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