Chapter 10: Social Thinking Flashcards

Question

There are three primary components of social perception: the perceiver, the target, and the situation Describe

Answer 1

The perceiver is influenced by experience, motives, and emotional state. Past experiences affect our attitude toward current or future experiences and can lead to particular expectations of the events. The target refers to the person about which the perception is made. Knowledge of the target can include past experiences or specific information that affect perception. The situation is also important to developing perception. Given social context can determine what information is available to the perceiver.

Answer 2

One model of social perception focuses on our selection of cues to form interpretations of others that are consistent overtime The perceiver uses these cues to categorize the target: friend versus enemy, caring versus standoffish, open-minded versus bigoted, and so on Primacy effect: the idea that first impressions are often more important than subsequent impressions Recently the effect: sometimes it is actually the most recent information we have about an individual that is the most important in forming our impressions

Answer 3

People may also project their own beliefs, opinions, ideas, and actions onto others. The categories, we place others in during impression information is based on implicit personality theory Implicit personality theory: states that there are sets of assumptions people make about how different types of people, their traits, and their behavior are related Making assumptions about people based on the category in which they are replaced is known as stereotyping

Answer 4

Making assumptions about people based on the category in which they are placed as known as stereotyping

Answer 5

The halo effect is a cognitive bias in which judgments about a specific aspect of an individual can be affected by one’s overall impression of the individual It is the tendency to allow a general impression about a person to influence other, more specific evaluations about a person The halo effect explains why people are often inaccurate when evaluating people that they either believe to be generally good for those that they believe to be generally bad And individuals attractiveness is also been seen to produce the halo effect

Answer 6

The adjust world hypothesis is a cognitive bias during impression formation that states that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people; noble actions are rewarded and evil actions are punished Consequences may be attributed to a universal restoring force; and some religions and cultures, this force is referred to as karma A strong belief in adjust world increases the likelihood of “blaming the victim” we’re stating that victims get what they deserve because such a world you denies the possibility of innocent victims

Answer 7

Self-serving, bias, or self-serving, attributional bias, reverse to the fact that individuals credit their own successes to internal factors and blame their failures on external factors Self enhancement focuses on the need to maintain self-worth, which can be accomplished in part by the self-serving bias Self verification, suggest people will seek the companionship of others who see them as they see them themselves, thereby validating a persons self-serving bias

Answer 8

People with depression, often have a reversed, attributional bias, viewing their successes as caused by external factors (I got lucky) and failures has caused by internal factors (it was all my fault)

Answer 9

In group bias refers to the Indonesian view members in one group more favorably Outgroup bias refers to the inclination to view individuals outside ones group harshly

Answer 10

Attribution theory describes how individuals infer the causes of other people’s behaviors It is human nature to observe and try to understand why others act the way they do

Answer 11

Dispositional or internal attributions are those that relate to the person whose behavior is being considered, including beliefs, attitudes, and personality characteristics Situational or external attributions are those that relate to features of the surroundings, such as threats, money, social, norms, and peer pressure For example: suppose you hear that a friend has been nominated for an academic award. Believing that a friend has been nominated because of hard work and personal effort would be dispositional attribution. Contrarily, chalking up the nomination to luck would be situational attribution. Situational attributions, therefore, consider the characteristics of the social context rather than the characteristics of the individual as the primary cause

Answer 12

In order to understand the behavior of others, a variety of cues are used Consistency accuses: has consistent behavior overtime Consensus cues: matches others behavior Distinctive excuse: uses similar behavior in similar situations

Answer 13

The correspondent inference theory takes this concept, one step further by focusing on the intentionality of others behaviors When an individual unexpectedly performs a behavior that helps or hurts us, we tend to explain the behavior by dispositional attribution Thus, we may correlate these unexpected actions with the person’s personality

Answer 14

Actor observer a symmetry results from the self-serving bias (by the Actor) and the fundamental attribution error (by the observer) Actor observer bias holds that, due to our unique knowledge about our own actions, we are more likely to make situational attribution for the self as compared to other others If you, rather than another person, failed to complete an assignment, you would be far more likely to consider the situational factors involved in your behavior because you’re intimately aware of them This effect is most commonly seen with negative behaviors

Answer 15

The fundamental attribution error deposits that we are generally biased towards making dispositional attributions rather than situational attributions when judging the actions of others Example: suppose that on a team project other team members were unable to complete their assignments. According to the fundamental attribution error, our immediate response might be to assume that these team members are lazy or unreliable (both of which are dispositional attributions) We may ignore the possibility that the team members got ill, had too many concurrent assignments, or suffered a personal tragedy (all of which our situational attributions) The fundamental attribution error can present itself and positive context as well: you observed someone getting out of their car to help an older adult across the road. According to the fundamental attribution area would likely make a dispositional attribution like “what a kind stranger” rather than a situational attribution like “ oh maybe that’s their grandparent”

Answer 16

Yes. This difference in complexity is actually the source of the fundamental attribution error: assuming that a person’s behavior accurately portray who they are as a person is easier than speculating about what circumstances might have caused the observed behavior.

