Psych 201-Quiz 4

Social influence

Social influence

a collection of ways that people affect one another through changing attitudes, beliefs, feelings, or behaviors resulting from the real or imagined presence of others.

Three types

Obedience

changing behavior by responding favorably to an explicit request from someone who has power over you.

Do as others COMMAND.

Compliance

changing behavior by responding favorably to explicit requestions from others.

Do as others WANT.

Conformity

changing behavior in response to explicit or implicit pressure (real or imagined) from others.

Do as others DO.

Unconscious (automatic) conformity

Automatic behavioral mimicry.

Unconsciously (mindlessly) imitating the behavior of others.

Conscious (deliberate) conformity

Informational social influence.

Normative social influence.

Informational social influence

Using others’ behaviors as valid information about what is appropriate in a situation.

You change your behavior because others have taught you something you believe is useful.

Autokinetic effect

a visual illusion in which a small, stationary dot of light in a dark room appears to move.

Normative social influence

Using others’ behavior as guides for how to fit in and avoid disapproval.

You change your behavior to avoid social punishment.

Factors that influence conformity

Group size

Unanimity

Anonymity

Expertise & Status

Unanimity

if there is a break in unanimity, even if it is not in line with the person’s private belief, it is enough to reduce conformity.

Group size

larger groups have more informational and normative social influence.

Anonymity

eliminates normative social influence and therefor reduces conformity.

Expertise & Status

expert opinions carry more weight. In addition, the disapproval of high-status people hurts more.

Reason-Based: Reciprocity

A type of compliance.

You help those who help you, and vice versa.

Door-in-the-face

A type of compliance

Requesting a very large favor that you know the target will decline and then following it up with a more modest request for what you really want.

Foot-in-the-door:

A type of compliance.

Make a small, initial request that virtually everyone would agree to, and then follow it up with a larger request for what you really want.

Positive mood maintenance

Emotion based compliance.

Saying no to a request is awkward and creates negative affect, so to continue feeling good you comply.

The negative state relief hypothesis

Emotion based compliance

Negative moods increase compliance because doing something for someone else helps to make you feel better.

Emotion Based : Guilt

A type of compliance.

When people feel guilty, they’re often motivated to do whatever they can to get rid of that awful feeling.

Compliance: Norm-Based

Explicit request or implicit suggestion to conform to those around you.

Descriptive norms

Prescriptive norms

Descriptive norms

Objective, factual description of what most people do.

Prescriptive norms

What most people should do according to some rule or tradition.

What ought to be.

Why was Milgram’s Experiment ideal for obedience?

Released from responsibility

Step-by-step involvement

Lack of practice disobeying authority

Exchange Relationships

• Interactions based on equity and reciprocity.

  • Input to output ratio should be equal.

  • Tend to be short term.

  • E.g., business relations.

Communal Relationships

• Interactions based on a sense of “oneness”

  • Input to output ratio does not have to be equal.

  • Tend to be long term.

  • E.g., family, close friends

Social exchange theory

People tend to seek out interactions that have more rewards than costs or have the smallest amount of “excess cost” possible.

Equity theory

People are motivated to pursue fairness in relationships, so rewards and costs are shared roughly equally.

Attachment theory

Theory about how our early attachments with our parents shape our relationships for the rest of our lives.

Strange situation paradigm

Simple test to assess infant attachment to caregiver.

Secure Attachment

• Generally trusting

• Infant: actively explores the room when Mom is around, upset when Mom leaves, and happy when Mom returns.

• Caregiver: responds quickly and reliably to cries; responsive to child’s individual needs.

Anxious-Ambivalent Attachment

• Generally dependent, “clingy.”

• Infant: clings to Mom when she is around, upset when Mom leaves, and angry or still upset when Mom returns.

• Caregiver: tends to be unpredictable/ unreliable; sometimes intrudes on the child’s activities, sometimes rejects or ignores the child, and sometimes shows love.

Avoidant Attachment

• Generally independent, self-reliant.

• Infant: ignores Mom when she is around, doesn’t care when she leaves, and continues to ignore her when she returns.

• Caregiver: ignores child; doesn’t pay attention to infant’s wants or needs.

Adult Secure Attachment

• Comfortable with intimacy

• Want to be close to others during threat/ uncertainty.

Adult Anxious Ambivalent Attachment

• Constantly express worries/ concerns about relationships.

• Excessively seeks closeness during threat/ uncertainty.

Adult Avoidant Attachment

• Prefers distance; shows compulsive self-reliance.

• Uncomfortable with intimacy.

• Dismissive and detached during threat/ uncertainty.

