Chapter 13: Social Psychology Notes

What is a group?

A collection of people who have something in common that distinguishes them from others.

Because information about situations is relatively hard to get and hard to use, people are prone to believe others' actions are caused by their _____.

Disposition

Social behavior has two basic goals. What are they?

Survival and reproduction.

What makes cooperation risky?

The prisoner's dilemma game illustrates the benefits and costs of cooperation. Players A and B receive benefits whose size depends on whether they independently decide to cooperate. Mutual cooperation leads to a relatively moderate benefit to both players, but if only one player cooperates, then the cooperator gets no benefit and the noncooperator gets a large benefit. (either you both confess or dont confess)

Heuristic persuasion

The process by which attitudes or beliefs are changed by appeals to habit or emotion.

Systematic persuasion

The process by which attitudes or beliefs are changed by appeals to reason.

What is kin selection?

The process by which evolution selects for individuals who cooperate with their relatives.

Stereotyping

The process by which people draw inferences about others based on their knowledge of the categories to which others belong. stereotyping is a helpful process that can often produce harmful results, and it does so because stereotypes tend to have four properties: They are inaccurate, overused, self-perpetuating, and automatic.

Social Cognition

The processes by which people come to understand others.

Stereotype threat

The fear of confirming the negative beliefs that others may hold.

What is social exchange?

The hypothesis that people remain in relationships only as long as they perceive a favorable ratio of costs to benefits. People weigh the costs and benefits of their relationships and tend to dissolve them when they think they can or should do better, when they and their partners have very different cost-benefit ratios, or when they have little invested in the relationship.

What is social psychology?

The study of the causes and consequences of sociality.

What is the common knowledge effect?

The tendency for group discussions to focus on information that all members share.

What is group polarization?

The tendency for groups to make decisions that are more extreme than any member would have made alone.

What is groupthink?

The tendency for groups to reach consensus in order to facilitate interpersonal harmony. A group may over-emphasize unity when members suppress their own doubts and open dissent is stifled by other group members. • This can lead to lower-quality decisions made by the group

Why does proximity influence attraction?

The tendency for liking to increase with the frequency of exposure. Because you see those people on a day to day basis, so you're more apt to look at their positive qualities than negative qualities, so you're more apt to be attracted.

Self-fulfilling prophecy

The tendency for people to behave as they are expected to behave.

Perceptual confirmation

The tendency for people to see what they expect to see. ex: In one study, participants listened to a radio broadcast of a college basketball game and were asked to evaluate the performance of one of the players. Although all participants heard the same prerecorded game, some were led to believe that the player was African American and others were led to believe that the player was White. Participants' stereotypes led them to expect different performances from athletes of different ethnic origins—and the participants perceived just what they expected. Those who believed the player was African American thought he had demonstrated greater athletic ability but less intelligence than did those who thought he was White

Subtyping

The tendency for people who receive disconfirming evidence to modify their stereotypes rather than abandon them.

What is conformity?

The tendency to do what others do simply because others are doing it.

What is obedience?

The tendency to do what powerful people tell us to do.

Correspondence Bias

The tendency to make a dispositional attribution even when we should instead make a situational attribution. ex: This bias is so common and so basic that it is often called the fundamental attribution error. For example, volunteers in one experiment played a trivia game in which one participant acted as the quizmaster and made up a list of unusual questions, another participant acted as the contestant and tried to answer those questions, and a third participant acted as the observer and simply watched the game. The quizmasters tended to ask tricky questions based on their own idiosyncratic knowledge, and contestants were generally unable to answer them. After watching the game, the observers were asked to decide how knowledgeable the quiz-master and the contestant were. Although the quizmasters had asked good questions and the contestants had given bad answers, it should have been clear to the observers that all this asking and answering was a product of the roles they had been assigned to play and that the contestant would have asked equally good questions and the quiz-master would have given equally bad answers had their roles been reversed. And yet observers tended to rate the quizmaster as more knowledgeable than the contestant

Frustration-aggression hypothesis?

animals aggress when their desires are frustrated. They argue that the cause of aggressive behavior is negative affect (more commonly known as feeling bad) and that a frustrated desire is just one of many things that might induce negative affect. ex: committing more crimes when it is hot af outside

Actor-observer effect

the tendency to make situational attributions for our own behaviors while making dispositional attributions for the identical behavior of others The actor tends to give external, situational explanations of own behavior: "Im late with my report because other people keep asking me ot help them with their projects" The observer tends to give internal, trait explanations of actor's behavior: "She's late with her report because she cant concentrate on her own responsibilities" • Actors often explain their own behavior in terms of external causes

The correspondence bias occurs when people make: inferences about the causes of people's behavior based on their relatively enduring tendencies to think, feel, or act in a particular way. inferences about the causes of people's behavior based on the situation in which it occurred. situational attributions for one's own behavior while making dispositional attributions for the identical behavior of others. a dispositional attribution for someone's behavior even when the other person's behavior was caused by a situation.