Answer 17

Attribute substitution occurs when individuals must make judgments that are complex, but instead they substitute a simpler solution or apply heuristic

Answer 18

Another important factor and attribution is culture The type of culture, an individual belongs to plays a major role in the types of attribution the individual makes Individualist culture, but I value on the individual, personal goals, and independence Collective cultures view individuals as members of a group in place high value on conformity and interdependence Individualists tend to make more fundamental attribution errors than those in collective cultures Individualists are also more likely to attribute behavior to dispositional factors, we collectivists are more likely to attribute behavior to situational factors

Answer 19

Stereotypes referred to the expectations, impressions, and opinions about the characteristics of members of a group Paternalistic stereotypes: those in which the group is looked down upon as inferior, dismissed, or ignored Contemptuous stereotypes: those in which the group is viewed with resentment, annoyance, or anger Envious stereotypes: those in which the group is viewed with jealousy, bitterness, or distrust Admiration stereotypes: those in which the group is viewed with pride and other positive feelings

Answer 20

Self fulfilling prophecy is the expectations of a certain group of individuals becoming a reality Stereotypes can lead to expectations of certain groups of individuals These expectations can create conditions that then caused the expectations to become reality: self fulfilling prophecy Example: some medical students experiences a self fulfilling prophecy during their first day of surgery, clerkship in medical school: during their first year in awards, new students are stereotype is being unable to quickly and efficiently throw not stirring a surgery. With this knowledge in mind, these students are nervous to suture for the first time and may struggle with every step of the not tying process. The struggle validate the stereotype and thus completes the self fulfilling prophecy

Answer 21

Stereotype threat is concern or anxiety about confirming a negative stereotype about one group. This may enter performance, which may actually create a self fulfilling prophecy The feeling of stereotype threat often results in a self fulfilling prophecy: People experiencing stereotype threat, often exhibits stress, arousal, and or preoccupied by monitoring their own performance on a task, and these distractions can then lead to reduce performance on the tasks Example: women in mathematics. A study showed that women taking a math exam scored lower when the only other test takers in the rumor men. The researchers concluded that when taking an exam with only men present, women test subjects were more concerned about stereotype threat, and performed more poorly as a result of their concerns. Researchers theorized that stereotype threat may be a contributing factor to long-standing racial and gender gaps in certain careers and in academic performance.

Answer 22

Prejudice is an irrational positive or negative attitude toward a person, group, or thing, prior to an actual experience with that entity Conform in response to dissimilarities among groups, races, ethnicities, or even environments Prejudices exist against objects and places as well People have attitudes toward different regions of the country, based on culture, weather, and history; which car manufacturers are the most reliable; what types of food are considered unhealthy; and even what types of animals make good pets

Answer 23

Propaganda is a way by which large organizations and political groups attempt to create prejudices in others Propaganda posters, often, invoke messages of fear, and depiction of the target group are often exaggerated to an absurd degree

Answer 24

Power, prestige, in class are three of the most important variety of social factors that influence prejudice Power: the ability of people or groups to achieve their goals, despite any obstacles, and their ability to control resources Prestige: the level of respect shown to a person by others Class: refers to socioeconomic status Results in the have and they have nots. They have nots may develop a negative attitude toward haves based on envy.

Answer 25

Ethnocentrism is the belief that one's own ethnic or cultural group is superior to others. Ethnocentrism refers to the practice of making judgments about others cultures, based on the values and beliefs of one’s own culture, especially when it comes to language, customs, and religion Can manifest from innocent displays of ethnic pride to violent supremacy groups Closely tied to in group versus outgroup bias and group conflict

Answer 26

Cultural relativism is the recognition that social groups and culture should be studied on their own terms In order to avoid ethnocentrism, the concept of cultural relativism has been employed by sociologist to compare and understand other cultures Cultural relativism attempts to ensure that when studying a culture, the values, mores, and rules makes sense in the context of that culture

Answer 27

Discrimination occurs when prejudicial attitudes caused individuals of a particular group to be treated differently from others Prejudice is an attitude, discrimination is behavior Prejudice typically refers to a negative attitude, discrimination typically refers to a negative behavior Important: prejudice does not always result in discrimination (example: a person might have strong feelings against their particular race, prejudice, but they express those feelings or act on them, discriminate.

Answer 28

Discrimination can be either individual or institutional Individual discrimination: refers to one person discriminating against a particular person or group Institutional discrimination: discrimination against a particular person or group by an entire institution Individual discrimination is considered to be conscious and obvious, and could be eliminated by removing the person who is displaying the behavior Sociologist have begun to distress the need to focus on institutional discrimination, as it is discrimination, built into the structure of society, so it is far more covert and harder to extricate. Because it is part of society, it is perpetuated by simply maintaining the status quo

Answer 29

The fundamental attribution error is the tendency people have to overemphasize personal characteristics and ignore situational factors in judging others' behavior. Because of the fundamental attribution error, we tend to believe that others do bad things because they are bad people

Chapter 10: Social Thinking Flashcards

(70 cards)