CHAPTER 1 Social Influence The effect that words, actions, or presence of people have on our attitudes, thoughts, feelings and behavior Construal The way people interpret the social environment. (How do you construe someone's behavior? Is it polite, rude etc? ) Individual differences aspects of personalities that makes people unique Social psych analyses the individual in the context of a social situation, and it aims to identify universal human nature traits that makes everyone susceptible to social influences, regardless of social class or culture Fundamental attribution error xplaining our own or other peoples' behavior based on personality characteristics alone. Underestimates social influence Behaviorism Approach to understanding behavior through only reinforcing properties of events. (Positive, negative, punishment, operant conditioning) Gestalt psych Studies subjective way in which an object appears in peoples' minds, rather than the objective, physical attributes of the subject. Like perceiving a painting as a whole instead of the sum of its parts. Self-esteem The degree to which one views oneself as good, competent and decent
Social cognition how people select, interpret, remember and use social information to make judgments and decisions. CHAPTER 2 Hindsight Bias Exaggeration of how much one could predict an outcome after knowing that it already happened Observational method No random assignment, not experimental, view and record measurements of natural behavior Difficult to analyse certain behavior which occur rarely or in private (peoples' willingness to help a rape victim Ethnography Study of cultures by observing from the inside ie being a part of it Interrater reliability eliability of an experiment based on level of agreement from 2 or more independent judges Archival analysis Secondary source information based on historical records like newspapers, diaries etc. But information is limited and may be incomplete or inaccurate, and there is no way to prove it Correlational method 2 variables that are measured and linear relationship observed Correlation coefficient degree to which 2 variables are directly related to one another Surveys Asked questions about attitudes or behavior
Can judge relationship between variables that are difficult to observe and are capable of sampling representative segments of the population Random selection To ensure good representation. Experimental method random assignment to different conditions, ensuring that there is no bias Each respondent has equal chance of being picked with no bias. Ensures conditions are identical except for the independent variable Independent variable Variable that is changed to see if it has an effect on some other variable Dependent variable Variable that is influenced by the independent variable.
Dependent variable depends on the level of independent variable. p-value Significant if the value is less than 5% that the results might be due to chance factors. Internal validity Degree to which items within the test measure the construct. Nothing besides the independent variable can affect the dependent variable. By controlling for all extraneous variables and random assignment External validity Extent to which experiment can be generalised to other situations Psychological realism extent to which psychological process in an experiment are similar to those that occur in everyday life
Cover story disguised version of a study's true purpose. This increases psych realism as the story makes people feel they are in a real event. Field research Increases external validity by studying behavior outside the lab in natural settings Replications Ultimate test of external validity. Generalised to different settings, people etc. Meta-analysis Averages results of 2 or more studies to see if the effect of an independent variable is reliable. Basic research Done purely out of curiosity to find answers Applied research Intends to solve particular problems Cross-cultural research
Research done with other cultures to see if psychological processes are present or if unique to certain cultures Informed consent Agreement to participate, full awareness of the nature of experiment that is explained in advance Deception Misleading participants about true purpose of study Institutional review board reviews reasearch and its ethicality before allowing it to be conducted. must include at least 1 scientist, nonscientist and person nonaffiliated with institution. Debriefing Explaining to participants the true purpose of study and what transpired at the end of the experiment. CHAPTER 3 Automatic thinking
Unconscious, involuntary, effortless Controlled thinking is more effortful and deliberate Schemas mental structures that organise our knowledge about the social world, which influence the information we notice, think and remember. Applied to race or sex, schemas are stereotypes. We have schemas because they help us figure out whats going on. Accessibility extent to which schemas and concepts are at the forefront of peoples' minds and therefore likely to be used when making judgments about the social world. Priming Automatic thinking. Process by which recent experiences increase accessibility of a schema, trait or concept. ome chronically accessible due to past experience - constantly active and ready to use to interpret ambiguous situations accessible because it is related to a current goal accessible because of recent experiences Self-fulfilling Prophecy Prediction that causes an event to come true based on positive reinforcements between belief and behavior Peoples expectations of what another is like -> influences how they act to the person -> causes a reaction consistent with peoples' original expectations -; makes expectations come true Often occurs but in some occasions, peoples' true nature will win out in social interaction
