Social Bases of Behavior Study Guide PDF

1 Social Bases of Behavior Study Guide 1. Names you should know: 1) Freud i. Psychodynamic theory: we have aggression that builds up over time and needs to be built up over time, the natural build up frustration/aggression ii. Aggressi...

1 Social Bases of Behavior Study Guide 1. Names you should know: 1) Freud i. Psychodynamic theory: we have aggression that builds up over time and needs to be built up over time, the natural build up frustration/aggression ii. Aggression and drive theory: why people do things/why they are motivated to do things 2) Bandura i. Bobo Doll Experiment ii. Social Learning Theory iii. Modeling 3) Festinger i. Cognitive dissonance 4) Zimbardo i. Stanford Prison Experiment ii. Don’t say “obedience to authority” 5) Latane and Darley i. The bystander effect. ii. Bystander apathy/bystander intervention 6) Zajonc i. Mere Exposure Effect: the more you are exposed to something the more positive feelings you develop 7) Asch i. Conformity study with the different line sizes ii. Don’t say “conformity” say “conformity with lines” 8) Milgram i. Obedience Milgram Experiment: delivering shocks to confederates 9) LaPierre i. Chinese couple study, attitudes and behavior don’t always correspond with one another 10) Sherif i. Autokinetic effect ii. Camp with the two groups of boys, Robber’s cave, summer camp 11) Janis i. Groupthink ii. Group brings the best as well as the worst in iii. Occurs when a group makes, faulty decisions because group pressures lead to a deterioration of mental efficiency reality testing and moral judgment. 12) Skinner i. Operant conditioning ii. Conducted experiments using animals. iii. “Skinner box” - operant conditioning chamber. iv. Positive and negative reinforcement  2 2. Studies you should know, along with the psychologist who is associated with them 1) Psychodynamic, drive theory - Freud i. The mere presence of others increases physiological arousal which enhances the performance of well-learned and automatic response tendencies. 2) Social learning theory, modelling - Bandura i. The idea that people are more likely to engage in a particular behavior if they have seen a model of that behavior being undertaken by someone else 3) Cognitive dissonance - Festinger i. When people behave in a way that is inconsistent with their existing attitude, they experience discomfort. To experience this discomfort, it is necessary to adjust one’s attitude in line with one’s behavior. 4) Stanford Prison Experiment - Zambardo i. An experiment that simulated a prison environment to see how people respond to power and authority. The guards began to abuse the prisoners and subjected them to cruel treatment. 5) Bystander intervention, helping behavior – Latane and Darley i. When people help in an emergency ii. If people notice the incident and interpret it as an emergency and know how to handle the situation they will decide to help 6) Mere exposure effect - Zajonc i. Being exposed to someone or something repeatedly increases attraction, even if no information is provided about the object or person ii. If you started with a neutral attitude 7) Conformity, line study (p. 255) - Asch i. Confederates and participants told to look at line length, participants conformed to the incorrect majority based off the confederate’s responses 8) Obedience to authority, shock study - Milgram i. Milgram’s study: participants were instructed by the experimenter to shock confederates and most of them went through with it ii. Cultural norm to obey authority, the requests to obey increasingly immoral acts were gradual, there was a shift in agency so people no longer regard themselves as personally responsible but attribute responsibility to others, iii. Less likely to administer shocks when: there is someone else declining to deliver the shocks, proximity to learner, credibility of the experimenter (the way they looked/dressed) 9) Chinese couple study, attitude and behavior - LaPierre i. LaPierre traveled around the USA with a Chinese couple for three months to examine intergroup attitudes and see if those attitudes predicted behavior, only 1 out of 250 hotels/restaurants refused to serve the Chinese couple 10) Autokinetic effect, Robber’s cave study, boy’s summer camp study - Sheriff i. Sheriff autokinetic effect: makes a dot appear in a dark room, no actual movement of the dot  3 ii. Boys at Robber’s cave were separated into 2 groups and they were put against each other 11) Groupthink - (Janis) i. an extreme form of polarization can lead to groups making poorly judged decisions ii. Group brings the best as well as the worst in iii. Occurs when a group makes faulty decisions because group pressures lead to a deterioration of mental efficiency reality testing and moral judgment. 