How are people influenced to behave in particular ways?

VCE units 1&2 psychology

Social cognition

How we think about and use information to understand and make judgments about ourselves and others in different social situations.

Person perception

The mental processes we use to think about and evaluate other people.

Physical cues

The way people look and act.

The halo effect

When we allow our overall positive impression of a person, or of a specific quality, to influence our beliefs and expectations about the person in other qualities.

Body language

Communicating inner aspects of ourselves through facial expressions, eye gaze, posture, gestures and other bodily movements

What is one of the most influential forms of non-verbal communication?

Eye contact

When are we more likely to form an accurate impression of someone?

When we consider what people do, rather than their appearance or their words alone.

Salience

Any personal characteristic that is noticeable in its context and therefore attracts attention.

Social categorisation

The act of classifying each other into different groups on the basis of common characteristics.

Ingroup

Any group that you belong to or identify with.

Outgroup

Any group you do not belong to or identify with.

Attribution

The process by which we explain the cause of our own or another person’s behaviour.

Internal attribution

When we judge behaviour as being caused by something personal within an individual.

External attribution

When we determine the cause of a behaviour as resulting from situational factors occurring outside the individual.

Fundamental attribution error

Our tendency to explain other people’s behaviour in terms of internal factors, while ignoring possible external factors.

Actor-observer bias

Our tendency to attribute our own behaviour to external factors, yet attribute others’ behaviour to internal factors.

Self-serving bias

When judging ourselves we tend to take credit for our successes and deny responsibility for failure, which is instead blamed on external, situational factors.

Attitudes

An evaluation of something, that ranges on a continuum from positive to negative.

What does the tri-component model of attitudes propose?

That any attitude has three related components.

Affective component of an attitude

The emotional reactions or feelings an individual has towards something. What they feel about it.

Behavioural component of an attitude

The way in which an attitude is expressed through our actions. What we do.

Cognitive component of an attitude

The beliefs we have about something. What we believe.

Stereotype

A collection of beliefs that we have about the people who belong to a certain group, based on their group membership.

Social stigma

Negative labels and attitudes associated with disapproval or rejection by others who are not labelled in that way.

What are the 3 ways attitudes are formed?

Direct contact, child rearing, and group membership.

Direct contact

Personal experience with the object of the attitude.

Child rearing

Parental values, beliefs and practices applied while caring for a child

Group membership

Our association with the people with whom we share common characteristics

Cognitive dissonance

When the thought and actions of a person do not match their attitude, causing discomfort.

Ways to avoid cognitive dissonance

Change cognition, change behaviour or add new cognitions

Change cognition

changing how you think about an action so it seems normal.

change behaviour

change behaviour to fit with your pre existing mental idea.

Add new cognitions

Add new ideas so that it seems ok eg: to justify cheating you may say everybody does it.

Cognitive bias

 a systematic error of judgement and faulty decision making

Why is cognitive bias a systematic error of judgement

It is flawed thinking, it often occurs without conscious awareness, and it occurs constantly and predictably under certain circumstances.

Anchoring bias

The tendency to rely heavily on the first piece of information received

Attentional bias

The tendency to prioritise attention to certain information over other information.

Confirmation bias

The tendency to seek, recall or interpret information in a way that confirms existing beliefs or expectations.

False-consensus bias

The tendency to overestimate the extent to which other people are like them in terms of sharing beliefs, personal characteristics or behaviours.

Hindsight bias

The tendency to only after an even has occurred to overestimate the extent to which the outcome could have been foreseen.

Misinformation effect

The tendency for information acquired after an event to influence the accuracy of the memory of the original event.

Optimism bias

The tendency to overestimate the likelihood of experiencing positive events and underestimate the likelihood of experiencing negative events in the future.

Dunning-Kruger effect

A type of cognitive bias whereby people overestimate their knowledge or ability.

Heuristics

A strategy for problem solving based on experience with similar problems, but that cannot guarantee a correct outcome.

3 types of heuristics

 Availability, representativeness, affective

Availability heuristics

Making a judgement based on how easy or difficult it is to bring specific examples to mind.

Representative heuristics

Categorising something by judging how closely it matches our idea of a typical member of the category.

Affective heuristic

Making a judgement that is influenced by the emotion being experienced at the time.

Prejudice

The negative judgement that is made about a person, purely because they belong to a particular group.