Judgmental heuristic mental strategy and shortcut to make quick and effective judgments. Using schemas. Availability heuristic Basing a judgment on self or others on the ease with which you bring something to mind. Linked to accessibility. But sometimes what is easily recalled is not typical of overall picture, leading to wrong conclusions Representativeness heuristic Classifying something according to how similar it is to a typical case. Like how similar Wang Nan is to all China people. Or scoring well in tests because asian Base Rate Information Information about relative frequency of members of different categories in the population
Contents of our Schemas is influenced by our culture Differences in Western and Eastern Culture Western: Analytic Thinking - focusing on properties of objects without considering surrounding context (individualistic culture influence) Eastern: Holistic Thinking - focus on the overall context, in ways that objects relate to each other (collective culture) Controlled thinking thinking that is conscious, intentional, voluntary and effortful. Can switch on and off at will. Counterfactual thinking mentally changing some aspect of the past as a way of imagining what might have been. Aiyah why never get gold but i got silver
Thought suppression Attempt to avoid thinking about something we would prefer to forget. Like ex gf, stomachache etc. Monitoring process - automatic part, searches for evidence that the unwanted thought is about to intrude the consciousness. Then the operating process - controlled part comes into play. The effortful attempt to distract oneself by finding something else to think of. When one is lacking in energy or preoccupied (under cognitive load), the operating process lets the intruding thought go unchecked leading to hyperaccessibility - the unwanted thought occurs with high frequency The ore you try not to think of something, the more it intrudes. Overconfidence barrier People usually have too much confidence in the accuracy of judgments (sure pass! sure this sure that) break this barrier by addressing overconfidence directly, giving possibility of them being wrong teach people directly some basic statistical and methodological principles to learn how to reason correctly, and hoping they will apply these principles CHAPTER 4 Social Perception study of how we form impressions of and make inferences about others Nonverbal communication how people communicate intentionally or unintentionally without words. ody language, touch etc. Mirror neurons brain cell that respond when we perform an action and when we see someone else perform the same action. When people yawn, we yawn. automatically and involuntarily. Encode Express nonverbal behavior like smiling Decode To interpret the meaning of nonverbal behavior. was the smile genuine or sarcastic 6 major emotions that can be recognised cross-culturally happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, disgust. Maybe contempt and pride. Affect blends one part of the face registers one emotion while another part registers a ifferent emotion. blend of anger and disgust. This makes decoding sometimes inaccurate Display rules particular to each culture, and dictate the type of emotions people should show. Emblems gestures with clear, well understood definitions - middle finger, gangsta Implicit personality theory Type of schema used to group various personality traits together. Someone who is kind is also generous Relying on schemas might lead us to make wrong assumptions, might even resort to sterotype One culture's implicit personality theory might be different from another.
America has "Artistic personality" but Chinese have no schema for that. Attribution theory how we infer causes of people's behavior Internal attribution Attribute a behavior to someone's personal traits didn't give money cos selfish External attribution Attribute behavior to a situation outside of person's traits didn't give money cos train was coming Covariation model To form a rational and logical attribution about what caused a behavior, we note the pattern between the presence or absence of possible causal factors and whether or not the behavior occurs. why she dont lend me? did she use to lend me? does she lend to others? " Consensus information extent to which others behave the same way towards the same stimulus as me (low consensus: boss only yells at me) Distinctiveness info how the actor responds to other stimuli (low distinctiveness: boss yells at others too) Consistency information frequency with which the observed behavior between same actor and same stimulus occur over time and circumstance (high consistency: boss yells at me everytime he sees me) When the above info combine into a pattern, attribution is made.