12) Operant conditioning, positive and negative reinforcement - Skinner i. A type of associative learning where an association forms between a behavior and a consequence 3. Terms you should know 1) Internal attribution i. Internal (person) attribution ii. Any explanation that locates the cause as being internal to the person (personality, mood, attitudes, abilities, effort) iii. "I failed the test because I didn't study enough." iv. 2) External attribution i. External (situation) attribution ii. Any explanation that locates the cause as being external to the person (action of others, the nature of the situation, luck) iii. "I failed the test because the teacher made it too hard." iv. 3) Cognitive miser: the theory that we are reluctant to expend cognitive resources and look for any opportunity to avoid engaging in effortful thought i. Processing resources are valuable so we engage in timesaving mental shortcuts when trying to understand the social world (Fiske & Taylor) ii. Instead of carefully analyzing every situation or piece of information, we tend to rely on simple, fast, and efficient ways of thinking to conserve energy. iii. For example, instead of fully researching a topic, someone might rely on stereotypes or general rules of thumb to make decisions. This is because our brains prefer to spend less energy on thinking when possible, leading to quick but sometimes less accurate judgments. 4) Naïve scientist i. Heider (1958) ii. People are motivated by two primary needs: 1. The need to form a coherent view of the world 2. The need to gain control over the environment iii. To satisfy these needs we act as naïve scientists, rationally and logically test our hypotheses about the behavior of others  4 iv. According to Heider, people have a basic need to attribute causality because this ascribes meaning to our world, making it clear, definable and predictable, thereby reducing uncertainty 1. Just like scientists, they observe behavior, gather information, and make judgments to explain why things happen. However, they don't always have all the facts and might rely on simple or biased reasoning. This concept suggests that people try to be logical and objective when understanding others but often make mistakes due to limited information or personal biases. a. Someone tries to explain why a friend is acting distant. They might gather clues, such as the friend not replying to texts or looking upset during a recent meeting. Based on this information, the person might conclude that the friend is angry with them. However, like a naïve scientist, the person may not have all the facts. The friend could be going through personal stress, such as work or family issues, which has nothing to do with the person. The explanation is based on limited observation, showing how people try to logically understand behavior but can still come to inaccurate conclusions. 5) Motivated tactician i. People are flexible social thinkers who choose between multiple cognitive strategies based on their current goals, motives and needs ii. There are a number of factors that determine whether we use these heuristic or systematic strategies of social inference, whether we act like naïve scientists or cognitive misers 1. people switch between being thoughtful, careful thinkers and using mental shortcuts, depending on their goals and motivations in a situation. 2. When something is important or personally meaningful, people will put in the effort to think deeply and make well-informed decisions. But when the issue feels less important, or they want to conserve mental energy, they will rely on simpler, faster thinking strategies like heuristics or shortcuts. 6) Fundamental attribution error i. Definition: The tendency to make internal rather than external attributions for people’s behaviour ii. With everything else being equal, ppl have the tendency to make internal/dispositional than external attributions even with evidence iii. Internal attributions are more likely to happen in individualistic cultures iv. Can also be like blaming the victim, blaming ppl for their own deprivation, “if they would work harder” 7) Attribution biases i. The fundamental attribution error (Ross)  5 1. The tendency to make internal rather than external attributions for people's behaviour a. refers to the tendency to blame a person's behavior on their personality or character while overlooking the influence of the situation or environment. b. "That person is rude or careless" (internal cause) instead of considering that they might be in a rush or distracted by an emergency (external cause). ii. The actor-observer bias (jones &nisbett) 1. The tendency for people to attribute their own behaviour to external causes but that of others to internal factors a. When you do something, you're more likely to blame the situation. For example, if you trip, you might say, "The sidewalk was uneven" (external cause). b. But when someone else does the same thing, you're more likely to blame their personality or actions. For example, if someone else trips, you might think, "They're clumsy" (internal cause). iii. Self-serving attributions (Olson & ross) 1. The pervasive tendency to attribute successes to internal, personal attributions, and failure to external factors outside of our control (Olson & Ross) 2. Making attributions in this way protects and maintains our self- esteem a. When things go well (success), people tend to credit themselves, like saying, "I did well on the test because I’m smart" (internal cause). b. When things go badly (failure), people tend to blame outside factors, like saying, "I failed the test because the questions were unfair" (external cause). 