MBB - Chapter 15: Social Thinking and Behaviour

Social Psychology

The scientific study of how individuals' thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others.

Attribution

Judgements about the causes of our own and other people's behavior.

Personal Attribution

Inferences that people's characteristics cause a behavior.

Situational Attribution

Inferences that aspects of the situation cause a behavior.

Kelley’s Covariation Model

A model that suggests three types of information determine the type of attribution we make: consistency, distinctiveness, and consensus.

Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE)

The tendency to underestimate situational influences and overestimate personal factors when explaining others' behaviors.

Actor-Observer Bias

The tendency to attribute one's own actions to situational factors while attributing others' actions to personal factors.

Self-Serving Bias

The tendency to make personal attributions for successes and situational attributions for failures.

Primacy Effects

The tendency to give more weight to the first information presented when forming impressions.

Schemas

Mental frameworks that help us organize and interpret information.

Mental Set

A readiness to perceive the world in a particular way based on activated schemas.

Impression Formation

The process through which people form opinions about the personalities and abilities of others.

Stereotype

A generalized belief about a group or category of people.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

A situation where our expectations about a person lead us to act in ways that cause the person to behave in a manner that confirms those expectations.

Self-Concept

A person's overall understanding and evaluation of themselves.

Self-Schemas

Mental templates derived from past experiences representing a person's beliefs about themselves in specific domains.

Reflected Appraisals Principle

The idea that we incorporate the views others have of us into our self-concept.

Upward Comparison

Comparing ourselves to a more successful peer to improve and learn.

Downward Comparison

Comparing ourselves to a less successful peer which may enhance self-esteem.

Collective Self-Esteem

A measure of the value one places on one's social groups.

Causal Mechanisms

The plausible explanations of the reasons why one event causes another.

Attributional Biases

Common tendencies that may lead to mistakes in judgment about causes of behavior.

Consensus

The extent to which other people behave similarly in a given situation.

Consistency

The extent to which a person's behavior is the same across time.

Distinctiveness

The degree to which a person's behavior is different in different situations.

Self-Esteem

An individual's sense of self-worth or how much value they assign to themselves.

Better-than-average effect

The tendency to evaluate oneself more favorably than one’s peers.

Cultural Influence on Attribution

The idea that different cultures impact the way attributions are made; individualistic cultures emphasize personal factors, while collectivist cultures emphasize situational factors.

Expectations

Beliefs about what we anticipate others’ behaviors to be.

Cognitive Accessibility

The increased likelihood of recalling information related to activated schemas.

Empirical Research

A method of gaining knowledge through direct observation or experimentation.

Intergroup Conflict

Tension or conflict between different groups, often based on stereotypes and prejudice.

Group Polarization

The phenomenon where group discussions lead to more extreme positions amongst group members.

Compliance

Changing one's behavior in response to a direct request from another person.

Conformity

Changing one's behavior or beliefs to match those of others.

Obedience

Following the commands or instructions of a person of authority.

Attitudes

Evaluations that can be positive or negative and influence how we think and behave toward people, things, and ideas.

Social Norms

Expected standards of behavior within a group.

Self-Discrepancy Theory

A theory that suggests people are motivated to reduce the gap between their actual self and their ideal or ought self.

Projection

Attributing one's own feelings or thoughts to another person.

Cognitive Dissonance

The state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially relating to behavioral decisions.

Dispositional Attribution

Attributing behavior to internal characteristics, such as personality or temperament.

Situational Constraints

Factors in the environment that can influence behavior and actions.

Interdependence

A key characteristic of relationships in collectivist cultures where individuals see themselves as part of a larger group.

Fundamental Attribution Error

The cognitive bias to emphasize personal characteristics and ignore situational factors in judging others' behavior.

Recency Effects

The tendency to give greater importance to the most recent information received.

Implicit Bias

The attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner.

What is the definition of an attitude?

A positive, neutral, or negative evaluative reaction towards a stimulus, such as a person, action, object, or idea.

Why are attitudes considered indispensable in social psychology?

Because they are believed to influence our behavior, although this is not always the case (attitude-behavior gap).

What is the 'attitude-behavior gap'?

The phenomenon where people’s actions don’t always align with their expressed attitudes or beliefs.

When do attitudes better predict behavior?

When they are strongly held and when the individual is aware of them.

What are cognitive vs. affective attitudes?

• Cognitive: Focus on instrumental outcomes (e.g., "Smoking causes cancer.")

• Affective: Focus on emotions (e.g., "Smoking is disgusting.")

• Affective attitudes better predict health-related behavior.

What are explicit and implicit attitudes?

• Explicit: Measured through self-reports; consciously accessible.

