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pyb100 > week 6: social psychology > Flashcards

week 6: social psychology Flashcards

(55 cards)

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1
Q

what is social psychology?

A

the scientific study of how individuals think, feel and behave in a social context

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2
Q

levels of social behaviour

A

attitudes: attitudes and behaviours, persuasion, cognitive dissonance
social cognition: attribution, prejudice
social influence: conformity, obedience

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3
Q

what is an attitude?

A

a positive/negative/mixed reaction to a person, object or idea expressed at some level of intensity

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4
Q

why are researchers interested in attitudes?

A

attitudes can predict behaviour

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5
Q

what influences behaviour?

A
  • attitude toward the behaviour (what i think of performing the behaviour)
  • subjective norms (what important other think of the behaviour)
  • perceived behavioural control (how easy it is to perform the behaviour)
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6
Q

what is persuasion?

A

the process by which a person’s attitudes or behaviour are influenced by communications from other people

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7
Q

what are the 2 routes to persuasion?

A

central route

peripheral route

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8
Q

what do persuasion routes depend on?

A
  • how much people think about a persuasive message

- based on motivation and ability

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9
Q

what are the central route persuasion elements?

A
  • person thinks carefully about message
  • influenced by the strength/quality of message
  • stronger attitudes
  • long-lasting impact on behaviour
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10
Q

what are the peripheral route persuasion elements?

A
  • person does not think critically about the contents of a message
  • influenced by superficial cues
  • weaker attitudes
  • temporary impact on behaviour
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11
Q

what is the elaboration likelihood model?

A

a theory about the thinking processes that might occur when we attempt to change a person’s attitude through communication

  • (how likely we are to think hard/critically about a decision or change)
    1. central processing
    2. peripheral processing
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12
Q

central route persuasion example

A

a TV ad that presents laboratory findings to demonstrate the effectiveness of an acne treatment

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13
Q

peripheral route persuasion example

A
  • having a popular athlete advertise athletic shoes or

- watching a political debate on TV and the best-dressed candidate seems the most convincing to you

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14
Q

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

A

mental conflict that occurs when a person’s behaviours and beliefs do not align

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15
Q

what is an individuals options for cognitive dissonance?

A
  • change their behaviour eg. stop smoking because its bad for them
  • justify behaviour by changing one of the dissonant cognitions eg. smoking being bad for health so only smokes socially
  • justify behaviour by adding new cognitions eg. its ok that i smoke because i go running
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16
Q

Cognitive Dissonance Theory experiment

A
  • The experiment was seeing how much participants enjoyed the boring task.
  • participants were offered $1 or $20 to lie to the next participant by saying the boring task was enjoyable.
  • Participants who were given $1 rated the tasks enjoyment the highest out of the participants who were given $20 and the participants who were given nothing and weren’t told to lie.
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17
Q

what were the IV and DV of the Cognitive Dissonance Theory experiment?

A

IV: amount of money, whether participant is to lie or not
DV: how much participants enjoyed the boring task

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18
Q

why did the participants who were given $1 ranked the task enjoyable in the experiment?

A

Because the reward ($1) was too little to justify lying to other participants so they $1 participants convinced themselves mentally that they enjoyed the task to avoid cognitive dissonance. This didn’t happen with the $20 group as the reward was large enough to justify the lying.

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19
Q

what can influence attitudes?

A
  • Persuasive communication (influence)

- Desire for consistency (avoiding cognitive dissonance)

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20
Q

what is social cognition?

A

the way people process, remember, and use information in social contexts to explain and predict their own behaviour and that of others

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21
Q

concepts associated with social cognition?

A

attribution

prejudice

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22
Q

what are schemas

A

mental structures that organise our knowledge about the social world

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23
Q

what are attributions?

