Social Psych Exam #3

What are five ways to reduce cognitive dissonance (through revising your thoughts)?

1. Change your attitude "It's not that important to be physically healthy" 2. Change your perception of the behavior "I slept, ate, and exercised well, not my total best, but well" 3. Add consonant cognitions "Too much exercise can be bad for you" 4. Minimize the importance of the conflict 5. Reduced perceived choice "I had no choice: I was getting crushed with work!"

What is a group and what is a collective?

A group is two or more people with direct interactions over time and shared identity or goals. A collective is in the same place at the same time, doing the same things.

What is brainstorming, and what are factors that create process loss while brainstorming?

A technique that attempts to increase the production of creative ideas by encouraging group members to speak freely without criticizing their own or others' thoughts.

How can attentional cues and accountability cues lead to deviant behavior when people are deindividuated, for different reasons? Which set of reasons has more to do with automatic processing and which has to do with more controlled processing? What does the social identity model of deindividuation effects (SIDE) propose about when deindividuation will lead to more antisocial vs. more prosocial behavior?

Accountability cues-perceived lack of consequences (intentional misbehavior). Result of controlled processing. Attentional cues- extreme lack of self-awareness (unintentional misbehavior). Going with automatic processing.

What are attitudes, and what four reactions can people have to attitude objects?

Attitudes are an evaluation of a person, object, or idea. They can have favorable, unfavorable, dual (ambivalent), or be indifferent attitudes toward something.

Predicting attitudes from behavior: In the theory of planned behavior, what three things enhance or limit the impact of attitudes on behavior?

Attitudes predict behavior better when attitude measures correspond well to behavior, when subjective norms support the behavior, perception that the behavior is within our culture helps.

What role does awareness of cognitive dissonance play in cognitive dissonance-motivated revision of one's thoughts?

Awareness of cognitive dissonance creates a state of negative tension that people are motivated to get rid of through revising their thoughts.

Distinguish between central and peripheral routes to persuasion. What two general factors affect elaboration likelihood/route to persuasion? (Hint: these relate to cognitive miser & naïve scientist metaphors.) What more specific factors can reduce ability to engage in elaboration? What more specific factors can enhance motivation to engage in elaboration? For example, what is needed for cognition and how does it relate to motivation to think elaboratively? Additionally, what is message matching and how does this relate to research on self-monitoring and persuasion? When people are less likely to engage in elaboration, what are some examples of the kinds of things by which they can be persuaded? Under which route to persuasion does message strength matter most? Why are the routes to persuasion about how people think rather than message content?

Central- high elaboration leads to central route persuasion. Requires high motivation AND ability to think carefully. Pay attention to argument strength. With stronger arguments more positive thoughts about message content. Thus, more persuasion. With weaker arguments, more negative thoughts about message content. Thus, less persuasion. Peripheral- low motivation or ability to think carefully leads to the peripheral route to persuasion: go with results of automatic processing of peripheral cues (cues not directly related to message content). Argument strength does not matter- not paying attention enough attention. Peripheral cues don't matter as much.

What is obedience?

Changes in behavior in response to direct commands from an authority figure.

What is compliance?

Changes in behavior that are a result of a direct request.

What are the antecedents of groupthink?

Circumstances: highly cohesive groups and group structure, such as homogenous members, isolation from other people, strong, directive leadership, lack of systematic decision-making and review procedures. Also, stressful situations.

Distinguish between the five types of power French and Raven (1959) identified, and give some examples of people who have each one.

Coercive power- potential to deliver threats and punishments. Ex. Police, parents, teachers, etc. Reward power- potential to deliver positive reinforcement. Ex. Teachers, parents, etc. Expert power- derived from a reputation for being very knowledgeable about a particular topic. Ex. Doctors, mechanics, etc. Legitimate power- derived from a particular role or position; usually limited to a setting in which one has authority. Ex. Parking attendants, teacher has no legitimate power outside of school, etc. Referent power- derived from being liked, emotionally attached to. Ex. Actors, parents, friends, etc.

What is cognitive dissonance and why is it not just doing something that is inconsistent with one's attitudes?

Cognitive dissonance is having two conflicting cognitions. It is not just doing something another person would see as inconsistent with your attitude. Rather, you must think your behavior is inconsistent with your attitudes.

What is conformity?

Conformity is the tendency to change behaviors or thoughts in ways consistent with what others are doing.