• Implicit: Measured indirectly (e.g., reaction times); automatic and often unconscious.

What does the Correspondence Principle state?

Specific attitudes best predict specific behaviors.

What does the Aggregation Principle state?

General attitudes best predict general patterns or categories of behavior.

According to the Theory of Planned Behaviour, what predicts behavior?

Behavioral intentions, which are influenced by attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control.

When do attitudes most strongly predict behavior?

When situational constraints are low.

What is cognitive dissonance?

A psychological discomfort from holding contradictory beliefs or behaving in ways that conflict with one's beliefs.

What are the 3 main strategies for reducing dissonance?

• Changing the attitude

• Adding new cognitions (rationalizing)

• Changing the behavior (least likely)

When is dissonance most likely to occur?

When actions are perceived as freely chosen and have foreseeable consequences that threaten self-worth.

What does Bem’s Self-Perception Theory state?

People infer their own attitudes by observing their behavior, especially in low-arousal situations.

How do Dissonance Theory and Self-Perception Theory differ?

• Dissonance: Explains attitude change when self-worth is threatened.

• Self-perception: Explains attitude change in less intense or arousing contexts.

What are the two main routes to persuasion?

• Central route: Careful thinking; strong arguments are key.

• Peripheral route: Influenced by superficial cues (e.g., attractiveness, emotional appeal).

What makes a communicator persuasive?

Expertise and trustworthiness.

What message strategies are effective?

• Two-sided refutational arguments.

• Moderate fear appeals (not too high).

What is compliance?

Compliance is doing something someone else asks you to do, even if you initially didn't want to.

What are compliance techniques?

Strategies that manipulate people into agreeing to requests.

What is the norm of reciprocity?

The expectation that when others treat us well, we should respond in kind.

What is the Foot-in-the-Door technique?

Getting someone to agree to a small request first to increase the chance of agreement with a larger request later

Example of Foot-in-the-Door

Guéguen (2002) - people more likely to do a survey after doing a small favour first.

What is the Lowballing technique?

Getting someone to commit to something, then increasing the cost or effort of the behavior before they follow through.

Example of Lowballing

Signing up for a gym at £20/month, then adding a surprise £10 fee.

What is the Door-in-the-Face technique?

Making a large request likely to be refused, then presenting a smaller, more reasonable request

Example of Door-in-the-Face

Wang et al. (1989) - asking for $25 donation, then $2.

What is obedience?

Compliance with requests or orders from an authority figure.

What were the Milgram experiments about?

Participants were instructed to administer electric shocks to a 'learner' under the direction of an authority figure.

What were the findings of the Milgram experiment?

65% of participants obeyed and administered shocks to the maximum level.

Factors increasing obedience

Remoteness of the victim, Closeness/legitimacy of authority, Diffusion of responsibility, Authority assuming responsibility

What is NOT a factor in obedience in Milgram's study?

Personality and gender had no significant effect

What are social norms?

Shared expectations about how people should think, feel, and behave

What is a social role?

A set of norms that define how individuals in specific social positions ought to behave.

What is role conflict?

Conflict between norms of different roles (e.g., CEO vs. mother).

What did Sherif (1935) demonstrate?

Group norms emerge through convergence of individual judgments and persist even when individuals are alone again.

What is conformity?

Adjusting behavior or beliefs to align with group standards

What is informational social influence?

Conforming because you believe others know better

What is normative social influence?

Conforming to be accepted and avoid rejection

What is referent informational influence?

Conforming to norms of groups you identify with, as part of your self-concept.

What did Asch (1951) find?

75% of participants conformed at least once; conformity occurred in 37% of trials

Factors reducing conformity

Presence of a dissenter, Smaller group size, Weaker group identification, Individualistic culture.

What is social facilitation?

Improved performance on dominant tasks in presence of others; worsened on complex tasks.

What is social loafing?

People exert less effort in group tasks than when alone

What is social compensation?

Working harder in a group to make up for others' lack of effort.

What is groupthink?

Tendency to suppress dissent and critical thinking to maintain group harmony.

What is group polarization?

Groups of like-minded people become more extreme in their views.

What is ostracism?

Being excluded or ignored; it can lower mood and increase conformity.

What is deindividuation?

Loss of self-awareness leading to disinhibited behavior (e.g., Stanford Prison Experiment).

What is mass panic?

In emergencies, shared identity can lead to helpful or panicked group behavior.

What is workforce diversity?

Compositional differences among people in a group

Types of diversity

Separation (values), Variety (experience), Disparity (status/resources).

How does diversity affect performance?

Surface-level: little impact; Task-relevant: small positive; Deep-level: small negative (conflict).