psych exam 3 study guide

social psychology
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Terms in this set (23)
social psychology
Study of individuals thoughts and feelings

social identity and influence
social cognition
how people think about themselves and the social world; more specifically, how people select, interpret, remember, and use social information to make judgments and decisions
You should be able to define person perception, social categorization, attribution, attitudes and prejudice. What goes into defining social categories?
Person perception: when your reactions are determined by specific perceptions
Social categorization: putting people into groups
Attribution: understand behaviors of individuals
Attitudes: learned responses either positive or negative to people/ ideas prejudice: negative attitudes to people
What are explicit cognitions? Implicit cognitions? How are they different?
Explicit: learned from social associations
Implicit: based on beliefs on certain things, your attitude towards things
What is a "halo effect" and how does it affect our impressions of others?
When your impressions affect another person's thoughts
Define social norms.
Acceptable behaviors throughout society
What are the three components of attitudes? You should be able to apply these on a "real-world" example.
Affective, Behavorial, cognitive
You should know the difference between "in-group" and "out-group. What are biases associated with each?
in-group: the social group to which one belongs ("Us)
In-group bias: tendency to make favorable attributions to members of your in-group
Ex) ethnocentrism - viewing own culture as superior to others
Thrifty vs stingy

out group: the social group to which one does not belong ("Them")
Out-group homogeneity effect: tendency to see members of the out group as more
similar to one another
everyone blends in and is the same - easy way to classify and organize complex
social information quickly
Describe the fundamental attribution error, blaming the victim, hindsight bias, self-serving bias, and self-effacing biases. What is the just-world hypothesis? Are there cultural variations in attributions of behavior (hint- collectivistic and individualistic)? What is ethnocentrism?
Attribution: process of inferring the causes of people's behavior, including one's own

Fundamental Attribution Error: tendency to spontaneously attribute behavior of others to internal,
personal characteristics, while ignoring or underestimating role of external, situational factors

Hindsight Bias: tendency to overestimate ones ability to have foreseen or predicted the outcome of an
event

Just-World Hypothesis: assumption that the world is fair; therefore people get what they deserve +

Self-Serving Bias (individualistic cultures): tendency for people to credit themselves for successes
(internal attributions) & blame failures on external circumstances (external attributions)

Individualistic: tend to emphasize independence, conformity tends to carry a negative connotation

Collectivistic: conforming while privately disagreeing tends to be regarded as socially appropriate, publicly challenging the judgments of others, especially those in one's in group, would be considered rude

