Social Psych

The scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by other people.

• 1. Description - facts, observations
• 2. Explanation
• - Theories that connect and organize existing observations and suggest fruitful paths for future research.
• - Help us make predictions about future events & control previously unmanageable phenomena

Features & Characteristics that individuals carry into social situations (age, sex, race, orientation, attitudes, preferences).

Can be genetic/physical characteristics or based on previous learning

Events or circumstances outside the person

• - Fleeting events (a stranger winks at you)
• - long-lasting influences (growing up in a small town)

How people interact with their situations (Teens may brag to peers but be quiet and polite with teachers)

Interpreting current situation based on thinking about what "might have been"

Bronze medal winners are happier than silver. Silver thinks "might have gotten gold", but bronze thinks "might not have won a medal at all!"

• 1. Attention - selecting information
• 2. Interpretation - giving information meaning
• 3. Judgement - using information to form impressions/make opinions
• 4. Memory - storing information for future use

Over-estimating the causal influence of personality factors on behavior while underestimating the causal influence of the situation.

-Someone acts like a bitch and you assume they are simply a bitch (personality factor), and you fail to take into account that they just received bad news or something to that effect.

A mental representation capturing the general characteristics of a particular class of episodes, events, or individuals.

Great Leaders - want to better the lives of those around them, use charisma to influence others, etc

a mental representation of a specific episode, event, or individual.

exemplars of great leaders might be: Obama, Gandhi, Eleanor Roosevelt, etc.

favorable or unfavorable evaluations of a particular person, object, event, or idea

Our attitude toward ourselves

The process through which we try to control the impressions people form of us.

A norm that defines what is commonly done in a situation. (Typical behavior)

A norm that describes what is commonly approved or disapproved in a situation. (Shoulds and Should nots)

"Rules" - Don't laugh in church

Individualistic - a culture that socializes it's members to think of themselves as individuals and to give priority to personal goals

Collectivistic - a culture that socializes it's members to think of themselves in terms of their relationships and as members of the larger social group. Taught to prioritize the concerns of the relationship partners and groups before their own.

The process whereby a culture teaches its members about its beliefs, customs, habits and language.

When an initially inaccurate expectation leads to actions that cause the expectation to come true.

(Students with parents and teachers who expect them to do well are more likely to perform to their potential.)

• World is Complex and Information-Rich
• Human Attentional Capacity is Limited

• We must use simplification strategies
• Expectations
• Dispositional Inferences
• Heuristics

Mental shortcut used to classify something as belonging to a certain catefory to the extent that it is similar to a typical case from that category.

(Jim drinks a lot of beer and reads sports magazines... therefore he must be a frat boy.)

Mental shortcut used to estimate the likelihood of an event by the ease with which instances of that even come to mind.

(ie: People overestimate deaths from firearms and underestimate deaths from diabetes because they more easily remember hearing about handgun fatalities than deaths from diabetes)

Mental shortcut which begins with a rough estimation as a starting point (anchor) and then adjust this estimate to take into account unique characteristics of the present situation.

(If you want to guess your grade on your final exam, you might use your midterm grade as the anchor and adjust up or down based on unique characteristics - different type of test, you've studied more/less, etc.)

Downward Social Comparison - comparing ourselves with someone less fortunate (Enhances self image - I'm better off than they are.)

Upward social comparison - comparing ourselves with someone who is better off than we are. (I'm in the same general range as those better off than me.) Works when you are on a trajectory to succeed, but can backfire if you realize you're not actually as well off as those you are comparing yourself to.

The tendency to take persona credit for our success and to blame external factors for our failures.

• Do well on a test - I worked hard and I knew my stuff!
• Do poorly on a test - The teacher didn't teach us well, we didn't cover that material, the test was bogus, etc.

Theories that explain how people determine the causes of behavior (explain how I view the the causes of some one else's behavior)

As the number of possible causes for an even increases, our confidence that any particular cause is the TRUE cause decreases.

(Jack Proposed because he loves Jill... or because his friends like her, or because she's wealthy, or because she puts up with his bad habits.)

If an event occurs DESPITE the presence of strong opposing forces, we should give more weight to those possible causes that lead to the event.

