psych 241 midterm 2 Flashcards
who is leon festinger
He was interested in the concepts of deeply held beliefs by people. So he joined a cult. The result was after an (magnificent) event there were urgent covert, the disconfirmation led to increased conviction
what is disconfirmation conviction
According to Festinger disconfirmation conviction is a firm belief held with conviction with theses characteristics
- high initial conviction and strong link to action
-high commitment
- specific and real world based belief
-disconfirmation is recognized
-social support
what is cognitive dissonance theory
According to Festinger, Dissonance is when people experience inconsistency in their thoughts, feelings, and action creating an unpleasant emotional states. To reduce the dissonance they rationalize their action or change their attitude to create greater consistency
ex: binging while on a diet than rationalizing with saying it is your cheat day
how do people reduce dissonance and rationalize their action using various strategies
- changing their attitude/ cognition ex: I don’t need to be on a diet
- changing perception of the action ex: i hardly ate any dessert
- adding consonant cognition ex: this dessert was actually quite nutritious
-minimizing the importance of the conflict ex: i don’t care if i am overweight since life is too short - reducing perceived choice ex: i had no choice, this dessert was served for a special occasion
what are the methods of dissonance induction
- induced compliance
- free choice
- effort justification
- induced hypocrisy
what is induced compliance
when an individual with upper power makes you complete a task that goes against your personal attitude or belief ex: usually a boring task
The study that corresponds with this concept is - the study that correspond with this concept is a group were given a boring task to complete. the experimental group were told to tell another participant the task were interesting and the the control weren’t given an instruction to pass on. some participant offered a dollar for lying to the next participant while others offered twenty dollar for doing so. then they were to evaluate their study experiences
- the people that were paid more money for the completion didn’t have a cognitive dissonance so they could justify lying. the people that weren’t paid well experienced cognitive dissonance, so they began to think the tasks is more interesting than what they think originally
The classical dissonance experiment concluded that dissonance is created if we say something we don’t believe with little justification. dissonance leads to attitude and cognition change
what is free choice
it is a choice between two equally attractive options arousing dissonance
So people reduce their dissonance by making decision of the positive aspect of the reject alternative to increase their liking for the chosen item and negative aspect of the chosen alternative to decrease their liking for the reject item
the study that corresponds with this concept is women asked to give a choice between two equally favourable items . The result was the women convinced themselves that the appliance they selected was better than they initially thought and the rejected option was not great after all
This can apply to choice for political candidates, vacation, restaurants and more, they distort subsequent information to support their decision
what is effort justification
it is engaging in negative behavior for a desirable outcome.in other words, it is believing an action is bad while doing it produce cognitive dissonance
ex: paying a high price for something that turns out to be disappointing
the study that corresponds with this concept is the study experiment had a group read very obscene and detailed sex scene and the other group didn’t read a detailed sex scene but read a material that is related to sex. Then were made to listen to very boring material. The result were the group that were given the most detailed sex scene described the boring material has interesting. This group placed more value on the boring material to justify the extra effort to avoid cognitive dissonance
in effort justification, people experience cognitive dissonance when they struggle to get something to be disappointed by it. To reduce their dissonance they change their cognition. This can help during difficult initiation rites, religious organizations through money and time and more. it can be described as a resource justification
what is induced hypocrisy
it is when an individual advocates for a belief then fails to uphold the belief. we all live with some sort of hypocrisy
The dissonance cognitions are not readily noticeable at the same time, but the hypocrisy paradigm will show it
the study that corresponds with this study This can be seen when a student gave a speech on the importance of condom use, and after didn’t use condom, it can create dissonance. To reduce dissonance there will be an increase of the buying of condom and condom use intention
when do people feel dissonance primarily
- when the inconsistent cognitions are noticeable/important
- highly accessible to consciousness
when does inconsistency produce dissonance
- dissonance is likely when it conflicts with an individual core sense of self. ex: people think of themselves as good and moral beings so when it goes against this belief, dissonance is created
- dissonance is likely when there are foreseeable negative consequences for our actions ex: student
what does aroused dissonance level depend on
- weak external justification
-perceived choice - commitment
- cultural influences
what is self-perception theory
when internal cues are difficult to interpret, people gain insight by observing their own behavior
what is the key differences between dissonance and self-perception
the key difference is the uncomfortable arousal involved in dissonance. if it is self-perception, misattribution should have no impact
The study corresponding to this was that students were told to give a essay then were given a placebo pill and examined their attitude change
People experience attitude change to high choice because they experienced aversive effect
what is misattribution of arousal
it is the process whereby people make a mistake in assuming what is causing them to feel aroused
ex: when an individual faces a physiological response related to fear, people mislabel those responses as romantic arousal.