8) False consensus effect i. “nobody likes pizza” ii. People overestimate how much others share their views 9) Heuristic i. Timesaving mental shortcuts that reduce complex judgements to simple rules-of-thumb (Tversky & Kahneman, 1974) ii. They are quick and easy, but can result in biased information processing (Ajzen, 1996) 10) Representative heuristic i. The tendency to judge the category membership of people based on how closely they match the prototypical member of that category (Kahneman & Tversky, 1973) 11) Anchoring heuristic: the tendency to be biased towards the starting value, or anchor, in making quantitative judgements.  6 i. The tendency to be biased towards the starting value or anchor in making quantitative judgements 1. mental shortcut where people rely too heavily on the first piece of information (the "anchor") they get when making decisions or judgments, even if that information is unrelated or not completely accurate. 2. For example, if you see a jacket priced at $200 but then see it on sale for $100, you might think $100 is a great deal, even if $100 is still expensive for the jacket. The original $200 price acts as an "anchor," influencing your judgment about the sale price. ii. 12) Prototype: the most representative or typical object, person or characteristic in a particular category 13) Stereotype threat i. when a negative stereotype about the group to which we belong is made salient, we tend to show impaired performance on dimensions related to that stereotype (Steele, 1997). ii. Ppl in marginalized groups tend to act the way they think they should 14) Cognitive dissonance: when people behave in a way that is inconsistent with their existing attitude, they experience discomfort. To eliminate this discomfort, it is necessary to adjust one’s attitude in line with one’s behavior. 15) Mere exposure effect i. Zajonc (1968) ii. The tendency to develop more positive feelings towards objects and individuals the more we are exposed to them iii. No action or interaction is required 16) Cohesive group: i. Group cohesiveness - the degree to which a group is perceived to have a strong sense of interconnectedness, more cohesiveness leads to more conformity 17) Social inhibition i. Social inhibition - “a detriment in performance when an audience is present” 18) Factors that REDUCE obedience in Milgram’s expt: 19) Groupthink i. An extreme form of group polarization (Janis, 1982) ii. A deterioration in mental efficiency, reality testing and moral judgement in groups due to an excessive desire to achieve consensus 20) Individualistic culture 21) Collectivistic culture: promote conformity and actions the promote the best interests of the group rather than its individual members, placing high value on cooperation, social support and respect for others 22) Diffusion of responsibility: the presence of other people during an emergency will lead bystanders to transfer their responsibility for helping onto others 23) Self-serving attribution bias  7 i. Successes attributed to internal characteristics ii. Failures attributed to external characteristics iii. Memory for self-enhancing information (Mischel et al., 1975) 24) Narcissism 25) Rouge test i. Lewis and Brooks (1978) ii. Put a spot of rouge on the nose of babies and then put them in front of a mirror iii. Babies between 9 months and 2 years treated the mirror image as another child, showing no interest in the spot on their nose iv. Around 18 months, children recognized that the reflection was themselves 26) Blatant racism i. Speech or behavior demonstrating conscious racism (racist attitudes/beliefs) 27) Aversive racism: people often have a conflict between modern egalitarian values and negative emotions towards outgroup members, resulting in negative emotions such as uneasiness, fear and discomfort. These people may feel shame and guilt, publicly avoid expressing their feelings or avoid interacting with outgroup members i. Someone who believes theyre egalitarian but are prejudiced 28) Old fashioned racism i. blatant negative attitudes on the basis of group membership 29) Hostile sexism i. the view that women are inferior, irrational and weak a. What we typically think of as sexist attitudes towards women, the view that women are inferior, irrational and weak. 30) Benevolent sexism i. Idealizing women in traditional female roles such as ‘homemaker’. ii. Although they are positive stereotypes, they restrict women to specific roles, justifying male social dominance iii. Seem positive but actually patronizing a. Are positive in valence and are characterized by idealizing women in traditional female roles such as “homemaker” or “mother”. 31) Extended contact effect i. An ‘indirect’ form of contact ii. Just knowing ingroup members who have outgroup friends can reduce outgroup prejudice iii. Ingroup and outgroup members can get along well iv. Lowers intergroup anxiety v. Leads to more positive expectation 32) Sexism i. Subordination of someone on the basis of their sex Hostile sexism & Benevolent Sexism  8 1. Modern forms of sexism can be characterized by the conflict between positive (egalitarian) and Negative (prejudiced) attitudes. 33) Terror management theory i. Greenberg, Pyszczynski, and Solomon (1986) ii. Humans possess the intellectual capacity to realize that one day we will die – a fact that can paralyze us with fear iii. To manage our terror, we adopt a cultural worldview, allowing us to transcend death, either literally, through a belief in an afterlife, or symbolically, through lasting cultural achievement iv. Reminders of our mortality will increase their need for that worldview, and therefore increase efforts to protect it from those who violate it v. Humans have a strong survival instinct that leads to existential terror vi. Adapt world view to make ourselves feel better vii. Need stages and order 34) Ethnocentrism: the intensification of ingroup loyalty and increase in hostility towards the outgroup 35) Social theories of aggression i. Psychodynamic theory Freud (1930) 1. 