Social Psychology Flashcards

Social Psychology

Definition of Social Psychology

• Social psychology studies individuals as they interact with others, such as in a group at a party or a classroom setting.

Snap Judgments About Other People

• Nonverbal behavior: People can make accurate judgments based on only a few seconds of observation.
  • Thin slices of behavior are powerful cues for forming impressions of others.
  • Student assessments of college instructors’ teaching based on just 30-second film clips correspond accurately with end-of-the-semester ratings (Ambady & Rosenthal, 1993).
  • Substantial evidence shows that people are quite accurate in judging sexual orientation based on nonverbal behavior (i.e., “gaydar”).
• Facial expressions: One of the first things we usually notice about another person is their face. The face communicates information such as:
  • Emotional state
  • Interest
  • Trustworthiness
  • Eye contact is important in social situations, though how we perceive it depends on our culture.

Attributions

• Attribution: The process of explaining one’s own behavior and the behavior of others.
• Attribution theory: The theory of how people make attributions.
  • Situational cause: Cause of behavior attributed to external factors, such as delays, the action of others, or some other aspect of the situation.
  • Dispositional cause: Cause of behavior attributed to internal factors such as personality or character.

Bias in Attributions

• Fundamental attribution error: In explaining other people’s behavior, the tendency to overemphasize personality traits and underestimate situational factors.
• Actor/observer bias: When interpreting our own behavior, we tend to focus on situations. When interpreting other people’s behavior, we tend to focus on personal attributes.

Stereotypes and Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

• Self-fulfilling prophecy: People’s tendency to behave in ways that confirm their own expectations or other people’s expectations.
  • Rosenthal and Jacobsen’s bloomers study.

Social Cognition and Impressions

• Social cognition: The mental processes that people use to make sense of the social world around them.
• Impression formation: Forming of the first knowledge a person has about another person.
• Primacy effect: The very first impression one has about a person tends to persist even in the face of evidence to the contrary.

Social Categorization and Stereotypes

• Social categorization: The assignment of a person one has just met to a category based on characteristics the new person has in common with other people with whom one has had experience in the past.
• Stereotype: A set of characteristics that people believe is shared by all members of a particular social category.

Prejudice and Discrimination

• Prejudice: Negative attitude held by a person about the members of a particular social group.
• Discrimination: Treating people differently because of prejudice toward the social group to which they belong.
• Forms of prejudice include ageism, sexism, racism, and prejudice toward those who are too fat or too thin.
• In-groups: Social groups with whom a person identifies; "us."
• Out-groups: Social groups with whom a person does not identify; "they."

Stereotype Threat

• “The threat of being viewed through the lens of a negative stereotype, or the fear of doing something that would inadvertently confirm that stereotype.” - Claude M. Steele

Merton Typology of Prejudice and Discrimination

• Discrimination:
  • No relevant behaviors if prejudice is absent.
  • An executive with favorable attitudes toward blacks doesn’t hire them because he would get in trouble with his boss.
  • A restaurant owner who is bigoted against gays treats them fairly because he needs their business.
  • A professor who is hostile toward women grades his female students unfairly.

Components of Prejudice

• Cognitive component (beliefs, ideas) – "Women are not cut out for leadership roles."
• Emotional component (emotions, feelings) – "I get angry when I see a woman doing a man’s job."
• Behavioral component (predispositions to act) – "I wouldn’t hire a woman manager."
• Favoritism toward in-groups.
• Threat to social identity.
• Negativism toward out-groups.

Attitudes

• Attitude: A tendency to respond positively or negatively toward a certain person, object, idea, or situation.
• The three components of an attitude are:
  • The affective (emotional) component
  • The behavioral component
  • The cognitive component
• Explicit attitude: An attitude that a person is consciously aware of and can report.
• Implicit attitude: An attitude that influences a person’s feelings and behavior at an unconscious level.
  • Implicit Association Test (IAT): Measures how quickly a person associates concepts or objects with positive or negative words.

Example of Attitude Components: SUVs

• Positive Attitude:
  • Cognitive: "I believe SUVs help protect passengers in accidents."
  • Emotional: "They're fun to drive. I feel more secure in an SUV than in a regular car."
  • Behavioral: "I plan to buy an SUV when I can afford it."
• Negative Attitude:
  • Cognitive: "I believe SUVs are gas guzzlers and pose a danger to other vehicles on the road."
  • Emotional: "I hate driving behind one of those behemoths."
  • Behavioral: "I would never buy one of them."

Cognitive Dissonance

• Cognitive dissonance: Sense of discomfort or distress that occurs when a person’s behavior does not correspond to that person’s impression formation (the forming of the first knowledge that a person has concerning another person).
• Lessened by:
  • Changing the conflicting behavior
  • Changing the conflicting attitude
  • Forming a new attitude to justify the behavior.

