Social Psychology Exam #3

The Weapon's effect (Berkowitz 1968)

"The finger pulls the trigger but the trigger may also be pulling the finger." The standard explanation of this weapons effect on aggressive behavior involves priming; identification of a weapon is believed to automatically increase the accessibility of aggression-related thoughts. Two experiments using a word pronunciation task tested this hypothesis. Both experiments consisted of multiple trials in which a prime stimulus (weapon or nonweapon) was followed by a target word (aggressive or nonaggressive) that was to be read as quickly as possible. The prime stimuli were words in Experiment 1 and pictures in Experiment 2. Both experiments showed that the mere identification of a weapon primes aggression-related thoughts

Social Inequality

"Unequal status breeds prejudice"; Once inequality exists, prejudice helps to justify the inequality; unequal sharing of social rewards and resources; Ex: Income: Whether incomes are reasonably evenly distributed throughout a community or whether there are sizable differences between those that relatively little and those that earn relatively much

Modern Racism Experiment

(Dovidio et al. 1997) Participants read about a trial in which the defendant was found guilty of murdering a white police officer; For half of the participants the defendant was black and for half he was white Results: High prejudiced participants were more likely to recommend the death penalty if the defendant was black; Low prejudice participants were less likely to recommend the death penalty if the defendant was black UNLESS they learned that a black jury member had recommended the death penalty

Terror Management Theory

(Greenberg et al., 1986) When reminded of death, or when our self-esteem is threatened, we tend to favor people that agree with and uphold our worldview and derogate people who disagree with or threaten our worldview

Realistic conflict theory

(Sherif, 1954; Tajfel & Turner , 1979) hostility between groups is caused by direct competition for limited resources; Attitudes & Behaviours of in-group members towards the out-group will reflect the objective interests of in-group; Absence of conflict = harmony; Conflict present = hostility & antagonism; Ex: Robber's Camp with two camps of pre-teen boys. The two groups were first unaware of each other and were studied for how they coalesced and formed bonds within the group. -After a few days, both camps were made aware of each other, and a variety of activities that were meant to increase friction and competition between the two groups were introduced. These led to a nearly immediate expression of group solidarity and intergroup discrimination. Rising tension was so profound that the second phase had to be discontinued after a few days. -The third part of the experiment was to present both groups with shared goals that they could only earn through cooperation. As the groups began to work together, shared appreciation and solidarity developed. By the end of the study, strong bonds had grown between the two camps.

"Scapegoat"/Enemyship

(Sullivan et al 2010) Having an Enemy increases sense of personal control; someone who takes the blame but doesn't deserve to be punish.(fall guy); Ex: The person who was blamed when three employees plan a prank together and then blame it on one person, getting him fired

Social Identity Theory

(Tajfel & Turner , 1979) People favor ingroups over outgroups in order to enhance their self esteem; Suggests that individuals try to raise their own self esteem through personal success or associating themselves with successful groups; Ex: England is the best country in the world! We can also increase our self-image by discriminating and holding prejudice views against the out group (the group we don't belong to). For example, the Americans, French etc. are a bunch of losers!

Modern Racism Experiment

(Tykocinski & Bareket2009) The effectiveness of the "lost e-mail technique" (LET) as an unobtrusive attitudemeasurewassuccessfullydemonstratedin2studies.InStudy1,wefoundthatIsraelistudents were more likely to reply to a similar other than to a minority groupmember (an Israeli-Arab or an immigrant from the former Soviet Union). In Study2, LET was administered to professors and administrators, and its effectiveness wascompared to a more traditional self-report measure. Although professors showedless discrimination on the self-report measure than did administrators, they werenevertheless discriminative in their responses to lost e-mails. These results suggestthat professors are not necessarily less prejudiced, but probably are better able todetect attitude probes and more motivated to appear unbiased

Social dominance orientation (Pratto et al., 1994)

-A motivation to have one's group dominate other social groups -People high in SDO often favor policies that maintain social hierarchies and choose careers that promote existing hierarchies -Men tend to be higher on SDO than women

Why did the culture of honor develop?

-A tradition of herding prevailed in the South and West, as opposed to farming in the North -Rural environment -Importance of maintaining a reputation of "toughness" -Retributive style of justice -Similar perceptions and reactions have been observed among participants from Brazil and Chile (Vandello & Cohen, 2003; Vandello et al., 2009), whose cultures also emphasize honor and have an economic history of herding, but not among Canadians who are more neutral with respect to honor.

