PSYC1020: Chapter 15 Study Guide 1) Define social psychology I. Social Psychology ● The study of how individuals’ feelings, thoughts, and behaviors are influenced by social stimuli. - People act differently in groups, alone, when they think they are anonymous ● Individuals: this distinguishes social psychology from other social sciences. - Such as sociology and anthropology ● Social Stimuli: refers to humans and their products including groups, norms, the presence of others, and past social situations. - The interactions and transactions with others. - A lot of different social factors. - We are influenced by the behaviors of others. ● Our social behavior is influenced by both the objective situation and our own subjective experience. - How we perceive the situation, and how others are responding to us. The spotlight effect. 2) What is Hindsight Bias and what is the main problem with engaging in Hindsight Bias when studying social psychology? ● Hindsight Bias: the tendency to exaggerate, after learning the outcome, one’s ability to have foreseen how something turned out. - “I-Knew-It-All-Along” phenomenon. - When you present a project and a family member answers “I already knew that” ● Main problems with the common sense idea is that it occurs after the fact. - Events are much more predictable after the fact. - Causes a problem for students in social psychology. - When we jump to “oh I knew that would happen” we are missing big factors that came to it. - Miss important information (ex. Research results). 3) Explain the Fundamental Attribution Error. I. Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE) ● The tendency for observers to underestimate situational influences and overestimate dispositional influences upon the behavior of others. - We assume that someone's behavior is based on who they are as a person vs what situation they might be going through. - More prominent when it serves our own interests. - Takes a lot more processing to consider all the situational factors. - Even when people know they are causing someone else’s behavior they still commit the FAE. - Intelligent and socially competent people are more likely to make the FAE. ● Everyday examples include when we overestimate the knowledge of doctors, TV game show hosts, and professors. - Assuming a psych professor knows everything about physics and the black hole etc. 4) Define Actor-Observer Effect and the Self-Serving Bias. I. Actor-Observer Effect ● In explaining our own behavior, we are more likely to make situational attributions. - We give ourselves more leeway. Give ourselves more credit to the situational factors. ● The exception is when we make attributions for our own success. ● - We are more likely to attribute success to dispositional factors - self-serving bias. The tendency to make dispositional attributions for our successes and situational attributions for our failures in called the Self-Serving Bias. - When we have success we attribute it to ourselves, our skills, and our abilities. When we do poorly we tend to blame it on the external one. 5) Explain the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy. I. Self- Fulfilling ● A belief that leads to its own fulfillment. ● Our ideas lead us to act in ways to produce their apparent confirmation. - The thought leads to a behavior that increases the likelihood of the thought happening. ● Examples: - Pygmalion in the classroom: experiment of advanced learners with teachers getting the random students assigned and their scores getting higher by the end of the year. - Subjects in a learning experiment who expected to be taught by an excellent teacher, perceived their teacher as more competent and interesting than students with low expectations and thus worked harder. 6) Identify and describe the three types of conformity. I. Conformity ● A change in behavior or belief to accord with others. Types include: a. Compliance: conformity that involves publicly acting in accord with an implied or explicit request while privately disagreeing. - Phones out in class. Disagree but comply with it. b. Obedience: acting in accord with a direct order. - Doesn't necessarily imply that you agree or disagree c. Acceptance: conformity that involves both acting and believing in accord with social pressure. - Acting and agreeing with social pressure. - Sometimes follows compliance. 7) According to Milgram, what are the factors that determine obedience? ● 4 Factors that determined Obedience 1. Emotional distance of the victim: personalizing the victim decreased obedience. - Simple things like learning someone's name. By referring to each other by the name, there was a drop in obedience. 2. Closeness and legitimacy of the authority: the physical presence of the experimenter increased obedience. 3. Institutional Authority: being associated with a university increased obedience. 4. The presence of at least 1 person that disagreed - decreased obedience. - Dramatically decreased obedience. 8) Define Social Roles and Social Norms. ● Roles and Rules A. Social Role: a socially defined pattern of behavior that is expected of a person when functioning in a given setting or group. - Different situations make different roles available. - Different roles make different types of behaviors more or less appropriate and available. - Situations are also determined by the operations of rules (behavioral guidelines for specific settings). - Rules can be explicit or implicit (learned through transactions with others in a specific setting). B. Social Norms: the specific expectations for socially appropriate attitudes and behaviors that are embodied in the stated or implicit rules of a group - Can be broad guidelines and/or can embody specific standards of conduct ● Belonging to a group typically involves discovering the set of social norms that regulate desired behavior in the group setting. Occurs in two ways - You notice the uniformities in certain behaviors of all or most members, and you observe the negative consequences when someone violates a social norm ● Norms serve important functions - Orienting members and regulating social interactions 9) What is Altruism? I. Altruism ● A concern for the welfare of others that is expressed through such prosocial acts as sharing, cooperating, and helping - Behavior that benefits another person, regardless of the actor’s motives - Not taking into account why someone is helping, but someone is helping - Selfishness in reverse - A motive to increase another’s welfare without conscious regard for one’s self-interests. 10) Describe the factors that inhibit altruism. I. What inhibits Altruism? ● Bystander Effect: a person is less likely to help when there are others present - When the situation is ambiguous, people are less likely to help - Confusing or intimidating - Fail to feel responsible because others will help - “We thought someone else would do it” - Taking action may lead to embarrassment or disapproval. ● Time Pressure: people in a hurry are less to help ● Similarity: people are more likely to help those similar to themselves.
