Social Behaviour Flashcards
What do attributions mean?
Judgements about causes of our own and other people’s behaviour and outcomes which affect our subsequent behaviour and emotions
What is the attribution theory?
Concerned with how individuals perceive the information they receive, interpret events, and how these form casual judgements - no indivdiual would take an action or decision without attributing it to a cause or factor
What does Kelly’s theory consist of?
- Situational attribution has all three attributional factors high
- Personal attribution has consistency high while consensus and distinctiveness are low
What are the three attributional factors in Kelly’s theory?
Consistency, distinctiveness, and consensus
What is the fundamental attribution error?
The central role in how we understand the actions of others and how we justify our own
What is important about first impressions (primacy effect)?
It attaches more importance to initial information and tends to be the most alert to information received first - the initial information may shape how we perceive subsequent information
How is mental set defined?
Perceiving the world in a particular way
How are schemas defined?
Describes a pattern of thought or behavior that organizes categories of information and the relationships among them
How are stereotypes defined?
Generalized belief about a group or category - a powerful type of schema
What are self-fulfilling prophecies?
An expectation or belief that can influence your behaviors, thus causing the belief to come true
What is social facilitation?
Social phenomenon in which being in the presence of others improves individual task performance - people do better on tasks when they are with other people rather than when they are doing the task alone
What is conformity?
Being compliant with social norms, standards, and laws. Essential for norms to influence people
What is the door-in-the-face-technique?
When the persuader makes a large request with the expectation of refusal. Knowing this, the persuader makes a smaller request (what they actually want) and it will more likely persuade because it seems like the “better deal”
What is the foot-in-the-door-technique?
When the persuader obtains compliance with a small request and then later presents a larger request.
What is lowballing?
The persuader gets person to commit to some action and before the action is performed, the persuader increases the “cost” of the action
What is deindividuation?
A phenomenon in which people engage in seemingly impulsive, deviant, and sometimes violent acts in situations in which they believe they cannot be personally identified - riots, acts of genocide, etc.
What is the Bystander Effect?
A person in need is less likely to receive help as the number of people who are present increases
What is diffusion on responsibility?
As the number of people present increases, the relative level of accountability of each person decreases
When people fail to act becasue they rely on social cues from others to guide their behaviour, without realizing that the referent others also face uncertainty - the failure to act can be the result of reliance on faulty social cues is defined as:
Plauralistic Ignorance
What are the factors that affect helping?
- Environment (urban vs rural)
- Sense of common fate
- Perceive help is needed
- Risk to self
- Personal factors
What is the escalation of commitment?
The longer one remains in a group, despite experiencing increasingly negative outcomes, the more difficult it is to leave the group
What are the three components of attitudes?
1) Cognitive: thoughts and logic
2) Affective: emotional components/feelings
3) Behavioural: actions that reflect support for one’s attitudes
What cognitive dissonance?
When attitudes and behaviours are inconsistent, a state of unease is felt, which the individuals is motivated to reduce - change attitude/behaviour OR distort attitude/behaviour
What is a stereotype threat?
When a person or group experiences significant fear of confirming negative expectations about one’s own social group, which ultimately adversely affects performance
