AP Psych Unit 14 - Social Psychology

self effacing bias

attributing success to external factors and blaming failure on internal factors (the individual); found in collectivist cultures (cultures in which the group is viewed as more important than the individual); blaming oneself for failures, attributing them to internal, personal causes, while downplaying success by attributing them to external situational causes.

Normative Social Influence

influence resulting from a person's desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval; we are sensitive to social norms-understand rules for accepted and excepted behavior-because the price we pay for being different may be severe

Informational Social Influence

influence resulting from one's willingness to accept others' opinions about reality; psychological and social phenomenon where people assume the actions of others in an attempt to reflect correct behavior in a given situation

The Stanley Milgram Experiment

interested in researching how far people would go in obeying an instruction if it involved harming another person; 65% (two-thirds) of participants (i.e., teachers) continued to the highest level of 450 volts. All the participants continued to 300 volts; Ordinary people are likely to follow orders given by an authority figure, even to the extent of killing an innocent human being. OBEDIENCE to authority is ingrained in us all from the way we are brought up.

crowding effect

is the psychological feeling of not having enough space available; psychological construct wherein the amount of space available is less than desired, and purely physical indices of physical space such as density.

mirror-image perceptions

mutual views often held by conflicting people, as when each side sees itself as ethical and peaceful and views the other side as evil and aggressive; as we see 'them' as untrustworthy and evil-intentioned, so ' they' see us. Feeds a vicious cycle of hostility.

social identities

person's sense of who they are based on their group membership(s). Tajfel (1979) proposed that the groups (e.g. social class, family, football team etc.) which people belonged to were an important source of pride and self-esteem.

Utilitarianism

philosphers call it this instead of social exchange theory ethical theory that holds that the proper course of action in any circumstances is the one that maximizes utility (maximizing happiness and minimizing suffering)

minority influence

power of one or two individuals to sway majorities; takes place when a member of a minority group influences the majority to accept the minority's beliefs or behavior.

catharsis hypothesis

psychodynamic principle that, in its most basic sense, is simply an emotional release. Further, the hypothesis maintains that aggressive or sexual urges are relieved by "releasing" aggressive or sexual energy, usually through action or fantasy. If you buy a punching bag, or release your aggression by playing Quake, or by screaming, then you will be less violent and aggressive in day-to-day life, having "released" your aggression.

chameleon effect

refers to nonconscious mimicry of the postures, mannerisms, facial expressions, and other behaviors of one's interaction partners, such that one's behavior passively and unintentionally changes to match that of others in one's current social environment (automatic mimicry is a part of empathy; empathetic people yawn more after seeing others yawn)

mood linkage

refers to the human tendency to absorb and participate in the prevailing mood of the other people around. For instance, if a person is in a bad mood when they go to a party or out with good friends, it is very likely that their mood will improve considerably just by being in a fun environment.

hindsight bias

refers to the tendency people have to view events as more predictable than they really are. After an event, people often believe that they knew the outcome of the event before it actually happened; blaming the victim for date rape: "she should've known better", blaming the victim also serves to reassure people that it couldn't happen to them

self-disclosure

revealing intimate aspects of oneself to others. this breeds liking and liking breeds this.

sexual violence

several factors can create a predisposition to sexual violence, media but also dominance motives, disinhibition by alcohol, and a history of child abuse

superordinate goals

shared goals that override differences among people and require their cooperation;

reward theory of attraction

states that people like those whose behavior is rewarding to them or whom they associate with rewarding events; we like those whose behavior is rewarding to us and that we will continue relationships that offer more rewards than costs.

Foot-in-the-door Phenomenon

the tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request; People tend to be more likely to agree to a difficult request if they have first agreed to an easy one

outgroup

"Them"—those perceived as different or apart from our ingroup.

ingroup

"Us"—people with whom we share a common identity.

prejudice

"prejudgement", an unjustifiable and usually negative attitude toward a group and its members. Prejudice generally involves stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings, and a predisposition to discriminatory action; mixture of beliefs(stereotypes), emotions (hostility, envy, or fear), and predispositions to action(discriminate); negative ATTITUDE; it can be subtle, automatic, and unconscious.

