chapter 13 textbook flashcards

Social Thinking and Perception

• We often reflect on our social world, forming attitudes, beliefs, and impressions of others.

• Key areas include attribution, which shapes our understanding of behavior, and the effects of personal and situational attributions.

Attribution: Understanding Behavior

• Attribution involves identifying the causes of behaviors and outcomes.

  • Example: Success in an exam can be attributed to hard work or an easy test.

  • Attributions can influence emotions and subsequent actions (Weiner, 1985).

• Courtroom Implications: Jurors' attributions about defendants affect verdicts.

Personal vs. Situational Attributions

• Fritz Heider’s theory divides attributions into:

  • Personal Attributions (Internal): Those based on personal characteristics (e.g., character, talent).

  • Situational Attributions (External): Those based on situational factors (e.g., environment, circumstances).

• Kelley’s Attribution Model: Suggests three types of information that influence attributions:

  • Consistency: Stability of responses across time.

  • Distinctiveness: Uniqueness of responses to different situations.

  • Consensus: Agreement with others’ perceptions.

• High consistency, distinctiveness, and consensus lead to situational attribution; low levels may indicate personal attribution.

Attributional Biases

• Fundamental Attribution Error: We tend to overemphasize personal characteristics and underestimate situational factors in others' behavior.

• Self-Serving Bias: People tend to attribute their successes to personal factors and failures to situational factors.

Culture and Attribution

• Cultural contexts affect attribution styles; individualistic cultures may favor personal attributions, while collectivist cultures may lean towards situational attributions.

• Studies show varying attribution tendencies among different cultural groups (Miller, 1984).

Impression Formation

• First impressions hold significant weight; influenced by the order of information presented (primacy effect).

• Primacy vs. Recency: Initial information often shapes perceptions more than later information due to cognitive biases.

Mental Sets and Schemas

• Mental sets guide perceptions based on expectations and activated schemas (frameworks for knowledge).

• Self-Fulfilling Prophecies: Expectations can lead to behaviors that confirm those expectations.

Attitudes and Attitude Change

• Definition: Attitudes are evaluative reactions promoting identity and guiding behavior.

• Predicting Behavior: Attitudes predict behavior better under certain conditions:

  • Low situational constraints.

  • Strong, conscious attitudes.

  • Generally aligned attitudes with specific behaviors.

• Self-Justification in Attitudes: Engaging in counterattitudinal behavior leads to cognitive dissonance, prompting shifts in attitudes (Festinger, 1957).

Cognitive Dissonance vs. Self-Perception Theory

• Cognitive Dissonance: Inconsistency between beliefs leads to discomfort, prompting attitude change to resolve dissonance.

• Self-Perception Theory: People infer their attitudes through self-observation of behavior when external justification is weak.

Persuasion Mechanisms

• Persuasion Routes: Central (thoughtful) vs. Peripheral (superficial cues) routes of persuasion affect attitude change based on the audience's motivation and involvement.

• Communicator Characteristics: Credibility, attractiveness, and relatability enhance persuasive effects.

Social Influence

• Definition: Social influence reflects changes in behavior resulting from social factors, through compliance, conformity, or obedience.

• Social Norms: Expected behaviors that shape judgments and behaviors in social contexts; violation often observed in unusual social assignments.

• Bystander Effect: Refers to situations where the presence of others leads to decreased helping behaviors.

Theories of Influence

• Informational Social Influence: Conforming to others when we believe they have accurate information.

• Normative Social Influence: Conforming to gain acceptance or avoid rejection.

Obedience to Authority

• Milgram's Experiment: Demonstrated how ordinary people commit harmful acts under the pressure of authority figures, highlighting the conflict between conscience and obedience.

• Key Findings: High obedience rates, regardless of ethics, highlight the situational pressures impacting human behavior.

Social Relations: Attraction, Prejudice, Altruism, Aggression

Attraction

• Facilitating Factors: Proximity, mere exposure, similarity are key components influencing attraction.

• Physical Attractiveness: Drives initial attraction; societal biases favor physically attractive individuals.

Prejudice and Discrimination

• Definition: Prejudice is a negative attitude toward a group; discrimination is biased behavior.

• Cognitive and Motivational Roots: These include in-group favoritism and perceived threats to self-esteem based on group identity.

Altruism and Helping Behavior

• Motivations for Helping: Altruistic actions driven by empathy and social norms (e.g., reciprocity).

• Bystander Intervention Model: Highlights decision processes influencing whether individuals intervene in emergencies (e.g., noticing the situation, interpreting it as an emergency, assuming responsibility).

Aggression

• Biological Influences: Genetics, brain structure, and hormonal factors contribute to individual differences in aggression.

• Environmental Factors: Frustration, crowding, and aggressive modeling increase aggression.

• Social Learning: Exposure to aggressive models reinforces aggressive behavior via imitation.

This outline serves as a comprehensive guide to the various themes associated with social influence, contemplating psychological factors involved in attraction, perceptions, attributions, and aggressive behavior in social contexts.