1
Q
What is social psychology?
A
The study of the effects of social and cognitive processes on the way individuals perceive, influence and relate to others
2
Q
What is a Folk wisdom saying + example
A
“Birds of a feather flock together”
-saying that can explain any outcome but cannot predict it - often contrasting statement
3
Q
What is hindsight bias + example
A
After an event occurs, know the result, it is impossible to imagine what it was like not knowing the result - e.g. you score badly on a test, you think back, “I knew that test was going to be hard”
4
Q
Sherman (1980) Donating money experiment findings
A
Found that those who were asked if they would donate money in the future were more likely to than those who weren’t asked
-Asking people to predict their behaviour increases the likelihood of them doing it
-shows the self-correcting nature of prediction (making a prediction about behaviour can change future behaviour)
5
Q
social vs cognitive processes
A
Social: Looks at how individuals act with each other
Cognitive: looks at what happens in people’s heads (beliefs, attitudes, etc.)
6
Q
What does this formula show? B=f(P,E)
A
Behaviour is the function of the person and the environment
7
Q
Fundamental axiom 1:
A
People construct their own reality
-social reality is subjective
- how you perceive reality will affect your behaviour
8
Q
Example of Fundamental axiom 1: The Hostile Media effect
A
All watched the same video and then were asked about the video
-compared Israel and pro-Arab participants
-question about the treatment of people in the video watched
-depending on the support they showed bias towards their group (e.g. pro-israel said they were treated fine if it was an Arab person)
-bias to their group
9
Q
Fundamental Axiom 2:
A
Social influences are pervasive
-> Our perceptions -> Our behaviour -> other perception -> others’ behaviour-> (cycle)
10
Q
What is self- fulfilling prophecy + example
A
self- fulfilling prophecy: Expect something to happen so you act in a way that makes it happen
When male participants believed they were talking to a more attractive women they rated the supposedly attractive woman higher on positive personality traits (funny, kind etc.)
Women were kinder, funnier etc.
-Men created the behaviour they expected to see based on their appearance
11
Q
What is referred - “people value me & mine”
A
-value things associated with the self e.g. social identity
-self-worth part comes from how the group is valued
-Having a positive self-view is beneficial for health
12
Q
What are 3 basic processing principles?
A
-Accessibility
-conservatism
-superficiality vs. depth
13
Q
Accessibility (basic processing principles)
A
-whatever comes to mind the quickest is likely to be viewed as correct (even if it’s bias)
14
Q
What is a schema?
A
A structured unit of knowledge
-built up through experience over time
15
Q
What is a sub-schema?
A
A sub-category/quality of a schema e.g.doctor - GP = kind and approachable
16
Q
Role schemas
A
-Certain things associated with that role
e.g. a teacher has certain schemes about themselves
17
Q
Stereotype
A
-Group schema
-Can be based off social level expectations or experiences
18
Q
What is accessibility affected by?
A
Expectations
motivation
fears
mood
priming - e.g. recent, frequent, chronic
19
Q
Concept priming example
A
Higgens, Rholes & Jones
-completed a priming task where he showed participants words either surrounding adventurous or reckless
-Then asked what they thought about the guy after priming different sets of words
-found that those who were primed with adventurous words gave feedback that they liked the guy
20
Q
Concept activation and how this affects bias memory
A
Once a concept is activated (e.g. already thinking someone is rude)
-Only paying attention to things relevant to the concept (them being rude)
-You then encode what was relevant to the concept (e.g. rude things they said) & don’t encode the polite things
-Later, when you go to remember them you ONLY think about how they were really rude
-because your memory is BIAS, because encoding was BIAS
21
Q
Another example of self-fulfilling prophecy & what it showed
A
Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1968
-Two groups of students were randomly created
-one group labelled gifted and one labelled at the normal level
-Checked back at the end of the year, and the ‘gifted’ kids had done significantly better
-This was because the teachers believed they were smarter, so they subconsciously challenged them more
22
Q
Conservatism (basic processing principle)
A
-Once we have a decision in our head, it is very hard to change (takes a lot of time and effort)
-Leads to potential for bias
23
Q
Superficial vs. depth (basic processing principle)
A
Most of the time, we can get by on autopilot and automated thinking (superficial processing)
24
Q
Dual-processing models (Superficial vs. depth)
A
System 1: associated-based fast & efficient
system 2: rule-based, slow, deliberate
25
What things must NOT be present for automaticity?
