Psychology Flashcards
Welcome to the world 3 of Psychology. You will be learning more about yourself, your behaviors, your attitude, your society, etc. Now let’s will start off with Attribution (142) theory. Trust me, you will see a lot of the word “attribution” in psychology topic.
“Attribute” means regard something as being caused by. Let’s say you are waiting in line to check out in a grocery store. All of the sudden a lady out of nowhere rushing into the line in front of you. She does a quick checkout and then runs away of the store. What do you think of this behavior?
“OMG, what a rude person” or “Geez, what an uneducated lady”.
All you just did was attributing that behavior to her dispositional factors (143) rather than situational factors (144). What is a dispositional factor? It indicates a factor coming from her character. Like she’s a rude person. That’s why she behaves like that. So whenever you see the word “disposition” or “dispositional”, it is more about personal or internal aspect. Likewise, what is a situational factor? Easy. A factor coming from outside or external or situational factor that makes her behave that way. Let’s say her son got into an car accident that made him seriously injured. If you were her, would you behave like a normal person? No, you would be rushing and even making other people around you think you are crazy.
Dispositional factors - coming from own character
Situational factors - coming from external factors
It is safe to say that we tend to attribute other people’s behaviors to their dispositional factors and attribute our behaviors to our situational factors. Think about that for a moment. When you are late at work. That’s usually not your fault, right? It was that you did not sleep well last night or you missed the bus or you faced a weirdo on the street.
But what if your one of your co-worker comes late? You almost instantly think that this person is such a lazy bastard. Later, you figure out that she was late because she was robbed on the street. Now, you feel bad because you overlooked situational factors that made her late.
Believe me that happens more frequently than you think due to our lack of cognitive capacity (145), which is our mental capacity to process thoughts to understand it thoroughly. Yes. We lack our cognitive capacity. Almost everything we see is on the surface. It takes time, effort, and motivation to really see things. That’s why you tend to underestimate the situational factors of others’ behavior and overestimate their dispositional factors. We just don’t have time, energy and motivation to think beyond that unless someone else tells us about what really has happened.
Cognitive capacity-the mental capacity to process thoughts to thoroughly understand something
It’s also due to self-knowledge (146). Selfknowledge is knowledge about ourselves. We have more information about our behavior and situation that we do with other people. That’s why we see that our lateness is so legitimate. That’s why we see that our anger is somehow justified. It’s not our faults. It’s something else that causes us to behave that way.
You can fix the problem by simply giving yourself more time to factor in situational factors when judging others. You may quickly realize that people are not really as bad as you think.
In addition, we often attribute our failure to situational factors and success to dispositional factors. Sounds familiar? In the face of negative events, we tend to make self-serving attributions (147) to maintain positive self-images (148). Selfserving simply means that we are ‘serving’ ourselves or we are doing ourselves a favor by not blaming ourselves. Obviously we don’t want to look bad on ourselves. We don’t want to believe that we are bad people sometimes. In other words, we have a tendency to maintain the positive self-image so we can feel less painful when we behave like shit. In contrast, we attribute our success such as acing our exams to our skill and effort rather than luck or the easiness of the exams or the lenience of the examiners.
Because of our desire to feel good about ourselves, we often use strategies to help maintain our positive self-images. One such strategy is self-handicapping (149). We sometimes create obstacles to success so that potential failure can be blamed on these external factors as opposed to internal traits. Let’s say your exams are coming and you are so nervous. If you cannot do these exams well, you will feel so bad. One strategy that many people tend to use is to create troubles to ourselves. In this case, you might choose to play games or under-prepare. Then, if you do badly, you can blame your poor performance on their lack of preparation, which protects your own view of your intelligence.
On the other hand, if you happen to do well, what do people say? “Wow, you must be really smart to not have studied and still done so well.” Hmm. Sounds familiar? That’s self-handicapping. We handicap ourselves at times to reduce the potential pain if we cannot succeed.
Self-handicapping
The tendency to create troubles for ourselves so that we feel less of the pain when we fail.
Now, I want you to think about all the decisions you make in a day-what to eat, what to wear, who to see, and how to spend your time and money. Although we naturally want to make good decisions, we are confronted with decisions almost constantly, and therefore it is impossible to think about and process all of the relevant information in a careful and deliberative way.
Instead, people often rely on automatic thinking, a type of decision-making process that occurs at an unconscious or automatic level and is entirely effortless and unintentional. This type of thinking relies on the use of shortcuts, or heuristics (150), which can save us time but can also lead to inaccurate judgments.
Heuristics - mental shortcuts to make QUICK judgments or decisions
Oftentimes, we catch ourselves making decisions based on our instinct or intuition (151).“I do this because it feels right”. “I feel like I should do this or that”. Rather than weighing facts and consequences before making any decisions, we choose to rely on our intuition.
