PSY220 Final Exam

Maya's quizlet

Social Cognition (social thinking)

Social Cognition (social thinking)

- social attitudes towards ourselves and others
- impressions of ourselves and others
- beliefs of ourselves and others

Self-concept

who am i?

Self-knowledge

how can i explain and predict myself?

Self-esteem

my sense of self-worth

Social self

my roles, my group identity

Self-schema

beliefs about self that organize and guide the processing of self-relevant info
- "mental templates"

Social comparisons

- we compare ourselves to others
- we are conscious of those differences
- may have either positive or negative effects on the self

Social comparisons study: Lockwood and Kunda (1997)

- participants were either 1st or 4th year students
- had them read an article about a "super-star" 4th year student
- 1st years: felt inspired
- 4th years: felt pathetic, self-doubt

Spotlight effect

- assume everything we do is gonna be highlighted and paid attention to
- see ourselves as if on centre stage

Illusion of Transparency

worry about being evaluated negatively, especially when feeling self-conscious

Illusion of Transparency study: Savitsky and Gilovich (2003)

- asked participants to give speech
- reassured condition: being reassured doesn't really do anything for confidence
- informed condition: inform participants about illusion of transparency, had positive impact on speech

Individualism

- culture's main focus is the individual person, self achievement and fulfillment
- independence, autonomy
- independent self: stable self-concept, personal self-esteem

Collectivism

- culture's main focus is the collective group, group happiness and fulfillment
- relationships, environment
- interdependent self: malleable self-concept, relational self-esteem

Culture and Cognition study: Masuda and Nisbet (2001)

- gave East Asians and Americans a photo of a marine scene
- East Asian individuals describe environment and the relationship among the fish
- Americans attend more to the single big fish in the photo

Culture and Cognition study: Kim and Marcus (1999)

- offered some pens, all the same colour but one
- different cultural preferences for uniqueness and conformity were displayed in pen choice

Self-Knowledge - predicting behaviour

- planning fallacy: always gonna underestimate time needed to complete a task
- makes us not great at predicting our own behaviours

Self-Knowledge - predicting feelings

- affective forecasting: predicting how we'll feel in the future
- impact bias: assuming something has more impact than it actually will, tend to overestimate emotional impact of certain events

Self-Knowledge Accuracy

self-reports are often untrustworthy because we're not good at predicting own behaviour or feelings

Dual attitudes - Implicit Attitudes

- automatic
- change slowly, with practice that forms new habits

Dual attitudes - Explicit Attitudes

- consciously controlled
- may change with education or persuasion

Low/High Self-Esteem outcomes

- low associated with: anxiety, loneliness, eating disorders
- Narcissism: not exactly self-esteem, but when there is too much self-esteem

Self-Efficacy

- a belief in one's own competence
- high: lots of belief in one's abilities
- low: little belief in one's abilities
- different from self-esteem, not "i am great" but "i can be great if i try"

Self-Serving Bias

tendency to attribute positive outcomes to yourself and negative outcomes to other factors

Attribution styles

- Stable vs Instable
- Global vs Local
- Internal vs External

Comparison to Others

- most people consider themselves better than average (on a variety of dimensions)
- subjective behaviour dimensions more susceptible to this

Unrealistic Optimism

- predisposed to optimism
- tend to have unrealistic optimism towards future events, which is supported by pessimism about other's futures
BUT
- illusory optimism increases vulnerability
- defensive pessimism helps people prepare for problems

False Consensus Effect

overestimating commonality of one's opinions and one's undesirable or unsuccessful behaviours

False Uniqueness Effect

underestimating the commonality of one's abilities and one's desirable or successful behaviours

Self-Presentation - self

- different ways we present ourselves
- personal style, social media, language use
- all trying to present DESIRED IMAGE for both external and internal audience
- external: how others see you
- internal: reinforcing how you see yourself

Self-Handicapping

protecting one's self-image with behaviours that create an excuse for later behaviour

Impression Management

- want to present desired image to the world
- familiar vs unfamiliar situations
- in unfamiliar situations: try harder to make good impression and present oneself in positive light

Self-Monitoring

- being attuned to the way one presents oneself in social situations and adjusting performance to create desired impression
- High: change behaviour based on social environment, very perceptive
- Low: stable personality and behaviour regardless of environment

Self-Presentation Theory

- suggests we are eager to present ourselves in ways that make us look good
- motivated to impress others, but we have self-doubts
- thus, we feel social anxiety

Overpersonalizing Situations

- concerning for people who are shy, anxious, or self-conscious
- views incidental events as related to themselves
- tendency breeds anxious concern and maybe paranoia
- especially prone to spotlight effect

Perceived Self-Control

- learned helplessness: individuals become passive when feel like they have no control over negative events
- too much freedom and self-determination can have negative effects such as decreased life satisfaction, depression, and regret
- low self-efficacy

Attitudes

- a favourable or unfavourable evaluative reaction toward something/someone
- Exhibited in one's BELIEFS, FEELINGS, or INTENDED BEHAVIOURS