Internal attribution - consensus and distinctiveness low, consistency high External attribution - consensus, distinctiveness, consistency high Situational attribution - assumes something unusual because consistency low. People rely more on consistency and distinctiveness info and less on consensus info. Correspondence bias Tendency to infer that peoples' behavior corresponds to their dispositions and personality. I sit on reserved seat because i am disrespectful Perceptual salience seeming importance of information that is the focus of people's attention. If we can't see the situation, we ignore its importance. e pay attention to people instead (easier to see than the situation) and tend to think that they cause their own behavior. Two step process of making attributions 1. Internally attribute. (quickly and spontaneously) 2. Then adjust this attribution by considering the situation the person was in. But often, we don't adjust enough, and when we are distracted or preoccupied, we skip this step, making an extreme internal attribution. (requires effort and conscious attention) if we consciously slow down and think carefully, and if we're motivated to reach an accurate judgment, we will go the 2nd step.
Actor/observer difference tendency to see other people's behavior as caused by personality but to see one's own behavior as caused by situations Because of perceptual salience - notice other's behavior more than the situation. notice our own situation more than our behavior. What is most salient to me? i don't always look inward. I look outward and therefore my situation more than myself. Because of information availability. I know more about myself so have more consistency and distinctiveness information about myself. and therefore EXTERNALLY ATTRIBUTE. Self-serving attribution endency to take credit for my success by internal attribution, but blame others or situation for failure. Really just want to maintain self-esteem by doing so. We also just want others to think well of us. Due to the type of information available to people, I know i didn't score well for the test because it is unfair. I know i am smart. but my teacher thinks i am stupid. Different info. Defensive attributions explanations for behavior that defend us from vulnerability and mortality feelings believing that bad things only happen to bad people. or terminal diseases happen to us and we take steps to deny the fact. Belief in a just world) In countries with extreme rich and poor, just world beliefs are more common, compared with countries with more evenly distributed wealth. Self-serving bias prevalent in many western societies but less in Asian cultures where values of modesty and harmony is valued (china, japan etc) Individualistic cultures - look outside themselves to explain failure Collectivistic cultures - look inward to explain failure, garnering sympathy and compassion which strengthens harmony between people CHAPTER 5 Self-concept knowledge about who we are Self-awareness act of thinking about ourselves
Cocktail party effect - in a crowded room yu catch someone say ur name with selective attention. after hearing own name in irrelevant stream, percentage of errors for the relevant stream increased spotlight effect - mistaken impressino that ppl are noticing u actually only 23% Self-awareness and self-concept combine to create identity. As children, we have concrete self-concepts, referencing clear-cut observable characteristics like age, sex, hobbies. As adults, we emphasise psychological states and considerations of how others judge us Independent view of self Defining oneself in terms of one's own internal thoughts, feelings, and actions.
Interdependent view of self Defining oneself in terms of relationships with others and recognising that behavior is often determined by thought, feelings, and actions of others. Westerns take more to independent sense of self than Asian culture. Women have more relational interdependence - focusing more on relationships. More likely to discuss emotions than men Men have collective interdependence - focusing on memberships in larger groups. Like sports teams Self-awareness theory when people focus attention on themselves, they evaluate and compare behavior to internal standards and values. hen people are self-aware, it reminds them of a sense of right and wrong and are less likely to err. East asians likely to have outside perspective of self (how others see them). Western have insider perspective (individualistic) Causal theories Theories about what influences feelings and behavior like "absence makes the heart grow fonder" Reason-generated attitude change attitude change resulting from thinking about the reasons for your attitudes. you assume your attitude matches the reasons that are plausible and easy to verbalise. break up because she chews gum loudly.