what is the brain area associated to dissonance
when making difficult choices, the Dorsal ACC is related (conflict). during emotional arousal anterior insula is related
what heightens dissonance
self-relevance heightened dissonance. we are driven to see ourselves as valuable, to bolster our self-esteem and to defend our positive view of ourselves. we are driven to appear competent and worthy to
what is the positive illusion about self
we see ourselves through a rose colored glass
we turn our attention away from negative outcomes and stimuli toward goals
The three types of illusion are self, control, optimism. if there is an error, it can be adaptive in the belief in ability to pursue a goal, belief that environment supports the goal, belief that goal is attainable
a positive illusion about protecting an individual from adversity, it is a psychological protection. However positive illusion can lead to chronic pattern of self defeating behavior
what are ways of maintaining positive illusions
- self-handicapping
- social comparison
what is self-handicapping
self-handicapping is behavior designed to sabotage one’s own performance in order to provide a subsequent excuse for failure
people engage in self-handicapping to provide an explanation for failure and way of protecting themselves due to a lack of ability
what is sandbagging
a form of self-handicapping. it is when an individual downplays their own ability, lowering expectation or openly predicting failure. even though it is a way to protect yourself, it can have a negative impact on performance. also others tend not to like people engaging in self-handicapping
what is social comparisons
we learn about our own abilities and attitude by comparing ourselves to other people who are similar on important attributes or dimensions
we compare ourselves to others when there is no objective standard
there are two types of social comparison
what is upward social comparisons
it is when an individual compares themselves with someone who is better. this can make us feel worse or inspire us
what is downward social comparisons
it is when an individual compares themselves to someone worse, making us feel better. after a tragic event we tend to afflict ourselves with someone in the same situation but we are adjusting well and compare ourselves to someone worse
what is past-self comparisons
we tend to subjectively distance past personal failure and to perceive past successes as subjectively closer in time
we do this to protect ourselves from negative implications of past failures
this allows us to capitalize on past successes
there was an experiment about remembering your best and worst grade
what is terror management theory
It originates from psychodynamics and existentialism
we have two observations which are that we are aware of our own mortality and we have a basic drive to stay alive. it is an existential conflict
what are the different types of immortality
various form of immortality are found in all cultures and suggest a human desire to minimize the terror of death
we have literal immortality which is afterlife like heaven
we have symbolic immortality which are biosocial immorality, creative immortality, natural immortality, experiential immortality
what are the defense we have against death
we have our cultural worldview defense and self-esteem
what is cultural worldview
it is human constructed, shared symbolic conceptions of reality that imbue life with meaning, order, and permanence
it is an antidote to death awareness
what does our cultural worldviews consist of
- a theory of reality
- institutions, symbols, rituals that support worldview
- standard of value
- the promise of actual or symbolic immortality
what is the basis of self-worth
it is living up to cultural value standards provides a sense of self-esteem
what is just world belief
it is the idea that good things will happen to the worthy and bad things will happen to the unworthy
what strengths our confidence in the correctness of our beliefs and values
the terror management theory strengths our confidence in the absolute correctness of our belief and values
social consensus ad validation implies correction
what plays a role in prejudice and intergroup conflict
doubt about a personal worldview after learning about another culture can play a role. as the existence of conflicting cultures can be profoundly threatening, the prejudice comes from trying to psychologically or physically removing the threat
what is the mortality salience hypothesis
- cultural worldview protects against death
- death reminders should cause people to strengthen their worldview or strengthen their self-esteem
the study that correspond with the concept of mortality reminder is when judges are reminders of mortality salience, the sentence are harsher
what are our psychological defense
- Terror management theory
- self-affirmation theory (SAT)
- Belonging
- Compensatory control
- meaning
what is self-affirmation theory
this is how an individual adapts to information or experiences that are threatening to their self-concept as a good and a moral person