Ways of Reducing Cognitive Dissonance

• Discrepant attitudes and behaviors: Attitude: "I believe people should donate blood." Behavior: "I never donate blood."
• Cognitive dissonance
• Ways of reducing dissonance:
  • Change behavior: Giving blood at the next blood drive.
  • Change attitude: "Giving blood is not that important. They must have all the blood they need."
  • Use self-justification: "I'd give blood if only it didn't take so long."
  • Ignore the inconsistencies: "I'm too busy to think about it now."

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

• According to Festinger’s theory, cognitive dissonance occurs when there is a contradiction between two attitudes or between an attitude and a behavior.
  • A basic assumption of cognitive dissonance theory is that dissonance causes anxiety and tension.
• Postdecisional dissonance: Cognitive dissonance also arises when we have positive attitudes about different options but must choose one option.
• Insufficient justification effect:
  • Classic Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) study.
  • Helps explain why people are willing to subject themselves to humiliating experiences (e.g., hazing).

Persuasion

• Persuasion: The process by which one person tries to change the belief, opinion, position, or course of action of another person through argument, pleading, or explanation.
• Key elements in persuasion are the source of the message, the message itself, and the target audience.

Factors in Persuasive Appeals

1. Source variables
   • Credibility
   • Likeability
   • Similarity
2. Message variables
   • One-sided vs. two-sided arguments
   • Repetition
3. Recipient variables
   • Intelligence
   • Self-confidence
   • Mood

Elaboration Likelihood Model

• Model of persuasion stating that people will either elaborate on the persuasive message or fail to elaborate on it, and that the future actions of those who do elaborate are more predictable than those who do not.
• Central-route processing: Type of information processing that involves attending to the content of the message itself.
• Peripheral-route processing: Type of information processing that involves attending to factors not involved in the message, such as the appearance of the source of the message, the length of the message, and other noncontent factors.

Elaboration Likelihood Model chart

• High Elaboration: Motivational state high + skills or knowledge needed high --> Central route( Evaluation of message content)
• Low Elaboration: Motivational state low + skills or knowledge needed low --> Peripheral route(Evaluation of other cues)

Social Facilitation and Loafing

• Social facilitation: The tendency for the presence of other people to have a positive impact on the performance of an easy task.
• Social loafing: The tendency for people to put less effort into a simple task when working with others on that task.

Deindividuation

• Lessening of self-awareness or identity when in a group, leading to reduced concern with how your behavior will be evaluated by others.
• Fed by people’s tendency to feel more anonymous and less accountable for their behavior in groups.
• Can have disastrous consequences in social situations, such as when you are in a position of power over others.

Deindividuation - Examples

• Stanford prison study
• Abu Ghraib prison

Groupthink

• Groupthink: Kind of thinking that occurs when people place more importance on maintaining group cohesiveness than on assessing the facts of the problem with which the group is concerned.

Conformity

• Normative and informational influences
  • Normative influence: Occurs when—to be liked, to be accepted, or to avoid looking foolish—we go along with what the group does.
  • Informational influence: Occurs when we assume that the behavior of a group provides information about the right way to act.

Obedience

• Obedience: Changing one’s behavior at the command of an authority figure.
• Milgram study – "teacher" administered what they thought were real shocks to a "learner". 65% of subjects continued to administer shocks despite the learner's protests.

Bystander Effect

• Bystander intervention effect: The failure to offer help to people in need.
  • The case of Kitty Genovese
  • Latané and Darley’s smoke study
  • Alone: Helps 75% of the time
  • In presence of others: Helps 53% of the time

Human Aggression

*Instrumental Aggression
*Hostile Aggression
*Direct vs. Indirect Aggression

Attraction

• Interpersonal attraction: Liking or having the desire for a relationship with another person.
• Proximity: Physical or geographical nearness.
• People like people who are similar to themselves OR who are different from themselves (complementary).
• Reciprocity of liking: Tendency of people to like other people who like them in return.

Love

• Love: A strong affection for another person due to kinship, personal ties, sexual attraction, admiration, or common interests.
• Sternberg states that the three components of love are intimacy, passion, and commitment.

Sternberg's Triangular Model of Love

*Triangle with three main dimensions:

• Passion: physical and sexual attraction to another
• Intimacy: emotional feelings of warmth, closeness, and sharing
• Commitment: cognitive appraisal of the relationship and the intent to maintain the relationship even in the face of problems

The Johari Window

The Johari Window is a model for mapping personal awareness. It helps individuals better understand their relationship with themselves and others.

Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love

• Seven different kinds of love result from combining the three components of love: intimacy, passion, and commitment.

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Gottman's Relationship Indicators)

1. Contempt - being mean, treating others with disrespect by using sarcasm, ridicule, name-calling, and/or body language such as eye-rolling.
2. Criticism – Attacking your partner at the core.
3. Defensiveness - We feel accused of something and think that, if we tell our partner our excuse for doing what we did, he or she will back off.
4. Stonewalling - We avoid conflict either because we are unconscious of our own feelings or because we are afraid.