Self-perception theory when our feelings and attitudes are uncertain, we infer the feelings by observing our behavior and the situation which it occurs. We infer only when we are not sure how we feel. And we judge whether our behavior really reflects how we feel or because it is the situation that made us act that way. not sure if i like classical music. but i listen to 92. 4 willingly. therefore i must love classical music. if gf listens to korean song and not me who tuned in, then i am unlikely to conclude that i listen because i like it Intrinsic motivation esire to engage in an activity because i enjoy it Extrinsic motivation desire to engage because of the rewards that come with it According to self-perception theory, If i were initially intrinsically motivated, but was instead paid to do it, the motivation will slowly change to extrinsic and i'll eventually lose pure interest for it. Over-justification effect results when i view my behavior as caused by extrinsic reasons, making me underestimate the extent to which the behavior is caused by intrinsic reasons Task-contingent rewards rewards for doing a task regardless of results
Performance-contingent rewards rewards from how well i perform a task 2 factor theory of emotion idea that emotional experience is a result of a 2-step self-perception process in which i first experience physiological arousal then seek an appropriate explanation for it. Misattribution of arousal making mistaken inferences about what is causing them to feel the way they do standing on a swaying bridge and receiving a request to do a survey from a chiobu. your initial heightened heart rate due to the scary bridge is misattributed to u liking the girl Appraisal theories of emotion
Your emotion depends on the way you interpret or explain the event, in the absense of psychological arousal. You want to go med sch. your friend gets in instead. you feel threatened and therefore moody. Fixed mindset we have a set amount of an ability that cannot change. fixed intelligence, athletic ability etc. likely to give up after setbacks. less likely to hone skills Growth mindset abilities are malleable qualities that can cultivate and grow. view setbacks as opportunities to improve Social comparison theory learn about own abilities and attitudes by comparing with others
Downward social comparison compare with someone lousier to feel better about myself Upward social comparison compare with someone better to have a goal to strive towards Social tuning groups of friends or people adopting similar attitudes through social influence Self-regulatory resource model stats that we must have plenty of energy when we are trying to control our actions. Suggests that the level of glucose in the bloodstream is spent when we exert self-control Impression management attempt to get others to see me the way i want to be seen. Facebook
Ingratiation using flattery or praise to make myself likeable to another, often a higher-status person (ANGKAT) self-handicapping people create obstacles and excuses for themselves so if they do poorly on a task, people avoid blaming themselves. Self-handicap by creating obstacles that reduce the likelihood they will succeed on a task. So if they fail, they blame on these obstacles rather than lack of ability. Includes drugs, alcohol, failure to prepare Also by devising ready-made excuses in case they fail. Test anxiety, moods, symptoms, events from the past.
We may evntually believe the excuses and exert less effort in future. People dislike others who self-handicap so they run the risk of informal sanctions. Eastern cultures like to save face more than western cultures, and have a more independent view of themselves than ang moh. CHAPTER 6 Cognitive dissonance the feeling of discomfort when you hold 2 or more inconsistent cognitions. caused by an action that is usually against one's usual, typically positive self-conception reduce dissonance by: changing behavior (stop smoking) changing dissonant cognitions (nah.. igs don't cause cancer) adding new cognitions (my grandpa smoke so much also never kena) people experiencing dissonance deny or distort reality to reduce it. Impact bias when people think of how they will react to future negative events, they overestimate the intensity of duration of their negative emotional reactions. Like overestimate emo-time when u break up The need to maintain self-esteem leads us to rationalise our behavior, which may not be rational thinking. Post-decisional dissonance when after making a decision you believe more in your choice and devaluate the rejected choice. he more important and more difficult to revoke the decision, the greater the dissonance. eg which car to by vs which cup irrevocability of a decision always increases dissonance and the motivation to reduce it. lowballing technique - initially quote low price, after customer decides to buy, say it was an error, actual price is higher. frequently customer will still buy. Because there is already a commitment of sorts. Decision to behave immorally Cheating - if u didnt see the chem paper you wouldn't have gotten into SMU Dissonance theory says i'll justify the action by minimising the negative aspects of the action i chose. . e. changing my attitude about cheating that it is not so bad and everyone does it. In terms of personal values: the cheat and non-cheat initially starts at the same attitude. after one decides their path, the attitude towards cheating diverges sharply as a consequence of actions, moving towards one extreme (from its not bad vs it's not good diverge to cheating is no big deal. vs expel cheaters! ) Justification of effort tendency for individuals to increase their liking for something they worked hard to attain. the tougher the initiation, the more we like the group (go OCS i like it so much)
External justification reason for dissonant personal behavior that resides outside the individual, in order to receive a large reward or avoid severe punishment friend altered an ugly dress so now cannot return. since she already changed it, just tell her u like it. you don't want to hurt her by saying it sucks. Internal justification reduction of dissonance by changing something about oneself like attitude. when cannot find external justification, will attempt to find internal. if the same friend is very rich and buying another dress isn't a problem, your external justifying reasons for lying to her is minimal. o you experience internal justification, by noticing some good things about the dress. eventually, you will like the fugly dress. This is counterattitudinal advocacy - occurs when we claim to have an opinion that differs from our true beliefs. when we do this with little external justification, and more internal justific, we will believe it's more and more like the lie we told. Hypocrisy induction arousal of dissonance by making statements that counter peoples' behaviors and then reminding them of the inconsistency between what they advocated and their behavor.