Let’s say you are choosing someone to marry. And you can only pick one of 5 candidates to get married with. Most of the time, the decision is based on our intuition instead of some other objective information such as appearance or intellect or personality of a person. We pick just because we feel so. In other words, our intuition tells us so. But in reality, objective information and facts are a better predictor of the quality of your marriage. Therefore, when facing tough decision, we should carefully weigh different factors and criteria instead of relying solely on intuition so as to avoid catastrophic consequences.
You will see a lot of the word “predictor” in Psychology topic, suggesting the link between two variables.
- money is not a predictor of happiness
- EQ rather than IQ is a better predictor of income
One of the most common heuristics is framing (152). Framing refers to how something is presented. Framing influences how we see all sorts of daily life situations. Let’s say if you are so sick and the doctors come in tell you and your family.
- You have 3% chance of death.
How does that make you feel?
Horrified, right? But let’s say he chooses to say it in another way:
- You have 97% chance of survival.
Now how do you feel? It kinda reminds us of the classic half-full half-empty glass concept. But the way psychology sees it is that how we choose to FRAME a problem can influence us dramatically on how we make sense and see things. 3% chance of death and 97% chance of survival are the same no matter what. But yet, we fall prey to believing in that 3% chance of death is much more horrifying than 97% chance of survival
Framing - how we ‘frame’ a problem can dramatically influence how we see things. Therefore, you can use the word “framing” to explain the fact that different ways of framing creates different opinions, etc.
Remember: ‘Frame’ is a killer word for IELTS
Sarah has suffered from migraines for several years. She is relieved when her doctor recommends a new headache drug that is 90% effective for migraines, unlike her old drug with a 10% failure rate.
When people need to engage in behavior to detect a health problem, such as cancer, framing a message negatively, meaning in terms of the costs of not engaging in a behavior rather than the benefit of engaging in a behavior, is most effective
Now you’ve learned the power of framing. I want you to pause a second and think about how you can frame every problem you are facing so you can live and think better.
- The milk is 2% fat
- The milk is 98% non-fat
- Spend 10% on charitable donations
- Keep 90% our income to ourselves.
You get the idea!
Framing - how we ‘frame’ a problem can dramatically influence how we see things. Therefore, you can use the word “framing” to explain the fact that different ways of framing creates different opinions, etc.
Remember: ‘Frame’ is a killer word for IELTS
Oftentimes, we see the world in line with our expectations. This can lead us to see a correlation between two events when in reality no such association exists. This phenomenon is called illusory correlation (153).
For example, if you believe that bad things happen on Friday the 13th, you will pay particular attention to such events on that day and in turn “see” bad things as happening with great frequency. If these events happened on another day, you would be unlikely to attribute them to the date on which they occurred.
Illusory correlation - see a connection between two events in mind although there is no such association.
Sometimes, we also have a tendency to see a given outcome as inevitable once we know of the outcome. Just like “see, I told you”, “I knew Obama will be the president”. “I knew it all along”. The problem is, those events have already occurred before you say that. This is called hindsight bias (154). A lot of people have fell prey to hindsight bias. We all know everything. We’re all be able to see everything. We all can predict everything. Everything is in our control. But the truth is, we all see them from hindsight.
Another very well-known concept in psychology is self-fulfilling prophecy (155), which is also used a lot in daily conversations. Simply put, selffulfilling prophecy is the tendency to BEHAVE to confirms to one’s beliefs.
If you are told you’re stupid by others. Many times and eventually you BELIEVE in that. According to self-fulfilling prophecy, you will behave like you are really stupid even though you might not. Likewise, if you are told by your boss that you’re incompetent and cannot do the job, you will quickly lose confidence and continue confirming that “statement” to perform even worse.
Therefore, it’s crucial to choose how to convey feedback or messages to avoid negative selffulfilling prophecy. Positive self-fulfilling prophecy should be nice to use. “You can do it”, “you are so smart” - even though it might be a lie, the self-fulfilling prophecy will help the listeners behave in a way that confirms with those beliefs.
Self-fulfilling prophecy:
- Actions tend to confirm beliefs
Have you ever heard a song on the radio and really disliked it initially, but then, over time, as you hear it again, and again, and again, you actually grow to like it? This is an example of the power of mere exposure. (156). This phenomenon helps explain why we prefer mirror-image pictures of ourselves, because that is how we normally see ourselves —whereas our friends prefer reverse-mirrorimaged pictures of us, because that is normally how they see us. The mere exposure effect, meaning the more we are exposed to something, the more we like it
Mere Exposure Effect: the more we are exposed to something, the more we like it
If you don’t believe me, you can compare your selfies on the phone with the image you see in the mirror. You will quickly realize the one you see in the mirror is much more good-looking than the one on your phone.
Now let’s move on to something even more interesting that you can resonate with (157). Classical conditioning (158). Classical conditioning is a type of learning that you associate a neutral stimuli to something else you ALREADY know to, therefore elicit (159) the same response. Let me give you an example.