-awareness
-intentionality
-efficiency
-controllability
26
Mere exposure effect (superficial vs. depth)
-seeing things multiple times makes us think we like it more
-showed participants different shapes - showed some more than others
-those showed more pariticpants believed they liked more
27
What did Lewicki, 1985 study show (Non-conscious valance feature learning)
Showed how people can perform bias without consciously being aware of it
-Showed in the study that they had no conscious awareness that they were preforming bias (Chose the experimenter that didn't resemble the rude women they had earlier encountered)
28
explain salience - specifically in regards to first impressions
Somethings grab our attention more than others. Salience is a function of the environment.
for example; pysical appearcnce is one of the first available peices of information we have when meeting someone new. Therefore, people often project how they want to be percieved.
29
How to stop an automatic process?
Requires motivation & capacity
30
What did Devine's 1989 study show (prejudice)
-All participants had equal knowledge of stereotypes and were equally affected by subliminal priming
-Shows stereotype activation is automatic and unconscious in everyone. (when activated, low prejudice participants responded less stereotypical vs. high)
-demonstrating that low-prejudiced people are motivated to override automatic stereotypes when they have conscious control.
31
Oh, Shafir & Todorov (2019)
Clothing as "statue cue" and perceived competence
participants were asked to judge/ infer qualities about confederates who wore different levels of "nice/expensive" clothing.
- those wearing more expensive clothing were seen as more competent than others, BUT did not really effect perception of other qualities
- shows that clothign/outward appearance is used as a "status cue" that biases how someone perceives ones competence.
32
What did Hastie & Kumar (1979) show?
-Looking at how we process information that either matches or contradicts our expectations about a person
-When you see a behaviour that is consistent with your expectations, occasional inconsistent behaviour really stands out & remember it better
shows: INCONGRUENCY EFFECT
33
What are memory and attention heavily driven by?
Expectation violation
34
What did Cantor & Mischel, 1977 study show about memory bias?
-When people heard that the target was an introvert, they were more likely to remember falsely seeing introverted statements about them
-The brain fills in the gaps based on general schemas we have about who we think they are
35
What does the self-fulfilling cycle show?
Our perceptions → Our behaviour → Others' perceptions → Others' behaviour → back to Our perceptions
Shows the consequences of inferring a trait
-once a trait is inferred, it shapes both interpretations and our behaviour, which in turn shapes how others respond to us
36
What did Heider, 1958 study show (Perceivers as Naive scientists)
We constantly act as 'amateur' scientists, trying to figure out why people do things (behaviours, actions etc.)
Internal causes: Attributing the behaviour to something inside the person (e.g. they're a mean person)
External causes: Attribute behaviour to something outside of the person
37
What did Fiske & Taylor, 1975 show ( attributions to salient causes)
-2 actors were having a conversation between the two of them whilst observers were seated at different parts of the room (some could one see one person's face)
-Then asked who was driving the conversation
-Whoevers face they could see they said was driving the conversation
-Whoever was visually salient (whoever was most visible and prominent in the observer's field of view) was judged as more causal.
38
why do we mkae inferences on others so quickly?
- comes back to a matter or threat and survival.
- we need to know wether someone is safe to be around/ a threat to our
39
What drives causal attributions?
Salience rather than actual causality
40
what is the attractiveness halo effect?
Attractiveness is a positive feature, and because of this feature, we assume more positive things about an attractive person.
41
What is salience?
How much something stands out to you
42
explain the findings of Agathe, sporrle and manner (2011) (Hiring by gender) study?
When hiring was done by a man:
Most attractive woman was more likely to be hired over less attractive woman
And less attractive man more likely to be hired than the attractive man.
When hiring was done by a woman:
More attractive man more likely to be hired over less attractive one.
Less attractive woman more likely to be hired over more attractive one.
