Social Psychology

Actor-observer discrepancy

refers to a tendency to attribute one's own actions to others/situation, while attributing other people's behaviors to internal causes.

Before helping behavior occurs, what must happen in the potential helpers mind?

-Notice the event -interpret it as an emergency -assume responsibility -decide to intervene If any of these fail to get activated no helping occurs

What type of mind control techniques did Jim Jones use at Jamestown?

-big brother is watching you -self incrimination .. Jones made followers tell there fears and mistakes to used if they disobeyed -suicide drills (foot in the door) -distorting perceptions

How is the fundamental attribution error/confirmation bias present in false confession interrogations?

-interrogator looks at information that confirmed the theory the person committed the offense -ignored all the inconsistencies that suggested they did not know important details of offense i.e. the New York jogger case with the 5 boys who falsely confessed. i.e. roberto

How can you judge the accuracy of a confession?

-was there coercion -age and competency -conditions of custody and interrogation

A false confession includes what two factors according to Saul Kassin?

1. an authority figure insisting on guilt 2. lying to suspects about false evidence connecting them to a crime

What four major factors that lead to bystander apathy?

1. diffusion of responsibility occurs, so people expect other bystanders to help 2. people fear making social blunders in ambiguous situations 3. people are less likely to help when they are anonymous and can remain so 4. cost-benefit analysis occurs

What is the decreased performance from stereotype threat due to?

1. physiological stress affecting prefrontal functioning 2. a tendency to think about their performance which distracts them 3. attempt to suppress negative thoughts and emotions require a lot of effort

What happened at Jamestown? What social psych techniques did James Jones use?

914 people committed suicide at the order of cult leader James Jones with cyanide koolaid -compliance, conformity, obedience training

Describe the Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Study and terms from social psych that relate to this study.

A group was randomly assigned the label of guard or prisoner. -guards had power and got very cruel to prisoners -prisoners deteriorate psychologically. -deindividuation of guards (sunglasses) and prisoners (uniforms) -dehumanization and moral disengagement

What is Rosenthal's analysis of four purported causal factors? Describe the elementary class study in terms of these factors.

Climate Input response opportunity feedback Climate=warm climate Input=teach more material to kids they have favorable expectations for Response opportunity=call on these students more, give them more time to speak Feedback=more expected, kids positively reinforced, and given more feedback when they get the wrong answer

Describe what took place in Asch conformity studies

Experiment: Which of the three lines matched the standard line? The other men in the experiment intentionally giving wrong answers, the subject then usually conformed and says the wrong answer

Stereotypes can lead to prejudice. What is ingroup/outgroup bias

Ingroup= people you consider to be apart of your group Outgroup=everyone else you wouldn't consider apart of your ingroup tend to think of people as all the same if apart of an outgroup i.e. mental illness

What occurred at My Lai? How does it relate to social psychology?

Lt. Calley and the soldiers at his command murdered ver 300 innocent Vietnam civilians. Hugh Thompson dropped his plane in front of the civilians, he was ostracized by many are colleagues for intervening and not going along with the group.

Describe the Festinger $1 $20 cognitive dissonance experiement

Participants given a dull task. The experimenter offered participants $1 and others $20 to tell a lie and say the enjoyed the experiment to those in the waiting room. After lying ask to tell true enjoyment of dull task. $1: like the task more $20: more likely to say task boring Larger payment justified the lie Those who received small amount experienced cognitive dissonance, and reduced it by changing their belief about the task to saying they liked it

Private vs Public conformity

Private= occurs when people truly believe that the group is right and even occurs in the absence of group members. Public= occurs when we are pressured and feel we do not have a choice other than to conform to group norms. When publicly conforming, people pretend to agree, but privately think the group is wrong.

What happened at Abu Ghraib? What social psych terms does this relate to?

Soldiers tortured prisoners. -deindividualization -anonymity of place -dehumanization - role-playing and social modeling -moral disengagement -group conformity

Describe how Jigsaw classrooms relate to cooperation. Give an example

This idea gets kids to work with people they normally wouldn't. Break kids into group of 5, give each kid a specialization. Make a new group of kids with same specialization, return to original group to teach that group.

Fundamental attribution error/Correspondence Bias

We tend to overemphasize the importance of personality traits and underestimate the importance of situation -when someone else engages in bad behavior we think its due to their disposition, It its ourselves engaging in bad behavior we think it had to do with the situation

Risky shift effect

When in a group people are more likely to make riskier decisions

Norm

a customary standard for behavior that is widely shared by members of a culture

Persuasion

a phenomenon that occurs when a person's attitudes or beliefs are influenced by a communication from another person

Informational influence Give an example.

a phenomenon that occurs when another person's behavior provides information about what is true. i.e. if staring at top of building, researchers says that other people will stop and stare to. i.e. sales person, "most people buy the iPad with extra memory"

Belief

an enduring piece of knowledge about an object or event Beliefs tell us how to do it i.e. start by opening the fridge because that is where the apples are

attribution

an inference about the cause of a person's behavior

Cognitive dissonance

an unpleasant state that arises when a person recognizes the inconsistency of his or her actions, attitudes, or beliefs. causes anxiety/tension and motivated to reduce by changing attitude or behavior i.e. allowing the ugly sign to be placed in your yard.

