social psyc exam #2 study guide

We become more concerned with strategic self-presentation when...

(1) observers can influence whether or not we obtain our goals, (2) these goals are important to us, and (3) we think observers have impressions different from the ones we want to project.

competence motivation

He also wanted to be seen as one of the best. Demara was high in ____________ = the desire to perform effectively

Individuals may yield to a persuasive message to...

1. hold a more accurate view of the world, 2. be consistent within themselves, or 3. gain social approval and acceptance.

Charming.

Books of etiquette have long taught young women about the value and effectiveness of presenting themselves as likable. Although the times have changed in many ways, and etiquette manuals and "charm schools" are no longer in vogue, even women today focus more on being liked than do men.

self-talk

According to this model, the direct cause of attitude change is ______________ = the internal thoughts people have after being exposed to the message.

Chosen by God?

Reverend Sun Myung Moon, pictured here, would often assign his followers to marry other members of the Unification Church whom they had not previously met and would marry thousands of such couples in mass wedding ceremonies in sports arenas.

counterattitudinal action

A behavior that is inconsistent with an existing attitude. A _______________—behavior that is inconsistent with an existing attitude—will produce change in that attitude only when there is insufficient justification (i.e., no strong additional motivation for taking the action).

elaboration likelihood model

A model of persuasive communication that holds that there are two routes to attitude change—the central route and the peripheral route. The first and still most prevalent dual process model is the _____________ of Richard Petty and John Cacioppo (1986), which proposes two routes that people can take to be persuaded—the central route and the peripheral route to persuasion.

dual process models of persuasion

A model that accounts for the two basic ways that attitude change occurs—with and without much thought. This recognition led to the development of ________________, which incorporate two basic kinds of attitude change processes—those that involve a focus on the arguments in a message and those that involve a focus on other factors such as the attractiveness of the communicator

descriptive norms

A norm that defines what behaviors people typically perform in a given situation. define what is typically done

injunctive norms

A norm that describes what is commonly approved or disapproved in a situation. define what is typically approved and disapproved

From Dissonance Induction to Dissonance Reduction

A number of factors initiate, amplify, motivate, and reduce cognitive dissonance

participant observation

A research approach in which the researcher infiltrates the setting to be studied and observes its workings from within. Cialdini engaged in a distinct type of systematic natural observation: _____________.

Multiple audience dilemma

A situation in which a person needs to present different images to different audiences, often at the same time.

inoculation procedure

A technique for increasing individuals' resistance to a strong argument by first giving them weak, easily defeated versions of it. William McGuire (1964) named this the ____________—because of its similarity to disease inoculation procedures in which a weakened form of a virus is injected into healthy individuals.

foot-in-the-door technique

A technique that increases compliance with a large request by first getting compliance with a smaller, related request. This approach—starting with a small request and advancing to larger requests—is the basis of a commonly used compliance technique called the _____________.

The Theory of Planned Behavior

A theory stating that the best predictor of a behavior is one's behavioral intention, which is influenced by one's attitude toward the specific behavior, the subjective norms regarding the behavior, and one's perceived control over the behavior. According to this theory, attitudes aren't the best predictors of behavior; behavioral intentions are. However, these intentions are influenced by attitudes as well as by subjective norms and perceived behavioral control.

cognitive response model

A theory that locates the most direct cause of persuasion in the self-talk of the persuasion target. Anthony Greenwald's (1968) ____________ of persuasion offered a subtle but critical shift in thinking about attitude change

Mean machine.

Milgram's subjects delivered shocks by operating the levers of this intimidating piece of equipment.

self-handicapping

By __________—by creating circumstances for ourselves that actually obstruct our ability to demonstrate true competence—we may reduce the likelihood that people will attribute our failures to incompetence and increase the likelihood that people will attribute our successes to some outstanding ability. The behavior of withdrawing effort or creating obstacles to one's future successes.

How ads can overcome defensiveness.

Advertising appeals like this one can be effective when they alert recipients to a danger and then provide clear steps for reducing the danger.