A dispositional attribution for someone's behavior even when the other person's behavior was caused by a situation.

Persuasion

A phenomenon that occurs when a person-s attitudes or beliefs are influenced by a communication from another person.

What is normative influence?

A phenomenon that occurs when another person's behavior provides information about what is appropriate.

What is the foot in the door technique?

A technique that involves making a small request and following it with a larger request.

What is ultrasocial and what four animals fit in this category?

Animals that form societies in which large numbers of individuals divide labor and cooperate for mutual benefit. Those four species are the hymenoptera (i.e., ants, bees, and wasps), the termites, the naked mole rats, and us

What is the difference between an attitude and a belief?

An attitude is an enduring positive or negative evaluation of an object or event (has three components: emotional, cognitive, or behavioral) while a belief is an enduring piece of knowledge about an object or event.

Attribution

An inference about the cause of a person's behavior.

What is the door-in-the-face technique?

An influence strategy that involves getting someone to deny an initial request. For example, when researchers asked college students to volunteer to supervise adolescents who were going on a field trip, only 17% of the students agreed. But when the researchers first asked students to commit to spending 2 hours per week for 2 years working at a youth detention center (to which every one of the students said no) and then asked them to supervise a field trip, 50% of the students agreed (Cialdini et al., 1975). Why? The norm of reciprocity! The researchers began by asking for a large favor, which the student refused. Then the researchers made a concession by asking for a smaller favor. Because the researchers made a concession, the norm of reciprocity demanded that the student make one too—and half of them did!

Cognitive Dissonance

An unpleasant state that arises when a person recognizes the inconsistency of his or her actions, attitudes, or beliefs. Behavior that conflicts with attitudes can arouse cognitive dissonance. • Dissonance creates tension, which people are motivated to reduce. • Dissonance can be decreased by changing the attitude that conflicts with behavior. • Group paid $1 to lie about the boring task said they liked it more.

Why is physical appearance so important?

Beauty is measured with body shape, age, and symmetry.

What is cooperation?

Behavior by two or more individuals that leads to mutual benefit.

What is reciprocal altruism?

Behavior that benefits another with the expectation that those benefits will be returned in the future.

What is altruism?

Behavior that benefits another without benefiting oneself.

What is aggression?

Behavior with the purpose of harming another. Can be a motive for survival.

Why are women choosier than men?

Biology (risks of pregnancy, the amount of eggs women are born with, etc) and culture and experience.

What are some causes and consequences of groupthink?

Causes: homogeneous members, a directive leader, group isolation, and group cohesiveness. Consequences: defective decision making and increase of failure

Lara has been telling her new date how much she loves watching football, and then her date mentions that he has season tickets for the local team. Lara will MOST likely experience _____ if she lied to impress her date and does not really like football at all. inconsistency bias cognitive dissonance confirmation bias foot-in-mouth syndrome

Cognitive dissonance.

Why do groups sometimes behave badly?

Deindividuation, which is a phenomenon that occurs when immersion in a group causes people to become less aware of their individual values. Diffusion of Responsibility: The tendency for individuals to feel diminished responsibility for their actions when they are surrounded by others who are acting the same way. There are several aspects of the Diffusion of Responsibility principle. -Social Loafing: The tendency for people to expend less effort when in a group than when alone. -bystander intervention—which is the act of helping strangers in an emergency situation— reveal that people are less likely to help an innocent person in distress when there are many other bystanders present, simply because they assume that one of the other bystanders is more responsible than they are.

What evidence suggests that culture can influence aggression?

For example, violent crime in the United States is more prevalent in the South, where men are taught to react aggressively when they feel their status has been challenged. Culture has a strong influence on violence. In Iraq, where murder is a part of everyday life, young boys stage a mock execution. In India, a teenager who is a member of the Jain religion wears a mask at all times so that she will not harm insects or microbes by inhaling them.

Fundamental attribution error?

Fundamental Attribution Error (correspondence bias in the text) • Overestimating the importance of internal traits and underestimating the importance of external causes of an actor's behavior

Self-Serving Attribution Bias?

If I did well - then I'll make an internal attribution • If I did poorly - then I'll make an external attribution

What is a famous conformity experiment?

In a classic study, psychologist Solomon Asch had participants sit in a room with seven other people who appeared to be ordinary participants, but who were actually trained actors (Asch, 1951, 1956). An experimenter explained that the participants would be shown cards with three printed lines and that his or her job was simply to say which of the three lines matched a "standard line" that was printed on another card (see FIGURE 13.10). The experimenter held up a card and then asked each person to answer in turn. The real participant was among the last to be called on. Everything went well on the first two trials, but then on the third trial something really strange happened: the actors all began giving the same wrong answer! What did the real participants do? Seventy-five percent of them conformed and announced the wrong answer on at least one trial. Subsequent research has shown that these participants didn't actually misperceive the length of the lines, but were instead succumbing to normative influence *size of a group has nothing to do with conformity, only to an extent*

How do informational and normative influences differ?