Evolutionary perspective

-Aggression is genetically programmed into men for mating purposes -Establishes dominance over other males to illustrate the superiority of their genes -Prevents other males from taking their mates

Instinct (Lorenz 1966)

-Aggression secures advantages in the struggle to survive. -Aggression against another organism attempting to acquire or gain control over survival-related resources, property -Attack against self or offspring; competition over social status or threats to reputation

Genetics

-Aggressiveness is a stable personality characteristic (temperament). -Children are more aggressive -Evidence for the heritability of aggressiveness -->Twin studies: In the classical twin design, monozygotic (identical) twins share their common environment and they are assumed to share 100% of their genes. ... The twin correlations summarized in Table 8.2 can be used to estimate the genetic and environmental influences to aggressive behavior.

Contact online (Hamburger, 2008)

-Anxiety: Many of the situational factors that can foster feelings of anxiety in social situations (e.g., having to respond on the spot, feeling under visual scrutiny) are absent in online interactions. -->Online participants have more control over how they present themselves and their views (e.g., being able to edit one's comments before presenting them). People may feel better able to express themselves and feel more at ease with their online partners than they would if they were interacting in person. -Generalization from the contact: One can manipulate the degree of individual versus group saliency in a given contact situation to achieve a desired outcome. -->The online environment may be said to heighten the perception of the individual members as representative of their disparate groups, while simultaneously fostering feelings of kinship and attachment to the "new group" composed of all members taking part in the exercise.

Behavioral response options for dealing with interpersonal encounters with prejudice

-Confrontation -Target empowerment model: A model suggesting that targets of bias can employ strategies that deflect discrimination, as long as those methods aren't perceived as confrontational -Compensation: Self affirmation

Minimal group paradigm (Turner & Tajfel 1979; 1982)

-Creates groups based on trivial criteria -->The children are given points they can distribute to others -Results: -->Children are more likely to give points to members of their own group -Ingroup bias

Ingredients for positive intergroup contact (Gordon Allport)

-Equal status between groups in situation -Intimate and varied contact that allows people to get acquainted -Intergroup cooperation toward a superordinate goal -Institutional support

Overgeneralization Experiment

-Hamilton & Gifford 1976 -Jane, a member of Group A, visited a sick friend in the hospital. Kate, a member of Group B, cheated on a test. Kate, a member of Group B, cheated on a test. Sue, a member of Group A, helped a friend with her homework. Mary, a member of Group A, helped a friend with her homework. Mary, a member of Group B, was the lead in her school play. Debby, a member of Group A, was arrested for drunk driving. Group B is in the minority... Participants rated the minority group more negatively even though the ratio is the same...

Ways in which stereotype and social identity threat can be eliminated

-Identification with role models -Reappraisal of anxiety -Self-affirmation -LEARNING SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY!

Positive Outcomes for Jigsaw Classroom

-Minority student academic performance improved -Liking for group members and school improved -Minority students attended school more frequently -All students showed more empathy toward others

How does concern about appearing prejudice impact interracial interactions?

-Nonblack participants asked to interact with a black confederate experience greater physiological arousal than those asked to interact with a white confederate (Mendes et al. 2002) -Implicit prejudicial attitudes can lead to biased nonverbal behavior and a greater perception of bias by the target (Dovidio et al. 2002)

Why are stereotypes problematic?

-Overgeneralization -Self-Fulfilling Prophecy -Stereotype Threat

Pain (Berkowitz et al 1981)

-Participants immerse their hand in a bucket of freezing cold ice-water or in warm water as they were told to administer noise blasts to who they thought was another participant in the study. -Participants in the pain condition administered a greater number of aversive loud noise blasts to the confederate in the study.