Main principle of attachment theory

Attachment styles develop early, relatively stable across life.

Attraction

• Three variables:

  • Proximity

  • Similarity

  • Physical attractiveness

Proximity

• Functional distance: how close you are to someone else in terms of “interaction opportunities” (e.g., through social media, in your dorm, classes, clubs, etc).

• Strongest predictor of whether people will become (and remain) friends or romantic partners,

Mere exposure effect

The more you’re exposed to something, the more you like it.

Similarity

• “Birds of a feather flock together.”

• People tend to like people who are similar to themselves.

Why do we like similar others?

• Validates our beliefs

• Facilitates smooth interactions

• We expect similar others to like us.

• Similar others have qualities we like.

Attraction

• “What is beautiful is good.”

• Halo effect.

• Applies to cultural stereotypes:

  • In individualistic cultures, attractive people seen as more assertive.

  • In collectivist cultures, attractive people seen as more empathic.

• Applies to perceptions of power and status.

  • In individualist cultures, powerful people are thought to be assertive.

  • In collectivist cultures, powerful people are thought to be generous.

Halo effect

The belief that attractive people have a host of positive qualities that extend beyond physical appearance (usually an automatic inference process).

Investment model of commitment

• Three factors influencing commitment.

  • Relationship satisfaction

  • Quality of alternatives

  • Investments

Relationship satisfaction

You get out as much as (or slightly more than) you put in.

Quality of alternatives

There are no high-quality alternatives.

Investments

You have been together for a while. Investing in another makes them more committed to you as well.

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

• Four behaviors used to predict divorce 93% accuracy in 15 minute interactions.

  • Contempt

  • Criticism

  • Defensiveness

  • Stonewalling

Stonewalling

Withdrawing from the conflict, ignoring/ avoiding the issue.

Defensiveness

Trying to “play the victim” and not accepting responsibility for your part.

Criticism

Expressing negative evaluations, being overly critical.

Contempt

Expressing disdain or scorn.

Stereotypes

Beliefs that certain attributes are characteristic of members of a particular group.

Prejudice

Attitude or affective response (positive or negative) toward a group and its members.

Discrimination

Favorable or unfavorable treatment of individuals based on their group membership

Contemporary Prejudice

• Two main types:

  • Traditional

  • Modern

Traditional Racism

Prejudice against a racial group that is explicitly acknowledged and expressed by the individual.

Modern Racism

Prejudice directed at racial groups that exist simultaneously to rejection of explicit racist beliefs.

Implicit Association Test

A technique for revealing nonconscious prejudices toward particular groups.

Priming

Mental activation of associated concepts.

Realistic Group Conflict Theory

When groups compete for limited resources (e.g., territory jobs, power), these groups experience conflict, prejudice, and discrimination.

Ethnocentrism

Glorifying one’s own group while vilifying other groups.

Minimal group paradigm

Researchers create groups based on arbitrary and seemingly meaningless criteria to see if they can get people to develop intergroup bias as a result.

E.g., flipping a coin, shoelace color, and other silly things,

Social Identity Theory

A person’s self-concept and self-esteem are derived from BOTH.

Ingroup bias

Because identity related self-esteem is based in part on group membership, we are motivated to boost the status of our ingroups.

Outgroup bias

Often, we are motivated to diminish the status of outgroups.

Basked in Reflected Glory

Taking pride in the accomplishments of those we feel associated with in some way—wearing school t-shirts more after their football team wins a game.

Schemas

Knowledge structures that use information you already have as a shortcut for assessing new situations.

Subtyping

Explaining away expectations to a given stereotype by creating a subcategory of the stereotyped group that can be expected to be different from the group as a whole.

• E.g., Obama is “half white.”

Outgroup homogeneity affect

The tendency to assume that members of outgroups are “all alike,” whereas members of ingroups have differences.

• They all think/ want/ do the same things.

Dual process theory (Devine, 1989)

Both prejudiced and nonprejudiced people often have racist/sexist/ etc. associations, the difference is whether they try to ignore them/ correct for them (which takes effort)

Implicit behavioral

Measures predict automatic behaviors better, e.g., body movement, eye gaze.

Explicit behavioral

Measures predict controlled behaviors better, e.g., verbal communication.

Stereotype Threat

• Fear of confirming a stereotype that others have about a group to which they belong.

• Undermines performance.

Cost of Concealment

Disclosing one’s sexuality or gender identity has meaningful physical and psychological effects.

Attributional Ambiguity

Members of stigmatized groups may be uncertain if the treatment they receive is due to themselves personally or due to their group membership.