Exam 2 lecture outlines Flashcards

Question

Describe Freedman's (1965) classic forbidden toy experiment

Answer 1

2nd and 4th graders who were given a mild threat not to play with a toy rated the toy as less attractive and were less likely to play with it six weeks later, as opposed to the children given a severe threat not to play with it - Idea being the mild threat induced a sense of dissonance: “I’m not playing with the attractive toy, I guess I don’t like it so much after all!” - If given severe threat, child says “I’m not playing with the attractive toy only because I will be punished if I do,” so later when given the chance he or she will play with it because the child has not experienced an attitude change

Answer 2

The idea that we look to our behavior to determine our attitudes. Applies mostly to attitude formation, or when our attitudes are weak or inconsistent (so it’s a theory of attitude formation not attitude change like dissonance theory)

Answer 3

): Subjects had either strong or weak attitudes about the environment. Subjects were asked a series of questions that made them look as they were either “pro” or “anti” the environment. (Questions like: Do you recycle every can that you get?) This was used to get them to describe their behavior as “pro” or “anti” environment. Finding: Only those people who had weak attitudes to being with showed any attitude change as a result of the questions. That is, if they were asked pro-environment questions, they reported being more pro-environment afterwards. Those subjects with a “strong” attitude before the experiment began, were not affected (they reported the same attitude both before and after the questioning).

Answer 4

Self-perception theory argues that if you give people a reward for tasks that they find at least somewhat intrinsically interesting, this undermines or reduces their interest because people think they are doing the task for the reward as opposed to being interested in it. (They look to their behavior to infer their attitudes: “I’m doing this for the money, so I must not be very interested in it”)

Answer 5

Amabile (1987): Effects of rewards on intrinsic interest: College students who like to write as a hobby were given a reward or no reward to write several short stories. Subjects who were rewarded later reported a reduction in their intrinsic interest in writing as opposed to those who were not rewarded. -Note: Cognitive dissonance could not explain this effect: You are rewarding someone for a pro-attitudinal behavior.

Answer 6

1. Cognitive dissonance explains attitude change, self-perception theory explains attitude formation. 2. Cognitive dissonance requires a strong attitude, whereas self-perception theory requires weak or no attitude. 3. With cognitive dissonance, counter-attitudinal behavior induces a sense of dissonance we resolve it by changing our attitude to be consistent with behavior. Must have insufficient justification for the counter-attitudinal behavior (if you don’t, you have no dissonance) With self-perception theory, we simply look to our behavior to infer out attitudes. 4. The implication of cognitive dissonance is that you shouldn't offer punishment (severe) to stop problematic behavior because it provides sufficient justification for the child not to display the behavior. Mild punishment induces dissonance and attitude change. The implication of self-perception theory is that you shouldn't offer rewards to encourage desired behavior (it may undermine intrinsic interest)

Answer 7

That you shouldn't offer rewards to encourage desired behavior because it may undermine intrinsic interest

Answer 8

That you shouldn't offer punishment (severe) to stop problematic behavior because it provides sufficient justification for the child not to display the behavior. Mild punishment induces dissonance and attitude change.

Answer 9

Observed bicyclists and found that they would go faster in competition than when training alone. Replicated study with children reeling in line; both show social facilitation

Answer 10

He had subjects crossing out vowels in a newspaper column and found that people were more accurate and worked quickly if there were other people in the room (as an audience) or as a co-actor performing the same task

Answer 11

He found that individual ants dug three times more sand when they were in groups than when they were alone

Answer 12

Allport (1924) found college students wrote fewer counter-arguments, and the arguments were of less quality when others were present. Point: The presence of others clearly matters, but sometimes it helps performance and sometimes it hurts performance.

Answer 13

That the the “mere presence” of other people has a consistent effect—it increases arousal, motivation, and drive (thought to be innate).

Answer 14

If the task requires a well-learned behavior (which is called the dominant response), increased motivation or arousal is helpful and increases performance. (The dominant response can be complex as well but highly developed—like an Olympic athlete).

Answer 15

facilitation; inhibition

Answer 16

Michaels et al. (1982) study of pool players: Good players showed an increase in performance from 71 to 81% accurate when watched by a group, bad players showed a decrease in performance from 36 to 25%

Answer 17

Evaluation apprehension and the distraction-conflict model

Answer 18

On simple tasks, awareness that we are being evaluated can motivate us, but when the task is not well learned and practiced then the evaluation apprehension hinders performance

Answer 19

On simple tasks, the distraction caused by the presence of others may motivate us to pay even more attention to the task and cause performance to increase. On difficult tasks, the distraction caused by the presence of others may prove to be extremely distracting and stressful because the task is difficult for us and therefore, it reduces or hinders performance. (Called the distraction-conflict model: The presence of others causes arousal because it creates a conflict between 1) attention to the audience and 2) attention to the task).

