Social Psychology

Prosocial Behavior Altruism Helping behavior

Altruism- form of helping behavior in which the person's intent is to benefit someone else at some cost to him or herself. Helping behavior- altruistic motivations, but also includes behaviors that may be motivated by egoism or selfishness.

Aronson and Linder's gain-loss principle

An evaluation that changes will have more of an impact than an evaluation that remains constant. Therefore we will like someone more if their liking for us has increased (shown a gain) than someone who has consistently liked us.

Reinforcement Theory

Behavior is motivated by anticipated rewards.

Fritz Heider's Balance Theory

Consistency Theory Concerned with the way 3 elements are related: the person whom we're talking about (P), some other person (O), and a thing, idea, or some other person (X). Balance exists when all 3 fit together harmoniously. Inconsistency= stress.

Irving Janis

Developed concept of groupthink to explain how group decision-making can sometimes go awry.

Analogy of inoculation

Inoculation process in the body is analogous to the mind- people can be inoculated against the attack of persuasive communications. Cultural truisms- beliefs that are seldom questioned Refuted counterarguments- People can be psychologically inoculated against an oncoming attack by first exposing them to a weakened attack. Inoculated people against attacks on cultural truisms by first presenting arguments against the truisms and then refuting the arguments.

Consistency Theories

People prefer consistency and will change or resist changing attitudes based upon preference. Inconsistencies are viewed as stimuli or irritants, and are often resolved by changing attitudes.

Door-in-the-Face Effect

People who refuse a large initial request are more likely to agree to a later smaller request. Initial request quite unreasonable; effects depend on nature of the original report

Overjustification effect

Self-perception theory If you reward people for something they already like doing, they may stop liking it. Mistakenly attributes the behavior now to external causes, rather than to dispositional causes.

Zajonc's Theory

Studied the mere exposure effect; also resolved problems with the social facilitation effect by suggesting that the presence of others enhances the emission of the dominant responses and impairs the emission of non-dominant responses

M.J. Learner- Belief in a Just World

Tendency of individuals to believe in a just world. Good things would happen to good people and bad things would happen to bad people. Belief in a just world would increase the likelihood of "blaming the victim" since such a world view denies the possibility of innocent victims.

Attractiveness stereotype

Tendency to attribute a positive quality and desirable characteristic to attractive people.

Fundamental Attribution Error

When inferring the causes of other's behaviors, there is a general bias toward making dispositional attributions rather than situational attributions. The tendency to look for personality flaws in the Kitty Genivese witnesses and the Milgram subjects, rather than looking for situational influences that may have caused their behavior, can be considered an example of this error.

Reactance

When social pressure to behavior in a particular way becomes so blatant that the person's sense of freedom is threatened, the person will tend to act in a way to reassert a sense of freedom. If you try too hard to persuade someone of something, that person will choose to believe the opposite of your position.

Robert Zajonc

mere- exposure researcher

Principles of Cognitive Dissonance Theory

1.) If a person is pressured to say or do something contrary to his or her privately held attitudes, there will be a tendency for him or her to change those attitudes. 2.) The greater the pressure to comply, the less this attitude change. Ultimately, attitude change generally occurs when the behavior is induced with minimum pressure.

Social Perception 1.) Primacy Effect 2.) Recency Effect

1.)Refers to those occasions when first impressions are more important than subsequent impressions. 2.) The most recent information we have about an individual is more important in forming our impressions

Social Exchange Theory

A person weighs the rewards and costs of interacting with one another. The greater the rewards outweigh the costs, the greater the attraction to the other person.

Bandura's social learning theory

Aggression is learned through modeling (direct observation), or through reinforcement. Aggressive behavior is selectively reinforced- people act aggressively because they expect some sort of reward (material benefit, social approval, attention) for doing so.

Social Learning Theory

Albert Bandura main figure. Behavior is learned through imitation.

Muzafer Sherif's Conformity Study

Autokinetic effect. Group of subjects in a room, individuals will conform to the group and their judgments converged on some group norm. Solomon Asch's conformity study- confederates told group of college males wrong answer on purpose for length of a line. People will conform to answer even if know it is wrong.