Prejudice & self-esteem(Fain & Spencer, 1997)

-Participants received positive or negative personality feedback to either enhance or threaten their self-esteem -Participants then rated a job application from either a Jewish (a group that has experienced high levels of prejudice) or Italian woman -Three studies demonstrated that when individuals evaluated a member of a stereotyped group, they were less likely to evaluate that person negatively if their self-images had been bolstered through a self-affirmation procedure, and they were more likely to evaluate that person stereotypically if their self-images had been threatened by negative feedback. Moreover, among those individuals whose self-image had been threatened, derogating a stereotyped target mediated an increase in their self-esteem. The authors suggest that stereotyping and prejudice may be a common means to maintain one's self-image

The Weapon's effect (Berkowitz & LePage 1967)

-Participants were made angry or not -Participated in a room that contained either a gun or a badminton racquet -In a subsequent task participants were given the opportunity to administer shocks to another participant -Results: Researchers found that participants who had been angered and then left in the presence of the aggressive stimulus gave more shocks to the confederate than those who had been angered but had seen the non-aggressive stimulus or no stimulus and those who had not been angered -Concluded that "many hostile acts which supposedly stem from unconscious motivation really arise because of the operation of aggressive cues"

The Robbers Cave Experiment (Sherif et al., 1954/1961) Intergroup Conflict and Cooperation

-Participants: -->11 year old boys at a summer camp in 1954 -Study -->Boys are split into 2 groups and engage in summer camp activities in these groups -->Each group gives itself a name and wears this name on their caps and t-shirts -->Competition is arranged between the two groups and quickly leads to intergroup conflict

How is Prejudice Is Not Always Easily Controlled

-People face limitations when they attempt to control their biases. -Cognitive control is impaired when judgments of others are made when a person is aroused or upset. -Regulation of automatically activated thoughts can be difficult when people are pressed for time or distracted. -Controlling biases can have negative effects. -Exerting control in one context makes it more difficult to do so in another.

Dual process view of prejudice

-Process 1: Stereotypes and biased attitudes are brought to mind quickly and automatically through a reflexive or experiential process. -Process 2: People employ reflective or cognitive processes to regulate or control the degree to which those thoughts and attitudes affect their behavior and judgment. -->Neurological mechanisms support these processes

What didn't work in Sherif's Robber's Cave Study?

-Propaganda -Contact under noncompetitive circumstances

Motivational Sources of Prejudice

-Realistic conflict theory -"Scapegoat" / Enemyship -Social identity theory -Terror Management Theory

Key mechanisms by which optimal contact creates positive change

-Reducing stereotyping (decategorizing) -Reducing anxiety -Fostering empathy *Remember that the conditions of positive contact (previous slide) need to be met for optimal contact

How do stereotypes form?

-Social Categorization -Overgeneralization -Illusory correlations -Heuristics -Models -In-groups & Out-groups

Culture of honor

-The Southern and Western regions of the US are characterized by a culture in which white males feel that killing is justifiable: -->To protect one's home and property -->To defend one's honor after an insult -South is more violent than the north -Differences are limited to white men, and situations where there is an insult to home or property -Southern White men respond with more anger and testosterone when insulted relative to Northern White men -Southern white men are more approving of others who have killed to protect their honor

Brain & Body Chemistry in Aggression

-The role of the amygdala -Hormonal influences -->Testosterone -Gender differences in aggression -->Serotonin

Relational aggression

-Using manipulation, exclusion and gossip to channel hostilities -Used to damage relationships or reputations -It is worse in sixth and seventh grades -Unlike physically fighting, girls fight with body language and relationships. -Friendship is a weapon -Turning your back on someone can be devastating -The cliques may even come up with actual enumerated rules. -Popular students are so accustomed to power that they don't recognize when they are dominating or silencing other -Girls perceive that they must compete with each other for status and power -Parents' emeshment give this weight -Ex: Mean Girls highlighted the manner in which girls typically bully each other: gossiping, hurtful pranks, name-calling and put-downs.

Challenges to reducing prejudice

-Values and beliefs are integral to psychological security. -Prejudice often serves specific psychological functions for people. -Established prejudiced views and stereotypes constitute self-perpetuating schemas. -Some people are unaware of their prejudices and their influences. -Changing the culture -->changing these laws, customs, and norms. Changes in institutional structure (Brown v. Board of Education)

Three major models of aggression

1)Family 2)Culture and subculture 3)Mass media

Superordinate goals

A shred goal that can be achieved only through cooperation among individuals or groups; goals that unite group memebrs as a whole and reqire cooperative effort; To promote harmony amongst warring campers sheriff introduced such goals creating problems with the camp water supply making it necessary for both groups to cooperate to restore the water (study done to pull a rope with a tug of war rope)

