AP Psych - Unit 14
ingroup
"Us"—people with whom we share a common identity
outgroup
"them" - those perceived as different or apart from our ingroup
7 deadly sins
lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, pride
Social Trap
A situation where short term gains are repeatedly put ahead of long term dangers (Ex: Deforestation, Environmental concerns, Social Security)
Promote Exclusivity
A company tactic which satisfies people's desires to feel important - like they're part of an exclusive group. (ie: "The Few, The Proud, The...")
Persuasion
A kind of speaking or writing that is intended to influence people's actions.
prejudice
A negative attitude toward an entire category of people, often an ethnic or racial minority; preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience
conflict
A struggle between opposing forces
Milgram's Obedience Experiment
An experiment to see how far people would go to follow an authoritative figure; Milgram forced people to "shock" actors with increasing voltages, which they knew were dangerous and could kill them. (65 percent of the subjects continued to inflict shocks right up to the 450-volt level)
Why love occurs...
Attachment formations from childhood, evolutionary perspective, chemical changes
Similarity is looked for in...
Attitudes and Beliefs (religion, values, gender roles, politics, etc.), Personality Traits, Personal Habits (smoking, drinking, hygiene, exercise, etc.), Sexual Preferences (intimacy, orientation, etc.)
Discrimination
Behaving differently, usually unfairly, toward the members of a group; unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group and its members
Prosocial behavior
Behavior that is balancing the needs of others with our own, for the overall benefit of everyone. Humans learned a long time ago that we had safety and effectiveness if we worked together; Actions may benefit others without necessarily providing any direct benefit to the person(s) performing them (i.e. - people think you are nice and want to talk to you)
Culture
Beliefs, customs, and traditions of a specific group of people.
Conformity
Changing attitudes or behaviors to fit in; Too uncomfortable not to conform
James Dobson
Christian psychologist who defines marriage as between one man and one woman only and describes this as the central stabilizing institution of society
Solomon Asch
Conducted famous conformity experiment that required subjects to match lines
How do corporations utilize findings of consumer behavior?
Corporations use these findings to determine how best to market products; You can put the information to use in deciding what and when to buy
Antisocial Behavior
Disruptive acts characterized by covert and overt hostility and intentional aggression toward others (i.e. - dealing drugs, vandalism, aggressive yelling, drinking in the street, night time noise, begging, being in a gang); These behaviors exist along a severity continuum and if left unchecked, can grow in severity over time
Ingratiation
Flattery, name dropping, self-proclamation, or self-depreciation to convince another to change behavior (making fun of themselves, etc.)
Central Route Persuasion
Focusing on arguments, facts, and logic to arrive at a decision to change behavior (ex: Environmental movements, Mustang ads sell the idea of being "cool")
GRIT
Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension-Reduction (a strategy designed to decrease international tensions)
Social Psychology
Study of how an individual behaves in a group (1 person in a group)
Social Loafing
Individuals who do less when others are around (Ex: group projects)
Evolutionary perspective of love
People look for fertility, fitness, assets, good physical qualities to pass down, etc., Both men and women need desire to have sex, Need interest to protect and feed offspring
Deindividuation
People lose their identities and moral responsibilities in groups (Ex: riots)
Norms of Reciprocity
People tend to respond favorably to requests when benefits are exchanged for reciprocity (Ex: cash back programs, punch-out card, buy one get one free)
Stanford Prison Experiment
Philip Zimbardo's study of the effect of roles on behavior. Participants were randomly assigned to play either prisoners or guards in a mock prison. The study was ended early because of the "guards'" role-induced cruelty. The participants began to believe they were truly a "prisoner" or "guard" and forgot they were subjects in an experiment
Factors which increase attraction
Physical Attraction, Similarity, Propinquity (proximity) or psychical closeness
Peripheral Route Persuasion
Relies on environmental factors other than the argument/facts to change behavior (i.e. - celebrity endorsements, flashy designs, sexual appeal, humor, distraction)
norm
an understood rule for accepted and expected behavior
Asch's Line Experiment
Solomon Asch's conformity experiment which required subjects to differentiate between lengths of lines; 5% always conformed, 70% conformed some of the time, 25% remained completely independent
Door-in-the-Face Technique
Starting with a large request and then gradually working down to a smaller request; to make offer appear very reasonable (Ex: used car salesman)
Foot-in-the-Door Technique
Starting with a small request and then gradually working up to a larger request (Ex: paying for more features on for a car)
That's Not All Technique
Sweetening a deal by continually adding more benefits before asking for commitment
Factors which increase physical attraction
Symmetry (not perfect symmetry though), Healthy Skin Physique, (associations with reproduction/fertility,Cultural Norms
Self-Serving Bias
Tendency to attribute our own successes to dispositional causes and our failures to situational causes to a greater extent than is actually justified; To protect and enhance our self-esteem (Ex: "I got an A" vs. "He gave me a C")
Chemical perspective of love
Testosterone and Estrogen (lust), Oxytocin (bonding hormone, attachments)
Groupthink
The desire for harmony overrides critical thinking and alternative solutions to a problem; a deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment that results from in-group pressures (Ex: Bay of Pigs Invasion)
Mere Exposure Effect
The more frequently we are exposed to various stimuli (at least up to a point) the more we tend to like that stimuli
Less Leads to More Effect
The weaker the reasons for engaging in an opposing behavior the stronger the pressure for changing attitudes (and vice versa); The less you know about something, the more likely you are to be defensive about it if you get questioned
situational attribution
attributing behavior to the person's luck. factors beyond control, and environmental factors (external causes)
Attribution
The process for determining the causes of other people's behavior (people make up reasons for their own and other people's behavior)
Fundamental Attribution Error
The tendency to attribute others' behavior to dispositional causes to a greater extent than is actually justified; We can't immediately see others' background causes
Group polarization
Views become more extreme if they are shared by a group (Ex: Political rallies. hate group meetings, etc.)