Leon Festinger's Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Cognitive dissonance is the conflict that you feel when your attitudes are not in synch with your behaviors. Engaging in behavior that conflicts with an attitude may result in changing one's attitude so that it is consistent with the behavior. This is the most proactive of cognitive dissonance theory predictions. The greater the dissonance the greater the pressure to reduce dissonance. Dissonance can be reduced by changing dissonant elements or adding consonant elements. 1.) Joe thinks cigarettes is bad 2.) Joe Smokes 1.) Joe smokes low-tar cigarettes 2.) Joe thinks cigarettes is bad

Foot-in-the Door Effect

Compliance with a small request increases the likelihood of compliance with a larger request. Small to Large Effect Initial request small and reasonable; effects depend on nature of the original request

Verplank, Pavlov, Thorndike, Hull, & Skinner

Established reinforcement theory

Clark and Clark Doll Preference Study

Ethnic self concept among ethnically white and black children using the famous doll preference task. Black and white children preferred white doll Brown v. The Topeka Board of Education Supreme Court Case

Social Perception Attribution Theory

Focuses on the tendency for individuals to infer the causes of other people's behavior Heider- we are all amateur psychologists who attempt to discover the causes and effects in events Dispositional causes- those that relate to the features of the person whose behavior is being considered Situational causes- External and are those that relate to features of the surroundings (e.g. threats, money, social norms, and peer pressure) Situational attribution you are saying it is the characteristics of the particular situation rather than the characteristics of the particular individual that are the primary cause of the behavior.

Dissonant Situations 1.) Free-choice

Free-choice dissonance occurs in a situation where a person makes a choice between several desirable alternatives. Post-decisional dissonance => dissonance emerges after choice is made

Key experiments on conformity and obedience 1.) Sherif 2.) Asch 3.) Milgram

Strategy used Key Result 1.) Autokinetic Individuals estimates of movement effect conform to group's 2.) Comparing Subjects yield to group pressure and length of lines choose incorrect lines 3.) Experimenter Subjects shock other person; prods subject to majority continued shocking up give shock to other to maximum voltage person

William McGuire

Studied how psychological inoculation could help people resist persuasion.

Edward Hall

Studied norms for interpersonal distance in interpersonal interactions.

Theodore Newcomb

Studied political norms

The halo effect

Tendency for bias in evaluations of other people. The tendency to allow a general impression about a person to influence other, more specific evaluations about a person. Explains why people are often inaccurate in evaluations of people that they either believe to be generally good, or those that they believe to be generally bad.

Robber Cave's Experiment

Treasure island book

Belief perseverance

Under certain conditions, people will hold beliefs even after those beliefs have been shown to be false.

Stanley Schachter

Greater anxiety does lead to greater desire to affiliate. Anxious people prefer the company of other anxious people.

Social Loafing

Group phenomenon referring to the tendency for people to put forth less effect when part of a group effort than acting individually (e.g. tug-of-war and clapping)

James Stoner

Group polarization- tendency for a group discussion to enhance the group's initial tendencies toward riskiness or caution

William McDougall (psychologist) & E.H. Ross (sociologist)

Independently published the first textbooks on social psychology.

John Darley and Bibb Latane Bystander Intervention

Kitty Genovese case Homo urbanis- city dweller whose only interest is in himself.

Social influence and diffusion of responsibility

Kitty Genovese- diffusion of responsibility; emergency defined need to decide whether to help or not. More people the less likelihood of someone helping. Pluralistic ignorance- leading others to a definition of an event as a nonemergency

Kurt Lewin's Study on Leadership Styles

Laissez-faire groups- less efficient, less organized, and less satisfying for the boys than the democratic groups. Autocratic groups- more hostile, more aggressive, and more dependent on their leader. Work quantity more. Democratic-more satisfying for the boys and more cohesive than autocratic groups. Work motivation and interest were stronger in demographic groups.

Carl Hovland's Model

Model deals with attitude change as a process of communicating a message with the intent to persuade someone. 3 components- communicator, communication, and source Communicator or source- is someone who has taken a position on an issue and is trying to persuade someone to adopt his or her position. Communication- Communicator produces a communication (presentation of argument) that is designed with the intent to persuade others. Situation- surroundings in which the communication takes place. Communicator- more credible the source is perceived to be the greater the impact. Credibility depends on how expert and trustworthy a source appears to be.

