

What experiment did Sherif conduct with the autokinetic effect?

Conducted an experiment with an aim of demonstrating that people conform to group norms when they are put in ambiguous situations

What is the autokinetic effect?

Where a small spot of light (projected on a screen) in a dark room will appear to move, even though it is still

What is obedience?

Changing one's behavior at the command of an authority figure; this is Milgram's experiment

What is non conformity?

Not everyone agrees or conforms with the group or social pressures

What are the differences in conformity between western and eastern countries?

Western cultures people are more likely to be individualistic and don't want to be seen as being the same as everyone else; Eastern cultures people are more likely to value the needs of the family and other social groups before their own

What is the role of gender in conformity?

Women find to be more conforming than men in public, otherwise the difference is quite small

What is group-thinking?

The mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic view of the alternatives

What factors promote group-thinking?

Isolation of the group, high group cohesiveness, directive leadership, lack of norms requiring methodical procedures, homogeneity of social backgrounds, high stress from external threats

What are the characteristics of group-thinking?

Invulnerability, lack of introspection, rationalization, stereotyping, pressure, lack of disagreement, self deception, insularity

What is group polarization?

When members of a group have similar, though not identical, views about a topic and discuss them, their opinions become more extreme and pronounced

What is social facilitation?

The tendency for improved performance of tasks in the presence of others

What is social impairment?

The exception is hew skills, if it is a difficult task or you are not very good at it, you will perform worse in front of a group

What is social loading?

The tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward a common goal

What is deindividuation?

The loss of self-awareness and self-restrant occurring in group situations that foster action and anonymity

What are the 3 most important factors in deindividuation in a group of people?

1) anonymity, so I can not be found 2) diffused responsibility, so 1 am not responsible for my actions 3) group size, as a larger group increases above two factors

What was Zimbardo's prison experiment?

It has students at Stanford university play the roles of prisoner and prison guards in the basement of the psychology department; they were given uniforms and numbers

What did the prison experiment snow?

It showed how we deindividuate and become the roles we are given

What makes up a group?

3 features, 1) roles, an expected set of behaviors for the group members 2) norms, rules of conduct 3) cohesiveness, force that pulls group members together and form bonds that last

What is invulnerability?

When members feel they cannot fail

What is lack of introspection?

When members do not examine the ethical implications of their decision because they believe that they cannot make immoral choices

What is rationalization?

Members explain away warning signs and help each other justify their decision

What is stereotyping?

Members label their enemies as weak, stupid, or unreasonable, or different

What is pressure in group-thinking?

When members push each other not to question the prevailing opinion

What is lack of disagreement?

Members do not express opinions that differ from the group consensus

What is self-deception?

Members share in the illusion that they all agree with the decision

What is insularity?

Members prevent the group from hearing disruptive but potentially useful information from people who are outside the group

What is social reality?

An individuals subjective interpretation of other people and of relationships with them

What does social reality do?

It determines uno we find attractive, threatening, or whore are drawn to or who to avoid

What is the halo effect?

A cognitive bias in which an observers overall impression of a person, company, brand or product influences the observers feelings and thoughts about the entity's characters or properties

The halo effect was named by psychologist…

Edward thorndike in reference to a person being perceived as having a halo

What is reward theory of attraction?

It says that we like those who give us maximum rewards or benefits at minimum cost

What is the social exchange theory?

People who help out each other when there is a positive cost-benefit analysis, when the benefits out weigh the cost

What are the four sources of attraction?

Proximity, similarity, self-disclosure, physical attractiveness

What is proximity?

The idea is that people will work harder to make friends with those to whom they are closest to

What is similarity?

People find it more rewarding to have a relationship with someone who shares the same interest, attitudes, and experiences

What is self-disclosure?

It takes time to develop the trust necessary to share intimate details about oneself

What is matching hypothesis?

A prediction that most people will find friends and mates that are perceived to be about their same level of attractiveness

What is the expectancy-value theory?

People decide to pursue a relationship by weighing the potential value of the relationship against their chances of succeeding in that relationship

What is an attitude?

A tendency to respond positively or negatively to a certain idea, person, object, or situation

What are the three components in an attitude?

1) affective, the emotional component 2) behavior, the action a person takes in regard to the person 3) cognitive, the way a person thinks about something

What is social thinking?

Attitudes follow behavior and behavior follows attitudes

What is persuasion?

The process by which one person tries to change the belief, opinion, or course of action of another through argument, pleading, or explanation

What is the central route of persuasion?