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A

the process of explaining the causes of events or behaviours

24
Q

types of attribution

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A

personal attribution

situational attribution

25
what is a personal attribution?
an internal characteristic of the person caused the behaviour (mood, personality, effort)
26
what is situational attribution?
an external factor caused the behaviour (the task, other people, luck)
27
what is fundamental attribution error?
Tendency to overlook situational factors and instead make internal attributions for others’ behaviour eg. someone arriving late to a meeting internal attributions: they're lazy situational factors: traffic
28
attribution process/identifying in regards to time and effort
identifying the behaviour and making personal attributions is fast and automatic adjusting the attribution to account for situational factors requires thought and effort
29
what is prejudice?
negative feelings about others because of their connection to a social group
30
what is social categorisation?
mental classification of people into groups on the basis of common attributes
31
why is social categorisation beneficial?
form impressions quickly | use past experiences to guide new interactions
32
what can social categorisation lead to?
overestimation of differences between groups | underestimation of differences within groups
33
what are stereotypes?
beliefs that associate a whole group of people with certain traits
34
what is discrimination?
negative behaviours directed against persons because of their membership in a particular group
35
effects of stereotypes on perceptions
- Stereotypes can affect perceptions of ambiguous behaviours | - Behaviours seen as more threatening when performed by someone who was black vs. white
36
effects of stereotypes on perceptions example
children were shown an 2 identical images of a child on the ground and a child standing up, one was black one was white and their position switched per photo. Children perceived that the white child on the floor was pushed over by the black child. when the black child was on the floor the white child was coming over to help him.
37
what is the Social Identity Theory
People strive to enhance their self-esteem partly through their social identities - people favour ingroup members even if they're a stranger
38
what are the groups associated with social identity
ingroup: group we belong to outgroup: group we don't belong to
39
what is Realistic Conflict Theory
Hostility between groups is caused by direct competition for limited resources eg. economic resources, political power, food, housing
40
what is relative deprivation?
the perception that you are worse off than other people you compare yourself to
41
what is the robber cave study
children at camp were randomly assigned into 2 groups. The groups then engaged in activities that built group cohesiveness. the 2 groups only mingled during competitive circumstances (tug of war, football). This created hostility and conflict between the 2 groups
42
what is Contact Hypothesis
contact between two groups can promote tolerance and acceptance under certain conditions (equality)
43
what are the ideal conditions in Contact Hypothesis
-Equality -Personal interaction (one-on-one interactions) - Cooperative activities (come together to achieve a goal) - Social norms promoting intergroup contact (eg. supported by authorities)
44
what is the Intergroup Contact meta-analyses
comparison of 500 separate studies found face-to-face contact between group members significantly reduced prejudice
45
how does Intergroup Contact work
- enhances knowledge about the group - reduces anxiety about intergroup contact - increases empathy and perspective taking
46
what is social influence
a person's attitudes, opinions, beliefs, or behaviour are altered or controlled by some form of social communication
47
what is conformity
the tendency to change our perceptions, opinions or behaviour in ways that are consistent with group norms
48
different forms of pressure
conformity compliance obedience
49
what is compliance
changes in behaviour that are elicited by direct requests
50
what is obedience
behaviour change produced by the commands of authority
51
what is the Classic Conformity Study
participants were told to compare line lengths. first answer was correct the rest were wrong and was to see if participants would conform. - participants conformed 37% of the time
52
what is the Classic Obedience Study
participants were assigned to play teacher. experimenter told the teacher to administer electric shocks to a learner for the wrong answer. Each wrong answer the volts increased. told keep going whenever the teacher showed reluctance. (learner was an actor and the volts were fake but participants did not know this, experiment could end whenever participant asked)
53
what did the Classic Obedience Study find
psychology students predicted 1.2% conformity | 65% of Milgram's participants went all the way to 450 volts
54
why was the level of obedience so high in the classic obedience study
strong situation - Authority figure - Experimenter more proximal the victim - Participant was on their own
55
Why was the predicted level of obedience so much lower than the actual level?
- People are much more obedient to destructive obedience than we thought. - People find receiving and obeying destructive orders stressful.

pyb100 (9 decks)

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