Social Psychology Flashcards

1
Q

what is social psychology

A

study of how people think, feel, and behave in social situations

  • > i.e. how we explain others behaviour and how others behaviour affects us
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2
Q

2 main areas of study in social psychology

A

Social Cognition

  • > making sense of the social world

Social influence

  • > how behaviour is affected by the situation and by other
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3
Q

main areas of discussion

A
  • > person perception
  • > attribution
  • > attraction and liking
  • > attitudes
  • > stereotypes
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4
Q

Person perception

A

process of informing impressions of other

  • > either forming an impression or making an impression
  • > we often make snap decisions based on expectations/social norms
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5
Q

social schemas

A

organized clusters of ideas about categories of people

  • > sort ppl into “types”
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6
Q

Biases in person perception

A
  • > implicit personality theory

*physical appearance/beautiful is good

  • > primacy effects
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7
Q

implicit personality theory

A

personal beliefs about which traits or physical characteristics belong together

  • > when you think hacker you probably think loser in their parents basement
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8
Q

relate physical appearance to person perception

A
  • > a huge message in our culture is “beautiful is good” and attractive people are perceived to be more intelligent, sociable and happier
  • > but there is really no difference
  • > the beautiful is good stereotype (disney princesses can do no wrong and are good to their core)
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9
Q

Primacy effects

A
  • > we are influenced more by info received earlier than info received later

the tendency to remember the first piece of information we encounter better than information presented later on (FIRST IMPRESSIONS)

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10
Q

ingroup-outgroup biase

A

Ingroup “us”

  • > the group to which we belong
  • > be biased towards groups that share similar attributes

Outgroup “them”

  • > everyone else (the group which you don’t belong)
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11
Q

Outgroup homogeneily effect

A

we assume that everyone in the outgroup are “all alike”/very similar to eachother

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12
Q

Sherifs Robbers Cave Study

A
  • > 11-12 boys at camp were divided into 2 groups
  • > in created prejudice and hostile interactions between groups (outgroup homogeneity therory)
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13
Q

stereotype

A

cluster of characteristics associated with all members of a group

  • > belief held by members of one group about members of another group
  • > overgeneralization (ignore diversity of character in the population)
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14
Q

why do we stereotype

A
  • > limited knowledge about outgroup members
  • > humans are lazy (cognitive misers)
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15
Q

confirmation bias

A

interpret ambiguous info as confirming stereotype

  • > dismiss disconfirming evidence
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16
Q

self-fulfilling prophecy

A

we create the response we expect

  • > if I think I’m stupid then I will act stupid, reinforcing that view
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17
Q

prejudice

A

a negative attitude towards a group

  • > usually built on stereotypes
  • > blatant prejudice is not acceptable; implicit forms still exist (prejudice
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18
Q

prejudice vs discrimination

A

prejudice is the attitude, discrimination is the behaviour

  • > when it becomes an action it is discrimination
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19
Q

discrimination

A

negative behaviour towards a group

  • > start seeing these “out groups” as threatening
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20
Q

attribution

A

process of explaining behaviour

  • > explanations you make about the causes of others (or own) behaviour
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21
Q

types of attributions

A

Internal attributions

  • > traits, abilities, feelings, ect.

External attributions

  • > situation, luck, ect.
22
Q

Fundamental attribution error

A
  • > behaviuour explained by internal causes (i.e. traits)
  • > overestimate importance of personality
  • > blind to the situation (left dishes because I was late to work and got home late)

*we do things a certain way because of the situation but others do it because they’re bad, lazy ect.

23
Q

actor-observer discrepancy

A

more likely to use external attributions if we are the actor

  • > i got the award because I earned but but they got the same one because they cheated/luck/ect.
24
Q

belief in a just world bias

A
  • > tendency to believe that life is fair (bad things happen to bad ppl)
  • > leads to blaming the victim (defensive attribution); their misfortunes are their fault
25
Q

self deserving bias

A
  • > my success (i’m so smart); my failures (exam had trick questions)
26
Q

attraction

A

liking, loving, sexual appeal (all have same basis)

