chapter 12

Pygmalion Effect-

a special sort of self-fulfilling prophecy

rule of commitment

once you make a public commitment, there is psychological pressure to keep it

actor-observer bias

opposite of fundamental attribution error. Rather than internal, personal attributions, we're more likely to explain our own behavior using external, situational attributions (reason: you know more about your own situation)

implications of classical social influence studies

our behavior is influenced by situational factors. but we do have capacity to resist group or authority pressure.

social loafing

people tend to expend less effort on collective tasks than when doing same task alone Its reduced when: 1. group is people we know 2. we are members of a highly valued group 3. task is meaningful or unique social loafing not present in collectivist cultures

social facilitation

presence of other people enhances your individual performance (when task is well learned...ie. athlete)

Self-fulfilling prophecy.

process where one's expectation of another person influences that other person to behave in a fashion that confirms the initial expectation.

self-serving bias

tendency to take credit for our successes by attributing them to internal, personal causes, along with a tendency to distance ourselves from our failures by attributing them to external, situational causes. The self-serving bias is more common in individualistic cultures.

Hindsight bias

tendency, after an event has occurred, to overestimate one's ability to have fore-seen or predicted the outcome (Why? Want to believe the world is fair and people get what's coming to them)

Low self-monitoring people

unlikely to tailor their self-presentations to the social circumstances; their attitudes and behavior tend to match regardless of the social environment.

Robbers Cave experiment (Sherif)

(Camp story) Established that cooperation to acheive a common goal made subjects overcome prejudice.

stereotype

assume people in a specific group have same characteristics. Simplifies social info so we can sort out, process and remember more easily. (kind of schema)

Asch

comparison lines..see if people conform to the majority answer. (37% did)

conformity

adjust opinions, judgement or behavior so it matches others

obedience

perform behavior in response to a command

Implicit association test (IAT)

to determine implicit attitudes. good or bad pairings. Has been done by 10 million people. Says social preferences are a characteristic of human social cognition.

Cognitive dissonance (Zimbardo)

When your attitude and behaviors are in conflict. You make rationalizations to make behavior line up with attitude.

When does your attitude influence your behavior?

1. You anticipate a favorable outcome or response from others for behaving that way.• 2. Your attitudes are extreme or are frequently expressed 3. Your attitudes have been formed through direct experience 4. You are very knowledgeable about the subject 5. You have a vested interest in the subject and personally stand to gain or lose something on a specific issue

aggression influenced by:

1. genes and brain structure 2. biochemical influence (testosterone and alcohol abuse) 3. learned behavior 4. violent media 5. frustration

factors that decrease the likelihood of helping

1. the presence of other people (bystander effect) 2. being in big city or small town 3. Vague situations (ie. don't know relationship) 4. personal costs outweigh benefits

just-world hypothesis.

Blaming the victim reflects the belief that, because the world is just, the victim must have done something to deserve his or her fate

Discrimination.

Discrimination is the active display of prejudice

attribution theory (Kelley)

Determine whether the cause is internal or external. 3 factors: Distinctiveness-likelihood that a single external entity/person is a trigger in eliciting someone's behavior. (Does this teacher always give bad grades?) Consistency-the prior knowledge we have about the particular person's behavior on other, similar occasions. (Does she always complain about grades?) Consensus-the prior knowledge that we have about other people in similar situations (are others complaining?)

3 components to attitude

Evaluative beliefs-judgments about whether a particular distinctive characteristic is true about the object of the attitude. For example, if someone assumes that good-looking people are happier, that person is indicating evaluative belief that attractiveness and happiness go hand-in-hand. Evaluative beliefs may be held with varying degrees of certainty. Feelings-involve positive emotions such as love, sympathy, and respect; and negative emotions such as hate, indifference, and contempt. Behavior tendencies- person's stated intention or readiness to respond in a particular action with respect to the object of the attitude.