subtle prejudice

(implicit, automatic) prejudice, such as that reflected in people's facial muscle responses and in the activation of their amygdala to viewing Black and White faces, is an implicit (often unconscious) expression of negative beliefs and emotions.

biology of aggression

Genetic: the Y chromosome is carried by half the human race and it's the genetic marker found in those who commit the most violence. Neural, animal and human brains have neural systems that, when stimulated, either inhibit or produce aggressive behavior; aggression is a complex behavior that occurs in particular contexts. The brain has neural systems that, given provocation, will facilitate aggression. And it has a frontal lobe system for inhibiting aggression, making aggression more likely if this system is damaged, inactive, disconnected, or not yet fully mature; studies show that violent criminals have diminished activity in the frontal lobes, which play an important role in controlling impulses. Biochemical, hormones, alcohol, and other substances in the blood influence the neural system that controls aggression. Levels of high testosterone correlate with irritability, assertiveness, impulsiveness, and low tolerance for frustration, qualities that predispose somewhat more aggressive responses for provocation; genetic influences, biochemical influences, such as testosterone and alcohol, neural influences, such as severe head injury

GRIT

Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension-Reduction, a strategy designed to decrease international tensions; one side first announces its recognition of mutual; interests and its intent to reduce tensions. It then initiates one or more small, conciliatory acts. Without weakening one's retaliatory capability, this modest beginning opens the door for reciprocity by the other party.

similarity

People also tend to pick partners who are similar to themselves in characteristics such as age, race, religion, social class, personality, education, intelligence, and attitude. This similarity is seen not only between romantic partners but also between friends. Some researchers have suggested that similarity causes attraction. Others acknowledge that people may be more likely to have friends and partners who are similar to themselves simply because of accessibility: people are more likely to associate with people who are similar to themselves.

just-world phenomenon

the tendency for people to believe the world is just and that people, therefore, get what they deserve and deserve what they get; reflects the idea that good is rewarded and evil is punished.

proximity

People are more likely to become friends with people who are geographically close. One explanation for this is the mere exposure effect; geographic nearness, friendship's most powerful predictor. Provides opportunities for aggression, but much more often than it breeds liking. People are most inclined to like, even marry, those who live in the same neighborhood, who sit nearby in class, who work in the same office, who share the same parking lot, who eat in the same cafeteria. Repeated exposure to novel stimuli, nonsense syllables, musical selections, geometric figures, Chinese characters, human faces, or letters for our own name, increases our liking of them.

Reciprocity

People tend to like others who reciprocate their liking

physical attractiveness

Research shows that romantic attraction is primarily determined by physical attractiveness. In the early stages of dating, people are more attracted to partners whom they consider to be physically attractive. Men are more likely to value physical attractiveness than are women. People's perception of their own physical attractiveness also plays a role in romantic love. The matching hypothesis proposes that people tend to pick partners who are about equal in level of attractiveness to themselves.

Anderson and Dill experiement

They conducted a laboratory experiment in which 210 psychology students were split into two groups and asked to pal wither a violent or a non-violent video game for 30 minutes. The independent variable was the type of video game the participants played and the dependent variable was the level of aggression shown after playing the video game. The video games were Myst, a non-violent fantasy adventure game, and Wolfenstein, 3D a violent shooting game. The participants were told that the study was about the development of motor skills so that they wolf not guess the aim of the study. Each participant was placed in a cubicle and told to play a video game against an opponent in the other cubicle, when in fact there was no one there. After 15 minutes playing time, they were asked to begin a competitive game with the opponent involving a reaction test. The person who pressed the button first would be able to set the volume and duration of a noise to an opponent as a punishment. Once the study was over, an experimenter entered the cubicle and fully debriefed participants and answered any questions they might have. Playing violent video games increased the level of aggression in participants, particularly women. The researchers believed it made them think in an aggressive way and that long-term use could result in permanent aggressive thought patterns; The loudest and blondest blasts of noise were given from participants that play the violent game. Women gave greater punishment to their opponents than men; university men who have spent the most hours playing violent video games tend to be most physically aggressive. Those with extensive experience in violent video gaming also display desensitization to violent images, shown by blunted brain responses