Tripartite Model of Attitude

- attitude made up of: AFFECT, BEHAVIOUR, COGNITION
- typically all three align with each other
- cognitive dissonance when they aren't all positive or negative
- attitudes susceptible to social context or outside influences

Measurement of Attitude

- attitudes cannot be observed directly
- measures of attitude either explicit or implicit

Explicit Attitudes Measures

self-reports, measures, etc

Implicit Attitudes Measures

- implicit association test (IAT)
- facial muscle responses, physiological measures, etc
- researchers hold that implicit attitudes show more about true beliefs - not as impacted by environmental influences

Implicit Association Test (IAT)

- uses reaction times to measure how quickly people associate concepts
- given choice between two different pictures/words/concepts
- react quicker with something you have connections with in brain
- assumptions: unbiased, uncovers unconscious attitudes
- example: Race IAT

Principle of Aggregation

effects of an attitude or behaviour become more apparent when looking at person's aggregate or average behaviour

Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishebin & Ajzen, 1973)

Attitude + Norm -> Intention -> Behaviour
- attitudes can predict planned deliberate behaviour
- an individual's intention is determinant of their behaviour
- intention as the motivation to act - influenced by ATTITUDE and NORM
- use of explicit measurement

Theory of Reasoned Action - REVISED (Ajzen 1988)

- revised theory to add factor of control (self-efficacy)

Attitude + Norm + Control -> Intention -> Behaviour

- control can also directly impact behaviour
- not all factors always equally strong impact - depends on situational context
- only applies to PLANNED behaviour

When Attitudes are Potent

- many behaviours are automatic, driven by routines and habits
- attitudes predict behaviour better when:
- opportunity to review past actions
- highlighted self-awareness
- attitude formed through experience

Impact of Role on Attitudes

- actions expected of those who occupy particular social positions
- our roles shape our attitudes
- impact of social situtation

Impact of Roles: Stanford Prison Experiment (Zimbardo, 1972)

- prison simulation study with guards and prisoners
- planned two-week study but forced to stop after 6 days
- guards became too cruel and began abusing power

Foot in the Door Phenomenon

- tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request
- low-ball technique

Door in the Face Phenomenon

- tendency for people who have declined large request to agree with smaller one
- request then moderation procedure

Three Ways Behaviours Influence Attitudes

1. Self-presentation
2. Self-justification
3. Self-perception

Self-Presentation - attitudes

- impression management
- concerned with making good impression to gain social and material rewards, to feel better about selves, to become more secure in social identities
- wanting to appear consistent

Self-Justification

- selective exposure: prefer to expose ourselves with info that agrees with pov
- cognitive dissonance: feel tension when aware that we have two thoughts that are inconsistent/incompatible
- dissonance also when behaviour inconsistent with attitude

Self-Justification: Cognitive Dissonance Process

1. choose between two equally (un)attractive alternatives
2. undesirable features of the chosen alternative and desirable features of the rejected alternative remain
3. dissonance is created
4. "manage" dissonance by upgrading the chosen alternative and downgrading rejected alternative

Self-Perception

- self-perception theory (Bem, 1972)
- suggests we make similar inferences when we observe our own behaviour
- when attitudes weak, in position of someone who observes us from outside
- come to conclusions about own actions based on behaviour and ignore our intentions/feelings

Self-Perception: Overjustification Effect

- when individuals do something they enjoy without reward or coercion, they attribute behaviour to their love of activity
- external rewards undermine intrinsic motivation by leading people to attribute their behaviour to the incentive

Three Theories of Self Overview Example: Coffee

Self-presentation
- drinking coffee cause it makes me seem put together

Self-justification
- know coffee is bad for me, but its not that bad cause keeps me awake

Self-perception
- i'm drinking coffee, i must like coffee

A Group

two or more people who, for longer than a few moments, interact with, influence, and perceive one another as "us"

Social Facilitation Study: Triplett (1898)

- mere presence of others has an impact on our behaviour
- others may be passive or co-actors
- children winding fishing reels
- when in presence of others, wound reels faster

Social Facilitation Effect

- tendency of people to perform simple or well-learned tasks better when others are present
- strengthening of the dominant responses owing to the presence of others

Effects of Social Arousal

Crowding

- intensifies positive or negative reactions
- enhances arousal, large number of people

Reasons for Arousal

1. evaluation apprehension
2. driven by distraction
3. mere presence

Collective Effort Effects: Rope Pulling

- rope-pulling apparatus
- collective effort of tug-of-war teams only about half of sum of individual efforts
- people try less in groups

Social Loafing

- tendency for people to exert less effort when they pool their efforts toward a common goal than when they are individually accountable
- free riders: people who benefit from group but give little in return

less likely to occur when:
- task is challenging, appealing, or involving
- when group members are friends