Heuristics

A simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms; Ex: Using a rule of thumb; Ex: An educated guess; Ex: An intuitive judgment,Ex: Guesstimate; Ex: Stereotyping; Ex: Profiling; Ex: Common sense

Stereotype Threat (Steel & Aronson, 1995)

African Americans and intelligence; European and African American participants were asked to complete a test that was either framed as an intelligence test or as nondiagnostic of intelligence; Results: African American's who took the intelligence test performed more poorly than those who took the same test when it wasn't framed as an intelligence test

Instrumental aggression

Aggression as a means to some goal; Ex: At the Olympic figure skating tryouts in 1994, the world watched in shock as images of a battered skating hopeful, Nancy Kerrigan, flashed across television screens. Initially it appeared as though a random attacker had approached Kerrigan and battered her around the leg and knee area. But, after an intensive investigation, it was soon determined that the attack was anything but random. Her rival, fellow competitor Tonya Harding, along with her ex-husband, had hired someone to carry out the attack in order to secure Harding's spot in the Olympic figure skating competition. Instead, Harding was banned from ever competing in the sport again

Hostile agression

Aggression driven by anger and performed as an end in itself; Ex: A fight in a bar with a stranger

Affective/ reactive aggression

Aggression driven by emotions

Aggressive Cue

An object that is associated with aggressive responses (like a gun) and whose mere presence can increase the probability of aggression

Conformity

Belief transmission in families; a type of social influence involving a change in belief or behavior in order to fit in with a group; Ex: Dress Code at work; Ex: Socially expected behavior at work

Direct aggression

Behavior intended to hurt someone to his or her face (physical or verbal threatening); Ex: destroying a person's property , getting someone else to physically hurt the person

Stereotype

Beliefs about the personal attributes of a group of people; sometimes overgeneralized, and resistant to new information-->Cognitive component; Ex: Only boys can play sports; Ex: Asians are good at math

Overt racism

Blatant obvious and almost always meant to harm: lead to mental and physical injury violent destruction or even death; Ex: Any laws which directly discriminates against a particular minority group, such as the 19th century Jim Crow Laws for racial segregation; Ex: Hate crimes, in which individuals of a certain race or religion are physically assaulted; Ex: Sexual or verbal assaults on female employees, to deny them equal rights at the workplace; Ex: Acts of vandalism, where religious sites or personal property belonging to certain groups are damaged.

Ambivalent sexism

Characterized by both negative resentful beliefs and feelings (hostile sexism) and affectionate, chivalrous, but potentially patronizing beliefs and feelings (benevolent sexism)

Mass Media and Aggression (Huesmann & Eron 1985)

Correlation between amount of TV watched at age 8 and severity of criminal activity by age 30 r = .30

Prejudice & Discrimination (DOJ, 2001)

Data from the Department of Justice indicate that, per capita, police are roughly five times more likely to shoot a Black person than a White person. That is, knowing nothing but a person's race, the likelihood of being killed by police quintuples if the person is Black rather than White.

What regions of the US (Northeast, Midwest, South, West) has had the highest rate of homicide since the early 1800s?

The Southwest

Jigsaw classroom (Aronson, et al 1978)

Designed to reduce prejudice and raise self-esteem of children by: -Dividing them to small desegregated expert groups and giving each child unique responsibilities -Regrouping students with 1 expert per topic in each group - making each child dependent on the other children in the group to learn the course material and do well in the class

Stereotypes as Automatic

Devine (1989); Three studies tested basic assumptions derived from a theoretical model based on the dissociation of automatic and controlled processes involved in prejudice. Study 1 supported the model's assumption that high- and low-prejudice persons are equally knowledgeable of the cultural stereotype. The model suggests that the stereotype is automatically activated in the presence of a member (or some symbolic equivalent) of the stereotyped group and that low-prejudice responses require controlled inhibition of the automatically activated stereotype. Study 2, which examined the effects of automatic stereotype activation on the evaluation of ambiguous stereotype-relevant behaviors performed by a race-unspecified person, suggested that when subjects' ability to consciously monitor stereotype activation is precluded, both high- and low-prejudice subjects produce stereotype-congruent evaluations of ambiguous behaviors. Study 3 examined high- and low-prejudice subjects' responses in a consciously directed thought-listing task. Consistent with the model, only low-prejudice subjects inhibited the automatically activated stereotype-congruent thoughts and replaced them with thoughts reflecting equality and negations of the stereotype. The relation between stereotypes and prejudice and implications for prejudice reduction are discussed. Results: -Automatic component - stereotypes are automatically triggered under certain condition -Controlled process - is able to refute or ignore the stereotype