Let’s say you really like your girlfriend or boyfriend, the perfume of him or her makes you love him or her even more. The next day you go to work and smell the same perfume from one of your coworkers, which makes you really happy.
But let’s change the story a little bit. Instead of your girlfriend or boyfriend, it’s your enemy-the person you really hates that you smell the same perfume. The next day you go to work and smell the same thing from your co-worker. Would you be happy anymore? Very less likely.
You have been conditioned (160) to either love or hate the perfume based on what it is associated with. Remember the perfume is a neutral stimuli but it can elicit different responses of yours given different associations.
Classical conditioning - You are conditioned to love or hate something based on what it is associated with.
You love playing piano because the person you love also plays piano
You can change your hobby simply because that hobby is associated with something else you also love.
“Conditioned” is an excellent word for IELTS as well. “The public have been conditioned to believe in some myths by the government and corporation”.
One of the most fascinating categories in Psychology is persuasion. Why? Because believe it or not, we persuade everyday (and are persuaded everyday, too). Wherever there is communication, persuasion manifests in one form or another. It’s like getting and receiving a ‘message’ that triggers our actions. Think of advertising we see on TV or social media. We are being persuaded.
There are two routes to persuasion.
When a person thinks carefully about a communication message and is influenced by the strength of the arguments and logic and rational analyses, he or she is using the central route (161). Here’s an example of the central route to persuasion. You are thinking about buying a car, and you read the latest issue of Consumer Reports, then test-drive several cars, evaluate the different features, etc.
In contrast, the peripheral or heuristic route (162) to persuasion is when a person does NOT think carefully about a communication message and is influenced by superficial characteristics. For example, if you see a television ad in which an attractive man or woman drives a new sleek car very fast in scenic areas, you might make your decision based on these superficial characteristics rather than actual data or logic.
- Central route - logic, facts, data, analysis
- Peripheral/Heuristic route - humor, fear, emotions
Do you like Donald Trump? If you do, then chances are you might be influenced by the peripheral route rather than the central one. Because instead of looking at the facts and real policies he has, you look at his superficial characteristics and don’t logically process his messages. You feel that “Oh, this guy is rich, he must be smart enough to run the country” or “Oh, this guy is gaining support, so everything he says is true”.
Lots of TV advertising use peripheral route to persuade audience. Because it works. If we have time and motivation, we might spend time processing facts and data to make decisions. However, in most cases, we don’t.
We tend to rely on our emotions to make decisions for us. That’s why advertisers like to feature famous people or use humor, storytelling, sensational music or even fear. Guess what, a majority of us could easily fall for it and quickly make a decision.
This most likely happens when we are facing a low-consequence decision like buying a bag or a piece of clothing.
But when it comes to higher-consequence decisions, we tend to slow down a little bit to look at facts, data and specifications. We think more rationally or in other words use the central route rather than peripheral one. Think about buying a new car or a new house. No matter how nice and friendly the seller or real estate broker might appear, you want to know all the facts about the house you are going to buy such as location, neighborhood, price, fees, condition, number of bedrooms, etc.
So there are two routes and they are all important for persuasion. Next time you watch an ad, make sure you can identify which route the copywriter (163) is using in an effort to persuade you buying their products
Copywriter: a person who write advertising
Can you resist persuasion? Yes, you can. If you are aware of it. It is often easier for you to resist such attempts when you receive forewarning (164) that others are trying to persuade you. For example, telling teenagers that they are going to hear a speech on “why teenagers should not drive” leads to less change than telling them they are going to hear a speech on driving in general. Or telling you that a “how to get rich quick” event you are about to hear is all about bullshit and selling, you will less likely be persuaded. Forewarning about an upcoming persuasion attempt allows you to construct counterarguments (165), and thus is particularly effective for resisting persuasion.
“Be careful, the advertisement is about to use humor to persuade you”. “AH HA”. Now you’re aware of it and attempt to construct a defense for your mind. It’s much harder to persuade you then.
forewarning: an advance warning
counterargument: argument against another argument
Now let’s discuss different types of motivation. There are two opposing types. Extrinsic motivation (166) is anything outside of yourself that you need to obtain or acquire to increase motivation, like money or rewards. If your parents give you money to encourage you to read a book, then you are given extrinsic motivation. “If you finish this book, I will give you $20”. You are extrinsically motivated. How do you feel now? You leave the computer seat and start hitting the book and try to finish this as quickly as you can so you can get the $20.
Ok, wait a second. What does that tell you? You are not reading because you love it. You are reading JUST to earn the $20. You will then feel like the process of reading books seems like forever. Eventually, you develop a disinterest on reading. So as you can tell, extrinsic motivation does NOT work. It undermines (166) your interest on doing something. What might work? Intrinsic motivation (167).
undermine: erode, destroy, weaken
Extrinsic motivation - cash, money, materials to motivate us
Intrinsic motivation - joy, meaningfulness, logic, ethic