This purpose is to lead individuals to more responsible behavior counterattitudinal advocacy example. people who are made mindful of their hypocrisy between the statements they make and their initial beliefs begin to practice what they preach. Insufficient punishment dissonance when individuals lack sufficient external justification for having resisted a desired activity or object, usually resulting in devaluing the forbidden activity or object. insufficient punishment causes insufficient external justification, which makes one internally justify. eg. child bully. f punishment is harsh - sufficient external justification (i dont beat him cos teacher will cane). if punishment is mild, (why am i not beating him up? ) the bully will refrain from beating, even though he wants to. but he lacks complete justification for not beating, so he will reduce dissonance by convincing himself that he does not really want to beat up the guy. Small reward or mild punishment leads to internal justification -; self-persuasion -; lasting change. Self-persuasion long-lasting form of attitude change that results from attempts at self-justification. ore permanent that direct attempts at persuasion by others because persuasion takes place internally. Ben franklin effect when we do a favour for a person we do not like, we will end up liking the person more. How do u hate your victims? convince yourself that the ppl u killed are less than human convince yourself they deserved to be hurt similar to nazis convincing themselves jews are subhuman Dissonance-reducing behavior less prevalent in collectivist cultures on the surface. Also may be that self-justification occurs in collectivistic societies in more communal ways. In japan, dissonance reduced after saying a boring task is interesting.
In addition, if a jap observes a person he knows and likes saying the that the boring task is interesting, he himself will experience dissonance and change attitudes. CHAPTER 8 Conformity Changing one's behavior due to real or imagined influences of others Informational social influence influence of others leads us to conform because we see them as a source of info to guide behavior. We believe that others' interpretation of an ambiguous situation is more accurate than ours, and will help us choose an appropriate course of action. women learning what an attractive body is from family, friends and media. en's body must be muscular (mens health, gyms etc) Private acceptance conform to behavior of others because genuinely believe that the other people are correct Public compliance conform to behavior of others without necessarily believing what they do is correct. to avoid looking silly or foolish. By wanting to get things right, you are more susceptible to informational social influence. In low importance conditions - conform to others less than in high importance conditions. (same answers for CAT and AS midterm) The more important the decision is to us, the more we will rely on others for information.
Contagion rapid spread of emotions or behavior through a crowd eg mass panic of war of the worlds Mass psychogenic illness occurrence of similar physical symptoms with no known physical cause in a group of people. begins with one or a few reporting physical symptoms, then others who observe these sick people were more likely to fall sick too. Mass media also disseminates mass psychogenic illness quickly. maybe H1N1 swine flu n sars. Ambiguous situation The more uncertain you are, the more u will rely on others. Crisis situation we see how others respond and do likewise (stampedes) When others are experts he more expertise a person has, he will be a valuable guide in an ambiguous situation Social norms rules for acceptable behaviors, values and beliefs deviants can be ridiculed, punished, rejected Normative social influence when influence of others leads us to conform to be liked and accepted by them. (all the 369 tattoos on forehead) results in public compliance and not necessarily private acceptance we tend to wear what's stylish but do u really believe that mat caps are that nice? women's attempts to create ideal body that u learnt through informational influence. men go gym Asch line (long line study) onformity occured because of fear of being the lone dissenter we conform for normative reasons because we dont want social disapproval even from complete strangers. also, we feel discomfort and tension when we stand up for beliefs and go against the group What if you resist normative social influence? group will try to align you with their beliefs by increased communication through teasing and long discussions if all fails, then start to say negative things and withdraw from me Cultural definitions of attractive body changes throughout the years. last time, fat girl was attractive, because looks healthy and fertile.
