Psych 135 Final Smurda

cognitive account for stereotyping

- frees up mind for other tasks - reduces ambiguity

what does self esteem do for us

- gives us confidence - helps us cope - good for survival (the sociometer hypothesis)

motivational account for stereotyping

- if they are ---- , then I am better by comparison - stereotyping enhanced when threatened

cognitive mechanisms of biased answers

- others dont give us negative feedback - think of how your friends would answer4 about you - have more insights into your own attempts to be a good friend

motivational mechanisms of biased answers

- unconscious self-protective mechanisms - have unreasonably high self-esteem - we choose how to define a comparison dimension

in what 3 ways can stereotypes be wrong

1: The overall generalization can be wrong (ie what if Asians were better at driving overall) 2: the generalization misapplied to individuals (the may not work for a single person) 3: we misunderstand the cause of the true stereotype (ie we dont consider the situation -> blacks being hostile but tend to live in impoverished areas)

what are the 2 main ways to reduce dissonance

1: change attitude (stance) 2: justify/minimize conflict (rationalization)

what are the main factors that determine helping

1: noticing something is wrong 2: deciding it is an emergency 3: deciding one is personally responsible

sterotype

A generalized (sometimes accurate but often overgeneralized) belief a group of people.

ben Franklin effect

A person who has performed a favor for someone is more likely to do another favor for that person than they would be if they had received a favor from that person.

conjunction fallacy

An error that occurs when people estimate that the odds of two uncertain events happening together are greater than the odds of either event happening alone.

low-ball technique

Asking for only PART of a request initially to get compliance and then later asking for the rest *linked to cognitive dissonance (being consistent)

Affirming the Consequent

If A then B B Therefore, A *this is an invalid argument

neglecting base rates

People often FAIL TO TAKE BASE RATE information (Relative frequency with which an event occurs in the population, Koehler, 1996) INTO ACCOUNT when making judgements ie flipping a coin is ALWAYS a 50% chance regardless of the previous flip

What are the two main reasons we give bias answers

cognitive mechanisms motivational mechanisms

Self-Evaluation Maintenance Theory

The idea that one's self-concept can be threatened by another individual's behavior and that the level of threat is determined by both the closeness of the other individual and the personal relevance of the behavior. (strong and weak social ties)

what did a study show us about the cognition behind preference ranking

it is an automatic process *people under cognitive load ranked the same as those without

self-fulfilling prophecy

a belief that leads to its own fulfillment ie Black Wednesday

Covariation model

a theory that states that to form an attribution about what caused a person's behavior, we systematically note the pattern between the presence or absence of possible causal factors and whether the behavior occurs -Distinctiveness -consensus -consistency

what % do people think they excel in a thing compared to others typically

about 70-80%

what heuristic is linked to FAE

anchor and adjustment heuristic - we fail to account for the situation bc the behavior is what we notice first and we anchor to it

door-in-the-face technique

asking for a large commitment and being refused and then asking for a smaller commitment

foot-in-the-door technique

asking for a small commitment and, after gaining compliance, asking for a bigger commitment

which heuristic is linked to naive realism

availability heuristic - our own experiences are available in our mind rather than others

availibility heuristic

basing the estimated probability of an event on the ease with which relevant instances come to mind -law of small #s -neglecting base rates - conjunction fallacy

counter normative behavior

behavior doesn't match the situational provocation, so we make dispositional inferences *bc the behavior is so unusual it is all we see so we don't apply the situation to their disposition B > S

Do people with HSE help or hurt others to feel better

both --> whichever is readily available for them

Ross Study with married couples

both spouses think they do about 16/20 tasks *we are better at remembering the things we do compared to others

who can you more easily tell is trying to rationalize

children rather than adults

how does group size influence conformity

conformity will go up with group size up to 5 people, but after that, it levels off

brain regions of social and physical pain

dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex Anterior Insula

situational factors

environmental stimuli that affect a person's behavior ie the ball rolled bc I kicked it

pluralistic ignorance

error of assuming that no one in a group perceives things as we do *we assume they know something that we don't

what was the importance of the castro study

even when people think the paper was written by someone who was forced to take that stance they still think that the author believes the argument of the paper --> shows that people rely on behavior before situations *FAE

Correspondence inference theory

formula to explain what we do in day to day life D=B-S (disposition is behavior - situation)

