Attribution Theory, Bias & Attitudes

• "Us" refers to people with whom individuals share a common identity.
• "Them" refers to those perceived as different from an individual's ingroup.
• People have a tendency to favor their own group, known as ingroup bias.

Attribution Theory

• This theory explains behavior by crediting either the situation or the person's disposition.
• For example, Juliet seldom talks in class or at the game, while Jack talks nonstop, these actions reveal their personalities.

Fundamental Attribution Error

• This is the tendency, when analyzing behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation.
• It also involves overestimating the impact of personal disposition.

Internal Dispositions

• Dispositional factors are the attribution of behavior to a person's stable, enduring traits.

External Dispositions

• Situational factors are the attribution of behavior to the situation.

Attitude

• Feelings influenced by beliefs predispose responses to objects, people, and events.

Attitude Components

• Cognitive attitude involves knowledge/belief about an attitude object, such as believing spiders are dangerous.
• Emotional attitude involves feelings/emotions about the attitude object, such as being scared of spiders.
• Behavioral attitude is the way attitude influences actions, such as avoiding spiders and screaming if seeing one.

Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon

• The tendency for people who agree to a small request to comply with a larger one later.
• For example, asking for a ride to the racetrack, then asking for Starbucks.

Door-in-the-Face Phenomenon

• Asking for something big and getting turned down, then asking for a smaller request.

Low Ball Technique

• Attracts the first buyer by offering products or services at a bargain price, then adding additional expenses to make the purchase a less of a bargain than originally thought.

That's-Not-All Technique

• When offering something, give it in incremental pieces without allowing a response to each piece, continuing to offer more.

Persuasion Routes

• Central Route Persuasion occurs when interested people focus on arguments and respond with favorable thoughts.
• Peripheral Route Persuasion occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as speaker's attractiveness.
• The elaboration-likelihood model of persuasion suggests that people are more likely to carefully process persuasive messages when they are motivated and capable of considering all available information.

Role

• The role is a set of expectations, or norms, about a social position, defining how those in that position ought to behave.
• Example: Transitioning from middle school to high school.

Social Norm

• This is an understood rule for accepted and expected behavior, prescribing "proper" behavior.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

• This theory involves acting to reduce discomfort (dissonance) when two thoughts (cognitions) are inconsistent.
• When attitudes and actions clash, dissonance is reduced by changing attitudes.

Chameleon Effect

• Mimicry occurs when people inadvertently mimic each other, such as with yawning.
• Automatic Mimicry is to unconsciously imitate others' expressions, postures, and voice tones, a form of conformity.

Social Influence

• Normative Social Influence results from a desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval.
• Informational Social Influence results from a willingness to accept others' opinions about reality.

Conformity

• Conformity is adjust behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard,

Social and Personal Control

• Social Control is the power of the situation.
• Personal Control is the power of the individual.

Influence and Polarization

• Minority Influence is the power of one or two individuals to sway majorities.
• Group Polarization enhances a group's prevailing inclinations through discussion within the group.

Facilitation and Impairment

• Social Facilitation results in improved performance on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others.
• Social Impairment occurs when an individual acts in a less positive way or performs worse when around others.

Awareness

• Deindividuation is a loss of self-awareness and self-restraint in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity.

Social Loafing

• This is the tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling efforts toward a common goal compared to when individually accountable.

Group Think

• This mode of thinking occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives.

Prejudice and Bias

• Prejudice: Unjustifiable, negatively charged attitude toward a group and its members, often involving stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings, and discriminatory action predisposition.
• A generalized, sometimes accurate but often overgeneralized belief about a group of people is known as a stereotype.
• Unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group and its members constitutes discrimination.
• Autonomic Prejudice: Automatic judgement people have towards a different race.

Theories

• Scapegoat Theory suggests prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame.
• Realistic Conflict Theory is a social model that explains how prejudice, negative stereotypes, and discrimination are developed toward members of other social groups.
• Social Identity Theory addresses the ways in which people perceive and categorize themselves with a certain group

Conflict and Goals

• Conflict is a perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas.
• Superordinate Goals are shared goals that override differences among people and require their cooperation.

Aggression and Frustration

• Aggression is any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy.
• Frustration-Aggression Principle states that frustration, by blocking an attempt to achieve a goal, creates anger, which can generate aggression.

Social Traps

• These are short-term solutions to problems that ultimately cause long-term losses.

Stereotypes

• Stereotype Vulnerability is the apprehension experienced by minority group members fearing they might behave in a manner that confirms an existing cultural stereotype.

Race and Identity

• Other-Race Effect is the is the tendency to recall faces of one's own race more accurately than faces of other races.
• A Social Script is a culturally modeled guide for how to act in various situations.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy is when the belief leads to its own fulfillment.

Classrooms

• A Jigsaw Classroom is a teaching method that focuses on fostering student cooperation rather than competition.

Exposure and Love

• Mere Exposure Effect: Phenomenon that repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases or liking of them
• Passionate Love is an aroused state of intense positive absorption in another, usually present at the beginning of a love relationship.
• Compassionate Love is a deep, affectionate attachment felt for those whose lives are intertwined.

Relationships

• Equity is a condition in which people receive from a relationship in proportion to what they give.
• Self-Disclosure is the act of revealing intimate aspects of oneself to others.

Altruism and Social Behavior

• Altruism refers to unselfish regard for the welfare of others.
• Social Exchange Theory: maximize the benefits and minimize costs

Bystander Effect

• It is less likely for any giver bystander to give aid if other bystanders are present

Norms

• Expectation that those will help those needing their help is Social Responsibility Norm
• Reciprocity Norm: Expectation that people will help, not hurt those who have helped them

Graduated Initiatives

• GRIT (Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension Reduction) is the strategy that is designed to decrease tension internationally.

Mutual View

• Mirror Image Perceptions are mutual views often held by conflicting people that sees itself as ethical and peaceful and their opponents as evil and aggressive.
• The victim of a crime or any wrongful act is held entirely or partially responsible for the harm that befell them in the Blame the Victim Phenomenon

Stanford Prison Experiment

• The experiment investigated the psychological effects of being a prisoner or prison guard by assigning college students roles randomly.

Asch Experiment

• Experiment where there were experimenters pretending to be participants.

Milgram Experiment

• A large majority of participants were willing to obey an authority figure even when instructed to do something believed morally wrong.

Performance Theory

• Triplet's Theory compares cyclist's performance when alone with when racing with another cyclist.

Racial discrimination Awareness

• Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Exercise was done by Jane Elliot to divide an elementary school based on eye color.

Explore the concepts of in-groups ('us') and out-groups ('them'), ingroup bias, and attribution theory. Understand impacts of internal and external dispositions on behavior. Learn about the fundamental attribution error, and the nature of attitudes.