self-fulfilling prophecy

a belief that leads to its own fulfillment; person unknowingly causes a prediction to come true, due to the simple fact that he or she expects it to come true; In other words, an expectation about a subject, such as a person or event, can affect our behavior towards that subject, which causes the expectation to be realized. For example, a high school volleyball coach expects freshmen to be less skilled, so she does not put them in to play very often. When she does put them in, they are rusty and don't do well, thereby fulfilling her expectations

equity

a condition in which people receive from a relationship in proportion to what they give to it; when both partners freely give advice and receive, when they share decision making, their chances for sustained and satisfying companionate love are good. Mutually sharing self and possessions, giving and getting emotional support, promoting and caring about each other's welfare is at the core

stereotype

a generalized (sometimes accurate but often overgeneralized) belief about a group of people; mixture of beliefs; rationalize inequalities

conflict

a perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas.

Role

a set of expectations (norms) about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave; patterns of behavior that are considered appropriate for a person in a particular context. For example, gender roles tell people how a particular society expects men and women to behave. A person who violates the requirements tends to feel uneasy or to be censured by others. Role requirements can change over time in a society.

social trap

a situation in which the conflicting parties, by each rationally pursuing their self-interest rather than the good of the group, become caught in mutually destructive behavior; When people act in their own interest, they can sometimes help others as well. However, in other circumstances, people can harm themselves and others by acting in their own self-interest. Global warming is an example of a social trap: it is occurring because people act in their own self-interest when they buy fuel-inefficient cars; this challenges us to find ways of reconciling our right to pursue our personal well-being with our responsibility for the well being of all.

diffusion of responsibility

a sociopsychological phenomenon whereby a person is less likely to take responsibility for action or inaction when others are present. Considered a form of attribution, the individual assumes that others either are responsible for taking action or have already done so

Conformity

adjusting one's behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard; increases when one is made to feel incompetent or insecure, the group has at least three people, the group is unanimous (dissent of just one other person greatly increases social courage), one admires the group's status and attractiveness, one has made no prior commitment to any response, others in the group observe one's behavior, one's culture strongly encourages respect for social standards. in individualistic countries the rates are lower

social cultural factors of aggression

aggression may be a natural response to aversive events, but learning can alter natural reactions, animals naturally eat when they are hungry, but if appropriately rewarded or punished, they can be taught either to overeat or to starve. Ostracism, the rejection-induced aggression brings to mind various school shootings, committed by teens who had been shunned, mocked, and sometimes bullied by peers. Different cultures mode, reinforce, and evoke different tendencies toward violence; deindividuation from being in crowd, challenging environmental factors such as crowding, heat, and direct provocations, parental models of aggression, minimal father involvement, being rejected from a group, exposure to violent media.

personal control

also referred to as locus of control and personal mastery beliefs, reflect individuals' beliefs regarding the extent to which they are able to control or influence outcomes; power of the individual

passionate love

an aroused state of intense positive absorption in another, usually present at the beginning of a love relationship; Involves absorption in another person, sexual desire, tenderness, and intense emotion; two-factor theory helps explain this intense positive absorption in another, to experience emotion (1) emotions have two ingredients, physical arousal plus cognitive appraisal, and that (2) arousal from any source can enhance one emotion or another, depending on how we interpret and label the arousal; children are often produced in this

social-responsibility norm

an expectation that people will help those needing their help; societal rule that tells people they should help others who need help even if doing so is costly

reciprocity norm

an expectation that people will help, not hurt, those who have helped them; which is the implicit societal rule that says people must help those who have helped them

Norm

an understood rule for accepted and expected behavior. Norms prescribe "proper" behavior; society's rules about appropriate behavior. exist for practically every kind of situation. Some are explicit and are made into laws, such as the norm While driving, you may not run over a pedestrian. Others are implicit and are followed unconsciously, such as You may not wear a bikini to class.

aggression

any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy, whether done reactively out of hostility or proactively as a calculated means to an end

companionate love

as love matures it becomes a steadier kind of love. the deep affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined; Involves warmth, trust, and tolerance of another person. this love is sometimes considered to have two components: intimacy and commitment. Intimacy is the warm, close, sharing aspect of a relationship. Commitment is the intent to continue the relationship even in the face of difficulties. Researchers believe commitment is a good predictor of the stability of a relationship.