Self Esteem

how much you value, respect, and feel confident about yourself - what you feel about yourself

prejudice

how we treat others based on their group affiliation

autokinetic effect

illusion, caused by very slight movements of the eye, that a stationary point of light in a dark room is moving

what are the 2 basis of conformity

information (we dont want to miss something) norms (we want to fit in)

why do we make biased responses

it feels good to remember positive things about ourselves most of us get mainly positive feedback we more easily remember the times we do good vs other people

why do we stereotype

it frees up our mind so we can focus on more important things (cognitive account) reduces ambiguity (motivational account)

self serving biases study on married couples

married couples asked to rate how much they and their spouse took responsibility of tasks in the house subjects thought they were responsible for 16/20 - we have better memory for our own behavior than others

Morphing study with attractiveness

most people pick a photo 20% more attractive than themselves - linked to motivational factors

discrimination

negative behaviors towards others due to their affiliation with a given group

attribution substitution

occurs when one must make judgments that are complex, but instead they substitute a simpler solution or apply a heuristic ex. A pencil and an eraser cost $1.10 together. If the pencil costs one dollar more than the eraser, how much does the eraser cost? most people answer 10 cents (incorrect)

how does subjective construal affect how good we think we are at something

our own construal and interpretation of how something is defined as good is usually a reflection of how we ourselves do it

self serving bias study of pictures of faces

people tend to choose a face 20% more attractive than their own in a lineup of faces (morphs)

Brown and Dutton study on feedback

people with HSE feel better than those with LSE - people with HSE focus on their strengths / LSE weaknesses

techniques used to make others comply

reciprocity foot in the door low ball door in the face

which heuristic is linked to stereotyping

representative heuristic - we cannot expect someone to be like their stereotype just bc that behavior has occurred many times

normative behavior

social behaviors that follow norms and meet ideal social standard B=S The situation is what is causing the behavior

dispositional factors

something to do with personal (internal) factors ie the ball rolled bc it is round

expected utility theory

states there is a linear constancy between subjective and objective value *there is a large difference between an initial gain vs loss but not for a gain and larger gain and vice versa

law of small numbers

the expectation that information obtained from a small number of people represents the larger population

bystander apathy

the failure to offer help to people in need when others are around

why do people claim to enjoy being paid less to tell a lie

the lie is not as justified by being paid a larger amount of money > therefore you change your attitude to minimize dissonance

diffusion of responsibility

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

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

anchoring

the tendency, in making judgments, to rely on the first piece of information encountered or information that comes most quickly to mind

prospect theory

theory that suggests that a decision, or argument, can be framed in different ways and that the framing affects risk assessments consumers make

why do women enjoy a club that had more intense initiation processes

they like it because they feel more dissonance and they get to be doing something they normally dont do (ie taboo discussion)

what is a benefit of biases

they simplify our world

how did the cyberball experiment link to conformity

those who were rejected in the game were more likely to conform after it

esteem

to regard with respect

do people prefer to hear good things about themselves or the truth

truth > we want to hear accurate information (ie the best good trait and the worst bad trait) *we want to hear good but if we hear bad we want the truth to improve

upward vs downward social comparison

upward: to people who are better than you (provides information) downward: someone less than us (makes us feel good)

informational pressure of conformity

wanting to be RIGHT internalization

normative pressure of conformity

wanting to be accepted compliance

why do we anthropomorphize?

we are built to infer other peoples mental states

salience operations model

we tend to make behavioral assumptions automatically but accounting for the situation is a cognitive process Behavioral characterization > initial disposition attribution > situational correction

circumscribed accuracy

we tend to see people in the same situations, so we don't notice invisible situational factors and assume more disposition than exists

actor-observer effect

we tend to think of our behavior as situational and others as their disposition

Self serving bias

we think we are better than we are at things

Risk Averse Gains

when it comes to gains we are risk aversive and when we think of preventing losses we are risk seeking

The main point of the monty hall problem

when one of the other 2 doors is removed many think the 66% that it is the right option then falls onto the one other door, but in reality it still is only a 33% chance of being the correct door

counter attitudinal essays

when people are not forced to write a topic that goes against their beliefs they later forget their initial stance and it changes to being more on the opposite side which they wrote for

reciprocity

when someone helps you, then you feel you should return the favor

dissonance

when we are inconstant with ourselves or our beliefs

harmonizing

when you conform to fit into a group

what is the limitation of the covariation model

you dont typically see every person in every kind of setting enough to really know if their behavior is "normal" for them