Psychology ch 11
Biological influences in aggression
- genetic influences - biochemical influences, such as testosterone and alcohol - neural influences, such as a severe head injury
-Internal and external causes
-Internal attributions include causes inside and specific to the person, such as his or her traits and abilities. -External attributions include causes outside the person, such as situational factors. Ex) Did Beth get an A on the test because she is smart or because the test was easy.
What are some examples that contribute to attraction?
-Similarity -Acquaintance -Proximity
-Agreeableness
-The personality trait most strongly associated with prosocial behaviors -Related to greater volume in the posterior cingulate cortex
-Cognitive Determinants
-aspects of the environment may prime us to behave aggressively -if person perceives something as unfair = can lead to aggression
-Personality
-low levels of agreeableness, low conscientiousness, and high levels of neuroticism -predispose or cold toward others
--What are some examples of aggression?
-physical pain, personal insults, crowding, and unpleasant events
Conformity
A change in a person's behavior to coincide more closely with a group standard
individualistic culture
A culture that values individuality, individual accomplishments, differences, and uniqueness.
Stereotype
A generalization about a group's characteristics that does not consider any variations from one individual to another
Heuristic
A helpful tool for navigating a complex social landscape, but can lead to mistakes
Explicit racism
A person's conscious and openly shared attitude, which might be measured using a questionnaire
Empathy
A person's feelings of oneness with the emotional state of another.
self-fulfilling prophecy
An expectation that causes an individual to act in ways that make their expectations come true.
Stereotype threat
An individual's fast-acting, self-fulfilling fear of being judged based on a negative stereotype about his or her group.
Cognitive dissonance
An individual's psychological discomfort caused by two inconsistent thoughts
Prejudice
An unjustified negative attitude towards an individual based on the individual's membership in a particular group.
Social exchange theory
Based on the idea of social relationships as involving an exchange of goods, the objective of which is minimize cost and maximize benefits.
Obedience
Behavior that complies with the explicit demands of an individual in authority
--Relational aggression
Behavior that is meant to harm the social standing of another person through activities such as gossiping and spreading rumors
-Researchers who take a ______ viewpoint examine the influence of genetics and neurobiological factors on aggression.
Biological
Central route
By engaging the audience thoughtfully with a sound, logical argument
Self-perception theory
Daryl Bem's take on how behavior influences attitudes. Individuals make inferences about their attitudes by observing their behavior.
Heuristics are cognitive shortcuts that enable us to make ____________ rapidly
Decisions, judgements, or choices
-_________ can produce altrustic behavior even toward members of rival groups
Empathy
-Reciprocity in relationships with nonfamily members
Essentially the mistaken application of a heuristic that made sense in human evolutionary history- to engage in selfless acts of kindness to one's own family.
The _________ Perspective of reciprocity is to secure the survival of the family's genes, even if the helped individual isnt actually family
Evolutionary or evolution
-When the person shows a strong awareness of his or her attitudes and when the person rehearses and practices them
Ex) a person who has been asked to give a speech about the benefits of recycling is more likely to recycle than is an individual with the same attitude about recycling who has not put the idea into words or defined it in public
Social Cognition
Explores how people select, interpret, remember, and use social information; it's how people think in social situations
The _____ May be explained by the fact that when making attributions about someone, the immediate environment is more stable and less attention-grabbing than the observed person's behavior.
Fundamental Attribution error
Altruism
Giving aid to another person with the ultimate goal of benefiting that person, even if it incurs a cost to oneself
Mood
Happy people are more likely to help others then unhappy people.
Equity
Having both partners feel that each is doing his or her "fair share"
Egoism
Helping another person for personal gain, such as to feel good, or avoid guilt
reciprocity
Helping another person to increase the chances that the person will return the favor.
Sociocultural influences on aggression
How common aggression and violence is in some cultures
Peripheral route
Involves factors such as the attractiveness of the person giving the message or the emotional power of an appeal.
Persuasion
Involves trying to change someone's attitude- and often behavior.