The Contact Hypothesis

Enhancing positive attitudes toward people from other cultures; Having neutral stereotypes about people; Perceiving heterogeneity about people; Equal status, cooperative Interdependence, common goal, appropriate normative context; Ex: If you could get more non-Muslims to interact with Muslims, whether as neighbors or business partners or in a host of other contexts, that percentage would likely drop

Reducing prejudice

Entails changing the values and beliefs by which people live.

Desensitization

Exposure to violent TV dampens emotional response to subsequent violent event; Ex: The ironic effects of cartoons

Overgeneralization

Fail to perceive individuating characteristics (gets you to the wrong conclusion!)-->leads to prejudice; tendency to interpret a single negative event as a never ending pattern of defeat and failure; Ex: When a guy hurts a girl and then she starts to think that all men are untrustworthy or cheaters; Ex: When you lose your job and then start to think that you are not good or a total failure

Informational social influence

Family defines the evaluation of outgroup members-->Modeling; when we go along with the majority because we want to be right and do the right thing; Unclear Situation:- In an Unclear situation we are more likely to look around and make a decision based around what everyone else is doing; In a New situation:- In a new situation we are pulled into behaving a certain way. For example a new job; Ex: when good police officers witness another officer engage in police brutality, but chooses not to report the abusive officer because he conforms to police culture of always supporting officers no matter what, despite his personal belief that the abusive officer should be reported.

Dehumanization as a justification for mass killing (e.g., Castano & Giner-Sorolla, 2006)

Found that when people were made to feel a sense of collective responsibility for their ingroup's mass killing of an outgroup, they viewed members of the outgroup as less human

Mass Media and Aggression (Bushman & Anderson 2001)

Found the correlation numbers between a lot of factors; found a r=.3 correlation between mass media and violence

Frustration-Aggression hypothesis (Dollard Et al.1939)

Frustration increases the probability of an aggressive response; Proposed that if we experience frustration, this leads to aggression. The aggression is a cathartic release of the build-up of frustration. Dollard explains that if the individual is prevented from achieving a goal by some external factor, then this will lead to frustration which will always lead to aggression. The aggression cannot always be directed at the source of aggression, which may be abstract such as lack of money, or too powerful, as the risk of punishment is too high

In-groups

Groups in which an individual feels a sense of membership, belonging, or identity; "Us"; A social group toward which a member feels respect and loyalty; social group to which a person psychologically identifies as being a member; Ex: Sports team; Ex: Family; Ex: Everyone with blue eyes

Out-groups

Groups with which an individual does not feel a sense of membership, belonging, or identity; "Them"; A social group toward which a person feels a sense of competition or opposition; Ex: People who are not within your family; Ex: People who do not have blue eyes; Ex: People who are not on the sports team

Covert racism

Hidden usually subtle difficult to document treatment which proves harmful to members of subordinate racial groups: originates within established and respected forces in society therefore receives far less public condemnation: often oblivious to the victim, but not as overt as traditional forms of racism: can be individual or institutional: more widespread in the US today than overt racism but is still very damaging: includes sabotage tokenism and is almost always intentional; Ex: Male colleagues treating their female counterparts differently, by being extra polite or chivalrous with them; Ex: Universities making subtle changes in their admission criteria to exclude some groups from admission. These changes seem rational, or ethnically neutral, thus preventing any outrage; Ex: A group of middle-aged employees are not promoted, despite having the right qualifications, because of factors like their age, sexuality, or religion. However, they are given rational and palatable reasons for such actions.