Focuses on the facts and the content of the message in order to convince the listener

What is the peripheral route of persuasion?

Relying on peripheral factors like the personality of the speaker or how the message was delivered

What is cognitive dissonance?

A highly motivating state in which people have conflicting thoughts, especially when their voluntary actions conflict with their attitudes

What is the cognitive dissonance theory?

When people’s cognitions and actions are in conflict, they often reduce conflict by changing their thinking to fit their behavior

What is an example of the cognitive dissonance theory?

The tution of that school is so high, but maybe the school needs the money, so this person goes through cognitive dissonance and comes to the conclusion that maybe the school has a point

What is Robert Sternberg's triangular theory of love?

Love, strong affection for another person due to kinship, personal lies, sexual attraction, or common interest

What are the three components of love?

1) intimacy, feeling of physical and emotional closeness that one has for another person 2) passion, physical aspect relating to emotions or physical arousal 3) commitment, decisions one makes about a relationship, short term or long term

What are the forms of love?

Infatuation, romantic/passionate, companionate love, empty love, consummate love

What is infatuation?

Is passion with no intimacy or commitment

What is romantic/ compassionate love?

Has intimacy and passion but no commitment

What is companionate love?

A deep, mature, affectionate attachment between people who love each other, like each other, and respect each other

What is empty love?

Has commitment but no intimacy or passion

What is consummate love?

In which all three factors are present

What is situationism?

A view that say environmental conditions influences people's behaviors as much or more than their personal disposition does

What is dispositionism?

A view that says internal factors (genes, traits, character qualities) influence our behavior more than the situation we are in

What is the attribution theory?

The idea that we give a causal explanation for someone's behavior

What is an example of attribution theory?

Was my friend mean because they had a bad day or because they are just a bad person

What is the fundamental attribution error?

We tend to attribute people's behavior and misfortunes to Meir personal traits rather than situational forces

What is self-serving bias?

An error in the way we look at and interpret ourselves and the situations we find ourselves in

What is the double standard in self-serving bias?

When things go well, the success is a result of our own internal factors and when things go poorly, it was the result of some uncontrollable external factor

What is compliance?

Changing one's behavior as a result of other people directing or asking for the change

What is foot in the door?

The tendency for people who first agreed to a small request to completely later agree with a larger request

What is lowballing?

The strategy to induce a person to agree to something by enticing the individual with a low cost and then add on to the original project

When is door in the face?

A large request is made knowing it will probably be rejected so that the person will agree to a much smaller request

What is reciprocity?

The social norm of reciprocating dictates that we treat other people the way they treat us

What is the self-fulfilling prophecy?

Occurs when one person's beliefs about others leads one to act in ways that induce them others to appear to confirm that belief

What is the difference between prejudice and discrimination?

Discrimination can be both positive and negative but prejudice is always negative

What is prejudice?

Having negative thoughts, emotions, feelings towards an individual solely based on their membership in a particular group

What is discrimination?

A negative action taken against a person because of their membership in a particular group

What are the 5 causes of discrimination?

Dissimilarity, economic competition, scapegoating, conformity to social norms, media stereotypes

What is contact theory?

One of the best ways to improve relations amongst groups that are experiencing conflict; refers to the beliefs that prejudice can bc lessened or eliminated by direct contact between groups

What was the blue eye/brown eye experiment?

Those who were told they had the better eye color performed better the others performed worse. So if blue eyed people were told they were better, they acted better than those with brown eyes. in conclusion, prejudice does not originate internally or independently but it depends on externally introduced nations

What is a stereotype?

A generalized, often overgeneralized but sometimes accurate, belief about a group of people

What ethnocentrism?

It is a belief that your society, group, or culture that is superior to all others, very often this means that the group is different

What is the ingroup in social relations?

“US“ people with whom one shares a common identity

What is the outgroup in social relations?

“THEM” those perceived as different or apart from one’s ingroup

What is the just-world phenomenon?

The tendency of people to believe the world is just; people get what they deserve and deserve what they get

What was the jigsaw classroom experiment?

Designed by Elliot Aronson, focused on fostering student cooperation, rather than competition, students teaching students different parts of the lesson to respect each other

What is aggression?

Any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy

What is instrumental aggression?

Premeditated aggressive action carried out to achieve a goal

What is hostile aggression?

Violent attitudes or actions with a desire to dominate a situation

What is frustration aggression hypothesis?

That aggression is a reaction to frustration

What are superordinate goals?

Shared goals that override differences among people and require their cooperation

What is equity?

A condition m which people receive from a relationship in proportion to what they give to it