psych unit 2

Social Psychology

  • Psychology that studies effects of social variables & cognitions on individual behavior & social interaction
    • Social context: real, imagined, or symbolic presence of others.
    • Attitude: set of beliefs/feelings
    • What influences attitude?
      • Mere exposure effect: just seeing something and knowing about it makes us like it more
      • Communication: people who try to influence our attitude
      • Elaboration likelihood model: central (logic) v. peripheral (aesthetics) route

 Elaboration likelihood model - Wikipedia

  • Cognitive dissonance theory: people want to have consistent behaviors and attitudes
    • Will change their attitude to fit a past behavior
    • Compliance strategies:
    • norm of reciprocity
    • Foot in the door: gradually keep asking for things until you get what you want
    • Door in the face: start w/ a lot
    • Attribution theory: tries to explain how people determine the cause of the behavior they observe (what causes a behavior)
    • situation/unstable attribution
    • dispositional/stable attribution

 

  • fundamental attribution error: we overestimate dispositional factors in others & situational factors in ourselves
    • Individualistic v. collectivist culture
    • Self-serving bias
  • Just world phenomenon: we want to believe the world is a just place & good things happen to good people & bad things happen to bad people
  • Stereotype: overgeneralized idea about a group of people
  • Prejudice: undeserved (negative) attitude toward a group of people
    • In group v. out group
    • Scapegoat theory: someone you throw under the bus
    • Ex: holucaust
    • Other race effect: we think other races look similar
    • Outgroup homogeneity bias: if people look the same, they are the same person -> stereotypes
    • Mirror image perception: mutual views often held by conflicting people, as when each side sees itself as ethical and peaceful and views the other side as evil and aggressive.
    • vicious cycle of hostility
    • Implicit bias test: underlying bias (implied)
  • Discrimination: action based on a prejudice
  • Contact theory: if you take 2 hostile groups and give them something common it will bring them together
  • Roles: expected set of behaviors for a group
  • Asch’s experiment:
    • â…“ participants conformed
    • 70% conformed at least once
    • Strengthen conformity:
    • Feel insecure
    • Know other people will see
    • Culture encourages social standards
  • Normal social influence: desire to conform to social norms to fit in
  • Informational social influence: influencing from one’s willingness to accept others opinions about reality
    • You think the group has some sort of knowledge you don’t
  • Milgram’s study of obedience
    • Obedience: listening to a higher authority
    • People are most likely to obey: when witnessing someone else disobeying, people of high order were running experiment
  • Group influence:
    • Social facilitation: when ur in a crowd being watched, you perform better (if your good)
    • Social impairment: the opposite of facilitation
    • Something your not good at, when people watch you you do bad
    • Social loafing: people in a group use less effort when pooling their efforts toward a common goal
    • Group polarization: when like minded people get together, their beliefs enhance
    • Group think: mode of thinking that occurs when a desire for peace and coming to a decision quickly overrides a realistic view of alternatives.
  • Deindividuation: people get swept up in a group and lose their sense of self
    • Rioting
    • Group thinking
    • Everyone is responsible for actions
  • Prisoner’s dilemma: cooperation vs. competition
  • Social trap: “tragedy of the commons”
    • You rely on others to be selfless, so you can be selfish
  • Slide 45:
  1. False: social facilitation
  2. False: social loafing
  3. True: deindividualization
  4. False: group polarization
  5. False: groupthink
  • Stanford prison experiment: showed how we deindivituate & become the roles we’re given
  • Aggression
    • Instrumental aggression: goal focused (innate-follows natural instincts)
    • Hostile aggression: no particular aim
    • Bandura’s theory: we become aggressive after watching people be aggressive
  • Social scripts: cultural model guides for how to act in certain situations
    • Help us understand what to expect
  • bystander effect
    • Kitty genovese
  • Altruism: a good act that doesn’t benefit yourself
  • Good samaritan laws:
    • Social exchange theory: social behavior is an exchange behavior, we want things that help us the most and hurt us the least
    • Social responsibility norm: expectation that people will help those needing help
  • Attraction
    • Interpersonal attraction
    • Reward theory of attraction: we like those who give us maximum rewards or benefits at a minimum cost
    • Four sources of attraction:
    • \       
      1. proximity
    • \       
      1. similarity
    • \       
      1. self disclosure- people who know us best, vulnerability
    • \       
      1. physical attraction
  • Good questions: 1-5, 7-12, 31, 16, 17
  • Bad questions: 18, 35, 36, 26, 23-24
  • Pick 2 questions and ask someone them
  • Halo effect: we assume attractive people are better
  • Matching hypothesis: most people will find friends/mates on the same level of attractiveness
  • Sternberg's triangular theory of love:
    • Intimacy
    • Passion
    • Commitment