Social Psychology Flashcards
(112 cards)
1
Q
Attitudes
A
Relatively stable and enduring evaluations of the social world ranging from negative to positive. They are based on beliefs, emotions or past behaviours associated with the target object.
2
Q
Heider’s Balance Theory
A
A particular cognitive consistency theory specifying that people prefer elements within a cognitive system to be internally consistent with one another (balanced). Balanced systems are assumed to be more stable and psychologically pleasant than imbalanced systems. These systems are sometimes referred to as P-O-X triads
3
Q
Festinger’s Theory of Cognitive Dissonance
A
People have a fundamental motivation to maintain consistency among elements in their cognitive systems. When inconsistency occurs, they experience an unpleasant psychological state that motivates them to reduce the dissonance.
The discomfort felt when there is a gap between your attitudes and behaviours.
4
Q
Two types of dissonant situations
A
Free-choice & forced-compliance dissonance
- when a person makes a choice between desirable alternatives
- when a person is forced to behave in a way inconsistent with their beliefs
5
Q
Minimal justification effect
A
When behavior can be justified by means of external inducements, there is no need to change internal cognitions. However, when the external justification is minimal, you will reduce your dissonance by changing internal cognitions.
6
Q
Kelley’s Attribution Theory - Three general principles of attribution
A
- the covariation principle
- the discounting principle
- the augmentation principle
7
Q
Kelley’s factors when considering whether a behaviour is attributed as internal or external
A
- Consistency (same person-same behaviour-same stimuli-across time)
- Distinctiveness (same person-same behaviour-diff stimuli-across time)
- Consensus Information (same behaviour by other people-same stimuli-across time)
8
Q
Self Attribution
A
By Jones & Nisbett
- we tend to see our behavior as being controlled more by the situation, while we see the behavior of others as caused more by internal forces
9
Q
Social influence
A
Any change in an individual’s thoughts, feelings, or behaviors caused by other people, who may be actually present or whose presence is imagined, expected, or only implied.
10
Q
Social facilitation
A
Studied first by Norman Triplett
- The improvement in an individual’s performance of a task that often occurs when others are present. Tends to occur with tasks that are uncomplicated or have been previously mastered through practice.
11
Q
Imitation
A
Process of copying the behavior of another person, group, or object, intentionally or unintentionally. Basic form of learning for human skills, gestures, interests, attitudes, role behaviors, social customs, and verbal expressions. True imitation requires that an observer be able to take the perspective of the model.
12
Q
Social conformity
A
The adjustment of one’s opinions, judgments, or actions so that they become more consistent with (a) the opinions, judgments, or actions of other people or (b) the normative standards of a social group or situation. Conformity includes temporary outward acquiescence (compliance) as well as more enduring private acceptance (conversion).
13
Q
Asch’s conformity experiment
A
Line comparing experiment
- 3 rounds
- in control group, subject gave wrong answer < 1% of time
- in experiment group, gave wrong answer almost 37%
- 75% of subjects gave wrong at least once
14
Q
Factors influencing conformity
A
- if opinion is made public
- if one can stay anonymous
- if the majority was unanimous or not
- group size: as it increased from 1 to 3 people, conformity increased. Further increase did not increase conformity.
- fatigued or not
- lower status than the agents
- desire for further interaction with agents
15
Q
Norms
A
A standard or range of values that represent the typical performance of a group or of an individual (of a certain age, for example) against which comparisons can be made.
16
Q
Obedience
A
Behavior in compliance with a direct command, often one issued by a person in a position of authority.
17
Q
Milgram’s experiment on obedience
A
- electric shocks ranging from 15-450 volts
- 65% of subjects obeyed instruction till the end (even though they showed signs of stress)
18
Q
Factors influencing obedience
A
- instruction provided by authority figure
- proximity of authority figure
- learner present in other room
- ability to assign responsibility to authority figure
- subject did not see others disobeying instruction
19
Q
Foot-in-door effect Versus Door-in-face effect
A
FID: A minor initial request is presented immediately before a more substantial target request. Agreement to the initial request makes people more likely to agree to the target request than would have been the case if the latter had been presented on its own.