Romantic love or passionate love
Is love with strong components of sexuality and infatuation, and it often predominates in the early part of the love relationship
-Observational learning
Learning aggression through reinforcement and observational learning
Social Facilitation
Occurs when an individual performance improves because of the presence of others
Attitudes
Our opinions and beliefs about people, objects, and ideas- how we feel about the world.
-When the person has a vested interest
People are more likely to act on attitudes when the issue at stake will affect them personally
Discrimination
Refers to an unjustified negative or harmful action towards a member of a group simply because the person belongs to that group.
Implicit recism
Refers to attitudes that exist on a deeper, hidden level
--Overt aggression
Refers to physically or verbally harming another person directly.
Groupthink
Refers to the impaired group decision making that occurs when making the right decision is less important than maintaining group harmony.
Informational social influence
Refers to the influence other people have on us because we want to be right.
Social Identity
Refers to the way individuals define themselves in terms of their group membership.
Attribution theory
Seeks to explain how we decide, on the basis of an individual's behavior, what the specific causes of that person's behavior are.
Lower levels of the neurotransmitter ___________ have been linked to aggressive behavior
Serotonin
-High levels of neurotransmitter ___________ are associated with prosocial behavior
Serotonin or oxytoxcin
Aggression
Social behavior whose objective is to harm someone, either physically or verbally.
--Frustration-aggression hypothesis
States that frustration always leads to aggression.
Social identity theory
States that social identity is a crucial part of self-image and a valuable source of positive feelings about oneself.
-Stable and unstable causes
The cause relatively enduring and permanent, or is it temporary? Ex) Did Aaron blow up at his girlfriend because he is a hostile guy or because he was in a bad mood that day?
Physical attractiveness
The combination of characteristics that are evaluated as beautiful or handsome at the positive extreme and as unattractive at the negative extreme.
Self-esteem
The degree to which we have positive or negative feelings about ourselves
How does the brain make a first impression?
The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) is involved in the first impression formation.
Normative social influence
The influence others have on us because we want them to like us.
Mere exposure effect
The more one encounters someone or something, the more likely we are to start liking the person or thing even if we do not realize we have seen it before.
--Weapons effect
The presence of firearms enhances aggression
Social comparison
The process by which we evaluate our thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and abilities in relation to others
Person perception
The processes by which we use social stimuli to form impressions of others
Deindividuation
The reduction in personal identity and erosion of the sense of personal responsibility when one is part of a group.
Social Psychology
The scientific study of how people think about, influence, and relate to other people.
Group Polarization effect
The solidification and further strengthening of an individual's position as a consequence of a group discussion or interaction.
-When the person's attitudes are stong
The stronger the attitude toward a particular topic, the more likely a person will act on it.
Risky shift
The tendency for a group decision to be riskier than the average decision made by the individual group members
Affectionate love or companionate love
The type of love that occurs when an individual has a deep, caring affection for another person and desires to have that person near.
elaboration likelihood model
Theory identifying two ways to persuade: a central route and a peripheral route.
Psychological influences on aggression
This includes -personality characteristics -frustrating circumstances -cognitive and learning factors
Collectivistic Cultures
Value the group and group harmony
-Controllable and uncontrollable causes
We perceive that we have power over some causes (for instance, by preparing delicious food for a picnic) but not others (rain on picnic day)
out-group
a group that has special value in comparison with other groups
Confederate
a person who is given a role to play in a study so that the social context can be manipulated
Personality
an individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting
-Cultures of honor
cultures in which there are strong norms indicating that aggression is an appropriate response to insults to one's honor
-The genetic basis for aggression states that ____________ are important in understanding the biological basis of aggression
genes
In one study, just a 100-millisecond exposure was long enough for participants to form a ______________ of the unfamiliar individual.
impression
-Priming
involves making something salient to a person, even without the person's awareness.
-Media
lead to believe that it can prompt aggressive or antisocial behavior in children
Social Loafing
refers to each person's tendency to exert effort in a group because of reduced accountability for individual effort.
in-group
the group that which we belong too
The Bystander effect
the tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present
Fundamental attribution error
the tendency for observers, when analyzing others' behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of internal traits