Shows that
Hiring decisions were biased by both attractiveness and the gender of the evaluator - people tended to favour attractive candidates of the opposite sex, but penalise attractive candidates of their own sex.
- dont want to feel threatened by the attractiveness of people of the same gender to you.
43
Real world application of salience (court judges)
-camera angle changed, either video focuses solely on the suspect or the interrogator is also visible in the frame.
-When camera was only on suspect the judges were more likely to view the confession as more genuine/ legit
-the suspect was SALIENT
44
Actor/observer effect
-When we observe someone else's behaviour, we tend to attribute it to their internal characteristics (e.g. their personality)
-When we explain our own behaviour, we tend to attribute it to external situational factors (e.g. the circumstances, the environment, other people, etc.)
45
Why does the actor/observer effect occur?
because of SALIENCE
-comes down to what is most salient in each perspective
-As an observer watching someone else, the most visually salient thing is the person themselves
-As an actor doing something yourself, you can't actually see yourself, you are looking outward at the situation around you
46
what are the 6 universal/primary emotions
happiness
sadness
fear
surprise
anger
confusion
47
what is the issue with the "6 universal emotional expressions" theory?
- very weak evidential basis.
- foudn that these facial expressions are symbols of these emotions but not necessarily the faces people actually make when experiencing these emotions in real life. i.e. context matters!
48
Jones & Davis - Correspondent inference theory
-Trying to explain why we make internal attributions about someone?
-Observers infer that a person's actions directly reflect their internal traits
49
what the Duchenne smile (the true smile)
The true smile happens at the eyes and the mouth.
50
2 conditions for an external attribution to be warranted?
-The actor knew the consequences of their behaviour beforehand & they understood what would happen as a result of their actions
-The actor could choose & they were not forced or coerced, they genuinely had free will in that moment
51
Fundamental attributions error -study (pro-castro & anti-castro)
-Participants read an essay that was either pro-Castro or anti-Castro. They were told either the writer chose to write that position (choice condition) or the writer was assigned that position and had no choice (no-choice condition)
-participants still rated the no-choice condition as pro-Castro
-This is because behaviour is so SALIENT that it dominates the observers judgement
52
What is the relationship betweeen our own mood and how we percieve others?
our own mood can act as a lens through which we percieve other peoples moods.
e.g. if you are in a good mood, you are more likley to percieve other people as happy, kind, positive etc.
53
Theory of causal attributions - Kelly, 1972 study
uses covariation theory - we try to explain someone's behaviour we act like scientists & we look for patterns across multiple observations to figure out what the behaviour covaries with
54
explain what the Spontaneous Trait Inference theory is
the idea that we automatically infer a personality trait from someones behaviour, without being asked to and without even realising we're doing it.
55
What are the 3 types of information we need to make an inference?
Consensus: How do other people treat Michael? - if no one else yells at him, the consensus is low
-Distinctiveness: How does John behave towards other people? - If John yells at other people, distinctiveness is low
-Consistency: How does John usually behave towards Michael? - If he always yells at Michael, then consistency is high
56
What do internal, external and situational attributes have to be high/low in for it to be an actor or participants fault?
Internal attribution (it's John's fault) = low consensus + low distinctiveness + high consistency
External attribution (it's Michael's fault) = high consensus + high distinctiveness + high consistency
Situational attribution (it was a one off) = low consistency regardless of the others
57
Abnormal conditions focus model
-We simply focus on what is abnormal in the situation and assign that as the cause.
= descriptive (what we actually do)
58
what is the Gilbert 3 - stage model of attribution
1. Categorisation
Identifying the action
- Categorising behaviour as a trait
- E.g. see soemone fall = that was clumsy
2. Characterisation
Apply the trait to the individual
- That person is clumsy
3. correction
4. Taking into account any situational constraints
- They tripped down the stairs but they were wet
- Or Its dark and they couldn't see the stair properly
- = concluded that they probably aren't that clumsy.
First two steps are automatic - don’t require your attention and may occur unconsciously
If we don’t correct however, we are likely to form biased opinions.
59
Weiner's attribution theory
Suggests that after something happens we want to make an attribution to WHY?