DIF: An extreme initial request is presented immediately before a more moderate target request. Rejection of the initial request makes people more likely to accept the target request than would have been the case if the latter had been presented on its own.
20
Q
Overjustification Effect
A
A paradoxical effect in which rewarding (or offering to reward) a person for his or her performance can lead to lower, rather than higher, interest in the activity. It occurs when the introduction of an extrinsic reward weakens the strong intrinsic motivation that was the key to the person’s original high performance.
21
Q
Bem’s self-perception theory
A
When one’s attitude about a certain object is weak, one tends to observe behaviour to attribute an attitude to it.
22
Q
Persuasion
A
An active attempt by one person to change another person’s attitudes, beliefs, or emotions associated with some issue, person, concept, or object.
23
Q
Factors influencing persuasion
A
- authority or expert
- talking faster
- two-sided approach
- subject is distracted
- messages aren’t designed to seem persuasive (soft selling)
- attractiveness
- messages that evoke strong emotion (esp. fear)
24
Q
Elaboration Likelihood Model by Petty & Cacioppo
A
A theory about how attitudes are formed and changed; organizes the many different attitude change processes under a single conceptual umbrella
2 routes to persuasion: Systematic/Central route (high elaboration) vs Heuristic/Peripheral route processing (low elaboration)
25
Behaviours during cognitive dissonance
- change behaviour or attitude to be consistent
- find more info to explain inconsistent behaviour or attitude
- trivialization: inconsistent attitude or behaviour is not important
- self-affirmation
26
Belief perseverance
Tendency to maintain a belief even after the information that originally gave rise to it has been refuted or otherwise shown to be inaccurate.
27
Attraction
The interest in and liking of one individual by another, or the mutual interest and liking between two or more individuals. Interpersonal attraction may be based on shared experiences or characteristics, physical appearance, internal motivation (e.g., for affiliation), or some combination of these.
28
Factors affecting degree of attraction
- Proximity
- Attitude similarity
- Physical attractiveness
- Need complementarity
29
Festinger's social comparison theory
The proposition that people evaluate their abilities and attitudes in relation to those of others in a process that plays a significant role in self-image and subjective well-being.
30
Social exchange theory
By Thibaut & Keley
- A theory envisioning social interactions as an exchange in which the participants seek to maximize their benefits (the rewards they receive minus the costs they incur) within the limits of what is regarded as fair or just.
31
Gain-Loss Principle
By Aronson & Linder
- An evaluation that changes has a great impact than an evaluation that remains constant
- Tendency to like someone more when their liking for us increases (compared to someone who constantly likes us)
32
Altruism
Prosocial behaviour in which the person's intent is to benefit someone else at some cost to himself or herself.
33
Pluralistic ignorance
A scenario in which the majority of the members of a group privately believe against the norm, but they don’t do anything about it because they think they are the only one with that opinion.
34
Latané and Darley experiments for bystander intervention
- Pluralistic ignorance: smoke in the room
| - Diffusion of responsibility: seizure reporting
35
Bandura's Bobo doll experiment
- measuring effect of modelling
- children made to watch aggressive model and then left with model
- most copied model's actions to the tee
36
Fundamental attribution error
- Tendency to associate the cause for other's behaviours as dispositional, while our own behaviours as situational.
- Belief that our personalities are stable, with a changing environment.
37
Halo effect
Tendency to allow a general impression about a person influence other specific evaluations about them.
38
Primacy effect
Tendency for facts, impressions, or items that are presented first to be better learned or remembered than material presented later in the sequence
39
Belief in a just world
Tendency to believe that good things happen to good people, and bad things happen to bad people.
Increases likelihood of victim blaming.
40
Zajonc's theory of group behaviour
Presence of other people increases arousal and enhances emission of dominant responses.
If a dominant response is required, performance will improve.
If weaker response is required, performance will suffer.
Eg: Expert vs beginner pianist at recital
41
Social loafing
The reduction of individual effort that occurs when people work in groups compared to when they work alone.