the self-esteem threat was based on the personality feedback study modeled on the barnum effect. Based on this effect a positive personality would be characterized by clear thinking, able, resourceful and a negative personality would be characterized by a passive, narrow-minded, lack of insight
what does self-affirmation protect against
- stereotypes threat. the study that corresponds with this concept is examining if stereotype threat impairs women’s math performance and the result was stereotype threat impairs performance
- mortality salience threat
what does belonging entails
since we are social creatures,feeling belonging is very important. a sociometer measures self-esteem, as self-esteem serves a barometer of belonging. Our self-esteem serves as a barometer of belonging as it tracks acceptance . A high degree of inclusion matters for our self-esteem. The sociometer theory (Leary 1995) propose self-esteem is a sociometer of interpersonal relationship, he used the exclusion test
what is compensatory control
having a sense of control is important for humans. if control is taken away, people tend to look to get it back in themselves and in the world, this overlap with Terror management theory defense
in response to threat, we tend to turn to God and government for control
Based on the research by Kay et al, people who are not in favour of god, endorse god as the controller. Based on the illusion of control test, people who lacked control were more likely to perceive a variety of illusory patterns. people in need of control found it in illusory pattern perception
what does meaning entails
The meaning maintenance model proposes people have a basic need for meaning. meaning means connection between mental representation while threat is a meaning disruption and defense is a meaning affirmation. this explains TMT, self-esteem threat, belonging. Meaning disruption can occur when a doll has an uncanny appearance. uncanny valley is a term used to describe the relationship between the human life appearance of robotic object and the emotional response. In the transmogrifying experimenter, only 5% noticed the implicit expectation violation
what are the different types of motivational conflict
- approach-avoidance conflict (+,-)
- approach-approach (+,+)
- avoidance-avoidance (-,-)
what is approach-avoidance conflict
(+,-)
it is a psychological conflict that arises when a goal is both desirable and undesirable
ex: approaching a potential romantic interest then stopping suddenly due to anxiety
what is approach-approach
(-,-)
it is the intrapersonal conflict when a decision is to be made from two appealing choices
ex: two fun event that are on the same day
what is avoidance-avoidance
(-,-)
it is when a person has difficulty choosing between two unfavourable option
ex: choosing between surgery or radiation treatment for cancer
what is the third system
the third system deals with conflict which is a behavioral inhibition system. it is a risk assessment to conflict the right inferior frontal cortex is important in behavioral inhibition). The output will be anxiety, stop ongoing behavior, heightened attention to environment
what can be done to solve a conflict
- assessment reveals dangers is not a problem or too much of a problem
- resume approach or withdrawn
- easier in clear situation
what is displacement behavior
displacement behavior is done to displace anxious emotion
ex: animals in zoo, anxious dogs, rat running in wheels, people becoming unrealistic positive
can approach motivation be a cure to conflict
yes
what else can people look to
people can look to god, the government, celebrity, consumerism and more
why does people look to ideals for reliefs
- portable since it is always accessible because ideals ride in your head
- conflict free since it is a sanctuary
- pre-emptive resolution because future threats are no longer a threat
what are the three ways we make sense of the world
- we rely on imperfect memory
- we make causal attributions
- impression
what is the short term memory
it is information and input that is currently activated and maintained. It cannot be manipulated. also rehearsal maintain information
what is working memory
it is a type of short term memory that manipulate and pay attention to activated information
what is long-term memory
it is information from past experiences that may or may not be currently activated
what part of the brain is associated with the short term and working memory
the prefrontal cortex (PFC)
what part of the brain is associated with the long-term memory
the hippocampus
what is the process of memory
sensory information -> short-term memory -> consolidation <- rehearsal -> long term memory
who is henry molaison
he cut out the hippocampus, the individual was unable to form new memories . repetition maintained information, it was lost after stopping the repetition maintained. they could learn new skills through practice
How do we remember
since memory is a reconstructive process. information retrieval is influenced by biases, schemas, motives and goal
it is easier to remember schema consistent information. information that is not consistent with schemas are processed more thoroughly
what is mood-congruent memory
