Understanding Human Behavior-Exam 1

What factors primarily help and limit people’s ability to control or inhibit stereotyping?

Motivation and cognitive resources/alcohol use

What are the characteristics of application stereotyping? What is involved in the process of stereotype activation?

Application is using a stereotype to judge; Activation is the stereotype becoming ready to use

What motivates people to behave in ways consistent with the norms or rules of behavior in a particular setting?

Social adjustment goals

What are the goals of self-enhancement? What are the goals of comprehension?

Self-enhancement: to see oneself positively; Comprehension: to form accurate impressions

How does cognitive busyness disrupt stereotype activation?

It uses up working memory capacity

To what extent does automatic processing influence stereotyping?

It is affected by context, prejudice levels, and cognitive busyness

How do people’s motivations and goals impact stereotype activation?

They always facilitate or inhibit activation

What is the ego-defensive function of stereotypes and how does it impact an individual’s self-concept?

It protects the self-concept by derogating outgroups

What are the “D’s of difference” and how do they impact how individuals treat others or protect themselves?

Distancing, Denial, Defensiveness, Devaluing, Discovery

What is the social adjustment function of stereotypes? Who are stereotypes most likely to be activated and applied to in society? Friends or strangers?

Adjusting to norms; applied to strangers

What is the “man-first” principle?

The tendency to mention males before females in speech

What is the kernel of truth hypothesis? What is correspondence bias?

Kernel: stereotypes have some basis in reality; Bias: emphasizing personality over situation

What is the ultimate attribution error and when do people tend to engage in this activity?

Explaining outgroup negative behavior as internal/stable; happens when highly prejudiced

What is the cross-racial identification bias? What do the consequences of categorization include?

Thinking other races "all look alike"; consequences include Ingroups and Outgroups

What is intersectionality and what are the basic social categories?

Belonging to multiple social categories; basic categories are race, gender, age

What are schemas and what influence do they have on people?

Cognitive structures; influence attention, organization, and memory

What are convenience samples when a researcher is gathering data?

Samples that are easily accessible

What is a variable? What is validity?

Variable: characteristic on which people differ; Validity: accuracy of a measure

What do physiological measures utilize for and what do they measure in people?

Utilize body responses (e.g., heart rate); measure emotional intensity

What do unobtrusive measures usually focus on in relation to people?

Behavior (like physical distance)

What are the limitations in relation to self-report measurements?

People can conceal true attitudes (social desirability)

How can stereotypes be assessed?

Checklists and probability ratings

What are examples of self-report measures?

Multiple-choice questionnaires, face-to-face interviews, and essays

Define hypothesis and what relationship it has with variables.

A testable prediction; states relationship between variables

What is discriminant validity? What is convergent validity?

Discriminant: doesn't measure unrelated traits; Convergent: correlates with related measures

What are the targets of prejudice?

Race, religion, gender, age, ability, appearance

What is the definition and proponents of cognitive theory?

Prejudice is inevitable/universal cognitive process; proponents 1980s-present

What is an example of institutional discrimination?

Voter identification laws that adversely affect the poor

What is the definition of culture? What are the first pieces of information that people notice about others?

Culture: shared meaning/info system; First info: race, gender, age

What are explicit prejudices? What are implicit prejudices?

Explicit: aware/controllable; Implicit: automatic/unaware

Stereotypes:

Opinions about the characteristics, attributes, and behaviors of group members. Can be descriptive or prescriptive and often contain a “kernel of truth.”

Prejudice:

Emotional reactions/evaluations toward people because they belong to a specific social group.

Discrimination:

Treating people differently primarily because of their group membership.

Levels of discrimination:

Interpersonal, organizational, institutional, and cultural

Interpersonal Discrimination:

One individual treats another unfairly because of group membership.

Organizational Discrimination:

Practices, rules, or policies of formal organizations; can produce discriminatory outcomes

Institutional Discrimination:

Norms and policies within social institutions that produce different outcomes for different groups; often sanctioned by governing bodies

Cultural Discrimination:

Beliefs that one group is superior.

