Social psychology Flashcards
Explain commonplace:
Commonplace is the difference between the explanations of the observer and the actor. The observer is inclined to attribute the same factors to the actor that the actor would attribute to situational factors
What are causal attributions?
casual attribution is the construal process people use to explain behaviour. People link an event to a cause, and the attributions we make affect our thoughts, feelings, and future behaviour
Why do people make casual attributions?
people make casual attributions because they need to draw inferences about other people in order to make predictions about future behaviour
What is attribution theory?
attribution theory is a set of concepts explaining how people assign causes to the events around them and the effects of people’s casual assessments
How is explanatory style assessed?
a person’s habitual way of explaining events is assessed along three dimensions; internal/external, stable/unstable, and global/specific
What do Peterson and Seligman consider a pessimistic explanatory style?
the tendency to explain negative events in terms of internal, stable, and global related to a variety of undesirable life outcomes.
Explain covariation principle:
how we attribute a persons behaviour to internal or external causes. If the presence of a factor is necessary for an event to happen, and when eliminated the factor the prevents the event from happening, the factor could be consider possible cause
What three factors are combined to explain the causes of a persons behaviour?
Consensus; do other people behave this way?
Consistency; does this person always behave this way under similar circumstances?
Distinctiveness; does the person ever behave this way in different situations?
According to which principle is our confidence in a particular cause being responsible reduced by other plausible causes that could have produced it?
Discounting principle
According to what principle do we have greater confidence in a cause if other causes are present that we imagine would produce a different outcome?
Augmentation principle
What are counterfactual thoughts?
counterfactual thoughts are mental simulations which add or subtract situation elements to estimate the likelihood of the effect on outcome
Explain emotional amplification:
joy or pain in response to an event is amplified when counterfactual thinking encourages the thought that things could have turned out differently
What is self attributional bias?
a cognitive bias where individuals attribute their success to internal factors and failures to external factors. This is motivated by a desire to maintain self esteem and can lead to a distorted view of reality.
What is fundamental attribution error?
the tendency to attribute peoples actions and behaviours to personal characteristics rather than external factors or circumstances
What are the dangers of fundamental attribution errors?
they lead to oversimplification of causes of success and failure. they underestimate the role of external factors and overestimate the role of personal characteristics
Briefly summarise the Quiz Game Experiment (Ross et al 1977):
examined if people commit fundamental attribution error in situations with inherent advantages and disadvantages. In the experiment questioners had an advantage and contestants had a disadvantage. Results showed that contestants and observers both overestimated the ability of the questioners and underestimated the disadvantaged contestants
Briefly describe the Business Office Experiment (Humphrey 1985):
participants witnessed a random procedure and were randomly assigned as managers or clerks. They rates themselves and others on role related traits such as intelligence, motivation, hard work, assertiveness, and supportiveness. For all traits managers rated fellow managers more highly than clerks for everything but hard working. Clerks also rated managers more highly than fellow clerks
What is the just world hypothesis?
This is a causes of fundamental attribution error where people think they get what they deserve and bad outcomes are brought by bad people. this adds a tendency to attribute negative events to the victim (victim blaming)
In what way is the just world hypothesis a coping mechanism?
it reduces anxiety and reassures a person that similar negative events will not happen to themself.
Describe how attribution is a two step process:
people characterise others immediately consistent with behaviour and only later adjust this to account for impact of prevailing situational factors
What are three solutions to fundamental attribution error:
consider multiple explanations, consider context and external factors, try to take perspective of others
what is the psychological definition of attitude?
an evaluation of an object in a positive or negative fashion that includes three components; affect, cognition, behaviour
what is the relationship between attitude and behaviour?
attitude can influence behaviour, and behaviour can influence attitudes
Explain the three components of attitudes:
Affect (emotion)- how much someone likes or dislikes something
Cognition- thoughts that reinforce a person’s feelings including knowledge and beliefs about the object as well as associated memories and images
Behaviour- attitudes are associated with a specific behaviour. most generally the effective evaluation of good vs bad is connected to a behavioural tendency to either approach or avoid
What happens when attitudes are primed (Chan and Bargh 1999)?
when specific attitudes are primed (brought to mind even unconsciously) people are more likely to act in ways consistent with the attitudes
What is meant by Spread of Activation Network (Preston and de Waal 2002)?
neuroscientific studies indicate that our attitudes activate particular brain regions (areas of motor cortex) that supports specific actions
Describe response latency:
the amount of time it takes to respond to a stimulus such as an attitude question
What is an implicit attitude measure?
an indirect measure of attitudes that does not involve self report. used when people are unwilling or unable to report their true feelings or opinions. implicit attitudes are designed to bypass conscious awareness to get people to disclose attitudes which people might not even be aware of
What is an issue with using a Likert scale to measure attitudes?
the scales might miss important elements when measuring complex attitudes
How is accessibility of attitude measured? (Russel Fazio
accessibility (how readily it comes to mind) is measured by response latency which is the time taken for a person to respond to an attitude question
Explain centrality of attitude:
this is a way to assess the strength and importance of someone’s attitude by determining the centrality of the attitude to the person’s belief system. this is measured by calculating how strongly each attitude within a domain is linked to others
Name two widely used implicit attitude measures:
Affective priming and the Implicit Association Test (IAT)
how can nonverbal measures portray attitudes?
nonverbal attitudes including smiling behaviour, degree of physical closeness, and sweaty palms act as indices of attitude towards others
Describe affective priming:
a measure of implicit attitudes by assessing the speed and accuracy of responding to target words that are preceded by subliminal primes
Describe the Implicit association test (IAT):
IAT measures the strength of associations between concepts (e.g. gay people) and evaluations (E.g. good or bad) or stereotypes (e.g. athletic or clumsy). IAT is widely used to uncover biases specifically prejudices. They are not always accurate and should be used in combination with other assessment methods.
What is the difference between explicit and implicit attitudes?
explicit attitudes are deliberate, conscious and slow, measured by self report. Implicit attitudes are automatic, non conscious, and fast, measured by response time.
what did Richard LaPiere’s (1930) discrimination study reveal about attitudes and behaviour ?
of the 250 establishments visited, only one denied service. when they were emailed to ask whether their policy was to serve Orientals, 90% said they would not. this study suggested that attitudes might bot predict behaviour very well.
Why might attitudes not always be a strong a strong predictor of behaviour?
attitudes compete with other determents of behaviour. a person’s understanding of prevailing social norms can weaken the relationship between attitudes and behaviour. when asked to explain reasoning for an attitude a person may focus on easily identifiable factors rather than underlying reasons. this therefore does not end up being an accurate predictor of behaviour
Explain why attitudes can be inconsistent:
sometimes the effective and cognitive components of an attitude might be inconsistent and so will not predict behaviour very well. attitudes can be influenced by various factors and it can be hard to know exactly why someone holds a certain attitude.
What makes attitudes and behaviour align more consistently?
consistency is higher when attitudes and behaviour are both at the same level of specificity. highly specific attitudes tend to predict specific behaviours while general attitudes tend to predict how someone behaves across different instances.
In Lord et al (1984) study male students were asked to express their attitudes about gay men stereotypes. How did the students react when asked to take ‘John B’ on a tour?
those with positive attitudes said they were willing to take John B on the tour. those with negative students said they were not willing, however only if John B matched their previously stated protype of a gay individual.
What promotes fast and efficient behaviour?
often behaviour tends to be more reflexive than reflective. when automatic behaviour is consistent with your attitudes behaviour is quicker and less effortful.