E.g. did well on a test - why did this happen?
60
What are the 2 factors of Weiner's attribution theory?
Locos of causality: is the cause something due to me (internal) or external to the self
Stability: Is it a relatively stable cause or unstable
61
Explain Gilbert, Pelham & Krull (1988) (correction under congtive load)
Tested Gilberts 3-stage model of attribution on participants under cognitive load
found that people automatically make dispositional (personality) judgments first, and only correct them for the situation if they have enough time and mental effort.
- You cant engage with the correction process when your brain is trying to complete other tasks. The correction process is not automated.
62
Social identity theory
Where we get information about the self
-Who we are as a group gives us information for who we are as our self
63
what are memory consequences/ inconsistency resolution?
We tend to remember things that are relevant to the schema and forget things that are oirrelevant.
therefore inconsistent informaiton requires much more thought, and processing. This is called inconsistency resolution.
64
Explain hastie and Kumar (1979) (memory of concgruent and incongruent behaviours)
Gave expectiation about a target and then gave behaviours about the target. Some were congreuent, incongruent and neutral. People were much more likely ot remember the things that didn’t fit the expectation.
65
Self vs. other knowledge (similarity & difference)
Difference: amount of knowledge - we know way more knowledge about the self than any other individual
Similarities: Inaccuracy in predicting behaviours
66
explain/describe what emotion-focused coping looks like. (in relation to stress)
Goal is not to fix or deal with the problem, but to make yourself feel better
- Ignore problem
- Downplay the issue
- Focus on other positives
- Drugs, alcohol, risky behaviour etc
67
What is self-presentation? & two stratagies
"I am who you want me to be" - Strategically managing how others perceive you
-Ingratiating - showing that you are a likeable person (can cause backlash of kissing ass)
-Self-promotion - showing you are a competent person
68
High vs. low self-monitoring
High: someone who always wants to fit in
Low: same person regardless of situation
69
What is self-enhancement?
the tendency to rate yourself above average for positive things and below average on negative things
70
How do negative life events being view as internal or external causes affect us? AND what do these differences come down to?
Negative event ---> global, uncontrollable external cause (e.g. affected everything and there is nothing I can do about it) ---> learned helplessness
Negative event ---> global, uncontrollable internal (attributing it to something internal e.g. feeling worthless) cause ---> depression
Comes down to how we attribute the CONTROLLABILITY of the cause
71
What is self-evaluation maintenance, and the 2 factors that affect it?
Our sense of self is constantly being maintained and affected by the people around us (specifically by how well they preform compared to us)
factors:
1. Importance of domain to self (How much does this area of performance actually matter to your identity?)
2. Closeness to the other (How close is your relationship with the person outperforming you?)
72
What is self-defining and give an example?
Self-defining: how central something is to your identity
Example: You are a tennis player and your sister wins a grand slam, & tennis is NOT self-defining to you would engage in REFLECTION and happiness, if tennis IS self-defining, you would feel bad for yourself because of COMPARISON
73
What is the discrepancy theory & list all 3 sense of self
Theory: We don't just have one sense of self we have multiple
Actual: What we perceive ourselves to be
Ideal: The self we would most want to be (wants & desires)
Ought: The self we are supposed to be (comes from external things, e.g. family or society
74
What is self-complexity and how does this help us deal with negative events?
Self-complexity: Having your sense of self spread across multiple domains helps us to deal with negative events
e.g. if you spread our sense of self by getting involved in netball, university and music, if something goes wrong in our music class, we have identity in netball and university that remains the same - acts as an emotional buffer
75
What is fading affect bias?
All affect fades over time (positive & negative)
-Negative fades faster and more fully than positive - because negative emotion is incredibly useful
76
A-B-C of group perception
C = cognitive component
A = the affective/emotional evaluation
B = behavioural
77
explain/describe Problem-focused coping
focusing on problem rather than emotion itself
- make excuses "this failiure happened becasue"...
- self handicapping - set up excuse before event even happens
78
explain self handicapping (McCrea & Hirt 2001)
- two groups
- one high self handicappers, other low
- both groups reported they were going to prepare for for test
- after test, high self handicappers were more likely to report less preperation AND more unproductive activities in lead up to test.