Central Route Persuasion

attitude change path in which interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts; occurs mostly when people are naturally analytic or involved in an issue; more thoughtful and durable and more likely to influence behavior

Peripheral Route Persuasion

attitude change path in which people are influenced by incidental cues, such as the speaker's attractiveness

psychology of aggression

aversive events, though suffering sometimes builds character, it may also bring the worst in people. Studies in which animals or humans experience unpleasant event reveal that those made miserable often make others miserable; dominating behavior, which boosts testosterone levels in the blood, believing you've drunk alcohol, whether you actually have or have not, frustration, aggressive role modes, rewards for aggressive behavior

presence of others

can motivate people to exert themselves or tempt them to free ride on the efforts of others, make easy tasks easier and difficult tasks harder, enhance humor or fuel mob violence; interacting with others can similarly have both bad or good effects

aggression replacement program

cognitive behavioral intervention for reduction of aggressive and violent behavior, originally focused on adolescents. It is a multimodal program that has three components; Social skills, Anger Control Training and Moral Reasoning.

outgroup homogeneity

the tendency for people to view ingroup members as more diverse than outgroup members; we recognize how greatly we differ from other individual in our groups, but we overestimate the similarity of those within other groups; they, the members of some other group, seem to look and act alike, and we are diverse

solomon-asch experiment

conducted an experiment to investigate the extent to which social pressure from a majority group could affect a person to conform; used a lab experiment to study CONFORMITY, whereby 50 male students from Swarthmore College in the USA participated in a 'vision test.' Using a line judgment task, Asch put a naive participant in a room with seven confederates; confederates had agreed in advance what their responses would be when presented with the line task. The real participant did not know this and was led to believe that the other seven participants were also real participants like themselves; On average, about one third (32%) of the participants who were placed in this situation went along and conformed with the clearly incorrect majority on the critical trials.

social script

culturally modeled guide for how to act in various situations; mental tapes for how to act, provided by our culture

preservation of innovation

culture's accumulated knowledge made possible by language

social control

defined as the regulation of individual or group behavior as a method of enforcing conformity and compliance to established norms or expectations; power of the situation

situational attribution

explanation of individual behavior as a result caused by external influences that stem from the environment or culture in which that individual is found; people infer that a person's behavior is due to situational factors

dispositional attribution

explanation of individual behavior as a result caused by internal characteristics that reside within the individual; people infer that an event or a person's behavior is due to personal factors such as traits, abilities, or feelings

attitude

feelings often based on our beliefs, which predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events.

Social Facilitation

stronger responses on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others; is the tendency for people to perform differently when in the presence of others than when alone. Compared to their performance when alone, when in the presence of others, they tend to perform better on simple or well-rehearsed tasks and worse on complex or new ones

overt prejudice

such as denying children of a particular racial group the opportunity to attend school, is discrimination that explicitly (openly and consciously) expresses negative beliefs and emotions. this prejudice has decreased, but subtle prejudice lingers. Researchers found that 9 in 10 White respondents took longer to identify pleasant words (such as peace and paradise) as "good" when presented with Black-sounding names rather than White-sounding names. Priming people with a flashed Black face rather than a White face also makes them more likely to misperceive a flashed tool as a gun.

ethnocentrism

tendency to use your own culture as the standard by which to judge and evaluate other cultures

cost-benefit analysis

term that refers both to: helping to appraise, or assess, the case for a project or proposal, which itself is a process known as project appraisal; and. an informal approach to making decisions of any kind

personal space

the buffer zone we like to maintain around our bodies

Culture

the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next.

Group Polarization

the enhancement of a group's prevailing inclinations through discussion within the group; When people are placed into a group and these people have to deal with some situation, the group as a whole typically has some overriding attitude toward the situation. Over time and with group discussion, the group's attitude toward that situation may change. it changes in such a way that the group attitude is enhanced and strengthened; people within a group discuss an idea that most of them either favor or oppose

Deindividuation

the loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity; to be deindividuated is to be less self-conscious and less restrained when in a group situation; often occurs when group participation makes people feel aroused and anonymous; lose self-consciousness = to become deindividuated; occurs when group participation makes people feel aroused and anonymous

Groupthink

the mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives; fed by overconfidence, conformity, self-justification, and group polarization; is a phenomenon when a group of people get together and start to think collectively with one mind. The group is more concerned with maintaining unity than with objectively evaluating their situation, alternatives and options.