(Jack proposed to Jill because he loves her... even though his friends hate her, she's poor, and she nags him about his bad habits.)

• Consensus is Low (Others aren't interested in marrying Jill)
• Distinctiveness is Low (Jack will marry anyone)
• Consistency is High (Jack has been proposing and will continue to propose)

Jack is Desperate

• Consensus is HIGH - (Everyone wants to marry Jill)
• Distinctiveness is HIGH - (Jack wants to marry ONLY Jill)
• Consistency is HIGH - (Jack has been proposing and will continue to propose)

Jill is a Catch!

• Consensus is LOW - (No one else wants to marry Jill)
• Distinctiveness is HIGH - (Jack wants to marry ONLY Jill)
• Consistency is HIGH (Jack keeps proposing)

Jack and Jill have that special magic.

Women - more likely to conform

Men - also want to be liked, but other self-presentational goals (to be viewed as powerful, dominant) compete with the desire to conform.

A technique for increasing individuals' resistance to a strong argument by first giving them a weak, easily defeated version of it.

The way people are persuaded when they focus on the quality of the arguments in the message.

• Used when audience is HIGHLY MOTIVATED and HIGHLY ABLE to think about the message.
• (Provides lasting change that resists fading and counter attacks)

The way people are persuaded when they focus on factors other than the quality of the arguments - such as the number of arguments or the communicator's attractiveness.

• Used when audience has LOW MOTIVATION OR ABILITY to think about the message.
• Change is temporary and susceptible to fading & counter-attacks.

Behavior change designed to match the actions of others.

Behavior change that occurs as a result of a direct request

A change in overt behavior caused by real or imagined pressure from others.

Subjects were shown a standard line and three comparison lines, then told to choose the comparison line that matched the length of the the standard line. Confederates chose the incorrect comparison line. This influenced subjects to conform by choosing the incorrect line as well.

Technique that increases compliance with a large request by first getting compliance with a smaller, related request.

(Wear this small lapel pin supporting our troops... then they are more likely to agree to displaying a lawn sign supporting the troops.)

Research approach in which the researcher infiltrates the setting to be studied and observes its workings from within.

• He enrolled in training programs of a broad range of influence related professions
• -Sales
• -Advertising
• -Fund-raising
• to find common principles of influence

Found Reciprocation, Commitment/Consistency, Authority, Social Validation, Scarcity, Liking/Friendship(Tupperware)

Obedience - subjects told to administer severe electric shocks to participants.

Seeing the relationship one expects to see in a set of data where one doesn't exist

Forming false associations between a minority and a set of statistically rare characteristics - stereotypes.

Biased expectations about what the researcher expects to find may lead the researcher to ignore some influences on behavior while exaggerating others.

Researching flirting in a bar - woman flips her hair - interpreted as a flirt when she was really just trying to get her hair out of her face.

Tendency for people to favor information that confirms ideas they already believe are true. (Preferring sources that confirm your existing attitudes.)

The customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group; also : the characteristic features of everyday existence (as diversions or a way of life} shared by people in a place or time

Instrumental traits - (masculine) - Assertiveness, ambition... allow a person to accomplish difficult tasks or goals

Expressive traits (feminine) - warmth, sensitivity, ability to express tender feelings, empathy - traits that foster relationships with others.

Any characteristic that has a strong effect on the way that person will be judged. (Race, occupation, etc.)

Condition where individuals learn that their behavior has no effect on the environment.

Exposing dogs to electric shocks that they could not escape from Then when they were shocked in a situation they COULD escape from, they didn't bother.

People shape themselves based on other's perceptions of them.

• Sociocultural
• Evolutionary
• Social Learning
• Social Cognitive

Theoretical viewpoint that searches for the causes of social behavior in influences from larger social groups (nationality, social class, current historical trends)

Theoretical viewpoint that searches for the causes of social behavior in the physical and psychological predispositions that helped our ancestors survive and reproduce.

Theoretical viewpoint that focuses on past learnig experiences as determinants of a person's social behaviors.

A theoretical viewpoint that focuses on the mental processes involved in paying attention to, interpreting and remembering social experiences.

An individual's intrinsic interest in an activity will decrease when they are provided with extrinsic rewards. (IE: I love to write, but now that I'm getting paid to write, I don't love it as much. )