Behavioral Social Med Psych

Psychology of more than one person

Study of increases and decreases to the likelihood of given behavior

Stimuli become associated with one another

Psychology considered in terms of functional role in adaptation to environment

In presence of others, well-learned (dominant) responses exaggerated, subordinate responses suppressed

Unconditioned stimuli elicit certain unconditioned automatic responses

• Behavior is a function of an individual person and his environment
• Attitudes/behaviors influenced by other individuals/groups

Behavior is increased or decreased based on consequences

People are most influenced by those whom they interact most frequently

• In absence of objective physical standards, people compare themselves with similar others
• Upward - set goals
• Downward - look at self more positively

Innate need to affiliate, especially in ambiguous situations and arousal

Withing groups - people have need to stand out and be lost in group

Law of effect applied to watching other's behaviors and consequences

• Preference toward consistency
• Change in attitudes, beliefs to achieve lack of conflicting ideas

In group, individual responsibility minimized - take fewer risks to contribute

• Attribute own successes to individual factors
• Attribute own failures to external factors
• Vice versa for others

• Factors can affect success in persuading an audience
• Primacy/recency
• Two-sided arguments
• Source credibility
• Repetition

Likelihood of given behavior decreases as cost increases (not necessarily monetary cost)

Tend to overvalue immediate rewards, undervalue delayed rewards