door-in-the-face technique compliance technique

asking for a large commitment, being refused, and asking for a smaller one. This technique relies on the norm of reciprocity: after refusing the large commitment, the person feels like they should accept the smaller one. i.e. Can I barrow a $1000? No. Well what about $20? People are more likely to say yes

stereotypes

cognitive schemas that organize information about people based on their membership in certain groups

What can reduce Predjudice? Describe Muzafer Sherif's work.

cooperation can reduce prejudice. two summer camps. Demonstrated that competition created hostility, prejudice, and discrimination. Used cooperative tasks to bring the two camps together

Attitude

enduring positive or negative evaluation of an object or event. Attitudes tell us what we should do i.e. eat an apple because they are good

What yields greater honesty, pictures of eyes or flowers?

eyes

How to avoid groupthink?

leaders should play "devils advocate" to avoid bad choices

Confirmation Bias

interpret information in a way that confirms one's beliefs prejudices grow stronger when a social perceiver encounters information in their social world that is consistent with their prejudiced attitudes

Peripheral (heuristic) route persuasion

involves attending to factors not involved in the message, such as the appearance of the source of the message, the length of the message, and other non-content factors.

Groupthink What types of conditions are present in groupthink

is the tendency for groups to reach consensus in order to facilitate interpersonal harmony groups usually under perform individuals Condition: -group is under pressure -discouraged from dissenting

Conformity

is the tendency to do what others do simply because others are doing it

dehumanization

making people less human in our minds

central (systematic) route persuasion

occurs when a person is persuaded by the content of the message.

Bystander Apathy or Bystander effect In terms of bystander intervention, what tends to happen when there is a lot of bystanders around?

people are less likely to help an innocent person in distress when there are many other bystanders present because they assume that one of the other bystanders is more responsible then they are. i.e. Kitty Genovese, 38 witnesses over 30 minute assault

Deindividuation Give example.

people lose their individuality when they become part of a group. Can occur when there is a diffusion of responsibility -less likely to consider our personal values, and develop the group's values -i.e. badger game days, everyone in badger gear, halloween

Normative influence

phenomenon that occurs when another person's behavior provides information about what is appropriate. To toddler: Are others standing on the table? No, well then you shouldn't be either

systematic persuasion

process by which attitudes or beliefs are changed by appeals to reason

Social comparison theory

proposed in 1954 by psychologist Leon Festinger and suggested that people have an innate drive to evaluate themselves, often in comparison to others.

What is stereotype threat an example of?

self-fulfilling prophecy

Foot-in-the-door technique compliance technique

social influence technique that involves making a small request before making a large request i.e. will you sign this petition for safe driving? can I install this ugly sign in your yard?

Describe what took place in Milgram obedience studies? In what cases is a person less likely to be obedient?

subject "shocks" person when they are wrong, but always continue because experimenter replied "you have no choice, you must go on" nearly 2/3 of participants completely obeyed the directives of the experimenter, with deadly shock 1.if helped apply the electrodes (touched the person) 2. the experimenter does not take responsibility 3. experimenter lacks status/authority

Just-World Hypothesis

tendency to believe that the world is just and that people get what they deserve. -think that when bad things happen to people, it is because these individuals are bad people or have done something to deserve their misfortune.

Stereotyping

the process by which people draw inferences about people based on their knowledge of the categories to which those people belong

common knowledge effect

the tendency for group discussions to focus on information that all members share. problem is the information everyone shares is often unimportant, and the information that is truly important is only known by a few

Group polarization

the tendency for groups to make decisions that are more extreme than any member would have made alone

Diffusion of responsibilty

the tendency for individuals to feel diminished responsibility for their actions when they are surrounded by others who are acting the same way.

mere exposure effect

the tendency for liking to increase with the frequency of exposure

self-fulfilling prophecy

the tendency for people to behave as they are expected to behave i.e. when asked to state race on test, African Americans performed worse

Perceptual confirmation

the tendency for people to see what they expect to see

Sub typing give an example.

the tendency for people who are faced with disconfirming evidence to modify their stereotypes rather than abandon them. i.e. Nuns having a snowball fight. Oh well they must be a special case of Nun

Obedience

the tendency to do what authorities tell us to do. Milgram -We are obedient to authority -ordinary people can be coerced into obedience into harming others -BUT this may do to a belief in the cause

Describe Rosenthal's experiment with the self-fulfilling prophecy theory

they gave all the children in an elementary class a test and told teachers that some of children were unusually intelligent (though they were actually average). They came back at the end of the school year and tested the same class again. Guess what? The children singled out had improved their scores far more than other children. The teachers treated those students different unintentionally and they performed better.

Norm of reciprocity

unwritten rule that people should benefit those who have benefited them -i.e. when a friend buys you lunch, you must eventually return the favor -i.e. a waiter leaving mints, hoping customer will tip If someone does something for you, then you are more likely to do something for them

Perpetual confirmation

when observers perceive what they expect to perceive. i.e. stereotypes