Ambitious women want to know.

Although Hillary Clinton won a majority of votes in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, many people considered her unlikable throughout the campaign. What kinds of self-presentational difficulties have her achievements posed for her? Why is it so hard for her to maintain a favorable public image?

counterarguments

An argument that challenges and opposes other arguments. you should also think about how to avoid negative thoughts—especially ________________, which weaken the impact of a persuasive message

Social validation

An interpersonal way to locate and validate the correct choice. People are more willing to take a recommended step if they see evidence that many others, especially similar others, are taking it. Manufacturers make use of this principle by claiming that their products are the fastest growing or largest selling in the market. Cialdini found that the strategy of providing evidence of others who had already complied was the most widely used of the six principles he encountered.

"I am the greatest!"

And he was. But Muhammad Ali's bold self-proclamations did little to endear him to many White Americans, among whom even truthful verbal immodesty is disliked.

Chapter 5

Attitudes and Persuasion

Slipping by.

Because the message points of TV ads stream past us rapidly, it is difficult to assess their quality using central processing.

Conformity

Behavior change designed to match the actions of others. ___________ involves changing one's behavior to match the responses or actions of others, to fit in with those around us.

Compliance

Behavior change that occurs as a result of a direct request. ________ refers to the act of changing one's behavior in response to a direct request.

Together forever.

Being surrounded by like-minded people can have a powerful effect on interpretations of reality. Members of the Heaven's Gate cult were required to disassociate from all family and friends and to consult only with other group members before making any decision. The group's unanimity led members to accept their leader's belief that a spaceship was coming to "take them to the next level." The group was so united, and thereby confident, in this belief that in March 1997, 39 members committed joint suicide to allow their spirits to board that ship.

persuasion

Change in a private attitude or belief as a result of receiving a message. Although social scientists have defined _________ in a variety of ways, we view it as change in a private attitude or belief resulting from the receipt of a message.

Becoming Barbie, then Bardot.

Cindy Jackson never liked the way she looked. So through cosmetic surgery and procedures—around 60 in all—she began to transform herself into her physical ideal, Barbie, and then Brigitte Bardot, a cultural icon of the 1960s and 1970s. Is Jackson's quest to make herself physically attractive extreme? By everyday standards, yes. From a pragmatic perspective, is it entirely misguided? Perhaps not. Research demonstrates that, whether we like it or not, it often pays to be physically attractive.

Why Strong Attitudes Resist Change

Commitment—one quality of strong attitudes—shields attitudes against contradictory information, whereas embeddedness—a second quality of strong attitudes—anchors them to a variety of other change-resistant features of the self.

Obedience

Compliance that occurs in response to a directive from an authority figure. ___________ is a special type of compliance that involves changing one's behavior in response to a directive from an authority figure.

Gender and social harmony.

Consistent with different gender roles, women, compared with men, are more inclined to do things to increase agreement in social interactions.

Coughing up the truth.

Counterarguments like this one can be very effective against the persuasive appeals of tobacco companies.

self-promotion

Demara's tactics for_____________—behaviors intended to create the image of competence—were, at times, outrageously bold, they usefully highlight the principles underlying the everyday strategies people employ. An attempt to get others to see us as competent.

Elaboration Likelihood Model: Dual Routes to Successful Persuasion

Depending on whether they have the motivation and ability to think hard about a message, people will process it either centrally or peripherally. Although both processing approaches can lead to persuasion, central processing produces more enduring change.

Obedience in the Milgram Study

Despite predictions to the contrary from psychiatrists at Yale Medical School, the majority (65%) of subjects obeyed a researcher's commands to deliver every available shock through 450 volts, to an innocent fellow subject.

The theater of everyday life.

Erving Goffman likened social interaction to theater. Social interactions go more smoothly when people present themselves in ways that make their roles and parts clear to others, when they follow conventional social scripts, and when they accept and respect the performances of others.

self-monitoring

For instance, people identified as high in _____________ are almost always motivated to manage how others view them The tendency to be chronically concerned with one's public image and to adjust one's actions to fit the needs of the current situation.

balance theory

Heider's theory that people prefer harmony and consistency in their views of the world. According to Fritz Heider (1946, 1958), who proposed ______________, we all prefer to have harmony and consistency in our views of the world.

