Chapter 12 Flashcards
(31 cards)
Social Psychology
1) The scientific study of how people’s thoughts, behaviors, and feelings are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others
In-group
1) Group we belong to
Out-group
1) Group we do not belong to
Social Identity Theory
1) In-groups are made up of members of a common social category and take pride in membership
Reciprocity
1) Person A helps person B; person B helps person A
Transitivity
1) people generally share their friends’ opinions of othersq
Stanford Prison Experiment
1) students put in prison environment as “inmates” or guards
2) guards displayed abusive behavior
3) Various problems with experiment
people doing what they thought they were supposed to do? replication difficult, experimenter was directly involved with the experiment
Social Facilitation
1) when the presence of others improves performance
2) common with well-rehearsed tasks
Social Loafing
1) performance in groups is less productive than originally expected
Deindividuation
1) state of reduced individuality, self-awareness, and personal standards that may occur during group membership
2) likely when members are aroused and anonymous and when responsibility is diffused
3) uniforms play a role
Group influences on Decision-Making
1) Risky shift Effect–groups are more likely to engage in risky behavior than individuals.
2) Group polarization–groups become more extreme in initial tendency
3) Group think–desire for consistency and adherence impact decision making by discouraging and punishing dissension/
Conformity
1) the altering of one’s behaviors and opinions to match those of other people or others’ expectations
2) Asch Conformity study–matching line distances, correct answer blatantly obvious. Group answers unanimously with wrong answer and experiment subject answered with them 75% of the time
3) Informational social influence–behavior that is motivated by the desire to be correct
4) Normative Social influence–behavior motivated by a desire to gain social acceptance and approval
5) Conformity motivated by desire to follow social norms and avoid the punishment of violating those norms
Compliance
1) tendency to agree to do things requested by others
2) likely if person is in a good mood, is not paying attention, wants to be consistent, or falls victim to persuasive techniques
3) Foot-In-The-Door Effect–agree to small request, likely to agree to larger request
4) Door-in-the-face effect–people more likely to agree to small request after refusing a large request
5) low-balling stategy–offering low initial price and then claiming extra costs
Obedience and Milgram’s study
1) people obey authority
2) Milgram’s study–people deliver potentially fatal electric shock because experimenter tells them to
3) reasons for obedience
strong situation (expected behavior, scientific research important, people were paid to participate)
low personal responsibility
gradual rise in orders
detached and de personalized
uncomfortable to defy authority figure
Decreasing obedience
increase Distance from authority or decrease distance to person receiving action
Allies
Weakening the situation
Aggression
1) any behavior that involves the intention to harm someone else
2) Influenced by nature (MAOA, Seratonin, Testosterone) and nurture (Culture of honor)
Prosocial Behaviors
1) tending to benefit others–helping, obeying rules, conforming to socially acceptable behaviors, cooperating
2) altruism–helping others with no apparent reward
4) often motivated by reward–social status, self-interest, conformity, social forces
Failure to help
1) Bystander intervention effect–the failure to offer help by someone observing one in need when others are present.
2) bystander apathy
3) caused by the diffusion of responsibility, fear of making a social blunder, anonymity, and risk-benefit analysis
reducing bystander apathy
1) reduce anonymity by designating a specific person and giving them a specific task
Attitudes
1) people’s evaluations of objects, events, or ideas
2) behaviors usually consistent with attitudes
3) formed through experience and socialization
4) explicit attitudes–attitudes a person can report
5) implicit attitudes–attitudes that influence a person’s thoughts and behaviors at an unconscious level
6) persuasion–the active and conscious effort to change an effort through the transmission of a message
Cognitive Dissonance
1) an uncomfortable mental state de to a contradiction between an attitude and a behavior or between two attitudes
2) post-decisional dissonance
3) justifying effort
Attributions
1) People’s explanations for why events occur
2) draws inferences from a basic desire for order and predictability
3) allows us to make quick judgements
4) Personal Attributions–refer to internal characteristics, such as a person’s abilities, traits, moods, or efforts
5) Situational Attributions–refer to external characteristics like the weather, luck, or others’ actions
Errors in Attributions
1) Self-serving bias–people view themselves in positive light for personal attributiions in success and people attribute failures to external things
2) Fundamental Attribution Error–when explaining others’ behaviors, overestimating personal attributions and underestimating situational influences
3) Actor/Observer discrepancy–when I fail it is because of situational reasons, when others fail it is because of personal influences/ personality
Stereotypes
1) cognitive schemas that help us organize information about people based on their membership of certain groups
2) tend to be automatically activated, formed by social stigma and experience
3) need ability (accces to mental resources) and motivation (ability to apply resources) to overcome
4) Confirmation bias–tendency to seek out information that confirms stereotypes
5) sub-typing: putting people who do not meet stereotype standards in special category
6) Self-fulfilling prophecy–tending to behave in ways that confirm own or others’ expectations
