Social Psychology Overview Quiz

Social Change

• Social change is the alteration of how people live and interact in a society over time. This includes shifting social norms, behaviors, and institutions.
• Social change is often driven by factors such as technology, economics, and social movements.
• Social change occurs everywhere, but the rate varies.
• Often change is unplanned, but sometimes intentional.
• Even planned change can have unintended consequences.
• Often social change generates controversy.

Forces Impacting Change

• Powerful groups and individuals
• Cost
• Traditional values
• Social movements

Types of Social Movements

• Alternative: Focuses on a specific part of the population and seeks limited change. Examples include MADD and Alcoholics Anonymous (AA).
• Redemptive: Aims to change a specific part of the population by seeking radical change. An example is a cult.
• Reformative: Affects everyone, but aims for partial change. Examples might include environmental movements.
• Revolutionary: Seeks radical change across the entire population. Examples might include communist revolutions.

Why People Fear Change

• Uncertainty feels similar to failure in the brain, leading many to avoid it. Uncomfortable associated feelings are a deterrent.
• Fear of the unknown
• Self-doubt
• Feeling isolated
• Fear of responsibility
• Diffusion of responsibility (no one is taking action)
• Difficulty to realize other options
• Clinging to "stuff" (ex: jobs, routines)

Key Terms

• Enculturation: Learning and internalizing cultural norms.
• Advocacy research: Research used to advocate for a group.
• Alienation: Feeling disconnected and not included in society or a group.
• Conformity: Adhering to societal norms.
• Cognitive consistency: Alignment of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.
• Cognitive dissonance: Disagreement between attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.

Conformity

• Conformity is a change in belief or behavior to align with others' norms. This is often due to real or perceived social pressure.
• Compliance: Changing behavior to fit in with a group even if you don't agree.
• Identification: Adopting behavior or beliefs to be like someone you admire or to fit in with a group.
• Internalization: Truly adopting a group's beliefs or behaviors.

Groupthink

• Groupthink occurs when the desire to be part of a group leads to poor decision-making.
• A groupthink dynamic can be characterized by strong group identity, a charismatic leader, low knowledge of the issue, and high stress.

Cults

• Cults are small religious groups with beliefs considered extreme and dangerous by many.
• Cults often have a charismatic leader, emphasize loyalty, and exercise total control over members.

Commitment Theory

• Making a public commitment to a course of action creates pressure to follow through with the action.

Communication Accommodation Theory

• People conform to communication patterns based on their relationship with others.

Reciprocity Norm

• If someone helps you out, you feel obligated to return the favour.

Informational Social Influence

• People look to others for guidance in uncertain situations.

Impression Management

• People carefully manage how they present themselves to others.

Pluralistic Ignorance

• In a group, people may assume everyone else agrees, even if they don't want to do something, leading to inaction.

Social Impact Theory

• Likelihood of social influence increases with relationship strength, number of people, and closeness.

Atomic Habits

• Small, consistent habits, even if seemingly insignificant, create major impact over time.
• True behavior change comes from changing your identity.

Behaviour Modification

• Treatment approach using learning techniques to modify behavior.
• Stages of Change: Pre-contemplation, Contemplation, Preparation, Action, Maintenance, Termination

Classical Conditioning

• A stimulus-response pattern where a neutral stimulus is paired with a response-producing stimulus, leading to a similar response by the neutral stimulus.

Operant Conditioning

• Behavior is strengthened or diminished based on consequences.

Social Learning Theory

• Learning occurs through observation, modelling, and imitation.
• Key components are attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation.

Flooding

• Exposure therapy for phobias, rapidly exposing people to what they are afraid of.

Systematic Desensitization

• Gradual reduction of anxiety through associating relaxation with increasing anxiety-provoking stimuli.

Technology and Change

• Social technology: enhances human interaction, e.g., social media, phones.
• Biological technology: improves human body functions.
• Physical technology: changes methods and efficiency.
• Transforming technology: consistently changes and evolves, often impacting societies and cultures.
• Hyperculture: refers to the increasing rate of change in technologically advanced cultures.
• Technostress: stress resulting from technology difficulties or overload.

Attention Engineer

• People who design products to be as addictive as possible. A crucial skill is exploiting behavioural psychology.

Internet Addiction Disorder

• Symptoms are similar to other substance addictions, including withdrawal symptoms. DSM does not include it as a disorder.

Technology

• Mcluhan's laws: examining how technologies enhance, make obsolete and retrieve aspects of the past.
• Examples might include landline phones in comparison to smartphones.

Unit 3 Social Trends

• Social trends: large-scale changes in attitudes and behaviors.
• Demography: the study of human populations (differences in age groups, birth rates, death rates, etc.)
• Population pyramids: visual aids in demography to show trends.
• Social trends: Analyzing demographic groups to reveal patterns. (Baby Boomers, Gen X/Y/Z, and Alpha.)
• Fertility trends: factors influencing fertility rates (medical issues, cultural attitudes, demographic changes, etc.)

Test your understanding of key concepts in social psychology, including cognitive dissonance, conformity, and social change. This quiz will challenge your knowledge with definitions and matching questions related to behavior change and cultural identity.