Asch's Line-Judging Task

In Asch's conformity studies, subjects were shown a standard line like that on the left and three comparison lines like those on the right. Their task was to choose the comparison line that matched the length of the standard line. It was an easy task—until the other group members began choosing incorrectly.

Opinion Conformity as an Ingratiation Strategy

In one experiment, women about to interact with a desirable man adjusted their opinions to match his more closely; they showed no such opinion conformity, however, when about to interact with an undesirable man.

Selling the Self in Two Cultures

In the United States, where an individualized sense of self predominates, raters had more favorable reactions to ads appealing to individual benefits. But in Korea, where a collective sense of self predominates, the group-oriented ads were better received.

dominance displays

Indeed, threats to status often result in ________________ remarkably similar to those exhibited by other animals.

Rare value.

Marketers have found that simply associating an item with an attractive or popular person increases its perceived value.

nonreactive measurement

Measurement that does not change a subject's responses while recording them. covert techniques are preferred because they are a more ______________ than are self-reports; that is, using them to record a response is less likely to distort the response.

The catastrophic consequences of captainitis.

Minutes before this airliner crashed into the Potomac River near National Airport in Washington, D.C., an alarming exchange occurred between pilot and copilot concerning the wisdom of taking off with ice on the wings. Their conversation was recorded on the plane's "black box."

other-directed self-presentation

Some people are especially interested in managing their public images. The items above are from Mark Snyder's (1974) Self-Monitoring Scale. These items assess ___________________, the extent to which people alter their behavior to influence how others view them. If you tend to agree with statements 1 through 4 and disagree with statements 5 and 6, you are probably a high self-monitor.

Commitment/Consistency

People are more willing to be moved in a particular direction if they see it as consistent with an existing commitment. For instance, high-pressure door-to-door sales companies are plagued by some buyers' tendency to cancel the deal after the salesperson has left and the pressure to buy is no longer present. In training sessions Cialdini attended, several of the door-to-door sales companies claimed that they had significantly reduced this problem with a trick that heightens the customer's sense of personal commitment to the sale: Rather than having the sales representative write in the details of the contract, they have the customer do it.

Reciprocation

People are more willing to comply with requests (for favors, information, and concessions) from other people who previously did them a good turn. Because people feel an obligation to reciprocate, Cialdini found that free samples in supermarkets, free home inspections by exterminating companies, and free gifts through the mail from marketers or fundraisers were all highly effective ways to increase compliance with a follow-up request. For example, according to the Disabled American Veterans organization, mailing out a simple appeal for donations produces an 18% success rate, but enclosing a small gift—personalized address labels—boosts the success rate to 35% (Smolowe, 1990).

Authority

People are more willing to follow the recommendations of someone they view as an authority. So automatic is the tendency to follow an authority, Cialdini noted, that many times advertisers try to—and do—succeed merely by employing actors dressed to look like experts (scientists, physicians, police officers, and so on) (Sagarin et al., 2002).

Scarcity

People find objects and opportunities more attractive to the degree that they are scarce, rare, or dwindling in availability. Hence, newspaper ads are filled with warnings to potential customers regarding the folly of delay: "Limited time offer" or "One week only sale." One particularly single-minded movie theater owner managed to load three separate appeals to the scarcity principle into just five words of advertising copy that read: "Exclusive, limited engagement, ends soon."

What images are these people trying to convey?

People frequently try to control the images others have of them by managing their public behaviors—by self-presenting. Research suggests that a primary driver of social media use is for people to present themselves favorably to others, and apparently, sometimes self-presentation to virtual others takes precedence over self-presentation to the people who are actually around us.

achievement motivation

People may be high in competence motivation for intrinsic reasons, that is, because gaining mastery is interesting and challenging. This is typically called _______________________.

