PSY 351 Exam 3

Harlow

Social psychologist who looked at the need to belong and the importance of maternal touch

Experiment:
Monkey isolated
Wire mom v. Towel mom brought out
mostly goes to towel mom for comfort and everything else, but for milk they go to wire mom

Mere Exposure Effect in Attraction

Idea that repeated exposure to stimulus leads to greater liking

Similarity/Complementarity in Attraction

Tendency to seek out others with characteristics that are different from and complement their own

Reproductive Fitness

1. Averageness: more average, more attractive

2. Bilateral Symmetry: symmetrical = less abnormalities = healthier mate

Benefits of Attractiveness

More popular
More potential romantic partners
Can make more money

Evolutionary Perspective on Attraction and Mate Choice

If "healthy" = attractive = more offspring

Modern Racism

Prejudice directed at racial groups, alongside rejection of racist beliefs

"subtle" racism

Economic Perspective of Racism

Prejudice is a result of different social groups competing over scarce resources

Realistic Group Conflict Theory

Group conflict, prejudice & discrimination are likely to arise over competition between groups for limited resources

Economic: fight over what's left
Realistic: fight over what's given

Robbers Cave Experiment

Proves that limited resources do lead to discrimination and prejudice

Teamwork and common goal removes it

Superordinate Goals in Reduction of Prejudice

Groups need to feel equal in status
Shared goals
Social norms
Must support intergroup contact
One on one interactions

Minimal Group Paradigm

An experimental paradigm in which researchers create groups based on arbitrary and seemingly meaningless criteria and then examine how the members of these “minimal groups” are inclined to behave toward one another

In group preferred

Social Identity Theory in Prejudice

The idea that a person’s self-concept and self-esteem derive not only from personal identity and accomplishments but also from the status and accomplishments of the various groups to which the person belongs

"Basking in Reflected Glory"

Taking pride in other people's glories

Cognitive Perspective of Prejudice

Prejudice born from schemas learned from ingroup and ingroup and outgroup difference

Distinctiveness and Illusory Correlation in Prejudice

Maintained false beliefs about a group as it is easy to remember pairing two distinct events

Encountering minority group members and observing negative behavior are both less frequent events than observing majority group members and positive behaviors, so it may be easier to remember examples of minorities doing negative things

Priming and Prejudice

The presentation of information designed to activate a concept (such as a stereotype) and hence make it accessible; the stimulus presented to activate the concept in question

Prejudice is born from this, ex: people associate dangerous words and weapons faster when shown a face of a black man rather than a white man

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Belief about what will happen drives the actions that make that outcome ultimately come true

Stereotypes also can endure because they “benefit” from this.

Stereotype Threat

Fear of confirming the stereotypes others have about one's group

i.e women taking a test confirming their gender did worse than when they did not confirm gender on test

Obedience

Milgram Experiment

Conformity

Changing behavior or belief due to outside or imagined influence

Normative Social Influence

Influence someone has over you as you try to avoid disappointing them

Informational Social Influence

Taking what someone else said as a source of information as to what is correct, proper, and effective

Ideomotor Action

Thinking about a behavior will make it more probable to happen

Norm of Reciprocity

Feeling to provide a benefit to someone who benefited you

Foot in the Door

Make small request followed by a larger request later

Door in the Face

Make a large request, followed by a smaller request after

Deindividuation

Becoming so immersed in the norms of the group that you lose your sense of identity and sense of awareness

i.e lynch mobs

Spotlight Effect

Individuals conviction that other people are paying attention to them (to their appearance and behavior) more than they actually are

Self-Awareness Theory

A theory maintaining that when people focus their attention inward on themselves, they become concerned with self-evaluation and how their current behavior conforms to their internal standards and values

Criticism

Four Horsemen of Apocalypse
Toxic Communication Styles

Pointing out every negative little thing

Defensive

Four Horsemen of Apocalypse
Toxic Communication Style

Not taking any responsibility

Stonewalling

Four Horsemen of Apocalypse
Toxic Communication Style

Dismissive, closing off from speaker, shutting down

Contempt

Four Horsemen of Apocalypse
Toxic Communication Style

"Doesn't matter anyways" mindset, treating others with disrespect, being mean