Psych test 2: Chapter 12 (Social psychology)

Social Psychology

the study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and actions are affected by others

Attitudes

Evaluations of a particular person, behavior, belief, or concept

The Factors of attitude

Message source, characteristics of the message, and characteristics of the target

Message source

The characteristics of a person who delivers a persuasive message, known as the attitude communicator

Characteristic of the message

What the message is like; One-sided argument, Two-sided argument, Fear-producing message

Characteristics of the target: Central-route processing

Occurs when the recipient thoughtfully considers the issues and arguments involved in persuasion

Characteristics of the target: Peripheral-route processing

Occurs when people are persuaded on the basis of factors unrelated to the nature or quality of the content of a persuasive message

Cognitive dissonance

occurs when a person holds two attitudes or thoughts (referred to as cognitions) that contradict each other. Methods of dissonance include Modifying one or both cognitions, changing the percieved importance of one cognition, adding additional cognitions, and denying the cognitions are related

Social cognition

Processes that underlie our understanding of the social world

Schemas

Sets of cognitions about people and social experiences

Impression formation

The process by which an individual organizes information about another person to form an overall impression of that person

Central traits

Traits utilized to form an overall impression of others

Attribution theory

seeks to explain how we decide, on the basis of samples of an individual's behavior, what the specific causes of that person's behavior are

Situational causes

A cause of behavior that is brought about by something in the environment

Dispositional causes

A cause of behavior that is prompted by the person's disposition (his or her internal traits or personality characteristics)

Attribution Biases: Self-serving bias

Tendency to attribute success to personal factors and attribute failure to factors outside oneself (eg: saying you won because of your skill but saying you lost because the other team got lucky)

Attribution Biases: Fundamental Attribution Error

Tendency to over-attribute others' behavior to dispositional causes, and the corresponding failure to recognize the importance of situational causes (eg: immediately thinking someone who cut in front of you while driving is an jerk without thinking he may have been in a rush for something important)

Attribution Biases: Halo effect

Phenomenon in which an initial understanding that a person has positive traits is used to infer other uniformly positive characteristics (eg: someone make a good joke when you first meet them so you assume that theyre always funny)

Attribution Biases: Assumed-similarity bias

The tendency to think of people as being similar to oneself, even when meeting them for the first time (eg: automatically assuming someone is of the same religion as you when you initially meet them, even if they may share a different belief system)

Social Influence

the process by which the actions of an individual or group affect the behavior of others

Groups

Consist of two or more people who: Interact with one another, Perceive themselves as part of a group, and are interdependent

Conformity

a change in behavior or attitudes brought about by a desire to follow the beliefs or standards of other people

Important Variables Producing Conformity

characteristics of the group, situation in which the individual is responding, kind of task, and unanimity of the group (A social supporter is a person who shares an unpopular point of view along with another group member, thereby reducing conformity)

Groupthink

a type of thinking in which group members share such a strong motivation to achieve consensus that they lose the ability to critically evaluate alternative points of view

Conformity to Social Roles

Behaviors that are associated with people in a given position (Philip Zimbardo's Prison Study (1973), Abu Ghraib)

Abu Ghraib

One of Saddam's most notorious prisons for dissenters; when Americans took over, it became notorious for a place of torment and humiliation for detainees

Philip Zimbardo's Prison Study (1973)

A study that took place in the Basement of Stanford University psychology building where student volunteers were randomly assigned as Prisoner or Guard. The students chosen as guards abused their power

Compliance: Foot-in-the-door technique

Small request followed by a larger request

Compliance: Door-in-the-face technique

Large request followed by a smaller request

Compliance: That's-not-all technique

Offered a deal at an inflated price

Compliance: Not-so-free sample

Norm of reciprocity

Obedience

a change in behavior due to the commands of others

Stanley Milgram obedience experiment

This was a study where a teacher and a "student" (actor) were in 2 separate rooms. Whenever the "student" responded incorrectly, the teacher was forced to send an increasing amount of "voltage" to the student. Milgram not only found that people were less likely to obey to things that they know isn't good/right, but that they also could comply with demands under the right circumstances. (60% of teachers administered the highest, potentially lethal dose of 450 volts)

Prejudice and discrimination: Stereotypes

Generalized beliefs and expectations about social groups and their members

Prejudice and discrimination: Prejudice

The negative (or positive) evaluations of groups and their members

Prejudice and discrimination: Discrimination

Negative behavior toward members of a particular group

The Foundations of Prejudice: Social learning approaches

People's feelings about members of various groups are shaped by the behavior of parents, other adults, and peers

The Foundations of Prejudice: Mass Media

Mass media can stoke prejudice in people by depicting people of certain groups in certain ways (eg: always depicting people of arab descent as terrorists or depicting people of asian descent as super smart and weird)

The Foundations of Prejudice: Social identity theory

We use group membership as a source of pride and self-worth

Working to End Prejudice and Discrimination

Increasing contact between the target of stereotyping and the holder of the stereotype, Making positive values and norms against prejudice more conspicuous, Providing information about the objects of stereotyping, and Reducing stereotype vulnerability

Factors of Liking

Proximity, mere exposure, similarity (recipocity-of-liking effect), and physical attractiveness

Types of Love: Passionate (romantic) love

Represents a state of intense absorption in someone that includes intense physiological arousal, psychological interest, and caring for the needs of another

Types of love: compassionate love

Strong affection that we have for those with whom our lives are deeply involved

Components of Love: Intimacy (Emotional)

A feeling of closeness, connectedness, and bondedness in a relationship

Components of Love: passion (motivational)

drives that lead to romance, physical attraction, and sexual consummation

Components of Love: Commitment (cognitive)

conscious decision to love someone and the long-term determination to maintain that love

Prosocial behavior

helping behavior that benefits others

Altruism

Helping behavior that is beneficial to others but clearly requires self-sacrifice

Diffusion of responsibility

Tendency for people to feel that responsibility for acting is shared, or diffused, among those present

Aggression

Intentional injury or harm to another person

Aggression: intrinsic approaches

Catharsis, the Process of discharging built up aggressive energy

Aggression: Frustration-aggression approaches

Frustration, The thwarting or blocking of some ongoing, goal-directed behavior

Aggression: Observational learning approaches

Effects of modeling Instinct approaches