ATAR Psychology Unit 2

group

group

two or more people who interact with and influence each other for more than a short period of time. They must have a common purpose

self-concept

the definition we have of ourselves; who we consider ourselves to be (bad at maths, hardworker)

social identity

the part of the self-concept that is based on membership in particular groups

behaviour in groups

cooperation competition deindividuation social loafing brainstorming

cooperation

working or acting together for a common purpose or benefit

competition

people strive to gain or win something by defeating or establishing superiority over others who are trying to do the same thing

Deindividuation

abandoning of usual restraints to join in group behaviour

causes of deindividuation

Anonymity Shift of attention

social loafing

A reduction in motivation and effort when individuals work in a group, compared to when they work individually

reasons for social loafing

Output equity: People expect others to loaf, so they do so accordingly Evaluation apprehension: When performance is measured they over come their tendency to loaf Matching standards: People loaf because they have no clear performance standard

How to decrease social loafing

increase accountability, increase importance of the task, give particular roles, measure individual inputs

Ringelmann effect

the phenomenon by which individual performance decreases as the number of people in the group increases

reasons for Ringelmann effect

Coordination loss: as a group size inhibits movement, distraction, jostling Motivation loss: participants did not try as hard

brainstorming

a process in which people meet as a group to generate new ideas.

Reliability

Consistency, Ability of a test to yield very similar scores for the same individual over repeated testings

Validity

Accuracy, Ability of a test to measure what it is intended to measure

Id

pleasure principle. a primitive part of the personality that pursues only pleasure and instant gratification (unconscious)

Ego

reality principle. the part of the personality that provides a buffer between the id and the outside world. It considers the consequences of an action and deals with the demands of the id and superego. (preconscious/conscious)

Superego

morality principle. contains our social conscience and through the experience of guilt and anxiety when we do something wrong, it guides us towards socially acceptable behaviour. (preconscious/conscious)

Tajfel and Turner (1979)

proposed there are 3 mental processes involved in evaluating others as in group or out group

Social categorisation

the process of identifying a person as a member of a certain group because of features they share (gender/ethnicity/style of dress/accents)

social identification

when we adopt the identity of the group we have categorised ourselves as belonging to. They are either a part of your in-group or out-group

social comparison

when we start to compare our group with other groups upward social comparison or downward social comparison

upward social comparison

viewing other groups favourably to improve your own

downward social comparison

viewing other groups negatively to feel better about your own group

projective personality tests

attempt to reveal peoples unconscious desires, motivations and conflicts by asking them to describe what they see in ambiguous stimuli such as inkblots.

strengths of projective tests

no right or wrong answer body language/facial expression/tone of voice provide greater insight responses can be discussed

weaknesses of projective tests

no right or wrong answers (subjective) low validity (person may not provide info on personality) costly and time consuming

examples of projective tests

Rorschach Inkblot test (10 cards, what is this?) TAT (20 cards, what is happening? what led up to this event?)

self report inventories

Individuals provide information about their thoughts, feelings, and behaviours in response to standardised items in personality tests

strengths of self report inventories

quick, cheap, easy to administer large groups can do test at once more objective measuring

weaknesses of self report inventories

questions tend to be obvious, ppl give socially desirable answers unconscious feelings cant be accessed culturally biased

examples of self report inventories

MMPI (police) Neo PI-R John Hollands SDS (career)

human development

the changes in social, emotional, physical and cognitive stages that occur across the human lifespan

Jean Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

1. sensorimotor, 2. preoperational, 3. concrete operational, and 4. formal operational.

schema

building blocks of knowledge, an idea or understanding about what something is and how to deal with it. Continue to develop in their complexity through the stages

assimilation

the broadening of an existing schema to include new information

accomodation

the modification of a schema as new information is incorporated

equilibrium

the process which people balance assimilation and accomodation to create a stable understanding

Sensorimotor stage

0-2knowledge of the world is limited to sensory perceptions and motor activities, profound egocentrism, lack of object permanence, animism