79
what did the (McCrea & Hirt (2001)) self handi-capping experiement show about attributions to ability?
High self handicappers are more likely to attribute failure to preparation over ability
But
success to ability over preparation.
self handicapping serves as a protection from a lower self belief.
80
what is upward vs downward counterfactual thinking
Upward counterfactuals = imagine a better alternative → helps improvement, but makes you feel worse
Downward counterfactuals = imagine a worse alternative → makes you feel better, but less useful for change
81
82
What is the difference between sex & Gender?
Sex: Biological
gender: Social
83
Natural kinds vs. artefacts
Nature kinds: No matter how to we change the look of it is still the same thing (e.g. gold)
Artefacts: These are man-made things (e.g. a chair)
84
Why do we use categorisation social things?
-efficiency (makes social world simpler)
-Provides us with inductive potential (If you know what a category belongs to you can infer lots of things about it)
84
How do we form stereotypes?
Personal experience
-salient members
-Distinctive information
85
Stereotype formation study example (estimating criminals based off salient behaviours)
-presented 50 behaviours performed by a group
-40 were mildly positive/neutral & mildly negative
-10 were criminal (non severe)
Another group:
-presented 50 behaviours preformed by a group
-40 were mildly positive/neutral & mildly negative
-10 individuals with criminal behaviour (much more severe)
After reading through information:
-When asked to estimate how many members of each group were criminals, the group that read about criminals that engaged in more serious crimes rated having a lot more criminals than it actually had
behaviours came to mind EASILY as they stood out
86
What did the Illusory correlation experiment show?
- The ratio of positive to negative was the same for both groups
BUT negative behaviour was significantly overestimated
shows in real life how the loudest/most aggressive members of the group carry the most weight
87
What is the incidental affect?
The mood you happen to be in when you GO INTO an interaction
88
What happens if people go into an interaction with a worse mood?
-if people if a worse mood they will be more stereotypical in their judgments
-moods that involve increased psychological arousal are distracting and take away cognitive capacity
89
What is the integral effect?
Mood CAUSED by interaction
90
What is the Kernel of Truth View?
The idea that stereotypes are not completely made up
-They contain a small grain of truth that forms the basis of the stereotype, which then gets exaggerated and overgeneralised.
91
What did the Fictional alien experiment show? (role-based stereotypes)
In the study:
Species doing their typical role → rated with stereotypical traits
Species doing opposite role → rated as neither trait
Key finding:
-perceived traits came entirely from the role, not the species
Implication: what we assume are biological differences between groups (e.g. women are naturally nurturing) may actually just reflect the roles those groups typically occupy in society — role → stereotype → falsely attributed to biology
92
What is role justification?
The tendency to defend and justify the existing social system and status quo, even by people who are disadvantaged by it. (e.g. people are poor because they are lazy)
93
What is subjective essentialism?
Is the tendency to believe that the differences we observe between social groups are natural and biological
(e.g. women are naturally more nurturing)
94
Just World beliefs
That people get what they deserve & deserve what they get e.g. AIDS being a punishment for gay people :(
95
Three justification tendencies
ego justification
Group justification
System justification
96
What did the Summer Camp from hell experiment show?
That contact is not enough to fade away prejudice, is not enough - just created more opportunities to be violent
What actually worked:
-Superordinate goals (shared tasks & cooperation)
97
3 different models of stereotype change
Conversion model
Subtyping model
bookkeeping model
98
Conversion model (Models of stereotype change)
Sudden DRAMATICCC change
-Happens through one big critical event that is so powerful it forces a sudden shift in beliefs.
99
What is a problem with the conversion model? (Models of stereotype change)
Exception to the rule effect - When someone dramatically contradicts a stereotype, instead of updating the stereotype, we say "they're not like the rest of them" and place them in a special category.
100
Bookkeeping model: (Models of stereotype change)
-gradual change - every time you encounter someone who contradicts the stereotype, you slightly update your belief.