Spatial proximity

More attracted to people live closer to us. More available they are

Dissonant Situations 2.) Forced-Compliance Dissonance

Occurs when an individual is forced into behaving in a manner that is inconsistent with his or her beliefs or attitudes. The force may come from either anticipated punishment or reward. (i.e. can have ice cream; if eat spinach)

Attitudes

Opinion statements. Cognitions of beliefs, feelings, and behavioral predisposition.

Role Theory

People are aware of the social roles they are expected to fill, and much of their observable behavior can be attributed to adopting those roles.

Philip Zimbardo Anonymity

People are more likely to commit antisocial acts when they feel anonymous within a social environment. Prison Experiment - lasted 6 days Deindividuation- loss of self-awareness and of personal identity

Norman Triplett

Published 1st study of social psychology; effect of competition on performance. People perform better on familiar tasks when in the presence of others than when alone.

Carl Hovland's Model Sleeper Effect Two- sided messages

Sleeper effect- Over time, the persuasive impact of the high credibility source deceased while the persuasive impact of the low-credibility source increased. Two-sided messages- contain arguments for and against a position, are often used for persuasion since such seems to be "balanced" communication (e.g. news reporting)

Verplank

Social approval influences behavior. The course of a conversation changes dramatically based upon the feedback (approval from others).

Mere exposure hypothesis

The more exposure to a stimulus leads to enhanced liking for it. More you see something, the more you like it.

Cognitive Dissonance Spreading of Alternatives

Two approaches to reduce dissonance; the relative worth of the two alternatives is spread apart.

Petty and Cacioppo's Elaboration likelihood model of persuasion

Two routes to persuasion: central route and peripheral route. Central route- If the issue is really important to us. Strong arguments will change our minds. Peripheral route- If the issue is not very important to us or if we cannot clearly hear the message, we're dealing with the peripheral route to persuasion. Strength of persuader's argument doesn't matter. What will matter is how, by whom, or in what surroundings the argument is being presented.

Daryl Bem's Self-Perception Theory

Used to explain forced compliance theory. When your attitudes about something are weak or ambiguous =, you observe your own behavior and attribute an attribute to yourself. People infer what their attitudes are based upon observation of their own behavior. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO THEORIES (BEM AND FESTINGER AND CARLSMITHS) Bem doesn't hypothesize a state of discomfort or dissonance therefor in self-perception theory, a person's initial attitude is irrelevant and there is no discomfort produced by behavior.

Empathy

Vicariously experience the emotions of another, and it is thought by some social psychologists to be a strong influence on helping behavior.

Leon Festinger's Social Comparison Theory

We are drawn to affiliate because of a tendency to evaluate ourselves in relationship to other people. 1.) People prefer to evaluate themselves to objective nonsocial means. If this cannot occur, evaluate opinions and abilities by comparing them to those of other people. 2.) The less the similarity of opinions and abilities between two people, the less the tendency to make these comparisons. 3.) Discrepancy exists with respect to opinions and abilities, there is a tendency to change one's position so as to move it in line with the group.

Equity theory

We consider not only our own costs and rewards, but the costs and rewards of the other person. We prefer the ratio to our costs to rewards be equal to the other person's ratio.

Reciprocity hypothesis

We tend to like people who indicate that they like us. Our attractions are a two-way street. We don't merely evaluate a person's qualities and arrive at a like or dislike: we take into account other person's evaluation of us.

Festinger and Carlsmith Minimal justification effect (insufficient justification effect)

When behavior can be justified by means of external inducements (e.g. $20) there is no need to change internal cognitions. When the external justification is minimal, you will reduce your dissonance by changing internal cognitions (e.g. from thinking the task was boring to thinking it wasn't really so bad)

Batson's empathy-altruism model

When faced with situations in which others may need help, people might feel distress (mental pain or anguish), and/or they might feel empathy. Both of these states are important since either can be determinants of helping behavior.

Frustration-aggression hypothesis

When people are frustrated, they act aggressively. Strength of the frustration experienced is correlated with the level of aggression observed.

Risky shift

important factor in group decision making. Group decisions are riskier than the average of the individual choices. Value hypothesis- the risky shift occurs in situations in which riskiness is culturally valued

Need complementarity

people choose relationships that they mutually satisfy each other's needs.

Stanley Milgram's Obedience Experiment

pressure and obedience and conformity

Group think

refers to the tendency of decision-making groups to strive for consensus by not considering discordant information (e.g. bay of pigs)