Informational influence is a phenomenon that occurs when another person's behavior provides information about what is true. ex: most people buy the iPad for more memory. Normative influence is a phenomenon that occurs when another person's behavior provides information about what is true. Normative conformity involves changing one's behavior in order to fit in with the group. Informational conformity happens when a person lacks knowledge and looks to the group for information and direction.

Does the presence of others hinder or improve performance.

It depends. Social Facilitation: The tendency for the presence of others to enhance performance on simple tasks and impair performance on complex tasks.

What are the two different types of love?

Passionate love: An experience involving feelings of euphoria, intimacy, and intense sexual attraction. Companionate love; An experience involving feelings of euphoria, intimacy, and intense sexual attraction.

What is the difference between prejudice and discrimination?

Prejudice is a positive or negative evaluation of another person based on their group membership while discrimination is the capacity to distinguish between similar but distinct stimuli.

Ways to eliminate groupthink?

Set Norms that encourage critical thinking, participation and healthy conflict Test Your Group's Assumptions Include Outside Information—bring in experts outside the group-discuss your group activities with individuals outside the group. Assign A Devil's Advocate or Have All Members Challenge The Group's Ideas Divide the Team When Discussing Issues—Come Back and Discuss Those Issues as a Team. This helps create diversity of opinion. Review Your Decisions—Have "Second Chance" meetings to review decision making and discuss concerns. Discuss Group Process—At every stage review How the group is discussing the issues.

People tend to make dispositional attributions for other people's actions even when they are caused by: the person's nature. other people's behaviors. the information they were given. situational factors.

Situational factors

Famous obedience experiment?

Stanley Milgram: In Milgram's studies of obedience, 65% of participants fully obeyed the experimenter and delivered 450 volts of electric shock. • Three factors influence obedience. • The authority • The situation • Presence of another dissenter

Difference from systematic and heuristic persuasion? Example of each?

Systematic persuasion appeals to logic and reason, and assumes that people will be more persuaded when evidence and arguments are strong rather than weak. Heuristic persuasion appeals to habit and emotion, and assumes that rather than weighing evidence and analyzing arguments, people will often use heuristics (simple shortcuts or "rules of thumb") to help them decide whether to believe a communication. In one study, students heard a speech that contained either strong or weak arguments in favor of instituting comprehensive exams at their school (Petty, Cacioppo, & Goldman, 1981). Some students were told that the speaker was a Princeton University professor, and others were told that the speaker was a high school student—a bit of information that could be used as a shortcut to decide whether to believe the speech. Some students were told that their university was considering implementing these exams right away, whereas others were told that their university was considering implementing these exams in 10 years—a bit of information that made students feel motivated or unmotivated to analyze the evidence. As FIGURE 13.13 shows, when students were motivated to analyze the evidence, they were systematically persuaded—that is, their attitudes and beliefs were influenced by the strength of the arguments but not by the status of the speaker. But when students were not motivated to analyze the evidence, they were heuristically persuaded—that is, their attitudes and beliefs were influenced by the status of the speaker but not by the strength of the arguments.

How does testosterone affect aggression?

Testosterone doesn't directly cause aggression, but rather, seems to make people feel powerful and confident in their ability to prevail. Testosterone also makes people more sensitive to provocation and less sensitive to signs of retaliation. ex: Failing to recognize that the person you are criticizing is getting angry is a good way to end up in a fight.

What is social influence?

The ability to control another person's behavior. Three factors: First, people are motivated to experience pleasure and to avoid experiencing pain (the hedonic motive). Second, people are motivated to be accepted and to avoid being rejected (the approval motive). Third, people are motivated to believe what is right and to avoid believing what is wrong (the accuracy motive).

What is the norm of reciprocity?

The unwritten rule that people should benefit those who have benefited them.

Why do people form long-term romantic relationships?

To care for their children and for love.

What causes correspondence bias?

What causes the correspondence bias? First, the situational causes of behavior are often invisible (Ichheiser, 1949). For example, professors tend to assume that fawning students really do admire them in spite of the strong incentive for students to kiss up to those who control their grades. The problem is that professors can literally see students laughing at witless jokes and applauding after boring lectures, but they cannot see "control over grades." Situations are not as tangible or visible as behaviors, so it is all too easy to ignore them (Taylor & Fiske, 1978). Second, situational attributions tend to be more complex than dispositional attributions and require more time and attention. When participants in one study were asked to make attributions while performing a mentally taxing task (namely, keeping a seven-digit number in mind), they had no difficulty making dispositional attributions, but they found it quite difficult to make situational attributions (Gilbert, Pelham, & Krull, 1988; Winter & Uleman, 1984). In short, information about situations is hard to get and hard to use, so we tend to believe that other peoples' actions are caused by their dispositions even when there is a perfectly reasonable situational explanation.

What are the costs of groups?

When groups try to make decisions, they rarely do better than the best member would have done alone—and they quite often do worse. One reason is that groups don't fully capitalize on the expertise of their members. Groups are also susceptible to the common knowledge effect, groupthink, and group polarization.