42
Zimbardo's prison experiment
To test whether brutality in prisons was due to intrinsic or extrinsic characteristic.
- Experiment terminated after 6 days when police subjects began to brutally treat prisoner subjects
43
Deindividualization
Loss of self-awareness or personal identity
- occured in the Zimbardo experiment where college students were overwhelmed by roles
44
Groupthink
Tendency of decision-making groups to strive for consensus without considering discordant information.
45
Risky shift
Group decisions are riskier than the average of individual choices.
- Less risky people in the group compare themselves with more risky people and become riskier.
46
Group polarization
Tendency for group discussions to enhance the group's initial tendencies towards riskiness or caution.
[Risky group becomes more risky, etc.]
47
Cooperation versus Competition
- People acting together for their mutual benefit to all obtain a goal
- Person acts for his individual benefit to obtain a goal that has limited availability.
48
Robber Cave Experiment
- Eagles vs Rattlers
- To show intergroup conflict occurs when two groups are in competition for limited resources
- Superordinate goals are a way to conflict resolution
- Signs of group prejudice
49
Equity theory
Suggests that each person compares his own ratio of cost to reward to the other person's ratio and prefers it if the ratios are equal
50
Self-serving bias
Tendency to interpret events in a way that assigns credit for success to oneself, but failures are blamed on external factors. A form of self-deception designed to maintain high self-esteem.
51
Optimistic bias / planning fallacy
Tendency to underestimate the amount of time needed to complete a future task, due in part to the reliance on overly optimistic performance scenarios.
52
Counterfactual thinking
The tendency of evaluating events by thinking of alternative to them like 'what could have happened'
53
Stereotypes
A set of cognitive generalisations (e.g., beliefs, expectations) about the qualities & characteristics of the members of a group or social category. Often exaggerated, negative rather than positive, and resistant to revision even when perceivers encounter individuals with qualities that are not congruent with the stereotype.
54
Likert Scale
A type of direct attitude measure that consists of statements reflecting strong positive or negative evaluations of an object. Five-point scales are common and a neutral middle point may or may not be included.
55
Realistic Conflict Theory
A conceptual framework predicated on the assumption that intergroup tensions will occur whenever social groups must compete for scarce resources (e.g., food, territory, jobs, wealth, power, natural resources) and that this competition fuels prejudice and other antagonistic attitudes that lead to conflicts such as rivalries and warfare.
56
Theory of correspondent inference
How we make a systematic attempt to understand the stable dispositions of the person through the information about the observed behavior of the person
1. Degree of freedom
2. Consequences of behavior
3. Expectedness of behaviour
57
Attentional resources & trait attribution
Categorization - Making out what the individual’s behavior is all about
Characterization - Using the information about the behavior to infer the trait or disposition
Correction - Correcting the inference using the subsequently provided information
58
Reasons for fundamental attribution error
- Cognitive mechanisms
- General worldview
- Motivational influences
59
Asch's theory of impressions
- impression formation is a dynamic process; our interpretation of one's traits affect the way we perceive one's other traits too
- Central & peripheral traits
60
Anderson's algebraic model
Stage 1: we assign numeric values to each trait that we encounter in a person; +ve or -ve
Stage 2: we decide on the person's overall likability based on their combined 'score'; weighted average
61
Brewer's dual process theory
Identification - Note basic features
Personalisation - Find out more unique info to make accurate impression
Categorisation - Put them in stereotype categories
Individuation - Make subtype in case they don't fit the stereotype fully
62
Types of conformity
Normative conformity - need to fit in; fear of rejection; leads to compliance (just overt behaviour)
Informational conformity - when unsure of a situation and needs guidance; leads to internalization of group norms
63
Social impact theory
By Latane
Likelihood that a person will get influenced depends on:
1. strength (how important group is to you) 2. number (how many people in the group) 3. immediacy (how close they are in time and space)
64
Four basic patterns which groups that are spatially distributed and interact repeatedly organize and reorganize themselves
Part of dynamic social impact theory - Individuals take on the behaviours of the majority over minority
Consolidation: As individual react, their behaviours and thoughts become uniform
Clustering: Gravitate to people with similar opinion; when group members interact more frequently with those who are closer than distant; creates subgroups
Correlation: Individuals opinions on various issues converge over time; even with issues not discussed
Continuing Diversity: A degree of diversity can exist within a group if minority group members cluster together or minority members who communicate with majority members resist majority influence
65
Goal of affiliation
Behavioural mimicry: Those exposed to partner who mimicked their behaviour showed more affinity to them
Chameleon effect
66
Empathy
A broad concept that refers to the cognitive and emotional reactions of an individual to the observed experiences of another
- feeling the same emotion as another person
- personal distress
- feeling compassion for another person
67
Altruism
Actions that are intended to benefit others that are intrinsically motivated. Individuals tend to help others out of concern and sympathy rather than for personal gain and are rewarded with feelings of self-esteem & pride for acting in accordance with internalized values of selflessness and kindness.
