Social Behaviour

Question 1

Attraction

Answer 1

• Symmetry influenced how attractive a person is
• Similarity also influences how attractive a person is.
  
  • People tend to be attracted to others who have similar attributes, beliefs, education or background
  • “Opposites attract”
    
    • Researches have found that opposites can attract as long as the differences are complementary.
• More attracted to people who seem to be visibly attracted to us.
• People in close proximity are more attractive.

Question 2

Aggression

Answer 2

• Is a behaviour that’s meant to be harmful or to move an individual up the social ladder of dominance
• Behaviours ca be verbal, such as an argument, non-verbal such as a physical fight
• There are also biological factors that influence aggression
  
  • For example, if someone takes something of yours, you will become frustrated angry and your amygdala would activate
    
    • An activated amygdala can promote a sympathetic reaction, bleeding out emotions like fear or anger, causing aggression right back.
  • The prefrontal cortex is responsible for controlling that aggression
    
    • It does this by modulating impulsiveness and reducing emotional reactivity
    • It is responsible for making sure nothing too hasty happens
  • Individuals with less activity in their prefrontal cortex tend to be more impulsive, so in situations like this they tend to me more aggressive back

Question 3

Hormones and Aggression

Answer 3

• Higher levels of testosterone have been shown in studies to correlate with higher levels of aggression
• The cognitive neoassociation model runs off this idea that when someone has negative emotions, they tend to be more aggressive
  
  • This explains the word hangry → when someone is hungry or tires, that will tend to correlate with being more snappy or irritated with other people
• Other extreme psychological states that influence aggression could include being exposed to violent behaviours as a child, and then mimicking or reacting to that as an adult

Question 4

Four Types of Attachment

Answer 4

• Secure Attachment
• Avoidant Attachment
• Ambivalent Attachement
• Disorganized attachment

Question 5

Secure Attachment

Answer 5

• The secure attachment is considered a beneficial one
• Children will feel safe to go out and explore and know that there is always going to be a secure caregiver back at home to depend on
• Any child would be upset when the caregiver leaves and welcomes their speedy return
• Preferred to be in the comfort and company of the caregiver rather than strangers
• Children with secure attachments tend to grow up with sufficient social skills

Question 6

Avoidant Attachment

Answer 6

• The caregiver essentially ignores the distressed child
• As a child that person couldn’t count on when the caregiver would leave or return, so the child learns not to care or act excited when the caregiver is around

Question 7

Ambivalent Attachment

Answer 7

• The caregiver lacks consistency
• Sometimes the caregiver responds appropriately to the child’s distress, other times the caregiver is neglectful

Question 8

Disorganized attachment

Answer 8

• The caregiver is either absent or disorganized
• As a child, if a classmate experienced disorganized attachment, they would show a mix of different behaviours towards the caregiver. Unsure of what response will be returned, the child might attempt to welcome back a caregiver, but being unsure of what the caregiver will do, sidles up the caregiver with their back turned, ready to run away because there’s no consistency

Question 9

Social Suport

Answer 9

• A strong social support network has the ability to:
  
  • Reduce anxiety
  • Reduce incidence of depression and prevalence of mental disorder
  • Reduce illicit drug use
  • Reduced mortality from suicide or diseases
  • Improving immune system

Question 10

Emotional Support

Answer 10

• An individual listens and empathizes with another person

Question 11

Esteem Suport

Answer 11

An individual encourages another person through qualities or positive actions

Question 12

Material Support

Answer 12

• An individual might provide financial or material contributions

Question 13

Informational Support

Answer 13

An individual gives someone information that might help them in their career, health or life in general

Question 14

Network Support

Answer 14

An individual receives support from a social network as a while rather than any one person alone

Question 15

Game Theory

Answer 15

• Attempts to describe decision making behaviour in a social setting
• A game theorist will model social interactions, and then relate the outcomes of evolution looking for a relationship
• Looks for how people win in interaction
• Cooperative Relationship: where both players win, even though each player might not win it all

Question 16

Attribution Theory

Answer 16

• Attribution is an inference about the cause of a behaviour or event.
• The attribution theory focuses on the tendency for individuals to infer the causes of other people’s behaviour
  
  • Assumes that people try to determine motives behind their own and others behaviours, and whether these motives are internal or external

Question 16

Attribution Theory

Answer 16

• Attribution is an inference about the cause of a behaviour or event.
• The attribution theory focuses on the tendency for individuals to infer the causes of other people’s behaviour
  
  • Assumes that people try to determine motives behind their own and others behaviours, and whether these motives are internal or external

Question 17

Three Phases of attribution

Answer 17

1. Observe a behaviour
2. Determine is a behaviour is deliberate
3. Determine is behaviour is due to internal or external causes

Question 18

Internal vs. External Attributions

Answer 18

• Dispositional or internal attribution
  
  • Focusing on someones mood, attribute, judgment, ability
  • When you link behaviour to internal causes
• Situational or external attribution
  
  • Pressure, bad luck or you made an error yourself

Question 19

Fundamental Attribution Error

Answer 19

• General bias towards making dispositional attributions rather than situational attributions when analyzing another person’s behaviour
• The tendency to overestimate the degree to which a person’s behaviour is due to their personal characteristics, attitudes or beliefs.
• Also the tendency to minimize the influence of the surrounding situation when analyzing others behaviours

Question 20

Self-serving Bias

Answer 20

• As individuals we have a tendency to view our own successes as being based on internal factors, while our failures as external factors
• The self-serving bias can also occur in groups. The tendency to credit the group for its successes, but to blame the external factors for its failures is known as a group-serving bias

Question 21

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Answer 21

• refers to the phenomenon whereby a person’s or a group’s expectation for the behavior of another person or group serves actually to bring about the prophesied or expected behavior

Question 22

Stereotype Threat

Answer 22

• It is the fear or anxiety of confirming a negative stereotype about one’s social group.
• It is important to avoid stereotyping individuals. This can be done by avoiding any assumptions about a person based on race, ethnicity, gender or other factors.