Today, models all so skinny. Jap culture places great emphasis on conformity than american culture. Normative pressure to be skinny is more for Japs than americans Social impact theory likelihood that i respond to social influence by others depends on strength: how important to me is the group? immediacy: how close is the group to me in space and time during the attempt to influence me? number: how many people in the group? conformity will increase as the factors above increase. Group size and social impact Conformity increased when no of group increased. beyond 3 people, conformity does not increase much.
Groups we identify strongly with and we like will exert more normative influence on us. Conforming to a group earns idiosyncracy credits (can occasionally deviate from group norms without sanction) When no one else in the group believes the same as you, normative social influence is the highest. You tend to conform to them. But if you have 1 ally, pressure to conform greatly decreases. (12 angry men example) when group's culture is collectivistic, people are highly conforming because of factors like cooperation and loyalty. Conformity in collective cultures is a valued trait. but in western it is a negative trait.
Hunting/Fishing culture (western) values assertiveness and independence. Agriculture (eastern) values value cooperative, conformity. Minority influence case where minority of group members influence behavior of majority. through consistency. keep expressing the same view, and different members of minority must agree with one another. majority eventually takes notice. minorities exert influence through informational means, not normative. Majorities obtain public compliance through normative influence Minorities obtain private acceptance through informational influence. 12 angry men best example. Injunctive norms eoples' perceptions of what behaviors are approved or disapproved by others. Motivate behavior through punishment or rewards. Littering is wrong. "DO NOT LITTER" more powerful in the face but promote normative conformity. (public compliance) Descriptive norms perceptions of how people actually behave in given situations, regardless of whether behavior is approved by others or not. Motivate behavior by informing people about what is effective or adaptive behavior. Littering is wrong (injunctive). There are times where people are likely to litter (Descriptive norms) "LITTERING IS NOT WHAT PEOPLE DO HERE"
Less powerful in the face but promote informational influence. creates positive change. Boomerang effect by giving an "average" as a norm, people who usually did less than the average might end up increasing the activity to meet the "average", thereby defeating the purpose of decreasing the undesirable behavior. For example alcohol drinking. "descriptive norm + injunctive norm" mixed messages will have a positive effect on cutting down undesirable behavior. "you used this much energy. On average, households use x amount of energy a day (descriptive - what society does).
You used X+2 energy >:( (the face showing disapproval is injunctive - what is viewed as wrong. ) Obedience to authority behavior of soldiers made killing seem like the right thing (informational influence) and soldiers wanted to avoid rejection from others (normative influence) my lai village massacre. Milgram's studies Authority say "it is essential you continue" difficult to say no to insistent authority Normative influence - acting on their influence in order to be accepted by others When the authority left the room lack of informational influence When authority was replaced by a regular person he lacks expertise, no incentive to follow
Importance of authority figures when 2 authority figures disagreed about whether to continue the study, thereby creating ambigous definition of the situation, 100% of the participants stopped conforming. Other reasons we obey Conforming to the wrong norm Once u follow one norm, it is hard to switch midstream. (slowly realising that delivering electric shocks was not good but still continued) Difficult to abandon the "obey authority" norm in Milgram because: experiment was fast-paced, preventing reflection on the situation. of self-justification. Initial agreement to do the test created internal pressure to obey subsequently.
As participants delivered each shock, they justified in their heads, and each successive ladder made it hard to decide when to stop (215 and 230 volts not much different) of loss of personal responsibility. Experimenters are responsible for end results, and i am "just following orders" Unethical studies have Deception hiding true purpose of the study No true informed consent not told of the full details of study Psychological distress Not told they had right to withdraw Inflicted insight when the study ended, some learnt things about themselves that they didnt agree to beforehand (like obey orders to hurt someone)