Indirect aggression

Involves inflicting pain by destroying the person's property, getting another person to carry out the attack, or damaging the person's social standing through rumors or lies; the perpetrator's identity is not known; Ex: spreading rumors, or lies, exposing secrets about a person, ignoring or betraying the person, building an alliance that excludes the person

Controlled Process

Is able to refute or ignore the stereotype

Sexism (Rudman & Borgida, 1995)

Men watched and rated either sexist or non-sexist television commercials before interviewing a woman for a job Dependent variable - judges rated the men's proximity to the woman interview candidate, their dominance of the interaction, and their sexualized behavior toward the woman; Results: A male's proximity to the woman, the male's dominance, and the man's sexualized behavior toward women all increased after watching the sexist television commercial

Modern Racism

Outwardly acting unprejudiced while inwardly maintaining prejudiced attitudes; Prejudiced attitudes and discrimination surface when it can be hidden behind some other motive-->Patronizing behavior; The mindset that certain races are better or worse with specific abilities; Ex: Black athletes are regarded as naturally athletic and white athletes cannot jump; Ex: Asians are seen as intelligent, while Hispanics are regarded as unintelligent.

Race and Athletics (Stone, Perry, & Darley 1997)

Participants are shown a photo of a black or white athlete and asked to listen to an audio recording of part of a game Participants rate the athlete's performance They rated the athlete as playing a better game if he is black They rated the athlete as playing more intelligently if he was white

Culture of Honor (Cohen et al. 1996)

Participants: Southern and Northern white males IV: Participants were either insulted or not DV1 & 2: Participants perceived masculinity and testosterone are measured As participants walk back through a narrow corridor, a confederate walks towards them. DV3: when will they move out of the way? In 3 experiments they were insulted by a confederate who bumped into the participant and called him an "a**hole". Compared with northerners--who were relatively unaffected by the insult--southerners were (a) more likely to think their masculine reputation was threatened, (b) more upset (as shown by a rise in cortisol levels), (c) more physiologically primed for aggression (as shown by a rise in testosterone levels), (d) more cognitively primed for aggression, and (e) more likely to engage in aggressive and dominant behavior. Findings highlight the insult-aggression cycle in cultures of honor, in which insults diminish a man's reputation and he tries to restore his status by aggressive or violent behavior.

Out-group homogeneity experiment

Pascallis et al, 2002

Reducing Prejudice Without Contact (Todd et al. 2011)

Perspective taking and empathy; Vividly imagining a day in the life of a young Black man, reduced prejudice in an interview setting. Five experiments investigated the hypothesis that perspective taking--actively contemplating others' psychological experiences--attenuates automatic expressions of racial bias. Across the first 3 experiments, participants who adopted the perspective of a Black target in an initial context subsequently exhibited more positive automatic interracial evaluations, with changes in automatic evaluations mediating the effect of perspective taking on more deliberate interracial evaluations. Furthermore, unlike other bias-reduction strategies, the interracial positivity resulting from perspective taking was accompanied by increased salience of racial inequalities (Experiment 3). Perspective taking also produced stronger approach-oriented action tendencies toward Blacks (but not Whites; Experiment 4). A final experiment revealed that face-to-face interactions with perspective takers were rated more positively by Black interaction partners than were interactions with nonperspective takers--a relationship that was mediated by perspective takers' increased approach-oriented nonverbal behaviors (as rated by objective, third-party observers). These findings indicate that perspective taking can combat automatic expressions of racial biases without simultaneously decreasing sensitivity to ongoing racial disparities.

Instinct theories

Physical and mental instincts such as curiosity and fearfulness cause us to act; Freud (1920) -Eros - the life instinct -Thanatos - the death instinct

Aggression

Physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt another living thing; Any form of behavior that is intended to harm another person, oneself, or an object; Ex: Physical - biting, hitting, and kicking; Ex: sending threatening messages through emails, phone calls, or social media, or making threats against someone's life, shouting, and swearing.

Prejudice

Preconceived negative judgments of a group and its individual members. A hostile or negative attitude toward a distinguishable group, based solely on their membership in that group; Attitudes and affect component; Ex: Eddie decides that he doesn't like Jeff just based on the fact that Jeff eats meat because he believes that meat eaters don't care about the environment

Sexism

Prejudice and discrimination based on a person's sex; Institutional practices (even if not motivated by prejudice) that subordinate people of a certain sex; Ex: Street calling/cat calling; Ex: hearing that you are a prude if you choose not to hook up with someone, but get called a slut if you do

Racism

Prejudicial attitudes and discriminatory behavior toward a people of a given race; the prejudice that members of one race are intrinsically superior to members of other races; Ex: Look at how Muslims/Arabs are being represented in the media after 9/11. The majority of the population of the US thought that Muslims/Arabs should go through further scanning and security at airports. After 9/11, some Muslims/Arabs were asked to leave the plane they were on because of their ethnicity.

