PSY2042 Social Psychology

cross-cultural products

Cultural products such as advertisements illustrate cross-cultural differences in views of the self and others. Eastern countries more likely to show fitting in with group.

cultural products

Goods and services that include the arts (performing arts, visual arts, architecture), heritage conservation (museums, galleries, libraries), the cultural industries (written media, broadcasting, film, recording), and festivals.

Social psychology

The scientific study of how people think about, influence and relate to one another, the way people's thoughts, feelings and behaviours are influenced by the real or imagined presence of people

Social influence

The effect that the words, actions or mere presence of other people have on our thoughts, feelings, attitudes or behaviours

Personality pscyhology

focuses on individual differences

Fundamental attribution error

The tendency to explain our own and other person's behaviour entirely in terms of personality traits

What happens when we underestimate the power of social influence?

Gain a feeling of false security
Increases personal vulnerability
Lowering our guard

What happens when we fail to appreciate the power of the situation

Oversimplify complex situations
Decrease understanding of the true causes
Blaming victim when people are overpowered by social forces

Social cognition motive

Trying to gain accurate understandings so we can make effective judgements and decisions

Social cognition

how people think about themselves and the social world - how people select, interpret, remember and use social information to make judgements and decisions

Automatic thinking

Thought that is unconscious, unintentional, involuntary and effortless

How do schemas affect automatic thinking?

Schemas are mental structures use to organise the social world around themes or subjects, helps us to organise and interpret new situations.

What are the types of automatic thinking?

Automatic goal pursuit (priming with religious words --> religious)
Automatic decision making (choosing the best apartment)
Automatic thinking and metaphors (smelling something clean --> more trusting stranger)
Judgemental heuristics - mental shortcuts (mental shortcuts people use to make judgements quickly and efficiently)

Stereotypes

cluster of characteristics that are attributed to members of a specific social group or category

types of schemas

Person schema (behave certain way), content-free schema (making assumptions about certain things that don't actually exist), self schema (how we view ourselves), script schema (what happens in a class), role schema

How do we determine which schema to use?

Accessibility - schemas are at the forefront of people's minds
Priming - the effect of recent experiences increases the accessibility of a schema

How do we form impressions of others?

Stereotypes, social schemas, self-fulfilling prophecy

Korsakov syndrome

People with this disorder lose the ability to form new memories and must approach every situation as if they were encountering it for the first time

Self-fulfilling prophecy

where people have an expectation about what another person is like, influencing how they act towards that person

cognitive shortcuts

Representative heuristics - estimating the likelihood of an event comparing it to an existing prototype that already exists
Availability heuristics - relies on immediate examples that comes to a person's mind.
Anchoring - adjusting beliefs based off an initial idea
All based on other people and ourselves.

schemas

cognitive structures we use to organize our knowledge of the social world.

social-cognitive learning

we learn to aggress by observing and imitating others.

belief perserverance

tendency to cling to one's initial belief even after receiving new information that contradicts or disconfirms the basis of that belief.

Controlled thinking

thinking that is conscious, intentional, voluntary and effortful

Conformity

change in one's behaviour due to the real or imagined influence of other people

Why do people conform?

Confusing or unusual situation
Behaviour of people around us
Don't want to be ridiculed or punished
Acceptance by a group

What is informational social influence?

Conforming because we see others as a source of information to guide our behaviour

When will people conform to informational social influence?

Ambiguous situation
Crisis situation
When other people are experts

How does normative social influence motivate people to conform?

Social norms - implicit or explicit rules a group has
Normative social influence - going along with what other people do in order to be liked and accepted

How can people use their knowledge of social influence to influence others?

Injunctive norms - people's perception of what behaviours are approved and disapproved by others
Descriptive norms - people's perceptions of how people actually behave in given situations

What are some examples of compliance techniques

Foot in the door
Door in the face
Propaganda

Social perception

The study of how we form impressions of and make inferences about other people

Nonverbal communication

how people communicate, intentionally or unintentionally, without words. encode -> decode

emblem

Non-verbal gestures that have well understood definitions within a given culture

Attribution theory

The way in which people explain the causes of their own and other people's behaviour

internal attribution

the inference that a person is behaving in a certain way because of something about the person, such as attitude, character, or personality

external attribution

The inference that a person is behaving a certain way because of something about the situation he or she is in; the assumption is that most people would respond the same way in that situation

Self concept

the overall set of beliefs that people have about their personal attributes

independent view of the self

a way of defining oneself in terms of one's own internal thoughts, feelings, and actions and not in terms of the thoughts, feelings, and actions of other people

interdependent view of the self

a way of defining oneself through relationship to other people

self-serving bias

internal factors for success, external for failure

two-factor theory of emotion

experience physiological arousal, then seek appropriate explanation

group polarisation

tendency of groups to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclinations of their members. persuasive arguments and social comparison

realistic conflict theory

The idea that limited resources lead to conflict between groups and result in increased prejudice/ discrimination.

steps to helping

1. Noticing an event.
2. Interpreting the event as an emergency.
3. Assuming responsibility.
4. Knowing appropriate form of assistance.
5. Implementing decision to intervene.

