Exam 2 Study Guide - Intro to Psych (Social Psychology)

Study guide for chapter 13 - social pyschology

What is social psychology?

How our social environment influences our daily lives

What are internal and external attributions?

Internal: dispositional, trait-based causes (i.e. personality)

External: environment or situational causes (i.e. their situation)

Covariation Model: What factors does this model say we use to make attribution?

Behavior: Jane is late for work
Consistency: How often is Jane late for work?
Distinctiveness: Is Jane late in other contexts (appointments, dates, etc)
Consensus: Were Jane’s coworkers late for work too?

The more these things co-occur, the more likely we attribute them to a disposition

Fundamental Attribution Error: Describe this common cognitive bias

A cognitive bias where people overemphasize internal, personal traits and underemphasize external, situational factors when explaining the behavior of others (i.e. a server spill coffee on a customer —> they are lazy and incompetent (personal trait); the restaurant is understaffed (situational factor))

False Consensus Effect: What is this effect?

Thinking everyone agrees when they may or may not agree (i.e. loving a specific genre of music, but surprised other people don’t love it)

Impression Formation: How do we typically form first impressions of others?

We tend to remember and give more weight to the first piece of information we learn about someone (primacy effect)

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Explain this concept with an example

If you believe something about you is correct, you behave in a way to make that attribute correct (i.e. if people tell kids they aren’t smart, they’re going to believe they aren’t smart)

Social Norms: What are they and why are they important?

Prescribed behaviors vary across context, culture, and time; unwritten rules of a society/group

Groupthink: Define this phenomenon and describe when it's most likely to occur

When the desire for harmony and conformity within a group leads to irrational or dysfunctional decision-making; likely to occur in high group cohesiveness or isolation/ostracizing

Obedience to Authority: What was the key finding of Milgram's classic obedience study?

In response to the Holocaust, the question was if normal people would harm others at the request of an authority figure. 65% of the participants were willing to do so at the commands of an “authority” figure.

Social Roles: How do assigned roles (like in the Stanford Prison Experiment) affect behavior?

Assigned social roles can alter behavior and from the Stanford Prison Experiment, we learned people tend to conform to the expectations associated with their positions

Bystander Effect: What is this effect and what contributes to it?

People are less likely to offer help or intervene for a victim when other people are present or have the belief someone else will intervene. When the number of witnesses increased, the chances of people intervening shrink. What tends to contribute is diffusion of responsibility (more witnesses = less likely to help; less witnesses = more likely to help) and pluralistic ignorance (unsure of what to do, so you wait for someone else, but they are also unsure and waiting for someone else) or others like risk to self, environment, etc

High-Control Groups (Cults): What are some psychological reasons people might stay in such groups?

Isolation and fear, cognitive dissonance (doubling down on beliefs)

Relationships: According to research, what are some important factors for successful relationships?

Physical attractiveness, proximity, similarity. Opposites may attract but they’re not great for relationships.

Cognitive Dissonance: What is it? Describe one adaptive and one maladaptive way to reduce it.

Stress of discomfort caused by contradicting beliefs, ideas, or values typically learned through experiences, instructions, or observed in others.
Adaptive: changing your actions
Maladaptive: rationalizations

Define stereotypes.

Categorizing people into different groups formed based on physical characteristics, shared attitudes, religious affiliations, and common ideologies; assuming your group is heterogenous (different) while other groups are homogeneous (same)

Define prejudice.

A negative attitude associated with hate based on any common characteristic (i.e. gender, ethnicity, religion, skin color, country of origin, sexual preference, body type, etc); typically learned from parents, peers, first-hand experience, and vicarious conditioning

Define discrimination.

Adverse behaviors directed at groups toward which one holds negative and prejudicial beliefs; active (working to harm those form one group), passive/systematic (denial of opportunities)

Differentiate between stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination.

Stereotypes can be positive or negative, prejudice is the belief, discrimination is the action

Theories of Prejudice: Briefly explain the scapegoat theory.

Targeting those with less power to feel more empowered by blaming others for problems; minorities targeting minorities

Theories of Prejudice: Briefly explain the realistic conflict theory.

Limited resources —> competition creates conflict

Reducing Prejudice: What are some effective methods for reducing prejudice and discrimination?

Mutual interdependence (working together toward a common goal), common goals (shared goal), equal status (start on equal footing), support from authority (authority must establish non-prejudiced norms)

Theories of Aggression: Name and briefly describe one theory that explains aggressive behavior.

Instinct theory: aggression is innate and biologically hardwired into us to show dominance
Social learning theory: aggression is learned from the environment around us

Prosocial vs. Altruistic Behavior: What is the key difference between these two concept

Prosocial: intended to benefit another person or society
Altruistic: done out of concern for welfare rather than with the intention of receiving a benefit