When does prejudice usually occur?

When you judge or make up ideas about someone before you actually know them

Old fashioned prejudice

The members of the dominant group openly reject members of the marginalised group.

Modern prejudice

Overt rejection is not socially accepted or tolerated, so prejudice becomes more subtle to become socially palatable.

Explicit prejudice

knowingly held

Implicit predjudice

unknowingly held

Scapegoating

blaming a person or a group for the actions of others or for conditions not of their making.

Direct experience

 being in contact with a particular group of people in a negative way will create a dislike for the group.

Prejudiced personality

people who have an authoritative personality are more likely to be prejudiced.

Discrimination

positive or negative behaviour that is directed towards a social group and its members.

Sexism

an attitude that is a mixture of negative thoughts, feelings of fear, envy or hostility, and actions of discrimination based on gender.

Racism

an attitude that is a mixture of negative thoughts, feelings of fear, envy or hostility, and actions of discrimination based on race.

Ageism

an attitude that is a mixture of negative thoughts, feelings of fear, envy or hostility, and actions of discrimination based on age.

Stigma

A set of negative and unfair beliefs that a society or group of people have about another group because of a particular characteristic or attribute

Factors reducing prejudice and discrimination

Sustained contact, equality, mutual interdependence, intergroup contact, cognitive interventions, superordinate goals

Sustained contact

The more time you spend with someone, the less likely you are to hold a prejudiced view of them.

Equality

To reduce prejudice there must be equal status between the groups.

Mutual independence

To reduce prejudice among groups, they must sometimes depend on one another.

Inter-group contact

To reduce prejudice there needs to be an increase in direct contact between groups working together.

Cognitive interventions

Teaching people the way they think about prejudice, with hope it can be reduced.

Types of cognitive interventions

Individuating information, just-world belief, self fulfilling prophecy, social competition, commonalities, and cultural awareness.

Individuating information

 knowledge that helps us see a person as an individual, rather than as a member of a group

Just-world belief

Belief that people generally get what they deserve

Self-fulfilling prophecy

An expectation that prompts people to act in ways that make the expectation come true.

Social competition

Rivalry among groups, each of which regards itself as superior to others.

Commonalities

Things people share or have in common, increasing cooperation with others and sharing joys and suffering.

Cultural awarness

Awareness of cultural backgrounds different to your own.

Super-ordinate goals

Both groups complete a task bearing equal importance to each group, and can’t be completed without both groups.

Social influence

The effects of the presence or actions of others, either real or imagined, on the way people think, feel and behave

Group

Two or more people who interact with and influence one another and share a common purpose.

define culture

The way of life of a particular society or community that sets them apart from other societies or communities.

Status

The importance of an individual’s position in the group, as perceived by members of that group.

Power

The influence or control that an individual has over the thoughts, feelings and behaviours of another person.

Types of power

Expert, coercive, referent, legitimate, informational, reward

Types of power acronym

Every Clever Rabbit Likes Ice-cream Regularly

Expert power

Special knowledge or expertise.

Coercive power

can administer punishment.

Referent power

Idolises a person with power.

Reward power

an ability to give positive or negative consequences in response to behaviours.

Informational power

has information you cannot obtain elsewhere

Legitimate power

has the right to prescribe the behaviour of others.

Groupthink

A way of thinking by members of a group that has a strong tendency to seek agreement, thereby overriding any realistic consideration of possible alternative options. A shift from trying to reach the best outcome, to maintaining agreement.

Group cohesion

The unity or solidarity of a group that is indicated when all members feel good with and about the group, and all want the same outcome.

When does groupthink often occur

When the group has a high level of cohesiveness, the group has an overpowering leader, or they don’t have enough time to effectively debate the issue.

How to prevent groupthink

Make members aware of groupthink, impartial leader, no time pressure.

Deindividuation

reduced self awareness, inhibition, feelings of personal responsibility and inner restraint when in a group or crowd.

Obedience

A type of compliance whereby the individual complies with a demand, rather than a request.

Factors affecting obedience

Social proximity, legitimacy of authority figure, group pressure.

Social proximity

the closeness between the individuals

Legitimacy of authority figure

the degree that the authority figure is perceived to have real power

Group pressure

The degree of group support for complying or resisting the authority figure

Conformity

The tendency to adjust one’s thoughts, feelings or behaviour in ways that are in agreement with those of the group.