Psych - Social Psychology Day 1

social psychology

the study of social behavior

→ how people affect one another

→ how situations impact behavior

situationism

behavior caused by the environment, the situation

dispositionism

behavior determined by internal factors

personality, temperament, etc

fundamental attribution error

cognitive bias where people overemphasize personality-based explanations for others' behavior while underemphasizing situational factors

social roles

the part people play as members of a social group

actor-observer bias

a cognitive bias where people attribute their own actions to external, situational causes (e.g., "I was late because of traffic"), but attribute others' behaviors to internal, dispositional factors

social norms

a group’s expectation for what is acceptable behavior

self-serving bias

the cognitive tendency to attribute personal successes to internal traits (skill, intelligence) while blaming failures on external factors (luck, others), protecting self-esteem

what were the main take-aways from the stanford prison experiment?

they found that the individuals assigned to the role of prisoner and guard adopted the behavior of those roles (prisoners rebelling, guards aggressive), showed evidence of social roles and social norms

cognitive dissonance

competing or inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or actions

mind seeks to reduce dissonance

how do you resolve dissonance?

dissonance arises from conflicting inconsistency between actions and beliefs, and is alleviated through changing beliefs, actions, or perception of actions that are causing inconsistency

central route persuasion

a method of influencing attitudes by using logic, facts, and strong arguments, encouraging the audience to think critically about the message

peripheral route persuasion

a method of attitude change that relies on superficial cues (such as celebrity endorsements, attractiveness, or emotions) rather than logic or deep reasoning

foot-in-the-door

a persuasion strategy where agreeing to a small, initial request increases the likelihood of complying with a subsequent, larger request

drive: consistency

door-in-the-face

a compliance strategy where a large, unreasonable request is made first, which is likely to be rejected increases the likelihood of complying with a subsequent, smaller request

drive: reciprocity

social facilitation

we perform better in other people’s presence, but not on novel, difficult tasks

social loafing

diminished effort during group tasks

holds individuals less accountable, contributions are less important, individual gets a “free ride”

deindividuation

Loss of self-awareness and self-restraint

Happens when we feel activated and anonymous

Explains why we might do things in groups we might not do individually

conformity

adjusting our behavior or thinking to meet group standards

informational conformity (social influence)

conform to group based on the belief that the group has the correct information

normative conformity (social influence)

we conform to avoid rejection or gain social approval

group-think

going along with a group’s decision to maintain harmony

overrides review/analysis of alternatives

what were the key take-aways from asch’s conformity study

it demonstrated that people frequently ignore reality and conform to group norms to fit in or avoid ridicule

what were the key take-aways from milgram’s obedience study

surprisingly 65% of people (in the baseline study) were willing to deliver seemingly fatal electric shocks to a stranger when instructed by a legitimate authority figure. it highlighted that situational factors, rather than personality, drive extreme obedience and the "banality of evil"