Answer 20

Working as a member of a group often leads to a slacking off of individual effort

Answer 21

- Ringelmann (1986) asked college students to pull on a rope (as you would in tug of war). The findings showed that when subjects were asked to pull alone, they pulled significantly harder than when they were asked to pull in groups of 7 or 14 people. - Latane et al. (1979) got the same effect when he asked college men to make noise by cheering and clapping either alone or in a group. The results showed that the subjects made significantly more noise (clapping or cheering) when they were alone versus in a group.

Answer 22

When people work in a group and think his or her contribution is not able to be monitored (there is no perceived accountability) people goof off. The major point here is people slack off when working in a group provides anonymity, and when their individual contributions cannot be tracked.

Answer 23

William, Harkins, and Latane had subjects perform the shouting or clapping task in a group. Half of the students were told their individual performance was monitored while the other half were told their output was not being monitored. Results shows that performance was much lower in the no-monitoring condition.

Answer 24

Individuals slack off because they think the group can do it without them just fine, so they think they’re not needed

Answer 25

You observe other people not putting in total effort so you reduce your effort because why should you do it if other people are not pulling their load?

Answer 26

If you believe you can't be identified, that the task is easy or boring, or if there is little reward for the task

Answer 27

Social loafing occurs primarily when people work in a group, and the task is easy, there is little incentive (reward), when the person is not directly accountable for his or her performance, when he or she is an anonymous member of the group, when the person thinks that the group can get the job done without them putting in much effort (free-rider effect), and when the person perceives that others are not putting in enough effort and resents working harder than the other people (sucker effect).

Answer 28

Being in a group can result in a loss of self-awareness, evaluation apprehension, and creates a sense of anonymity as a result people do things in groups that they would never do alone

Answer 29

- anonymity - diffusion of responsibility - energizing effects of others - large group size with much activity - novel or unstructured situation - arousal - altered states of consciousness (drugs)

Answer 30

- no concern for evaluation or consequences of behavior - weakening of social controls (the inhibitions we learn against anti-social behavior start to decline because of the conditions that are present) - lowered threshold for expressing inhibited behaviors - focus on present time (forget about past or future) - loses sense of personal responsibility for one’s actions

Answer 31

- impulsive, irrational, often destructive and intentionally anti-social - behavior is highly emotional - behavior becomes self-reinforcing and intensifies - behavior is extremely difficult to terminate

Answer 32

Found that baiting increases with crowd size and time of episode (night versus day). Shows deindividuation

Answer 33

He studied warfare patterns in over 200 cultures. Found that cultures in which warriors deindividuated themselves by wearing masks and paint were more likely to torture their captives as compared with cultures that did not deindividuate their warriors.

Answer 34

- Children who came in groups were more likely to steal or cheat (take more than one candy) than children who came alone - When the experimenter asked the children who they were and where they lived, they were less likely to steal as compared to children who were not asked these questions

Answer 35

For centuries people have been executed by firing squad—and what is commonly done is to have only be one person with a live bullet—that way no one person is made to feel responsible. The actual shooter is anonymous.

Answer 36

- Because urban city life often is associated with large numbers of people and extreme forms of crowding, this can produce a sense of anonymity and lowering of inhibitions. (I won’t get caught, they’ll never find me). This can produce a greater tendency for crime. - Evidence: Zimbardo’s famous car experiment: A car appears stranded (hood up) in both the Bronx, New York and Palo Alto, California. Within three days the car in NY was stripped and the car in California went untouched.

Answer 37

A car appears stranded (hood up) in both the Bronx, New York and Palo Alto, California. Within three days the car in NY was stripped and the car in California went untouched.

Answer 38

Football games; the “night of fire” that takes place every Halloween in Chicago when a large number of fires are intentionally set.

Answer 39

Verbal, physical, social, and cyber

Answer 40

Anti-Bullying Laws; University Reporting and counseling centers, suicide prevention hotlines, law enforcement.

Answer 41

Rates in College students: 15% victimized; 22% victimized by cyber-bullying, 42% have seen someone else be bullied by another student, 25% bulled through- social media site

Exam 2 lecture outlines Flashcards

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