Group Privilege:

An unearned favored state

Group privilege can occur because of characteristics such as:

Race, gender, social class, and sexual orientation

Culture can help groups:

Meet basic needs, pursue happiness, and derive meaning

Scientific Racism was explored when?

Before the 1920’s

Scientific racism before the 1920’s:

Used '“research” to claim dominant groups were superior to justify the existing social order/status quo

The Psychodynamic theory was explored when?

1920’s-1950”s

Psychodynamic Theory:

Prejudice helps strengthen self-esteem; rooted in universal motivational psychological processes

Term: Distancing from the “D’s of difference”:

Physical, emotional, or intellectual evidence

Term: Denying from the “D’s of difference”:

Denying differences exist

Term: Defensiveness from the “D’s of difference”:

Guarding against appearing biased

Term: Devaluating from the “D’s of difference”

Treating differences as unimportant or as deficiencies

Term: Discovery from the “D’s of difference”:

Appreciating and being enriched by differences

1960’s theory:

Sociocultural

Sociocultural Theory:

Culture and social structure provide stereotypes that individuals adopt.

1970’s theory:

Intergroup Relations Theory

Intergroup Relations Theory:

Includes relative deprivation and social identity theory

Relative Deprivation Theory:

Prejudice comes from resentment

Social Identity Theory:

People want a positive self-identity

1980’s-Present theories:

Cognitive and Evolutionary Theories

Cognitive theory:

Stereotyping is a normal, inevitable cognitive process that simplifies information storage.

Evolutionary Theory:

Behavior comes from evolved mechanisms, such as suspicion of strangers to protect communities.

Social Categorization:

The process of simplifying the environment by creating categories based on common characteristics.

Schemas:

Cognitive structures containing knowledge and beliefs about objects or groups.

Schemas can influence:

What people pay attention to, how people organize information, and what people remember

Basic Social Categories:

Race, gender, and age

Intersectionality:

People belong to multiple social categories simultaneously.

Ingroups vs. outgroups”

Ingroup in a group that an individual belongs to, while outgroup is a group that an individual does not belong to

Minimal Group Paradigm:

Research shows that ingroups and outgroups can form based on completely arbitrary or unimportant differences.

Ingroup Overexclusion:

Drawing a tight circle around the ingroup to avoid accidentally giving privileges to outgroup members

Outgroup Homogeneity Effect:

The tendency to see outgroup members as all the same.

Cross-Racial Identification Bias:

People may perceive members of another race as looking alike. Especially likely when cognitive resources are limited.

Illusory Correlation:

false association between distinctive characteristics

Man-First Principle:

Tendency to mention males more than females

Ultimate Attribution Error:

Favor ingroup explanations, blame outgroup traits

Correspondence Bias:

Underestimate situation, overestimate personality

Cognitive busyness before activation…

Disrupts activation

Cognitive busyness after activation:

Facilitates application

Inhibition requires:

Motivation and ability

Models of Stereotype Change: Bookkeeping Model:

Change happens slowly and gradually. Small pieces of disconfirming evidence accumulate.

Models of Stereotype Change: Conversion Model:

A dramatic, undeniable contradiction causes sudden change.

Models of Stereotype Change: Subtyping Model:

Disconfirming examples are considered exceptions to the rule.Overall stereotype stays intact.

Concentrated Disconformation:

One rare example creates a subtype.

Dispersed Disconfirmation:

Many examples eventually cause the overall group stereotype to change.

Reliabilty:

Consistency

Validity:

Accuracy

Convergent:

Related Characteristics

Discriminant:

Unrelated characteristics

Self-report:

Most common

IAT:

Response competition

Correlation:

Relationship, not causality

Experimantal:

Causality

Ethnographic:

Daily life/qualitative

Meta-analysis:

Combines multiple studies