Liking/friendship

People prefer to say yes to those they know and like. If you doubt this, consider the remarkable success of the Tupperware Home Party Corporation, which has generated billions of dollars in sales by arranging for customers to buy its products not from a stranger across a counter but from the neighbor, friend, or relative who has sponsored a Tupperware party and gets a percentage of its profits. According to interviews done by Cialdini, many people attend the parties and purchase the products, not out of a need for more containers but out of a sense of liking or friendship for the party sponsor.

strategies of integration

People use a variety of strategies to get others to like them.

Strategies of Self-Promotion

People use a variety of strategies to get others to see them as competent.

Strategies for Conveying Status and Power

People wield several strategies to convince others of their high status and power.

Pervasive persuasion.

Persuasive appeals are everywhere in our daily lives.

If you admit, we won't acquit.

Police interrogators used powerful principles of social influence to get Peter Reilly to admit to a heinous crime (despite the fact that later evidence suggested strongly that he was completely innocent).

Chapter 4

Presenting the Self

Exhaustive questioning.

Pushing suspects to defend themselves when they are physically and cognitively depleted is a notorious practice among some criminal interrogators.

To be shy in a self-promoting world.

Shy people become anxious even imagining themselves in unfamiliar social situations. Because of this, they may miss opportunities for personal and professional advancement that staging performances, claims of competence, excuse-making, and other bold self-promotional tactics make available. Shyness hurts in more ways than one.

Chapter 6

Social Influence: Conformity, Compliance, and Obedience

social influence

Social psychologists have considered three major categories of _____________: conformity, compliance, and obedience.

shyness

Some folks experience frequent or chronic __________—they tend to feel tense, worried, or awkward in unfamiliar social interactions, even while merely imagining or anticipating social interaction. The tendency to feel tense, worried, or awkward in novel social situations and with unfamiliar people.

Effects of Incorrect Group Judgments on Conformity

Subjects estimated the length of lines either after the other group members had made no errors in their own estimates (control group) or after the other group members had all judged the line lengths incorrectly (experimental group). Only 5% of control group subjects made any errors. But 75% of experimental group subjects made at least one mistake.

Conformity and Uncertainty

Subjects who were uncertain of their judgments on a face-identification task conformed to the unanimous majority position more often when being accurate was especially important to them. However, those who were certain of their judgments conformed less often when accuracy was especially important. Thus, only the uncertain individuals chose conformity as the best route to accuracy.

Not all smiles are the same. The natural smile we express when feeling happy is characterized by both turning up the muscles at the corners of the mouth (called the zygomatic major) and by "crinkling" of the muscles around the eyes (called the obicularis oculi) (a). Although most people can consciously manipulate the zygomatic major, approximately 80% of us are unable to contract the orbicularis oculi voluntarily. As a result, the area around the eyes can often reveal the false smile (b).

Such differences in facial dynamics—in the movement of the facial muscles—make it relatively easy for researchers analyzing videotaped expressions to distinguish a false smile from an enjoyment smile

postdecisional dissonance

The conflict one feels about a decision that could possibly be wrong. They had experienced ____________, which is the conflict between the knowledge that you have made a decision and the possibility that the decision may be wrong.

social anxiety

The fear of self-presentational failure has been labeled _____________. ___________________ is quite common, for example, when we're on a first date or have to speak in front of a large group The fear people experience while doubting that they'll be able to create a desired impression.

impression motivation

The motivation to achieve approval by making a good impression on others. The motivation to achieve approval is called __________________because its goal is to make a good impression on others

norm of reciprocity

The norm that requires that we repay others with the form of behavior they have given us. which obligates people to give back the type of behavior they have received.

dramaturgical perspective

The perspective that much of social interaction can be thought of as a play, with actors, performances, settings, scripts, props, roles, and so forth. Erving Goffman (Goffman,1959) introduced this perspective, likening self-presentation to theater, with actors, performances, settings, scripts, props, roles, backstage areas, and the like.