Egocentrism

the tendency to perceive the world solely from one's own point of view

object permanence

knowing that an object still exists, even if it is hidden

animism

the belief that inanimate objects have human qualities and intentions

preoperational stage

2-7 lacks mental sophistication necessary to carry out logical operations in the world. egocentrism, lack of conservation, symbolic representation

conservation

an understanding that certain perspectives remain constant despite changes in their form

symbolic representation

the use of one object to stand for another, which makes a variety of new behaviours possible

concrete operational stage

7-12 begin thinking logically about concrete events, but still have difficulty understanding abstract or hypothetical eventsdeveloping conservation, classification and seriation

classification

grouping of objects or information based on similarities

seriation

the ability to group objects based on height, weight and/or importance

formal operational stage

12+ (not universal)can think about abstract concepts, deductive reasoning, systemic planning, reason hypothetically

prejudice

an unjustifiable and negatively learned attitude towards a group of people. (involves creation of stereotypes, negative feelings, act discriminatory)

Stereotypes

oversimplified and general belief about a group of people.

Discrimination

a negative behaviour directed at a specific group of people

Social categorisation

the process of dividing people into groups based on common attributes (like gender or race, which creates stereotypes)

Self fulfilling prophecy

a prediction that directly or indirectly becomes true, by the conditions of the expectations itself.An individuals expectations about anther person eventually result in the other person acting in ways that confirm the expectations.

Just world phenomenon

the widespread belief that the world is just and fair.A person will see something about a person, their gender or race for example, and use that part of the person to justify if they are in a bad or good place, rather than their individual reasons.

racism

discrimination directed at a specific racial group and is a form of prejudice

social influence

certain attitudes towards others are learned from important people in a persons life, like family and friends.

intergroup contact

an increase in contact bw the people who hold the stereotype and those who are the target of the stereotype

cognitive interventions

strategies that try to change the way people think about members of out groups

re categorisation

emphasises categories that cut across basic in group and out group divisions.it helps people see similarities bw the different groups, instead of the differences.

individuation

involves us seeking out information about individuals, rather than accepting stereotypes about the group to which they belong.

attitudes

a long lasting evaluation that we hold about ourselves, other people, objects and issues that involve affect, cognition and behaviour.

Tripartite Model

affective, behaviour, cognition

affective

emotions. feelings towards an object/person/topic

behaviour

actions. the way people act towards an object/person/topic

cognition

thoughts and beliefs. the set of beliefs or knowledge about a object/person/topic

How attitudes form

direct contact interaction child rearing group membership media chance conditioning

measuring attitudes

-observation -self report methods

observation

We observe peoples behaviour and infer their attitudes from what we see (indirect)

types of observation

controlled (lab), naturalistic (natural setting), participant (researcher included)

pros of observation

• unobtrusive

• provide data that may not be included in self report

cons of observation

• difficult to measure strength of attitude (limited data)

• Not an accurate measure as attitudes and behaviours are often inconsistent

• researcher bias

self report methods

Participants telling researcher about their attitudes, therefore a measure of cognitive and affective components

qualitative self report

open ended interviews, surveys, focus groups

pros of qualitative

generate large amnt of information

cons of qualitative

time consuming to sift thro all info cannot be analysed statistically

quantitive

fixed response interviews, rating scales

pros of quantitive

can be analysed statistically large amnts of info collected quickly

cons of quantitive

Doesn't consider the meaning behind social phenomena no access to specific feedback

cons of self report method

subject to social desirability cannot be used by children, illiterate adults or non english speakers questions may be understood time consuming (minus rating scales)

pros of self report methods

simple to complete administered to many ppl at once provide data difficult to collect thro observation

culture

the shared rules, attitudes, values and beliefs that govern the behaviour of a group and passed on from one generation to the next

individualistic

Value independence with each working to their own individual goals

• Western cultures

• individual > group

• value competition, freedom, autonomy, fair exchange

• self concept independent of group

collectivist

Value cooperation with each working towards the family or group goals

• Eastern cultures

• group > individual

• value security, duty, obedience, in group harmony

• self concept is interdependent from the group