Ethnocentrism: using the standards of your own culture to judge other cultures
What is prejudice and what is discrimination? How does this vary from a stereotype? Are between ethnic group differences smaller or larger than within group differences?
Prejudice: negative attitudes towards a specific group
Discrimination: when one group is treated differently than the other groups
What is stereotype threat and how might it impact your behavior?Can negatively impact performance (stereotype threat) Are hard to shake, incredibly long-standing Can become expectations that are applied to all members of a given group Can be both misleading and damaging Can cause discounting evidence that contradicts a stereotypical belief Can be maintained when people create exceptions in the face of contradictory evidenceDescribe the Robber's cave experiment and the Jigsaw classroom experiment. What were the implications of these studies?Robbers cave: tried to bring groups together to reduce prejudice but showed that the need to have commonalities to bond Jigsaw: made students depend on one another to succeed in the experimentWhat are implicit attitudes and what makes them difficult to address compared to explicit attitudes and biases?evaluations that are automatic, unintentional, and difficult to control Explicit attitudes are attitudes that are at the conscious level, are deliberately formed and are easy to self-report. On the other hand, implicit attitudes are attitudes that are at the unconscious level, are involuntarily formed and are typically unknown to us.Define persuasion and describe what assumptions persuasive techniques are based on.Deliberate attempt to influence the attitude and behavior of another person rule of reciprocity (door in face technique), rule of commitment (foot in the door technique)Describe the persuasion techniques. You should be able to come up with examples of each."it is working for other people" Tell them how it can help them use the word we not just youDescribe the two types of social influence.Normative social influence: subjects are strongly attracted to the group and want to be a member of it Informational social influence: subjects are facing a unanimous majority of 4 to 5 people, they must give their response in front of the groupWhat is conformity? Are there cultural variations of conformity? Describe Solomon Asch's experiment, its results, and its implications?adjusting opinions, judgment, or behavior so that it matches that of other people or the norms of a social group or situation. Solmon: All but one in group was "undercover" Seating was rigged Asked to rate which line matched a "standard" line "undercovers" were instructed to pick the wrong line 12 of 18 times 76% participants conformed to at least one wrong choice Subjects gave the wrong answer (conformed) on 37% of specific traits Participants stuck to their guns on about 2/3 of trailsWhat is obedience? Describe Milgram's Obedience study. List the factors that influence obedience. Are there factors that undermine obedience?Obedience: The performance of a behavior in response to a direct command Milgram's obedience study The electric chair - With the help of the real participant, who had been assigned to the role of the teacher, the experimenter straps the "learner" into the electric chair. The learner was part of the deception of the study "teacher" is brought to other room and told to shock "learner" every time they get a question wrong Milgram's obedience study: predictions - Milgram asked psychiatrists, college students, and middle-class adults to make predictions: All three groups predicted that all subjects would refuse to obey at some point Predicted that most subjects would refuse at 150 volt level, where learner first protested Predicted that only a few rare individuals go to the full 450 volts Milgram's obedience study: results - Two thirds of Milgram's subjects (26 of 40) went to the full 450- volt level Of those who defied the experimenter, not one stopped before the 300-volt level No difference between men and women Has been replicated Describe the Stanford Prison experiment. Stanford prison experiment Showed the powerful influence of situational roles and conformity to implied social rules and norms 24 males were assigned to be a prison guard or prisoner Results (after 4 to 6 days) - Guards belittled the prisoners Prisoners rebelled or obeyed guardsDescribe the Stanford Prison experiment.Showed the powerful influence of situational roles and conformity to implied social rules and norms 24 males were assigned to be a prison guard or prisoner Results (after 4 to 6 days) Guards belittled the prisoners Prisoners rebelled or obeyed guardsYou should be able to define altruism and aggression. What are prosocial behaviors? What are the two types of aggression? Do these vary between sex or culture? Are there cultural-based variations of aggressions?Altruism: helping another person with no expectation of personal benefit Prosocial behavior: any behavior that helps another Two types of aggression: Proactive: goal-directed behavior designed to achieve an objective beyond physical violence Reactive: refers to aggressive behavior in response to perceived threat or provocation and is the main type of aggressive behaviorDefine the bystander effect. What factors increase the likelihood of bystanders helping? Factors that decrease the likelihood? What accounts for the bystander effect?Factors that increase likelihood: Personality factors "Feel good, do-good effect" Feeling guilty Factors that decrease likelihood: Bystander effect: the more people present, the less likely everyone is to help someone in distress Size of city/town Reasons for bystander effect Two reasons: Diffusion os responsibility: the presence of other people makes it less likely that any one individual will help someone in distress because the responsibility to help is shared among everyone Motivation: Desire to behave in socially acceptable way (normative social influence) and to appear correct (informational social influence)What is locus of control? What is the difference between internal and external locus of control? Be able to apply these terms.Locus control: Locus of control is the degree to which people believe that they, as opposed to external forces, have control over the outcome of events in their lives. The concept was developed by Julian B. Rotter in 1954, and has since become an aspect of personality psychology. People who develop an internal locus of control believe that they are responsible for their own success. Those with an external locus of control believe that external forces, like luck, determine their outcomes.Describe psychological, genetic, and biochemical explanations for aggression.Psychological: a range of behaviors that can result in both physical and psychological harm to yourself, others, or objects in the environment. Aggression centers on hurting another person either physically or mentally. Genetics: The MAOA gene -located in the X chromosome- is also known as the warrior gene, since abnormal versions of the gene often result in aggressive behaviors. Several animal models in which the function of MAO-A is defective display excessive levels of serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine (noradrenaline) in the brain. Biochemical: Biological causes include genetics, medical and psychiatric diseases, neurotransmitters, hormones, substances of abuse, and medications.