What are the three main ways to prevent groupthink?

Consult widely with outsiders, leaders should explicitly encourage criticism and not take early, strong stand, strong norm of critical review with subgroups discussing the same issue, "devil's advocate" and "second chance" meetings.

What are four common characteristics of good leaders?

Decisiveness, competence at group tasks, integrity, and vision.

Regarding two-step compliance techniques: Understand the differences between the two "large-to-small request" compliance strategies (the door in the face and "that's not all, folks!") in terms of what the steps are and how they appear to work. You may want to have a few examples in mind.

Door in the face: person is intended to refuse large request, then accept the real (smaller) request. Ex. child asking for a pony...then a cookie. Contrast effect and reciprocity norm in action. That's not all!: person is given initial request, then no opportunity to refuse before requestor adds "incentives" (stuff requestor had intended to give anyway). Contrast effect.

What were the similarities between Milgram's procedure and the foot in the door technique?

EARLY RESISTANCE prevented getting caught in momentum of the situation, which undermined authority's attempt to continue momentum and eroded the rationalization process involved in the foot in the door technique.

Know about the classic conformity studies by Sherif (e.g., what is the autokinetic effect?) and by Asch. What were some important ways these studies differed from each other, psychologically to participants?

Example of autokinetic effect: when the moon appears to wander around in the sky when no frame of reference. Asch's line study: normative influence leading to conformity.

What types of power did Milgram's experimenter clearly have?

Expert and legitimate.

Understand the differences between the two "small-to-large" compliance strategies (foot in the door and low-balling) in terms of what the steps are and how they appear to work. You may want to have a few examples of these in mind, too. Please note: people often get foot in the door and door in the face mixed up.

Foot in the door: person agrees to an initial, small request, then requestor ups the ante by making the real (larger) request. Ex. LAV and the SPA lollipop saleswoman. Self-perception in the first step, then desire to avoid cognitive dissonance in the second. Lowball technique: person is offered an initial, low price, given a chance to think about having the product, then hidden costs are "discovered"...."still wanna buy?" Effortful thought about having the product in first step. Then, desire to avoid cognitive dissonance in the second step.

(P. 252) In Cooper and Fazio's (1984) new look at cognitive dissonance theory, what conditions are necessary for cognitive dissonance-induced attitude change to happen? Understand how Cooper and Fazio's "new look" is different from Festinger's original cognitive dissonance theory.

Four steps are necessary for both the arousal and reduction of dissonance. 1. The attitude- discrepant behavior must produce unwanted negative consequences. 2. A feeling of personal responsibility for the unpleasant outcomes of behavior. 3. Physiological arousal. 4. A person must also make an attribution for that arousal to his own behavior. *See more in the textbook

What is groupthink?

Group decision making style characterized by desire among group members to get along/agree and outweighing generation and critical evaluation of alternative viewpoints/positions.

What is group polarization and how does it include the concepts of risky shift and cautious shift?

Group polarization is the exaggeration of initial tendencies in the thinking of group members through group discussion. Group discussion tends to enhance or exaggerate the initial leanings of the group. Thus, if most group members initially lean toward a risky position on a particular issue, the group members on average will move toward an even riskier position after the discussion. Same with caution.

What is social facilitation? When does it occur? When in this kind of situation, what happens to arousal, evaluation apprehension, and/or distraction/conflict of attention? How could these lead to better performance on easy tasks and worse performance on difficult tasks? (I encourage you to understand how motivation as well as dominant response fit in here.)

Happens when individual performance can be observed. Situation raises arousal (alertness, evaluation apprehension, and/or distraction). That facilitates dominant response. If task is: easy or well-practiced: performance enhanced. Why? Individual is more motivated. Hard or unfamiliar: performance impaired. Why? Individual is distracted.

The symptoms of groupthink? For example, what are mindguards and what do they do? The main things I'd like you to know about consequences of groupthink are that they involve defective decision making (and be able to provide 3 examples, not all 7 listed in your text), and a high probability of a bad decision.

Illusion of vulnerability, closed mindedness, increased pressures toward uniformity ("mindguards" and pressure on dissenters, censoring of one's thoughts, illusion of unanimity). 3 examples: incomplete survey of alternatives, incomplete survey of objectives, and poor information search.

What situational factor that Milgram manipulated influenced the amount of obedience observed in the experiment?

Immediacy- big differences depending on immediacy in space and in time.