What are the functions of the self?

Self knowledge
Self control
Impression management
Self-esteem

introspection

The process whereby people look inward an examine their own thoughts, feelings and motives

self-awareness theory

the idea that when people focus their attention on themselves, they evaluate and compare their behaviour to their internal standards and values

Intrinsic motivation

Engage in activity because of enjoyment and interest

Extrinsic motivation

Engage in an activity because of external reasons

social comparison theory

The idea that we learn about our own abilities and attitudes by comparing ourselves to other people

When do we engage in social comparison

No objective standard exists to measure against
Uncertainty

What is upward social comparison?

Comparing to people who are better on a particular ability, aspiring up

What is downward social comparison?

comparing to people who are worse on a particular trait or ability, feeling better about yourself

social tuning

the process whereby people adopt another person's attitudes

self control

making choices about present and plans for the future. like muscle, practice helps, gets worn out

How do we improve self control?

Believing willpower is an unlimited resource
Prayer

What is impression management?

Attempt by people to get others to see them as they want to be seen

What is self handicapping?

creating obstacles to successful performance in order to have an excuse if failure occurs (ex. helping a friend instead of studying for a test)

What are the types of self handicapping

Behavioural self-handicapping
Reported self-handicapping

behavioural self-handicapping

People act in ways that reduce the likelihood of success so that if they fail, they can blame it on obstacles rather than ability

reported self-handicapping

rather than creating obstacles to success, people devise ready-made excuses in case they fail

self-esteem

how you feel about yourself

What is a group?

two or more people who interact and are interdependent in the sense that their needs and goals cause them to influence each other

What are the benefits of a group?

Important source of information
Aspect of identity
Establishment of social norms and social roles

What is group cohesiveness?

qualities of a group that bind members together and promote liking between members

What are the benefits of group cohesiveness?

Stay in the group
Participation
Recruit new like-minded members

social facilitation

People do better on simple tasks, and worse on complex tasks, when they are in the presence of others and their individual performance can be evaluated

social loafing

People do worse on simpler tasks but better on complex tasks when they are in the presence of others and their individual performances cannot be evaluated

deindividuation

loosening of normal constraints on behaviour when people can't be differentiated

What are examples of deindividuation?

Mobs of soccer fans attacking one another
Hysterical fans at rock concerts
Lynching of African Americans

Why does deindividuation lead to impulsive acts?

Makes people feel less accountable
Increase obedience to group norms

Why do some groups not work?

Finding out who the competent member is
Competent member - hard to disagree with everyone
Communication problems

groupthink

a kind of thinking in which maintaining group cohesiveness and solidarity is more important than considering the facts in a realistic manner

When does groupthink occur?

Highly cohesive
Isolated from contrary options
Directive leader

What are some methods of avoiding groupthink?

Remain impartial
Seek outside opinions
Create subgroups
Seek anonymous opinions

transactional leaders

leaders who set clear, short-term goals and reward people who meet them

transformational leaders

leaders who inspire followers to focus on common, long-term goals

social dilemma

a conflict in which the most beneficial action for an individual will, if chosen by most people, have harmful effects on everyone

negotiation

A form of communication between opposing sides in a conflict in which offers and counteroffers are made and a solution occurs only when both parties agree

prosocial behaviour

The phenomenon of people helping each other with no thought of reward or compensation

Why do people help?

Evolutionary psychology
Reciprocity Norm

altruism

the desire to help another person even if it involves a cost to the helper

When will people help?

Immediate surroundings
Urban overload hypothesis
Residential mobility - community based

How do we increase helping behaviour?

Increasing volunteerism
Positive psychology
Human virtues
Increase skills and confidence

prejudice

a hostile or negative attitude toward people in a distinguishable group, based solely on their membership in that group.

What is prejudice based on?

Nationality
Racial and ethnic identity
Gender
Sexual orientation
Religion
Appearance
Physical state
Weight

What are the three components of prejudice?

Cognitive
Affective
Behavioural

What is the cognitive component of prejudice?

Beliefs or thoughts that causes stereotypes

What is the affective component of prejudice?

Emotion linked with attitude

What is the behavioural component of prejudice?

Taking action --> discrimination

normative conformity

The strong tendency to go along with the group in order to fulfill the group's expectations and gain acceptance

blaming the victim

The tendency to blame individuals for their victimisation, is typically motivated by a desire to see the world as a fair place

How do we reduce prejudice?

Information
Disconfirming evidence
Contact hypothesis

contact hypothesis

the idea that prejudice will disappear if we just bring groups in contact with each other

six conditions of contact

Mutual interdependence
Common goal
Equal status
Friendly, informal setting
Knowing multiple out-group members
Social norms of equality

attitudes

evaluations of people, objects, and ideas

cognitively based attitude

An attitude that allows us to classify the pros and cons of an object so that we can quickly determine whether we want to have anything to do with it.

affectively based attitude

An attitude based more on people's feelings and values than on their beliefs about the nature of an attitude object.

What are positive attitudes?

Result in positive outcomes, focusing on the good in people and situations