Lecture 19 And 20 - Social Psychology Flashcards
(30 cards)
How did we survive in society
Form social groups and cooperate with others in these groups
Social Psychology
Study of how people influence each other’s thoughts, emotions and behaviour
Auto-kinetic effect
Participants in an ambiguous situation
Why do we conform to social groups
- get information
- to fulfill our need to belong
Asch Study
- 75% conformed to picking the wrong stick because good social skills come with an awareness of social conventions and cues (cognitive dissonance - they believed what they picked to be right)
Cognitive Dissonance
- Consistency between thoughts and actions and appear as a good person
- Inconsistencies between thoughts and/or behaviour create an unpleasant state of arousal
- motivates efforts to resolve inconsistencies
- results from threat to people’s sense of themselves as rational, moral and competent
Puralistic Ignorance
Most group members privately reject a belief, attitude, or behaviour but incorrectly assume that most others in the group accept it
False polarization
People perceive the attitudes of those who disagree with them as more extreme than they are
Response when group is under “threat”
- Increase in group vs out group divide
- increase use of stereotypes when interacting with others
- become focused on resource allocation (leave the group or improve the group)
Why do students strike
- strong degree of identification among students
- raise awareness of unjust changes in policy
- foster confidence that collective actions are efficacious
Attitude
Evaluation of a person, place, object, event or behaviour
Components of attitudes
- Affective: emotions or feelings
- Behavioural: actions that results from
- Cognitive: Knowledge about
What do attitudes do?
- how we understand others
- how we value people and objects
- guides behaviour
- can have mixed attitudes simultaneously
Important statement about belief and behaviour
Private beliefs determine public behaviour
When do attitudes and behaviour align
- attitude is stable
- attitude is easily recalled
- attitude is specific to behaviour
- opposing external influences are minimal
- external influences align with the attitude
Perceived Social Norms
What we perceive relevant other would do/think/feel or see as acceptable to do/think/feel in a given situation
How can attitudes be changed
- convincing others to see the world as we do
- convincing others to change their view for political or financial reasons
Persuasion
Direct attempt to change someone’s attitude
Central Route
- Interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favourable thoughts
- change attitudes through the process of reasoning
- need the recipient to have attention and motivation
Peripheral Route
- People are influenced by incidental cues
- change attitudes through feeling and superficial associations
- do NOT need the recipient to have attention and motivation
compliance
- subtly getting people to act in some desired way
- changes behaviour and gets cognitive dissonance work to create attitude change
What motive could bring compliance
- Consistency and commitment (allow us to function together)
- people are there for us when we are there for them
Foot-in-the-door Technique
- Small request that is likely to be accepted to get the person to commit to an action plan
Foot-in-the-door technique steps
- commitment to small steps that people dont notice as it seems to be simple and harmless
- to avoid it you have other avoid commitment in the first place
