AP Psych Unit 10: Social Psychology

confirmation bias

a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence

conformity

adjusting our behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard

aggression

any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy

what reduces obedience?

free will, other dissenters

social facilitation

improved performance on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others

superordinate goals

shared goals and joint efforts between groups can overcome differences among people

communication

skilled mediators can help hostile parties express differences in a positive way in an effort to establish cooperative relationships

social psychology

study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another

ways for reducing aggression

superordinate goals, conciliatory acts, communication

polarization

tendency for a group's predominant opinion to become stronger or more extreme after an issue is discussed

door-in-the-face phenomenon

tendency for people who won't agree to a large task, but then agree when a smaller request is made

obedience

the tendency for people to override even the most intense and extreme personal feelings when confronted by the orders of an "authority figure"

self-serving bias

the tendency for people to take personal credit for success but blame failure on external factors

foot-in-the-door phemomenon

the tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request

in-group bias

the tendency to favor one's own group

social inhibition

the tendency to perform complex or difficult tasks more poorly in the presence of others

out-group homogeneity effect

the tendency to see members of out-groups as very similar to one another

ingroup

"Us"—people with whom we share a common identity.

outgroup

"them" - those perceived as different or apart from our ingroup

Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment

-an experiment in which people were assigned to be guards or prisoners- studied how drastically behaviors can change under certain influences -guards and prisoners had separate outfits which promoted deindividuation; guards eventually lost their sense of personal responsibility and forgot the prisoners were individuals

biological influences of aggression

-evolutionary psychologists say humans are instinctively aggressive animals -alcohol leads to aggression -hormone testosterone correlates with aggressive behavior

social influences of aggression

-exposure to violent media has high correlation with aggressive behavior -social rejection and permissive/authoritarian parenting increases aggressive tendencies

Stanley Milgram's Obedience Study

-had a "teacher" give shocks to a "learner" if he gave the wrong answer....found that 63 percent would give all shocks even when the learner was screaming in pain

Asch's conformity experiment

-showed that individuals will often conform to an opinion held by the group -group of students pick the incorrect answer for the matching line and confuse the person who doesn't know what's going on (that one person changes their original answer to match the group)

Factors that promote conformity

-size of the majority (resisted groups of 1-2 and majority over 7 people) -unanimity of the majority (if 1 person disagrees, naive subject is more likely to disagree w/ majority) -characteristics of the majority (the naive person more likely to conform if they desire to be part of the majority) -difficulty of the task (conformity increases as task difficulty increases)

bystander effect

-the finding that a person is less likely to provide help when there are other bystanders -as group size increases, chances of help decreases (cause = diffusion of responsibility)

deindividuation

A phenomenon that occurs when immersion in a group causes people to become less aware of their individual values and personal responsibility

stereotype

a generalized (sometimes accurate but often overgeneralized) belief about a group of people

halo effect

judgement of a person or thing is influenced by the overall beauty/attractiveness of that person or thing; men and women value different characteristics though most are attracted to similar people

prejudice

learned prejudgement directed to people based on their membership to a social group (leads to discrimination, a differential treatment based on this prejudgement)

what promotes obedience?

learned values, powers of role, embarrassment

central route persuasion

occurs when interested people focus on the arguments and factual information (they analyze the relevant details)

conciliatory acts

reciprocal placating can reduce tensions between opposing groups

ethnocentrism

the belief that one's own culture, customs, and values is superior to others

mere exposure effect

the phenomenon that repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them

frustration-aggression hypothesis

the principle that frustration- the blocking of an attempt to achieve some goal- creates anger which can generate aggression

cognitive dissonance

the psychological discomfort a person experiences between his or her attitude is inconsistent with their behavior (and they are motivated to reduce this discomfort)

groupthink

the tendency for a cohesive decision-making group to ignore/dismiss reasonable alternatives; based on pressure to conform and remain loyal to the group

fundamental attribution error

the tendency for observers, when analyzing another's behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the influence of personality

social loafing

the tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable

what promotes deindividuation?

uniforms, size of group, group identity/expectations

peripheral route persuasion

when people focus on emotional appeals and outlying information/social cues