Halo effect
We assume more attractive people are better and more likable than less attractive people (voting for someone because they are "hot")
Negative State Relief Hypothesis
We feel "bad" when others are in need, to make ourselves feel better when we need help; the idea that people help in order to alleviate their own sadness and distress
dispositional attribution
attributing behavior to the person's traits, intentions, motives (internal causes)
Effects of not helping others
bad mood, bystander effect, diffusion of responsibility
equity
a condition in which people receive from a relationship in proportion to what they give to it
Romantic/Passionate Love
a form of love in which strong attraction and sexual desire toward another person are dominant (common in younger people)
Companionate Love
a form of love which involves a high degree of commitment, equity, and deep concern for the well-being of the beloved (passion is gone) (common in older people)
Oxytocin
a hormone typically linked to warm, fuzzy feelings and shown in some research to lower stress and anxiety ("hugging hormone")
Consumer Behavior
a hotbed of psychological research as it ties together issues of communication (advertising and marketing), identity (you are what you buy), social status, decision-making, and mental and physical health
role
a set of expectations (norms) about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave
Sociology
a study which focuses on the role of the group (the whole group itself) rather than the individual
Introduce Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD)
a tactic companies use to make consumers stop, think, and change their behavior (i.e. - a salesperson might push a customer to buy unnecessary software for their computer)
stereotype
a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing; A generalized belief about a group of people
self-fulfilling prophecy
an expectation that causes you to act in ways that make that expectation come true
social-responsibility norm
an expectation that people will help those needing their help
reciprocity norm
an expectation that people will help, not hurt, those who have helped them
Physical attraction
attraction to someone's physical appearance
Reposition Your Competition
changing the position a business occupies in consumers' minds. (i.e. - choosy moms choose Jif)
Fundamental attribution error is less common in...
collectivist cultures (such as East Asia) where the group matters more than the person
attitude
feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events
Effects of helping others
good mood, negative state relief hypothesis, empathy hypothesis, genetic hypothesis
superordinate goals
higher-level goals taking priority over specific individual or group goals; shared goals that override differences among people and require their cooperation
Social Facilitation
improved performance on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others; individuals who perform better in pressurized group situations vs. alone (Ex: elite athletes)
normative social influence
influence resulting from a person's desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval
informational social influence
influence resulting from one's willingness to accept others' opinions about reality
triangular theory of love
model of love based on three components: intimacy, passion, and commitment; several types of love exist, depending on the presence or absence of each of these components
mirror-image perceptions
mutual views often held by conflicting people when one side sees itself as ethical and peaceful and views the other side as evil and aggressive (vice-versa)
Propinquity
nearness (increases attraction); Shared social situation (school, work, clubs, sports, internet, etc.)
Diffusion of Responsibility
people feel less responsible to help when others are present
Leon Festinger
psychologist who developed the cognitive dissonance theory
Robert Sternberg
psychologist who developed the triangular theory of love
Irving Janis
psychologist who studied group dynamics, responsible for his theory of "groupthink"
Phillip Zimbardo
social psychologist who conducted the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment
Stanley Milgram
social psychologist who wanted to see how the German soldiers in WWII fell to obedience, wanted to see how far individuals would go to be obedient; conducted his infamous Obedience Experiment
self-disclosure
the act of revealing intimate aspects of oneself to others
personal space
the buffer zone we like to maintain around our bodies; the surrounding area over which a person makes some claim to privacy
Interpersonal Attraction
the extent to which we like or dislike other people
internal locus of control
the perception that you control your own fate (leads to confidence)
frustration-aggression principle
the principle that frustration creates anger, which can generate aggression; the principle that frustration- the blocking of an attempt to achieve some goal- creates anger which can generate aggression
just-world phenomenon/bias
the tendency for people to believe the world is just and that people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get
ingroup bias
the tendency to favor our own group ("Us")
other-race effect
the tendency to recall faces of one's own race more accurately than faces of other races
social exchange theory
the theory that our social behavior is an exchange process, the aim of which is to maximize benefits and minimize costs
scapegoat theory
the theory that prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame
Cognitive dissonance theory
the theory that we act to reduce the discomfort we feel when two of our thoughts are inconsistent/conflicting
attribution theory
the theory that we explain someone's behavior by crediting either the situation or the person's disposition
Cognitive Dissonance
unpleasant mental experience of tension resulting from two conflicting thoughts or beliefs; Conflict or anxiety resulting from inconsistency between one's beliefs and one's actions
Dissonance
unpleasant/uncomfortable state; This feeling is not desired so we seek to reduce it as much as possible
altruism
unselfish regard for the welfare of others (prosocial behavior)
Genetic hypothesis
we help those who are related to us
Empathy hypothesis
we share the feelings of those in need and feel bad for them
Highlight Your Flaws
when companies raise credibility by pointing out their product's shortcomings. (ie - Volkswagen lemon ad highlighted its flaws)
Run Emotional Ideas
when emotional and psychological appeals resonate more with consumers than the actual feature and function appeals
Bystander Effect
when other potential helpers are present, individuals are less likely to help
Similarity
when two things/people have something in common (similarity increases attraction - opposites don't attract)