As alternative explanations for cognitive-dissonance effects, what do impression management theory and self-affirmation theory propose?

Impression management theory- what matters is not a motive to be consistent but a motive to appear consistent. Self-affirmation theory- a dissonance-producing situation--engaging in attitude-discrepant behavior, exerting wasted effort, or making a tough decision--sets in motion a process of self-affirmation that serves to revalidate the integrity of the self-concept.

Distinguish between informational and normative influence as reasons why people conform, what kind of conformity each type of influence tends to produce and why, and the classic conformity study to which each relates best.

Informational influence (is not explicit persuasion) produces conformity because people want to be correct, and they assume that if others are acting the same way they must be correct. Leads to private and public conformity (result: beliefs and behavior guided by norms). Ex. "I guess there's a class in there". Sherif's autokinetic study, too. Normative influence (elevator experiment- standing the wrong way) produces conformity because people want to avoid ostracism (which neurologically registers the same as physical pain). This leads to public but NOT private conformity (result: behavior but NOT beliefs guided by norms). Ex. "I guess I better wear my backpack on one shoulder". Asch line study, too. Often, both normative and informational influence are operating.

Regarding situations that can cause cognitive dissonance: distinguish between insufficient justification, insufficient deterrence, justifying effort, and justifying difficult decisions. For each kind of situation, what are the typical kinds of cognitions that would be dissonant, and what does research suggest about how people reduce cognitive dissonance?

Insufficient justification- a condition in which people freely perform an attitude-discrepant behavior without receiving a large reward. The more money participants were offered for their inconsistent behaviors, the more justified they felt and the less likely they were to change their attitudes. Insufficient deterrence- a condition in which people refrain from engaging in a desirable activity, even when only mild punishment is threatened. Cognitive dissonance theory turned common sense on its head: the less severe the threatened punishment, the greater the attitude change produced. Justifying effort- the kind of inconsistency between effort and outcome can arouse cognitive dissonance and motivate a change of heart toward the unsatisfying outcome. Simply, we alter our attitudes to justify our suffering. Participants who had endured a severe initiation rated the discussion group more favorably than did those who had endured little or no initiation. Justifying difficult decisions- whenever we make difficult decisions, we feel dissonance. According to dissonance theory, people rationalize whatever they decide by exaggerating the positive features of the chosen alternative and the negative features of the unchosen alternative. The results showed strong support for dissonance theory.

What is deindividuation?

Loss of sense of individuality and reduction of normal constraints against deviant behavior.

Distinguish between mere presence theory, evaluation-apprehension theory, and distraction-conflict theory as alternative explanations for social facilitation.

Mere presence theory- the proposition that the mere presence of others is sufficient to produce social facilitation effects. Evaluation-apprehension theory- a theory that the presence of others will produce social facilitation effects only when those others are seen as potential evaluators. Distraction-conflict theory- a theory that the presence of others will produce social facilitation effects only when those others distract from the task and create attentional conflict.

What is minority influence? What are idiosyncrasy credits?

Minority influence is the process by which dissenters produce change within a group. Idiosyncrasy credits are interpersonal "credits" that a person earns by following group norms.

When is it (deindividuation) more likely?

More likely with higher arousal, anonymity, reduced feelings of individual responsibility.

What consequences do the routes to persuasion have for resulting attitudes?

More thought about message and highly acceptable: stronger attitude about it. Strong attitudes persist longer, predict behavior better. Central route processing leads to stronger attitudes. Peripheral route can lead to attitude change when peripheral cues are salient (obvious).

Do results like Milgram found only occur with adult men, in the 1950s, in New Haven?

No.

Does a dissenter have to agree with you to reduce your conformity?

No.

What about trusting the motives of the person making the request? How does the norm of reciprocity relate to compliance?

Norm of reciprocating gifts or concessions in kind can be exploited. If requester knows individual is likely to comply automatically (low ability or motivation to think).

Define persuasion. Describe the Yale attitude change approach discussed in class.

Persuasion is the process of changing someone's attitude. The Yale attitude approach (early approach) includes who says what to whom; source, message, audience characteristics which can be a problem (seemingly contradictory findings).

What role does automatic processing of the language of requests play in gaining compliance with a request?

Phrasing of a question can "push the button" of an automatic heuristic. In the example, requests with reasons ("because") can elicit more compliance even if reasons are silly.

What is power, and what four effects does power often have on leaders (and what opposite effects can having low power have on followers)?