-very SLOW change
101
Subtyping model (Models of stereotype change)
Narrowing the stereotype
When disconfirming examples accumulate and can be clustered together into a recognisable pattern, a subtype breaks off from the main stereotype. The main stereotype doesn't change, but instead, a smaller, more specific category emerges. e.g. rather than men aren't good leaders, we create a sub-category of career men who aren't good leaders
102
How to over come resistance of stereotypes?
-Repeated inconsistency
-being typical as well as inconsistent - Helps avoid "this person is completely different to the rest of the people in that group"
103
What is intergroup contact enough to reduce prejudice?
-support by authority
-equal status of the groups
-cooperative tasks (MAIN ONE)
104
Motivations to avoid prejudice (2)
2 dimensions:
-Concern with acting prejudiced - types of people that engage in actively trying not to be prejudice
-Restraint to avoid dispute - not being prejudice so that people don't make them feel bad (are still prejudice people but just hide it)
105
Can you suppress stereotypes?
short-term YES - but as soon as the suppression is released it bounces right to the surface
AND -post-suppression re-bound- they are FAR more stereotypical on the next task after they had been told to suppress the stereotype compared to the group that was never asked to suppress
106
What is basking in-reflected-glory?
By being associated with a positive thing or group you get benefits from it
-more likely to say 'we won' if our favourite team won vs. 'they lost'
107
What is the optimal distinctiveness theory?
You have two opposing needs:
Affiliation: wanting to be like other people & with people
Distinctiveness: Uniqueness
Suggests the point at which these needs are optimally met, will determine what group we choose to identify with
-A group that provides both needs
108
What is an ingroup?
a group that YOU are a member of (out-group you are not apart of)
109
explain Heiders Balance theory (conflicting thoughts)
When different concpets/ thoughts are consistent with one another, this is good.
But when things are inconsistent, this causes tension.
We crave consistency and predictability. We like to be able to predict social outcomes because if we know what to expect we have more control over the situation
110
Social Identity theory study example - What did it show?
Made a group feel inferior to another
If it is easy to leave — individual mobility
The simplest solution is to just leave the group and join the higher-status group.
If it is not easy to leave - social change strategies, e.g. protest
111
Explain Leon Festinger & James Carlsmith (1959) study of cognitive dissonance (money reward)
Participants did a very boring task (turning pegs)
Then were asked to lie to the next participant and say it was fun
They were paid either $1 or $20
Results:
$20 group: said the task was boring
$1 group: said the task was actually kind of fun
Why:
$20 = enough justification for lying (“I did it for the money”) → no dissonance
$1 = not enough justification → creates discomfort (dissonance)
To reduce this, they changed their attitude and convinced themselves the task was fun
Key idea:
When people don’t have a strong external reason for their behaviour, they change their internal beliefs to match it.
112
4 necessary steps to dissonance
1. Perceived inconsistency - e.g your thoughts and actions
2. Personal responsibility - for the action - i.e. if you were forced/given no choice = no dissonance
3. Physiological Arousal - tension
4. Attribution - must attribute that tension to the inconsistency
If any if these steps fail, we don’t feel any dissonance.
113
What happened in the Stephen Glass incident and what is this an example of? (journalism scandal)
About a journalist that fabricated various stories and evidence
-Stories he wrote played into cultural stereotypes - which made them so believable
-Displays several aspects of social cognition - The way to use, interpret, remember and use information about our social world
114
What did the minimal group paradigm show?
Even with these meaningless, arbitrary groups people still showed ingroup favouritism through allocating more resources to their own group than the outgroup.
The key finding was that people preferred MAXIMUM difference over maximum joint profit
115
If social identity theory is correct....
- People with low self-esteem should show more bias than those with high self-esteem
- In-group bias should increase self-esteem
116
What 2 ways of thinking are events interpreted using?
Automatic
Deliberate
117
explain the Mark Zanna & Joel Cooper (1974) study (how attribution of arousal affects cognitive dissonance)
Procedure:
Participants wrote a counter-attitudinal essay (against free speech)
Two conditions:
1. High choice → felt like they freely chose to write it
2. Low choice → felt pressured to write it
Three pill conditions:
No pill
Relax pill (told it would reduce tension)
Tension pill (told it would increase tension)
Key results:
Normal dissonance (no pill):
High choice → changed attitudes (became less supportive of free speech)
Relax pill:
Increased dissonance → even MORE attitude change
(They feel tension but can’t explain it → must be from their behaviour)
Tension pill:
Decreased dissonance → little attitude change
(They attribute tension to the pill, not the essay)
Core idea (the importance of attribution):
Dissonance only leads to attitude change when people attribute their discomfort to their behaviour.