people are more likely to remember positive information when in a positive mood and negative information when in a negative mood
what is the misinformation effect
the process by which cues that are given after an event can plant false information into memory
this concept was illustrated by Loftus on how the phrasing of a question can lead someone to remember seeing something that actually was there
ex: when a detective was asking avilia about an accident when word like hit they remember there was no broken glass and when the detective used smashed they remember there was broken glass
what is the availability heuristics
judging the frequency of an event based on the ease with which it is brought to mind
This ensures we make fast assessment, it is meant to be a mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples
the study that relates to these concepts is the Tversky and Kahneman as they were quickly able to bring into remembrance with words starting with R than words with R in the middle causing them to think there was more word starting with R
what is the ease of retrieval effect
judge how frequently an event occurs on the basis of how easily they can retrieve a certain number of instances of that event
In the Schwean studies, participants were asked to give 6 and 12 examples of how assertive or unassertive they are. Since it is easier to provide 6 examples, they believe they are more assertive. Rather, providing 12 examples is much harder making people believe they are less assertive
what is attribution theories
describes how people explain the cause of their own and other’s behavior. we make causal attributions about many aspects of our own lives and others. it is often automatic and rapid
what are the two primary sources of causal schema
- personal experiences
- general cultural knowledge
what happens when a event doesn’t fit a causal schema
we rely on what is salient or highly accessible
top of the head phenomenon
what are the two types of attribution
- internal attribution (disposition)
- external attribution (situation)
what is internal attribution
AKA disposition
it is when a person’s behavior was caused by something internal such as their attitude, character or personality
what is external attribution
AKA situation
a person’s behavior is caused by external factors which are situational. it is assumed that people in similar situation will behave similarly
what is stability of cause
stable: when an individual behavior is caused by the same thing
unstable: when an individual behavior is not reliably caused by the same thing
why is the attribution theory important
it is important because they determine our behavior
why do we make internal and external attribution
- people try to infer from an action whether the act itself corresponds to an enduring personal characteristics of the actor
what are the three basic factors people make inference
- A person’s degree of choice: people make assumptions when their behavior is by choice rather than being coerced
- expectedness of behavior: we make inference about a person when their behavior deviates from the norm
- intended effect of someone’s behavior: we make inferences about someone’s motives when their behavior produces fewer desirable effects
how do we weigh the cause of behavior
since it is difficult to know what to conclude about someone behaving in a role but easy with someone who acts ‘out of role’
what is fundamental attribution error (FAE)
AKA correspondence bias
we tend to overestimate the role of internal attribution and underestimate the role of external attribution
This was shown in the Jones and Harris study where they told participant the debtor had no choice in their stand. The result was people would attribute freely chosen behavior to disposition and chance directed behavior to situation
people would attribute apparently freely-chosen behaviors to disposition (personality) and apparently chance-directed behaviors to a situation.
what is the cause of fundamental attribution error
- we want to settle on disposition because it provides a sense of control
- we misunderstand a situation because we don’t understand the constraints of a situation or the ability for a situation to change a behavior
- we misperceive behavior because it is difficult to get a good estimate of behavior
- we fail to use information because disposition is the automatic attribution after we consider situational attribution
what is the three stage model of attribution
Identification of a behavior → automatic disposition inferences → effortful situational attribution correction
In a study by gilbert, pelham and krull they had cognitively busy and not busy participant, the busy participant fails to correct their characterization because they are too busy to use information situation context, it is not because they fail to notice, gather, or recall that information
what is observer attribution
it is the perceptions of others behavior
we tend to other people’s behavior to internal reasons and assume their behavior caused by their disposition
what is actor attribution
it is the perceptions of our own behavior
we tend to attribute our own behavior to eternal reason and assume that our behavior is caused by the situation