Social Loafing vs Facilitation

Deindividuation

- loss of self-awareness and evaluation apprehension
- occurs in group situations that foster anonymity and draw attention away from the individual
- group experiences that diminish self-consciousness tend to disconnect behaviour from attitudes

Deindividuation Facilitators

- group size
- physical anonymity
- arousing and distracting activities

Group Polarization

group-produced enhancement of member's pre-existing tendencies
- strengthening of the members average tendencies, not a split within the group
- impact of group discussion on individual opinions: the "risky shift"

Group Polarization: Normative Influence

most persuaded by our "reference groups"

Group Polarization: Information Influence

combining of ideas which likely favour the dominant viewpoint

Groupthink

- tendency for groups (while in decision making process) to suppress dissenting cognitions in the interest of ensuring group harmony
- "mode of thinking" that individuals engage in when concurrence-seeking becomes dominant in a cohesive ingroup
- overrides realistic appraisals of alternative courses of action

Groupthink Symptoms: Overestimating the group's might and right

1. an illusion of invulnerability
2. unquestioned belief in the group's morality

Groupthink Symptoms: Group members becoming close-minded

3. rationalization
4. stereotyped view of opponent

Groupthink Symptoms: Pressure to conform and be uniform

5. conformity pressure
6. self-censorship
7. illusion of unanimity
8. mindguards

Preventing Groupthink

- be impartial
- assign a devil's advocate
- subdivide the group
- invite critiques from outside experts
- have a "second chance" meeting as opportunity to discuss lingering doubts

Group Problem Solving Methods

- combine group and solitary brainstorming
- have group members interact by writing
- incorporate electronic brainstorming

4 Types of Leadership

1. Task leadership
2. Social leadership
3. Transactional leadership
4. Transformational leadership

Task Leadership

- directive style
- goal-oriented
- motivates high achievement

Social Leadership

- democratic style
- delegate authority
- welcome input from team members
- good for morale

Transactional Leadership

- focus on getting to know subordinates
- listen carefully
- fulfill others' needs

Transformational Leadership

- consistently stick to goals
- self-confident and charismatic that makes them influential
- motivates others to identify and commit themselves to goal

Individuals Influencing Group

- influence of the minority
- consistency: minority slowness effect
- self-confidence
- defections from majority penetrate unanimity

Aggression

physical or verbal behaviour intended to hurt someone
- can be physical, social, or emotional

Hostile Aggression

- directing aggressive behaviour to person who directly wronged you
- driven by anger and performed as an end in itself
- ex: most murders, bullying

Instrumental Aggression

- aggression that is a means to some other end
- aggressive behaviour for a greater cause
- ex: most acts of war or terrorism

3 Theories of Aggression

1. aggression as a biological phenomenon
2. aggression as a response to frustration
3. aggression as learned social behaviour

Biological Theory

- aggression as instinct
- aggression as biologically adaptive
- helps us be more competitive

Biological Theory: Instinct Theory

- from Freud
- humans have some self-destructive impulses
- then expanded

Biological Theory: Neural Influences

- no center of aggression in the brain, but involves amygdala and hypothalamus
- more aggressive men have smaller amygdala

Biological Theory: Genetic Influences

- sensitivity to aggression cues: things in environment that trigger aggression
- ex: facial expressions, tone of voice, weapons
- temperament

Biological Theory: Biochemical Influences

- Alcohol
- Low serotonin
- Testosterone
- Poor diet
- Biology and behaviour interact

Frustration Theory

- frustration-aggression theory: frustration triggers a readiness to anger
- displacement: redirection of aggression to a target other than the source

Frustration Theory: Simplified Frustration-Aggression Theory

Frustration Theory: Relative Deprivation

- perception that one is less well off than others to whom one compares onself
- RELATIVE- what is perceived

Learned Behaviour Theory

- the rewards of aggression
- social learning theory
- learn social behaviour by observing and imitating, by being rewarded and punished

Learned Behaviour Theory: Observational Learning

- Bandura (1977): Bobo doll experiments
- Family: violence produces violence
- Culture: certain cultures support aggression more

Learned Behaviour Theory: Social Learning Theory

- we learn aggression from models: media, culture, family etc.

aversive experiences -> emotional arousal
rewards and costs -> anticipated consequences
arousal + consequences -> dependency, achievement, withdrawal and resignation, aggression, bodily symptoms, constructive problem solving, coping with drugs

Influences on Aggression: Aversive Incidents

pain
- rat experiments: delivering shocks, the greater the shock the more violent they got

heat
- intense heat as an environmental factor
- students felt more tired and aggressive in hot conditions

attacks
- if insulted or attacked, we are more likely to retaliate

Influences on Aggression: Arousal

- given state of bodily arousal feeds one emotion or another
- dependent on how person interprets and labels arousal

Influences on Aggression: Arousal Study (1962)

- made men physiologically aroused by injecting them with adrenaline
- some were told drug effects
- some were not told
- shown picture of either a hostile or happy person
- those informed had no reaction
- those not informed felt aggressively to hostile person and attracted to happy person