body language

The popular term for nonverbal behaviors like facial expressions, posture, body orientation, and hand gestures. Much as we might smile to convey the impression that we are likable, we adopt other forms of _____________ (Fast, 1970)—the popular term for nonverbal signals such as facial expressions, postures, body orientations, and hand gestures—to communicate images of status and power

consistency principle

The principle that people will change their attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, and actions to make them consistent with each other. A social psychologist might answer the question by suggesting that Faraday himself was a victim of the workings of the _________________, which states that people are motivated toward cognitive consistency and will change their attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, and actions to achieve it.

basking in the reflected glory

The process of associating ourselves with successful, high-status others or events. By ___________ of their triumphant teams, by associating themselves with known winners, students could use the victories to strengthen their own public images.

cut(ting) off reflected failure

The process of distancing ourselves from unsuccessful, low-status others or events. On the other side of the coin, people may-_________________ (Snyder et al., 1986)—that is, distance themselves from known "losers"—fearing that unfavorable public associations may leave their reputations tarnished.

need for cognition

The tendency to enjoy and engage in deliberative thought. _________, the preference for engaging in central route, deliberative thinking.

public self-consciousness

The tendency to have a chronic awareness of oneself as being in the public eye. Besides situational factors that can make some people feel like they are in the spotlight, people differ in their ________________, in the degree to which they characteristically believe others pay attention to them

Cognitive dissonance

The unpleasant state of psychological arousal resulting from an inconsistency within one's important attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors.

Peripheral route to persuasion

The way people are persuaded when they focus on factors other than the quality of the arguments in a message, such as the number of arguments.

Central route to persuasion

The way people are persuaded when they focus on the quality of the arguments in a message.

A dual-brainer.

This advertiser has cleverly arranged this message to appeal simultaneously to both central and peripheral information processors in the market.

visual dominance behavior

This is demonstrated in ________________, whereby high-status individuals maintain eye contact with their audiences when speaking but pay less visual attention when listening.

Excuses, excuses.

To maintain a reputation for competence, we sometimes make excuses for our failures and indiscretions. Douglas Bernstein (1993) compiled a list of amazing, strange, and unusual—but actual—excuses students have used to avoid taking exams, turning in term papers, and other failures to live up to standards: "My paper is late because my parrot crapped into my computer" (the contemporary version of "my dog ate my homework"?). "I can't finish my paper because I just found out my girlfriend is a nymphomaniac." And one from our own campus, in usually sunny Arizona: "I couldn't make the exam yesterday because it was cloudy and I drive a convertible."

Looking Up

What could motivate pedestrians on a wintry day in New York City to stop, stand, and stare at little of obvious interest or importance? Researchers had sent confederates to stare upward for 60 seconds. The more confederates staring upward at nothing in particular, the more passersby joined the group.

Success in the balance.

When Oprah Winfrey, one of America's most positively rated celebrities, joined Barack Obama on the presidential campaign trail, his approval ratings jumped in the polls.

The Effects of Personal Relevance

When a topic was personally relevant, students responded to a message by taking into account the quality of its arguments. When the topic was not personally relevant, the students processed the message peripherally, responding not to the quality of the arguments but to the sheer number. Thus, both central and peripheral message processing can lead to persuasion, but in different ways.

Crowd control.

When others, especially many others, respond in a positive way to an idea, we're likely to see the idea as more valid and to respond similarly.

Ingratiation

_________ is an attempt to get others to like us.

Beliefs

_________, in contrast, are thoughts (cognitions) about these things

attitudes

____________ are favorable or unfavorable evaluations of particular things - particular person, object, event, or idea.

Social influence

______________ can be defined as a change in behavior caused by real or imagined pressure from others. A change in overt behavior caused by real or imagined pressure from others.

foot-in-the-door technique

refers to door-to-door salespeople getting one foot in the door as a way to gain full entry.

Self-presentation

sometimes called impression management, is the process through which we try to control the impressions people form of us The process through which we try to control the impressions people form of us; synonymous with impression management.

spotlight effect

we often see ourselves in the public eye even when we're not—a phenomenon dubbed the __________________.