socail psych exam 1

sociometer theory

self esteem is about belonging. Social evaluation of the self by the self, the guage of our percieved social value

how did Leary and others test the sociometer theory?

participants were tested on how they think certain events would effect how others percieve them. group 1 was anticipated rejection/acceptance, group 2 was real time includison ratings, group 3+4 were personal vs random exclusion, and group 5 was trait self esteem

did the results of Leary's study support the theory of sociometer?

yes, it confirmed that self esteem was an internal gauge that monitored social acceptance and rejection, which alerted individuals to potential exclusion

how can one improve self esteem?

increase perceived relational value and social inclusion with others

what are the 2 attribution theories that help social psychologists understand attribution processes?

Giblert's attribution theory and Kelly's Attribution theory

what is Gilbert's Attribution Theory?

posed the stages of attribution and said that fundemental attribution error is automatic. First we make an internal attribution then if we're motivated and able to give more effort, we consider situational factors

what are the stages of attribution from Gilbert's theory?

stage 1: dispositional inference (automatic cognitive processing)

stage 2: consider role of situation (controlled cognitive processing and requires motivation and effort)

what does Gilbert's theory seek to explain?

people naturally judge other's behaviors in sequential stages from automatic to effortful evaluation

what is Kelly's Attribution Theory?

People make attributions based on 3 factors

what are the 3 factors of Kelly's Attribution Theory?

consensus: does everyone act this way in this situation (yes: high leads to situational and low leads to dispositional)

distinctiveness: does someone only act this way in this situation (high) or do they act this way in similar ones

consistency: does a person act like this in this situation everytime or do they act differently sometimes

what did Kelly want to find?

how people figure out others behaviors, whether it stems from internal or external factors

how were Gilbert and Kelly's theories similar?

both seek to understand whether an observer assigns behavior to internal or external forces

how were Gilbert and Kelly's theories different?

kelly's model states that observers essentially state that attributions are made by checking off 3 factors and then they come to a conclusion. Gilbert's theory is sequential and begins with an internal attribution then studies to see if there is situational factors too

how does behavior lead to attitude/belief change?

we form attitudes by observing behavior.

what is cognitive dissonance?

discomfort caused by attitude-behavior inconsistency leads to attitude change (ex: school or attraction)

what is dissonance?

feeling of discomfort

what is insufficient justification?

weak reasons for engaging in attitude discrepant behavior leads to strong dissoances which leads to a large attitude change

what is confirmation bias?

searching for things to support your existing belief and ignoring things that may conflict it

what is the fundemental attribution error?

judging people's actions based on their personality (dispostional) while defending your actions by blaming it on the situation (situational)

what is the theory of planned behavior?

behavior is determined by intention and their percieved ability to perform a behavior. states that attitude is shaped by 3 factors: attitude toward behavior, subjective norm, and perceived behavior control

what does attitude toward behavior entail?

how a person feels about an action, whether it's positive or negative based on expected outcomes. (ex: smoking is bad for health)

what does subjective norm entail?

social pressure or expectations from family, friends, and society on whether they should perform the action (ex: my parents do not approve of me smoking)

what does perceived behavior control entail?

belief about how easy or hard it will be to perform the task (ex: I could stop with help)

how are the 3 factors related?

all factors lead to behavior intention, behavior intention then leads to behavior which is actually performing the action to change behavior

what does pancultural self-enhancement mean?

the deisre to view yourself positively is universal

what was study 1 in sedikides?

testing to prove whether self enhancement was restricted to individualistic cultures or if it was present among collectivistic cultures. In this instance, they compared America and Japan.

what was the hypothesis of sedikides study?

americans would self enhance more strongly than japanese on individualistic attributies

what did sedikides have participants do?

They did a cultural immersion exercise where they had to record their thoughts and decisions given to them in an imaginative situation. They had to imagine being in their homeland, imbued with cultural symbolism

what was the result of the study?

Americans self-enhanced on individualistic attributes and Japanese self-enhanced on collectivistic attributes.