Stereotype Threat (Stone et al, 1999)

Race and Athletics; Task framed as a test of sports intelligence = White athletes outperform black athletes; Task framed as a test of natural athletic ability = Black athletes outperform white athletes

Zillmann's Excitation transfer theory(Zillman 2006)

Residual excitation from essentially any excited emotional reaction is capable of intensifying any other excited emotional reaction ; Ex: when the girl who went along to a horror movie is so terrified that she snuggles up on her companion and finds him irresistibly attractive

Frustration Aggression hypothesis Revised (Berkowitz 1989)

Revised this theory to state that frustration and anger coupled with cues for aggression from the environment can lead to aggression; he argued that frustration doesn't always lead to aggression. He stated that aggression would only occur in the presence of certain cues. For example, cues such as the presence of weapons will be more likely to trigger aggression.

The Police Officer's Dilemma: Using Ethnicity to Disambiguate Potentially Threatening Individuals (Park, Judd & Wittenbrink 2002)

Since 2000, we have been working to develop and refine a first-person-shooter videogame, which presents a series of images of young men, some armed, some unarmed, set against realistic backgrounds like parks or city streets. The player's goal is to shoot any and all armed targets, but not to shoot unarmed targets. Half of the targets are Black, and half are White. We have used this game to investigate whether decisions to "shoot" a potentially hostile target can be influenced by that target's race. Basic Findings Our research has provided robust evidence of racial bias in decisions to shoot (Correll, Park, Judd & Wittenbrink, 2002; Correll, Park, Judd, Wittenbrink, Sadler & Keesee, in press; Correll, Urland & Ito, 2006). Participants shoot an armed target more quickly and more often when that target is Black, rather than White. However, participants decide not to shoot an unarmed target more quickly and more often when the target is White, rather than Black. In essence, participants seem to process stereotype-consistent targets (armed Blacks and unarmed Whites) more easily than counterstereotypic targets (unarmed Blacks and armed Whites). Moreover, by recording fluctuations in the brain's electrical activity (ERPs), we have observed that participants differentiate between Black and White targets about 230 milliseconds after the target appears on screen. This type of differentiation has also been observed when participants see a threatening (vs. a non-threatening) image. Strikingly, the more participants differentiate by target race (processing Black targets as if they were threats), the more bias they show on our task (Correll, Urland & Ito, 2006; see Ito & Urland, 2003, 2004, for more on race and ERPs).

Bandura's "Bobo" doll study

Social Learning Theory; Children either watched an adult play aggressively with a "Bobo" doll or didn't watch an adult play with the toy (control group); The children who watched the adult play aggressively modeled their behavior and also played aggressively; Control children didn't play aggressively with the doll

If you can't join them, beat them: effects of social exclusion on aggressive behavior (Twenge, Stucke, Baumeister & Tice 2001)

Social exclusion was manipulated by telling people that they would end up alone later in life or that other participants had rejected them. These manipulations caused participants to behave more aggressively. Excluded people issued a more negative job evaluation against someone who insulted them (Experiments 1 and 2). Excluded people also blasted a target with higher levels of aversive noise both when the target had insulted them (Experiment 4) and when the target was a neutral person and no interaction had occurred (Experiment 5). However, excluded people were not more aggressive toward someone who issued praise (Experiment 3). These responseswere specific to social exclusion (as opposed to other misfortunes) and were not mediated by emotion.

Automatic Component

Stereotypes are automatically triggered under certain condition

What did work in Sherif's Robber's Cave Study?

