Chapter 11: Social Psychology
Heuristics
short cut, but beware; simple, thinking strategies; allow us to make judgements and solve problems efficiently (faster); less time consuming; error-prone
Foot-in-the-door technique
small requests (accepted) followed later by larger requests
Aggression
social behavior whose objective is to harm someone, either physically or verbally
Risky Shift
tendency for group decision to be riskier than average of individual decisions
Ethnocentrism
tendency to favor one's owns ethnic group
Implicit Association Test (IAT)
tests implicit (unconscious) associations (i.e. racism)
Social Cognition
the area of social psychology exploring how people select, interpret, remember, and use social information
Informational Social Influence
the influence other people have on us because we want to be right
Normative Social Influence
the influence others have on us because we want them to be like us
Social comparison
the process by which individuals evaluate their thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and abilities in relation to others
Deindividuation
the reduction of personal identity and the erosion of the sense of personal responsibility when one is part of a group
Social Psychology
the study of how people think about, influence, and relate to other people
Bystander effect
the tendency for an individual who observes an emergency to help less when other people are present than when the observer is alone
Attribution Theory
the view that people are motivated to discover the underlying causes of behavior as part of their effort to make sense of the behavior
Social Identity
the way individuals define themselves in terms of their group membership; assumes commonalities with others
Cognitive Dissonance
when our actions and attitudes are opposed, we experience tension; we don't like this, we want to reduce this; to relieve ourselves of this tension we bring our attitudes closer to our actions
Internal Attributions
within a person; dispositions; traits and abilities
Factors involved in persuasion:
1. Communicator (source): expertise and credibility, trustworthiness, attractiveness, likeability, similarity 2. Message: rational vs. emotional appeals 3. Medium: Live images vs. print sources 4. Target (audience): age and attitude strength
The schema of self is based on
1. We have more information about ourselves than about others. 2. We value ourselves
Empathy
A feeling of oneness with the emotional state of another person
Investment model
A model of long-term relationships that examines the ways that commitment, investment, and the availability of attractive alternate partners predict satisfaction and stability in relationships
Stereotype threat
An individual's fast-acting, self-fulfiling fear of being judged based on a negative stereotype about his or her group
Attitudes predict behavior when:
Attitudes are strong, we show an awareness of attitudes and practice them, and we have a vested interest
Traditional View
Attitudes determine behavior
Relational Aggression
Behavior that is meant to harm the social standing of another person
Our _____ _____ influence our interpretation of social situations.
Cognitive Biases
Zimbardo's Obedience Study
Experiment about cognitive dissonance; Behavior (I am humiliating a fellow human being) does not equal cognition (I and people in general are basically good); Change behavior: don't humiliate them or Change Cognition: These people are bad
Egoism
Giving to another person to ensure reciprocity; to gain self-esteem to present oneself as powerful, competent, or caring; or to avoid social and self-censure for failing to live up to society's expectations
Altruism
Giving to another person with the ultimate goal of benefiting that person, even if it incurs a cost to oneself
Group Polarization
Group discussion leads individuals to strengthen their original position; may result from persuasion or social comparison
Self-Perception Theory
Inferences about attitudes by perceiving one's own behavior
Peripheral Route
Involves non-message factors (e.g. emotional appeal); very effective when people don't have the time to think about the message
Affectionate love or companionate love
Love that occurs when an individual has a deep, caring affection for another person and desires to have that person near
Romantic Love or passionate love
Love with stong components of sexuality and infatuation, often predominant in the early part of a love relationship
Social loafing is minimized by
Making an individual's contribution identifiable/unique, Simplifying evaluation, and making group task more attractive
Attitudes
Opinions and beliefs about people, objects, and ideas
Cognitive Schemas
People have an innate tendency to organize information obtained from personal experience into categories (schemas)
Elaboration Likelihood Model
Persuasion method; has 2 routes: central route and peripheral route
Overt aggression
Physical or verbal behavior that directly harms another person
Self-fulfilling Phrophecy
Social expectations that cause an individual to act in such a way that the expectations are realized
Social Identity theory
Tajfel; its is a big part of our self-image; its an important source of positive (good) feelings about ourselves
Social Loafing
Tendency to exert less effort in group due to less accountability for individual effort
Mere exposure effect
The phenomenon that the more individuals encounter someone or something, the more probable it is that they will start liking the person or thing even if they do not realize they have seen it before
Social Exchange theory
The view of social relationships as involving an exchange of goods, the objective of which is to minimize the costs and maximize the benefits
Persuasion
Trying to change someone's attitude
Obedience
a change in behavior in response to the commands of authority
Common Attribution Error
a common error when an observer explains other's behavior- a bias (overestimate) in favor of internal attributions
Self serving bais
a common error when explaining one's own behavior; more likely to use internal attributions personal factors) to explain success) and more likely to use external attributions (situational factor) to explain failure
Explicit racism
a person's conscious and openly shared attitude which might be measured using a questionare
Stereotype
a type of social schema based primarily on membership of a particular group
Situational attribution
aka external attribution; ex: reaction to stress or abuse
Dispositional attribution
aka internal attribution; ex: aggressive personality
Prejudice
an unjustified negative attitude toward an individual based on the individual's membership in a particular group
Discrimination
an unjustified negative or harmful action toward a member of a group simply because the person belongs to that group
Automatic Association
association due to prior life experiences
Implicit racism
attitudes that exist deeper, hidden level; measured with IAT
Groupthink can be prevented in groups if
avoid isolation, allow all sides of argument to be aired, have impartial leader, and include outside experts
Behavior --> Attitude
because our behaviors sometimes are caused by other factors, attitude may then change to match our behavior.
Compliance
behavior that responds to direct social pressure (group standard)
Conformity
change in behavior or attributes brought about by a desire to follow the beliefs or standards of other people (subtle pressure from others)
Groupthink
conformity over accuracy
Dispositions
enduring personality traits
Central Route
engaging someone with sound, logical arguement
Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) Study
experiment about cognitive dissonance; subject had to perform extremely boring tasks and then were asked to tell the next subjects that it was enjoyable
Sanford Prison Experiment
experiment that concluded that situational factors powerfully affect human behavior; deindividuation; obedience
Solomon Asch Experiment
experiment that studied conformity
Positive Illusions
favorable view of one self that are not necessarily rooted in reality
Social Contagion
imitative behavior involving the spread of behavior, emotions, and ideas
Social Facilitation
improvement in individual performance due to presence of others
Door-in-the-face technique
large requests (declines) followed immediately by small request (sense of reciprocity & obligation)
Fundamental Attribution error
made by observer explaining actor's behavior
External Justification
minimizes cognitive dissonance; ex: "I smoke because I have a disease"
Discrimination occurs when:
negative emotional reactions combine with prejudicial beliefs and are translated into behavior
Algorithm
no errors, guaranteed; time consuming; exhaist all possibilities beofre arriving at a solutionl computers use this
False Consensus Effect
observer's overestimation of the degree to which everybody else thinks or acts the way you do
External attributions
outside the person; situational demands
Person perception
people use schemas to quickly and easily explain others; the process by which an individual uses social stimuli to form impressions of others
Inoculation
resistance to persuasion accomplished by giving weak version on persuasive message and allowing time to think about it.
Milgram's Experiment
series of experiments testing obedience; the electric chair