Social Psychology Notes

social psychology - the study of how we think about influence and relate to one another.

social thinking - how we think about one another?

fundamental attribution theory - idea that we give casual explanations for someone's behavior. we credit behavior either to situation or person's disposition.

fundamental attribution error - tendency to underestimate the impact of a situation and overestimate the impact of personal disposition.

attitudes - belief or feeling that predisposes one to respond in a particular way to something.

foot-in-the-door phenomenon - tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request.

door-in-the-face phenomenon - tendency for people who say no to huge request, to comply with smaller ones.

cognitive dissonance theory - we do not like it when we have either conflicting attitudes or when our attitudes do not match our actions. when they class, we will change our attitude to create balance.

SOCIAL INFLUENCE

conformity - adjusting one's behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard.

asch's study - line study
conditions that strengthen conformity.

• one made to feel important
• group has at least 3 people
• group is unanimous
• one admires the group's status
• one has made no prior commitment
• the person is observed

REASONS FOR CONFORMING

normative social influence - influence resulting from a person's desire to gain  approval or avoid disappointment.

informative social influence - influence resulting from one's willingness to accept others' opinions about reality.

obedience - milgram's experiment

social facilitation - improve performance of tasks in the presence of others. occurs with task that are difficult or not yet mastered.

social loafing - tendency for people in a group to extent less effort when pooling efforts towards a common goal than if they were individually accountable.

deindividuation -  loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity.

group polarization - concept that a group's attitude is one of extremes and rarely moderate.
ex. black panther & KKK

group think - mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in decision-making group overrides common sense.

self-fulfilling prophecy - occurs when person's belief about others leads one to act in way that induce the others to appear to confirm the belief.

SOCIAL RELATION
how we relate to others

prejudice - unjustifiable attitude toward a group of people. usually involves stereotyped beliefs (generalized beliefs about a group of people)

social inequalities - a principle reason behind prejudice.
ingroup - "us" people with whom one shares a common identity.
outgroup - "them" those perceived as different than one's ingroup.
ingroup bias - the tendency to favor one's own group.

scapegoat theory - theory that prejudice provides an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame.

aggression - any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or to destroyed.

PSYCHOLOGY OF AGGRESSION

frustration-aggressive principle:

• blocking of an attempt to achieve some goal
• creates anger which generates aggression. 

conflict - perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas.
social traps or prisoner's dilemma

just-world phenomenon - belief that those who suffer deserve their fate.

reciprocity norm - expectation that people will help those who have helped them.
social responsibility - expectation that people help those who
depend on them.

ATTRACTION
proximity - geographical location
mere exposure effect:

• perpetuated exposure to something breeds liking.
• mirror image concept

reciprocal liking - you are more likely to like someone who likes you.
similarity - opposites don't attract. birds of a feather flock together. similarity breeds content.
physical attraction

LOVE
passionate love - an aroused state of intense positive attraction of another.
compassionate love - the deep affection attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined.
compassionate love works because of equity (fair/equal) and self-disclosure (tells everything)

ALTRUISM - unselfish regards for others. ex. kitty genovese

bystander effect - less willing to help if there are other bystanders around.

social exchange theory - idea that our social behavior is an exchange process, which we maximize benefits and minimize cost.

peacemaking - give people superordinate (shared) goals that can only be achieved through cooperation win win situation through mediation.

GRIT - (graduated and reciprocated initiative in feminist reduction) strategy of conflict resolution based on the defusing effort that conciliatory gestures can have on parties in conflict.