Power is one person's control over another person. 1. Emotion 2. Focus on rewards v. punishments 3. Emphasis on automatic v. controlled thinking 4. Approach v. inhibition.

Distinguish between the following social dilemmas: prisoner's dilemma and resource dilemmas.

Prisoner's dilemma- a type of dilemma in which one party must make either cooperative or competitive moves in relation to another party. The dilemma is typically designed so that the competitive moves appears to be in one's self-interest, but if both sides make this move, they both suffer more than if they had both cooperated. Resource dilemma- social dilemmas involving how two or more people will share a limited resource.

What is process loss?

Reduction in group performance caused by group processes.

Regarding alternative routes to self-persuasion: How did self-perception theory pose a challenge to cognitive dissonance theory?

Self-perception theory: people infer their attitudes from their behavior and situations where it occurs. Strong alternative explanation of CDT findings (more parsimonious [simple explanation] than CDT): Assume no prior cognition to be dissonant with No discrepancy between cognitions No tension Attitude formation, not change

What are strong attitudes, and what three kinds of issues do strong attitudes tend to be about?

Strong attitudes are highly accessible. Thus, they have a stronger impact on thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Strong attitudes tend to be about personally relevant topics, about things your friends, family, etc. are concerned about, about deeply held values (ex. some attitudes partially heritable).

What is a social dilemma?

Social dilemma is a situation in which a self-interested choice by everyone will create the worst outcome for everyone.

How does this factor relate to the factors in social impact theory?

Social impact theory- strength of source (status, ability, or relationship to target; stronger the source, more influence). Immediacy (source's proximity in time and space to target; closer the source, more influence). Number of sources (diminishing returns- as numbers go up, so does influence to a point; more sources, less perception that people are thinking independently).

According to social impact theory, what are the three factors that affect the amount of influence other people have on a target individual, and how does each of these factors affect the amount of social influence?

Strength of source: status, ability, or relationship to target. Stronger the source, more influence. Immediacy: source's proximity in time and space to target. Closer the source, more influence. Number of sources: "Diminishing returns": as numbers goes up, so does influence- to a point. More sources, less perception that people are thinking independently.

Regarding the persuasive message: How discrepant should a message be from an audience's existing position to have the most impact?

The persuasive communication is the outcome of three factors: a source (who), a message (says what and in what context), and an audience (to whom).

What is the tripartite model of attitudes discussed in class?

The tripartite model of what makes up an attitude: affect (feelings about target), behavioral intentions, and cognition (thoughts and beliefs about target).

In the Good to Great study discussed in class, what two characteristics did the CEOs of the 11 most positively transformed companies have?

They were modest and humble and had "fierce resolve" even if early results are disappointing (about being about the work, not the ego).

Some participants disobeyed: what did they do, and why would this have reduced obedience?

They were normal people who expressed concern early on.

Regarding the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion: What is elaboration?

Thinking carefully about the content of a message.

What is narrative transportation and how does it relate to persuasion? How do elaboration and narrative transportation differ?

Transportation via narrative is becoming wrapped up in (entering "into") the emotions, information, and images of a story. If transported, more likely to be persuaded. Different from elaboration which is critical thinking.

What are narratives?

Usually presents a story with a beginning, middle, and end. Characters encounter and resolve a crisis or crises. Portrayal of characters' social intentions.

How can recognition of a superordinate identity establish common ground between groups in a conflict?

When group members perceive that they have a shared identity across group boundaries, the attractiveness of outgroup members increases, and interaction between the groups often becomes more peaceful.

According to Karau and Williams's (2001) collective effort model, when efforts are pooled, what two factors make the sucker effect (which contributes to social loafing) more likely and what two factors make social compensation more likely (and what is social compensation)?

When group task is not very personally important and/or people feel they can't do much to help, leads to social loafing thru the...sucker effect- decreased effort on collective tasks because nobody wants to be the sucker who is left doing all the work. When group task is personally important and people feel they can help...social compensation- increased effort on collective tasks to compensate for anticipated social loafing of others.

Under what conditions does cognitive dissonance theory hold better than self-perception theory and vice-versa?

When you believe you have behaved in a highly attitude-discrepant way, tension and attitude change through CD reduction. When lacking an attitude, formation of an attitude through SP. When engaging in slightly attitude-discrepant behavior, not much tensions, infer attitudes through SP.