2 innate instincts: Eros, an instinct for life and Thanatos, an instinct for death 2. Aggressive behaviour is a result of the displacement of self- destructive tendencies onto other targets ii. Evolutionary approach E.g., Simpson and Kenrick (1999) 1. Aggression ensures we live long enough for our genes to be passed onto offspring 2. Evident among animals Could also apply to humans? 3. Limitations a. Difficult to test and prove b. We are not just aggressive to protect family members... iii. Social theories – frustration-aggression hypothesis 1. Dollard et al. (1939) a. Frustration at person or event: Aggression i. Inability to direct aggression at true target ii. Aggression redirected onto realistic target 2. Cathartic hypothesis a. Build up of emotions from day-to-day irritations b. Creates imbalance c. Aggression to rid emotions and restore balance 3. Evidence a. Bushman, Baumeister, and Stack (1999) angry participants who had read a pro-catharsis newspaper article continued to show aggression towards the person who caused the anger after engaging in the cathartic exercise of hitting a punch bag 4. Cognitive neoassociationalist model Berkowitz (1969, 1989)  9 a. Frustration leads to aggression only if there are appropriate cues in the environment b. Any object or person can provide a cue for aggression if it has been linked repeatedly with anger and aggression in the past iv. Excitation-transfer model 1. Non-specific arousal (i.e. not just anger) can inadvertently influence aggression 2. We differentiate arousal by labelling it depending on external cues 3. Arousal in one situation can transfer to an unrelated situation – residual arousal – increasing the likelihood that we will behave aggressively in another situation v. Social learning theory Bandura (1977) 1. Based on operant conditioning principles of rewards and punishments shaping behavior; We are not born with innate behavior; we learn how to behave over time; Observational learning rather than direct experience 36) operant conditioning i. Behavior is strengthened following rewards and weakened following punishments. (skinner 1938) 37) classical conditioning i. Refers to a learning process that occurs when a neutral stimulus is paired with a stimulus that naturally evokes an emotional response. (learning through implicit association; pavlov, 1906) 38) Deindividuation i. Leads individuals to see themselves as less identifiable and less accountable for their behavior than normal. As a result, social norms that normally inhibit them from behaving aggressively are no longer as applicable. Process appear to have been operating in many incidences of aggression. 39) Curvilinear correlation between heat and aggression i. The hotter it is the more aggressive people become until a certain level of heat and if it’s too hot they will not do anything 40) Bystander intervention-cognitive model i. 41) Bystander apathy i. People are less likely to help in an emergency when they are with others than when they are alone ii. Processes Underlying the Bystander Apathy Effect: iii. Diffusion of responsibility iv. Audience inhibition v. Normative social influence vi. Informational social influence 42) Diffusion of responsibility  10 i. People think that others in a situation are gonna help so they don’t take action to help because they place responsibility on others 43) Audience inhibition: the fear of getting an action wrong and being laughed at leads to inaction. People are often uncomfortable about acting in front of other people; the product of normative social influence. 44) Person centered determinants of helping i. (idk if this is right bc she went too fast) ii. Altruistic personality iii. Competence iv. mood 45) Social anxiety i. Nayeli ii. Fear of social situations & judgement 46) Determinants of attraction 47) Attachment i. The theory that infants form bonds with their primary caregivers ii. Those bonds impact relationships in adulthood 48) Social exchange theory 49) Binge drinking i. Drinking five or more alcoholic drinks in one session 50) Self discrepancy: ideal self (who you want to be), actual self (who you really are), ought self (who you should be) Random: Social loafing on easy tasks Cognitive dissonance leads to change in attitude Scruffy experimenter leads to less obedient participants Other stuff and closed mindedness associated with group think Glass ceiling effect is a form of sexism The mental simulation of an interaction with members of outgroup = imagined contact Higher self esteem show greater idk I didn’t get the question but answer is higher self esteem sorry Boys are more aggressive than girls this is due to hormones and gender socialization Nurses are more likely to help than students if someone falls off a ladder because if you feel more competent you are more likely to help Women are more likely than men to help in everyday situations Zambardo’s experiment was supposed to last 2 weeks but it lasted 6 days because he lost sight of the big picture Forgot the question but the answer was child and caregiver relationships