best odds of helping someone

the person appears to need and deserve help, the person os on some way similar to us, we have just observed someone else being helpful, we are not in a hurry, we are in a small town or rural area, we are feeling guilty, we are focused on others and not preoccupied, we are in a good mood

obedience highest when

the person giving the orders was close at hand and was perceived to be legitimate authority figure; authority figure was supported by a prestigious institution. compliance was somewhat lower when Milgram dissociated his experiment form yale; the victim is depersonalized or at a distance, even in another room; there were no role models for defiance; that is, no other participants were seen disobeying the experimenter

mere exposure effect

the phenomenon that repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them.

frustration-aggression principle

the principle that frustration—the blocking of an attempt to achieve some goal—creates anger, which can generate aggression; frustration creates anger, which may generate aggression, especially in the presence of an aggressive cue, such as a gun; frustration (and aggression) arise less from deprivation that from the gap between reality and expectations, which may rise with education and attainments.

Social Psychology

the scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another.

bystander effect

the tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present; people are less likely to offer help to someone in distress if other people are also present; probability that a person will receive help decreases as the number of people present increases; diffusion of responsibility contributes to the bystander effect. A person does not feel as responsible for helping someone if several others are also present, since responsibility is distributed among all those present

fundamental attribution error

the tendency for observers, when analyzing another's behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition; runs strongly in individualistic Western countries.

Fundamental Attribution Error

the tendency for observers, when analyzing another's behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition; strong in individualistic Western countries

Social Loafing

the tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable; the tendency of individuals to put forth less effort when they are part of a group. Because all members of the group are pooling their effort to achieve a common goal, each member of the group contributes less than they would if they were individually responsible

self serving bias

the tendency to attribute successes to internal factors and failures to situational factors. This bias tends to increase as time passes after an event. Therefore, the further in the past an event is, the more likely people are to congratulate themselves for successes and to blame the situation for failures (take credit for successes by attributing them to internal personal causes and failures to external causes.

ingroup bias

the tendency to favor our own group; arbitrarily creating an us-them distinction, by grouping people with the toss of a coin, leads people to show favoritism to their own group when dividing any rewards

other-race effect

the tendency to recall faces of one's own race more accurately than faces of other races. (Also called the cross-race effect and the own-race bias.); An example of categorization--the tendency to recall faces of own race more accurately than that of another race.

social exchange theory

the theory that our social behavior is an exchange process, the aim of which is to maximize benefits and minimize costs; explains why people help others. They argue that people help each other because they want to gain as much as possible while losing as little as possible. The social responsibility norm also explains helping behavior.

scapegoat theory

the theory that prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame; too boost our own sense of status, it helps to have other denigrate; that is why a rival's misfortune sometimes provides a twinge of pleasure

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

the theory that we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts(cognitions) are inconsistent. For example, when our awareness of our attitudes and of our actions clash, we can reduce the resulting dissonance by changing our attitudes; behavior shapes attitudes because we feel discomfort when our actions and attitudes differ, we reduce the discomfort by bring our attitudes more into line with what we have done; mental discomfort (psychological stress) experienced by a person who simultaneously holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values; For example, thinking smoking causes lung cancer will cause dissonance if a person smokes. However, new information such as "research has not proved definitely that smoking causes lung cancer" may reduce the dissonance.

Attribution Theory

the theory that we explain someone's behavior by crediting either the situation or the person's disposition.

discrimination

unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group and its members; predisposition to action; negative BEHAVIOR; increases stereotyping and prejudice through the reactions it provokes in its victims

altruism

unselfish regard for the welfare of others

vivid cases

violent cases are readily available to our memory and therefore influence our judgment of a group

decision making process

we help only if the situation enables us first to notice the incident, then to interpret it as an emergency, and finally to assume responsibility for helping; They notice the incident. They interpret the incident as being an emergency situation. They assume responsibility for helping

blaming the victim

when unable to help victims of misfortune, we tend to blame them for causing their own misfortune or for not taking steps to prevent or avoid it. partly due to just world phenomenon

actor-observer discrepancy

when we are the actor, we tend to attribute our own behavior to external causes. when we are the observer of someone else's behavior we tend to attribute their behavior to internal causes