Psychology: Chapter 12 (part 1)

victims must have done something to deserve what happened to them

Cause of behavior is situational like luck, accidents, or actions of others

personal, refer to abilities, moods or efforts

the process through which we notice, interpret, remember and use information to make judgments about the world

• a "thin slices" study
• like primacy effect
• Students' ratings of professors after watching 30 seconds of professor teaching silently have a .76 correlation rate with students' ratings at the end of the semester

things that we see first have a stronger weight, so first impressions do matter

i.e. "thin slices study": Ambady/Rosenthal study

• its very hard to unlearn impressions
• once we make judgments, we try to validate them

• people tend to behave in ways that confirm their own/other's expectations
• i.e. Rosenthal & Jacobson experiment

• Confirmed the self-fulfilling prophecy & pygmalion effect
• Teachers were told certain students were "bloomers" and would see a dramatic IQ increase in their IQ by the end of the year. These students were randomly selected, but the teachers' treatment of them lead to a higher increase in IQ

The greater expectation placed on a person, the better they perform

Like self-fulfilling prophecy

Proved in the Rosenthal & Jacobson experiment

When employers interview minority applicants, their behavior can cause minorities to perform more poorly

tendency to underestimate influence of situational factors and overestimate dispositional factors

i.e. on gameshows, observers view the questioners as more knowledgable than the contestants

tendency to see other people's behavior as dispositionally caused while we see our own as a result of situational factors

people take credit for success and deny responsibility for failures

• easterners are more likely to take situational factors into account when considering others' behavior
• (eastern group mentality)

a description of the way in which people explain the causes of their own and others' behavior

• When something unexpected happens
• When events are bad, painful or unpleasant
• When we are uncertain about something important to us

behavior-> fundamental attribution error -> adjustment

rule of thumb which allows one to make quick judgments which are often erroneous

Decisions are  influenced by the background and the way the information is presented

i.e. approval ratings were different for "Hilary Clinton" & "Hilary Rodham Clinton"

mental shortcut where people use a number or value as a starting point and then adjust their answer from that initial number insufficiently

• i.e. "Is the Mississippi R longer or shorter than 500 miles?"
• or 
• Haggling strategy

judgment based on information readily available in memory

i.e. we overestimate the causes of death we hear the most about

tendency to estimate the likelihood of an event in terms of how typical it seems 

ignores base rate information

Subjects in a dark room were shown a light and while alone estimated the distances the light moved

• the most direct form of pressure
• orders, commands
• ex. Milgram Obedience Experiment

• in between most & least pressure
• request, appeal
• ex. Milgram, Zimbardo Prison Experiment

• most indirect pressure
• expectations
• ex. Asch line experiment

the change of beliefs that occurs when a person privately accepts the position taken by others

a superficial change in behavior, without a corresponding change of opinion, produced by real or imagined group pressure

the desire to be right

the desire to be liked

• unanimity
• group size
• group cohesion
• salient norms
• public commitment
• culture influence

• liking 
• commitment
• scarcity
• reciprocity
• modeling
• authority

people observe themselves to figure out the reasons they act the way they do

ease or difficulty a person has retrieving an attitude from memory

• explicit: conscious attitudes
• implicit: unconscious attitudes (i.e. advertisements)

a contradiction between an attitude & a behavior or 2 attitudes causes anxiety & tension

• "justifying difficult decisions"
• When a person has positive attitudes about many options but must only pick one
• The person focuses on the positive aspects of the chosen option and the negative options of those not chosen
• Example of Cognitive Dissonance Theory

When participants don't have an adequate reason for enjoying something, they have to create one

• ex. Festinger & Carlsmith
• Those who were paid more to lie about how enjoyable they found the boring task, rated the task as less enjoyable than those who were paid more.

Example of cognitive dissonance

After people put themselves through discomfort to join a group they feel as if it is more important 

Aronson & Mills study: women who were made to feel uncomfortable to be able to watch a video found the video more interesting

ex. hazing to join fraternities, cults etc.

Example of Cognitive Dissonance Theory

the presence of others enhances our performance

ex. bicyclists pedal faster when together

people work less hard when in a group

Groups make riskier decisions than individuals

Person begins with a very small request, secures agreement and then makes a separate larger request

People are more likely to agree to a smaller request after refusing a large one.

ex. haggling

• Role playing
• Saying becomes believing
• The Foot in the Door technique
• Justification of cruel actions

In the Zimbardo prison study, prisoners & guards internalized their role to such an extent that they believed the attitudes associated with their actions.

Patty Hearst was kept in a kidnappers' closet for three months and adopted her kidnappers' beliefs just from hearing them


Stolkholm syndrome

• Measured conformity
• Showed participants three lines and asked the groups to identify which was the longest. 
• 75% of individuals conformed to the group's incorrect answer at least once

• Measured obedience & compliance
• Participants were instructed to "shock" a patient who answered a question incorrectly
• 2/3 went all the way to the highest voltage (!)

• Stanford Prison Experiment
• Compliance
• many prisoners developed extreme stress but no one quit the experiment

• 1. Insufficient justification
• 2. Justifying effort
• 3. Justifying difficult decisions