  • > to whom are we drawn to
27
Q

key factors of attraction

A
  • > physical attraction
  • > similarity
  • > reciprocity
  • > mere exposure
28
Q

physical attractiveness

A

key determinant of romantic attraction from men and women

  • > especially in start of relationship
29
Q

matching hypothesis

A

those of approximately equal physical attractiveness tend to select each other

  • > especially for serious relationship, hookups might have more discrepancy of pairs
30
Q

similarity

A
  • > we are attracted to (and like) those who we are similar to us (and kind of look like us)
  • > remind us of each other
  • > we also become more similar over time

- > ***attitudes and core values are where we match the most

- > opposites don’t attract

31
Q

reciprocity

A
  • > we like those who like us (self-enhancement, self verification)
  • > like those who like us (balance) and dislike those who dislike you
32
Q

mere exposure effect

A

repeated exposure to a person/thing leads to increased liking

  • > proximity (you might start to like your neighbour more and more because you see them all the time)
33
Q

passionate love

A
  • > intense absorption of 2 ppl in each other (sexual craving, euphoria, withdrawal when apart)
34
Q

companionate love

A

affection between 2 ppl whose live are deeply intertwined (not as many highs and lows of passionate love, but still passionate)

  • > powerful motivation force (people will die for love)
35
Q

sternbergs triangular theory of love

A

love is composed of 3 components

  • > intimacy (warmth)
  • > passion
  • > commitment

consummate love: presence of all three (ideal)

36
Q

attitudes

A
  • > a learned tendency to evaluate an object, person, or issue, in a particular way
  • > set of positive or negative beliefs and feelings
37
Q

attitude routes

A

Central Route

  • > focus on arguments, high relevance (logic and information based arguments/opinion)

Peripheral route

  • > focus on superficial cues (more emotion based argument)
38
Q

cognitive dissonance theory

A

when people’s attitudes and behaviours are inconsistent

  • > this is unpleasant, so we change our attitudes typically (tweak our behaviour to make ourselves feel better)
39
Q

theories of attitude change

A
40
Q

social influences on attitude

A
  • > conformity
  • > obedience
  • > bystander effect
  • > social loafing
  • > group polarization
  • > groupthink
41
Q

conformity

A
  • > change in behaviour (or attitudes) as a result of real (or imagined) pressure from others
  • > Asch conformity experiment (everyone said wrong answer to see if participant conforms)
42
Q

informational and normative social influence on conformity

A

Informational social influence

  • > ambiguous or confusing situation
  • > group must be right
  • > other people seen as providing needed information

Normative social influences

  • > to avoid rejection or discomfort; gain approval
  • > desire to be accepted by group gives the group the ability to influence
43
Q

obedience

A
  • > complying to commands of an authority
  • > Milgram’s classic studies

*has since been deemed immoral, developed a machine that delivers electric shocks; teacher and learner, teacher asks questions and deliver increasing levels of shock after each answer (no one ever stopped/ walked out even though they are volunteers)

44
Q

when do we obey (obedience)

A
  • > victim is distant (depersonalization)
  • > authority is close
  • > commands from legitimate authority
  • > context
45
Q

bystander effect

A

less likely to provide help in presence of others

46
Q

diffusion of responsibility

A
  • > as the number of others increase, less likely to help
  • > assume others will help, so we don’t
  • > murder of Kitty Genovese
47
Q

components of persuasion and whether it works (changing attitudes)

A

Who (source factors)

What (message factors)

By what means (channel factors)

To whom (receiver factors)l

48
Q

social facilitation

A
  • > presence of others enhances performance on simple tasks; when you’re good at the task (worsens it on complex new tasks)
  • > strengthens dominant response
49
Q

social loafing

A
  • > reduces effort when work in group (combining efforts)
  • > feel as if you can’t be held accountable
  • > deindividuation (loss of self)
  • > if you’re in a group then you’ll slack off (if you’re alone your be more out there
50
Q

group polarization

A
  • > if we are in a group, group decisions are more extreme than where they started
  • > groups make more extreme decisions than the individual
  • > feel protected in the group brain
51
Q

groupthink

A

groups make bad decisions in process of trying to ensure harmony/agreement

  • > worsen in highly cohesive groups
  • > anyone in the group that disagrees are suppressed