Neural study on facial attractiveness

Facial beauty evokes a widely distributed neural network involving perceptual, decision-making, and reward circuits. [It] may serve as a neural trigger for the pervasive effects of attractiveness in social interactions

Attitude

a learned tendency to evaluate something in a particular way. 3 components: 1. cognitive component: your thoughts and conclusions about a given topic or object. 2. affective component-emotional componant 3. behavioral component-attitudes are reflected in action.

blaming the victim (kind of fundamental attribution error)

The innocent victim of a crime, disaster, or serious illness is blamed for having somehow caused the misfortune or for not having taken steps to prevent it

What Is Beautiful Is Good myth (Sheppard)

We are culturally conditioned to associate beauty with goodness and evil with ugliness—an implicit personality theory that has been dubbed the "what is beautiful is good"

Prosocial behavior

any behavior that helps another person. Not always altruistic.

implicit personality theory

assuming certain types of people share certain traits and behaviors.

fundamental attribution error

attribute the behavior of others to internal, personal characteristics, while ignoring or underestimating the role of external, situational factors

implicit cognition

automatic, nonconscious reaction to others

Aggression

behavior intended to harm another person

stereotype threat

being aware that your social group is associated with a certain stereotype

Social categorization

classifying people into groups

schema

concept, a belief, or expectation about what something should look like, or act like. (general mental representation) Schemata are based on experience.

informational social influence

conforming behavior motivated by the desire to be correct. Look to the group for right answer.

normative social influence

conforming motivated by our desire to be liked and accepted by a group

explicit cognition

conscious mental processes involved in perceptions, judgments, decisions, and reasoning.

Latane and Darley

created studies where it appears help is needed. Factors that increased the likelihood of helping were: 1. Feel good, do good effect-people who are happy & successful are more likely to help others 2. guilt 3. seeing others help 4. perceiving the other person as deserving help 5. knowing how to help 6. a personalized relationship 7. dangerous situation

persuasion

deliberate attempt to influence attitude or behavior of another

reasons for bystander effect:

diffusion of responsibility-responsibilty is share=+less likely to help desire to appear correct and behave in a socially acceptable way

Prejudice

negative attitude toward people in a specific group. emotional-seen in amygdala on scans. people are prejudice when in-group norms and values are threatened.

jigsaw classroom technique

ethnically diverse kids worked on project together. Each student an expert on his subject. Led to higher self-esteem and greater liking for other ethnic groups.

implicit attitude

evaluations that are automatic, unintentional

milgram-original obedience experiment

experimental investigations of obedience. Majority (65%) of subjects did not refuse to administer shock. Why? 1. subjects knew they were coming to participate in experiment 2.familiar with scientific research and thought it was worthwhile 3. gradual escalation of task 4. experimenter's behavior and reassurances 5. physical & pysch. seperation from learner 6. confidence that the learner was really receiving shocks.

rule of reciprocity

feeling obligated to return a favor

halo effect

first impression can color overall view of person

social influence,

focuses on how our behavior is affected by other people and situations. includes questions: why we conform to group norms? what compels us to obey an authority figure? under what circumstances we will help a stranger, and what leads us to behave in ways that intentionally harm other people.

out-group

group we are not a member of. See them as similar to one another (out-group homogeneity effect)

altruism

helping another person with no expectation of personal benefit

Social cognition

how we form impressions of other people, how we interpret the meaning of other people's behavior, and how our behavior is affected by our attitudes

Social psychology

investigates how thoughts, feelings, and behavior are influenced by other people and by the social and physical environment

self-effacing bias or modesty bias

involves blaming failure on internal, personal factors, while attributing success to external, situational factors. (collective cultures)

sense of self

involves you as a social being, shaped by your interactions with others and by the social environments and culture

Person perception

mental processes we use to form judgments about other people. Principle 1. (perception of other)Your reactions to others are determined by your perceptions of them, not by who they really are. Principle 2. Your self-perception also influences how you perceive others and how you act on your perceptions. Principle 3. Your goals in a particular situation determine the amount and kinds of information you collect about others. If your goal is to share a subway seat with someone who will basically leave you alone, you will look for characteristics that are relevant to that goal Principle 4. Social norms. In every situation, you evaluate people partly in terms of how you expect them to act within that particular context.

deindividuation

reduction of self-awareness when people feel anonymous-leads to irresponsible behavior. (ie. cyberbullying)

Attribution

refers to the explanations people give to account for their own behavior and the behavior of those around them

High self-monitoring people

sensitive to the expressions and self-presentation behavior of others in social contexts. attitude and behavior don't match.(tipping example)

Golem effect.

teacher has lower academic expectations for a student, and the student subsequently performs poorer than his or her true competence would indicate. (opposite of pygmalian)

in-group

the group we belong. See them as diverse within the group. (In group bias-make favorable attributions for members and unfavorable for out-group members) ie. we worked hard. they lucked out.

social influence

the study of how behavior is influenced by other people and the social environment

factors that promote conformity

you: are facing a group of at least 4 or 5 must respond in front of group havent expressed comittment to something else find the task difficult doubt your knowledge want to be a member of the group