68
Competitive altruism
Cooperative, pro-community behaviors which people engage in because it boosts their own status and reputation
Eg: Rich people building hospitals
69
Negative State-Relief Model
Predicts that under certain circumstances, a temporary negative state is likely to result in an increased willingness to help others. We help to reduce our own negative feelings.
70
Kin-selection theory
- Suggest that we exhibit preferences for helping blood relatives over helping those unrelated to us.
- We may be more inclined to help younger relatives who have years of life ahead of them than they are to help older ones.
- Does not explain why we help strangers.
71
Factors influencing prosocial behaviour
1. Personal characteristics - Empathy, belief in a just world, social responsibility, internal locus of control, low egocentrism
2. Emotion - More likely to help when in a good mood. Some negative emotions that are powerful motivators - guilt, shame, sadness
3. Situational factors - helping those we like, helping those not responsible for their problems, if they see someone else engaging in prosocial behavior
4. Social exclusion - those who are usually socially excluded are less likely to help others in need of their assistance
72
Bystander effect
The phenomenon in which the greater the number of people present, the less likely people are to help a person in distress.
73
Factors affecting social loafing
- Difficulty and knowledge about the task: Increased difficulty of the task had a negative impact on social loafing
- Emphasis on individual effort: Decrease if individuals believed their contribution was unique
- Group characteristics: Size, interaction, cohesiveness, task commitment
- Individual characteristics: Greater dislike for group work, greater loafing
74
Cognitive styles
Stable attitudes, preferences, and habitual strategies which determine an individual’s modes of perceiving, remembering, thinking and problem-solving
75
Wisdom of the crowds
Large groups of people are collectively smarter than individual experts when it comes to problem-solving, decision making, innovating and predicting; by taking into consideration a variety of perspectives from each member of the group
76
Which neurotransmitters play an important role in attraction?
- Adrenaline
- Dopamine (decision making, stimulating hypothalamus to release hormones & addiction)
- Oxytocin (encourages cuddling between lovers and increases pleasure during sex)
77
Evolution of friendships across ages
Preschool and elementary school-aged children: Revolve primarily around common activities, physical proximity, shared expectations and group acceptance
Adolescence: Friendships tend to become more intimate in nature; time of social challenges and changing expectations; friendships begin to focus more on on shared values, loyalty, and common interests, rather than proximity and access to play things
78
Theories of aggression
The Instinct Theory of Aggression: aggression is inherited for survival and territory
Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis: Frustration leads to aggression. For example, when a person perceives that something done to them was intentional they view aggression as a valid response.
Social Learning Theory: Individuals learn aggressive responses through past experiences; continue to display aggressive behaviour if they receive or expect a reward for such type of behaviour or are encouraged by social conditions to behave aggressively
79
Social trap
A situation in which a group of people act to obtain short-term individual gains, which in the long run leads to a loss for the group as a whole
Eg: Poaching animals
80
Stereotype threat
A situational predicament in which people are or feel themselves to be at risk of conforming to stereotypes about their social group.