Superordinate goals

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

The case whereby people have an expectation about what another person is like which influences how they act toward that person and causes the person to behave in a way consistent with this perception; Ex: A teacher, who expects a student to be slothful, is likely to treat that student in such a way that it draws out the very same response he or she expects; Ex: If we start a day and think "I'll have a bad day today," such thinking may alter our actions, and the prediction might be fulfilled by those actions

Normative Social Influence

The child is rewarded or punished or observes others being rewarded and punished for prejudiced attitudes and behaviors; Conforming because we want to be liked and want to fit into a group; social influence based on the desire to be accepted by other people; Most likely to be effected if: 1. The group is important to the person 2. If you spend alot of time with the group 3. Large group = more influence Ex: Solomon Asch Experiment Ex: If you go to a play, many times you will applaud when others do even if you didn't really like the play that much. You do this to avoid the diapproval of the other people

Social Categorization

The classification of persons into groups on the basis of common attributes; Natural & Adaptive; Ex: if you were approached on the street by a poorly dressed, unclean man who was asking you for money, your brain would immediately respond by using these social cues to place him in categories, which should help you to determine how you should respond. You would very likely determine that this was a homeless man with no money, which is a conclusion that your brain has made not on verifiable facts, but by assessing the visual cues and assigning the man to a general category. This is like an operational shortcut used by your brain

Illusory Correlations

The false perception of a relationship between two events when none exists; Ex: A man holds the belief that people in urban environments tend to be rude; Ex: More babies are born when the moon is full

Social Learning Theory

The idea that we learn social behavior by observing others and imitating them; The theory suggests that humans learn social conduct through OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING, where individuals learn social norms through watching a model and replicating their behaviour - idea founded by Bandura

Attributionional ambiguity (Snyder et al., 1979)

The more "noncommon effects" (Jones & Davis, 1965) or "plausible causes" (Kelley, 1972) for the decision, the more there is ambiguity about the reasons for behavior. The more ambiguity there is, the more people are feeling free to satisfy their motives.... Ex. cannot discern why another person has responded to you positively or negatively)

Frustration

The perception that you are being prevented from achieving a goal; Ex: Failing an exam after you studied a lot

Modeling

The social-learning process by which behavior is observed and imitated; Ex: A father wants to teach his teenager how to change the oil in the car. So he has his teen watch as he changes the oil. He tells his teen to write down the steps so he can review the steps on his own. That helps the teen process and remember the information. Then, the next time the oil needs to be changed, the teen does it on his own. His father provides constant supervision.The father offers praise and positive feedback. He also provides correction when necessary to ensure his teen is doing it correctly. That process will help the teen learn how to do it on his own. He'll be better equipped to change the oil without his father's supervision in the future.

Outgroup homogeneity effect

The tendency to assume that there is greater similarity among members of outgroups than among members of ingroups; Ex: Whereas Italians see themselves as quite diverse and different from one another, Americans view Italians as more similar to each other, or more alike; Ex: Democrats see themselves as more diverse than they are viewed by Republicans; Ex: Southerners see themselves as more heterogeneous than they are viewed by the rest of U.S. residents, and so on

Stereotype Threat

The threat of being viewed through the lens of a negative stereotype, or the fear of doing something that would inadvertently confirm that stereotype; anxiety that comes about in members of stereotyped groups that they may behave in a manner that confirms existing stereotypes; becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy (it'll affect performance if you let it); Experiment: black and white participants told they will take a difficult test --> Threat: diagnostic of intellectual ability vs no threat: not diagnostic of ability; Results: Blacks do worse when told it is diagnostic of intellectual ability and do about the same as whites when told nondiagnostic; Ex: White men perform worse on math tests when they think they are competing with Asians

Discrimination

The unjust or prejudicial treatment of (or behavior towards) different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex--> Behavioral component; Unjustified negative behavior toward a group or its members Ex: There was a flood on the floor above you and you and your neighbour have damaged walls because of it. Your neighbour's apartment is repaired within a few days without her having to make any formal request. You ask the landlord when your apartment will be repaired and he tells you that you must file a maintenance request. You do so and still nothing happens. When you complain, the landlord comments that "you people" are so difficult and demanding. You are black and your neighbour is white-->You have the same rights as your neighbour. It is illegal for a landlord to treat you differently because of your race

Stereotype Threat (Spencer et al, 1999)

Women and Math; Women performed less well on the math exam after they were told that they are not as good at math as men are; Women and men scored around the same score in the no gender difference group

Why is aggression so prevalent in the media?

We attend to danger related cues in our environment

The Power of Self-Affirmation(Cohen et al. 2006)

When middle school students spent just 15 minutes at the start of the school year reflecting on their core values, the percentage of African American students who earned a D or lower at the end of the semester was dramatically reduced.