Social Psych: Group Membership & Obedience
What impacts conformity?
Group size
Lack of consensus
Social and cultural context
Explain the differences between prejudice, discrimination, and stereotypes.
Prejudice: Negative feelings, opinions, and beliefs associated with a stereotype
Discrimination consists of overtly biased behaviors
Stereotypes are thoughts and beliefs (cognitions) about others based on their group membership
What does Rotter's cognitive behavioral theory of personality say about behavior?
Behavior is a function of 2 things: the expectancy that a reinforcement will occur and the values ascribed to the reinforcement
people also vary on how much control they believe they have (locus of control)
What is the difference between idiographic and nomothetic approaches to personality assessments?
Idiographic focuses on the unique characteristics of the individual, nomothetic looks at how people vary on common characteristics.
What do people form in-group favoritism?
What are the implications of in-group favoritism.
People exhibit ingroup favoritism even if the differences between groups is arbitrary
With ingroup favoritism, you are likely to do more favors and be more willing to forgive their mistakes compared to outgroup members.
This is one reason some groups have a higher level of status and more resources that others.
When groups are formed we see that people tend to view outgroup members are less varied than ingroup members: outgroup homogeneity effect.
What is the difference between normative and informational influence on conformity? Give an example of each.
Normative influence: Go along with the crowd to fit in avoid looking foolish
Ex. Return home and everyone is wearing socks and sandals so you do the same when you would have never done that before
Informational influence: When theres uncertainty or ambiguity about what is expected, look for cues about how to respond
Ex. Are in a foreign country and you notice everyone removes their shoes when entering, so you do the same
When is someone likely to make a personal vs situation attribution.
Give an example of each.
About others: Focus on personal
About ourselves: Focus on situational
What are the five personality traits that make up the OCEAN model?
Openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism
What are the 3 basic characteristics of temperament?
Activity Level: overall amount of energy and action a person exhibits
Emotionality: intensity of emotional reactions
Sociability: general tendency to affiliate with others
What is the definition of personality?
Personality is a person's characteristic thoughts, behaviors, and emotional responses
Identify, explain, and provide examples for the three compliance strategies discussed in class.
Foot in the door: Small to large request
Door in face: large to small request
Low-balling: Initially agree to lower price, more likely to agree to pay for more
What are the three main things to consider when developing a persuasive message?
When is persuasion most effective?
Source, content, receiver
According to Bandura's reciprocal determinism theory, what three components influence personality?
Our environment, person factors, and behavior
Name and define the five commonly used self-related biases discussed in class.
Better-than-average effect: The tendency for people to perceive their abilities, attributes, and personality traits as superior compared to the typical person.
Upward social comparison: The tendency for people to contrast themselves with someone who they perceive as “better-off” than them
Downward social comparison: The tendency for people to contrast themselves with someone who they perceive as “worse-off” than them
Self-serving bias: The tendency for people to take personal credit for success but blame failures on external factors
Unrealistic optimism about the future: The tendency for people to believe they will have good life outcomes, regardless of contradictory evidence
Dark triad: narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy
Light triad: Kantianism, humanism, and faith in humanity
When do people engage in deindividuation?
What are the implications of deindividuation?
More likely to become deindividuated when aroused, anoutonous, and when responsibility is defused.
Engage in things they wouldn't normally do
What is cognitive dissonance and how can you decrease it?
Cognitive dissonance: Uncomfortable state due to contradiction between 2 attitudes or an attitude and behavior
Decrease cognitive dissonance by:
Describe Eysenck's biological trait theory of personality
Personality traits are based on biological processes that produce behaviors, thoughts, and emotions (differences in arousal produce the behavioral differences between extraverts and introverts)
Major dimensions of personality: introversion/extraversion, emotional stability, and psychoticism
What is the fight-flight-freeze system?
Our “stop or escape” system, related to punishment sensitivity, promotes behavior that protects from harm (e.g., staying still, escaping, fighting)
What is the Bystander Intervention Effect and why does it occur?
Bystander Intervention Effect: Failure to help those in need by an observer when other people are present
Fear of social blunder, diffusion of responsibility, anonymous, risk/benefit ratio
What concepts does Milgram's Experiment and Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment highlight?
Briefly discuss the implications of each experiment.
Milgram- Obedience, obedience to authority
Implications of results: Ordinary people can be coerced into obedience by insistent authorities, even if it goes against what they would normally do
Zimbardo- Deindividuation, authority
Implications of results: When placed in a group with anonymity, individuals may engage in behaviors they wouldn't normally do; Our environment and the roles we are assigned can significantly impact our behavior
What is the bystander intervention effect? Provide an example.
The greater the number of people there are present, the less likely people are to help a person in distress
What does the revised reinforcement sensitivity theory say about personality?
Personality is rooted in two motivational functions: approach rewards, avoid pain
How much of our personality is attributed to genetics?
40-60%
Twin and adoption studies show us that people's personalities are more similar to biological family members than adoptive family members
According to the biological trait theory, who has a higher baseline of arousal? Extraverts or introverts?
Introverts
Introverts are typically above their optimal levels of arousal. Because they do not want any additional arousal, they prefer quiet solitude with few stimuli.