Contributing factor to long-standing racial and gender gaps in academic performance.
81
Jonah complex
Fear of success or being one's best which prevents self-actualization, or the realization of one's own potential.
Fear of one's own greatness, the evasion of one's destiny, or the avoidance of exercising one's talents.
82
Propinquity
The greater physical (or psychological) proximity between people, the greater the chance that they will form friendships or romantic relationships.
Other things being equal, the more we see people and interact with them, the more probable we are to like them.
83
Self-reference effect
Tendency for people to encode information differently depending on whether they are implicated in the information.
When people are asked to remember information when it is related in some way to themselves, the recall rate can be improved.
84
Ingroup-outgroup phenomenon
Out-group derogation is the phenomenon in which an out-group is perceived as being threatening to the members of an in-group.
This phenomenon often accompanies in-group favoritism, as it requires one to have an affinity towards their in-group.
85
Self-verification
People want to be known and understood by others according to their firmly held beliefs and feelings about themselves, that is self-views.
It is one of the motives that drive self-evaluation, along with self-enhancement and self-assessment.
86
Self-efficacy
A personal judgment of how well or poorly a person is able to cope with a given situation based on the skills they have and the circumstances they face.
87
Additive task
A task where the inputs of each group member are added together to create the group performance, and the expected performance of the group is the sum of group members’ individual inputs
88
Bait-and-switch technique
A persuasion attempt in which the target is offered one product at a very low price and yet the product at the low price is not actually available
89
Base rates
The likelihood that events occur across a large population
90
Compensatory (or averaging) task
A task where the group input is combined such that the performance of the individuals is averaged rather than added
91
Contributions dilemma
When the short-term costs of a behavior lead individuals to avoid performing it, and this may prevent the long-term benefits that would have occurred if the behaviors had been performed
92
Disjunctive task
When the group’s performance is determined by the best group member
93
Entitativity
The perception, either by the group members themselves or by others, that the people together are a group
94
Group-serving bias is also known as _____.
Ultimate attribution error
95
Semantic scale
A survey or questionnaire rating scale that asks people to rate a product, company, brand, or any 'entity' within the frames of a multi-point rating option.
96
Osgood scale
A type of semantic rating scale measuring the connotative meaning of concepts like terms, objects, events, activities, ideas, etc.
97
Illusion of group effectivity
The tendency to overvalue the level of productivity of our ingroups
98
Jigsaw classroom
An approach to learning in which students from different racial or ethnic groups work together, in an interdependent way, to master material
99
Looking-glass self
When part of how we see ourselves comes from our perception of how others see us
100
Mindguard
Someone whose job it is to help quash dissent and to increase conformity to the leader’s opinions
101
Postdecisional dissonance
The feeling of regret that may occur after we make an important decision
102
Priming
A technique in which information is temporarily brought into memory through exposure to situational events, which can then influence judgments entirely out of awareness
Eg: if a child sees a bag of candy next to a red bench, they might begin thinking about candy the next time they see a bench.
103
Prisoner’s dilemma game
A laboratory simulation that models a social dilemma in which the goals of the individual compete with the goals of another individual
104
Proscriptive norms
Rules which tell the group members what not to do
105
Public self-consciousness
The tendency to focus on our outer public image and to be particularly aware of the extent to which we are meeting the standards set by others
106
Referent power
Influence based on identification with, attraction to, or respect for the power-holder
107
Self-discrepancy theory
The tendency to experience distress when we perceive a discrepancy between our actual and ideal selves
108
Self-evaluation maintenance theory
When our self-esteem can be threatened when someone else outperforms us, particularly if that person is close to us and the performance domain is central to our self-concept
109
Shared information bias
When group members tend to discuss information that they all have access to while ignoring equally important information that is available to only a few of the members
110
Sleeper effect
Attitude change that occurs over time when the content of a message is remembered but the source of the message is forgotten
111
Social inhibition
The tendency to perform tasks more poorly or slower in the presence of others
112
Sunk costs bias
When we choose to stay in situations largely because we feel we have put too much effort in to be able to leave them behind