If they can explain the discomfort another way (e.g., the pill), dissonance is reduced.
118
Explain the Elliot Aronson & Judson Mills (1959) study (effort justification)
Procedure:
Participants wanted to join a discussion group on the “psychology of sex”
They were randomly assigned to 3 initiation conditions:
No initiation → joined easily
Easy initiation → answered mild, non-embarrassing questions
Difficult initiation → had to read embarrassing/explicit material aloud
Then everyone listened to a recording of the group discussion…
→ which was deliberately boring and unimpressive
Afterward, they rated how much they liked the group
Results:
Difficult initiation group → rated the group as most interesting
Easy/no initiation groups → rated it as boring
Why this happens (key idea):
Difficult initiation = high effort + unpleasant experience
But the group is boring → conflict (dissonance)
(“Why did I go through that for something so lame?”)
To reduce this discomfort, participants justify their effort by thinking:
→ “Actually, the group is pretty good”
119
When faced with complexity what two way of thinking do we use?
Explicit cognition: deliberate judgements/ decisions what we are consciously aware of
-Generally a slower process
Implicit cognition: Involves judgments or decisions that are under the control of automatically activated evaluations occurring without our awareness
-Occurs quickly
-Sets the stage for all social judgements (fast & automatic)
120
What type of cognitive processing is categorising?
Implicit cognitive processing
121
what is a SCHEMA?
Mental framework that helps us organise and interpret information about the world based on past experience.
122
What are the two main ways that schemas are applied to people?
Implicit personality theories
Stereotypes
123
What did the Stephan Glass scandal (journalist) show about why his co-workers believed his stories?
Person perception -The process where we try to detect other people's temporary states and enduring dispositions, such as their beliefs, traits, and abilities
-His coworker formed and maintained impressions of him that he was honest and trustworthy - because of this impression when he was accused of lying his coworkers defended him
124
Central traits vs. peripheral traits
Central: Dominant traits that have a disproportional influence on someone's overall impression, causing them to assume the presence of other traits
Peripheral: less important traits
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Implicit personality theories
Assumptions or belief systems people make about which personality traits and behaviours go together
e.g. If you meet someone and they seem warm and friendly, you automatically assume they are also probably honest, generous and kind
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Casual attribution vs. person perception
Casual attribution - how people explain the events in their lives
Person perception - How they form impressions of other people
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What is Gestalt psychology?
-Suggests that people seek to tie together apparently diverse sensory data into meaningful wholes of 'Gestalts'
-We make inferences about people's behaviours and tie them to a single Gestalt
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The Naive scientist approach
We act like amateur scientists in everyday life by constantly trying to explain why people behave the way they do by constructing cause-and-effect theories.
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Correspondent inference theory
Explains the process we go through when deciding whether someone's behaviour reflects their true personality (dispositional) or was caused by external factors (situational).
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What are the 3 factors that correspondent inference theory assumes?
-choice
-expected behaviour
-Intended consequence
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Covariation model: Kelly (1967) (MIKE SWEARS AT CAT)
We try to explain why something happened we look for what covaries with it
-what is consistently present when the event occurs
-what is consistently absent when it doesn't.
We are essentially looking for patterns across multiple observations, just like a scientist would.
132
what are the 3 dimensions of information about covariation? (MIKE SWEARS AT CAT)
1. Consensus information: The extent to which other people react in the same way to a particular stimulus
2. Distinctiveness information: The extent to which a person reacts in a particular way to a particular stimulus or reacts the same way to many other stimulus
3. Consistency: Information about the extent to which a person reacts in the same way to a stimulus on many other occasions
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Two main errors in attribution
Fundamental attribution error - When explaining other people's behaviour we over-rely on personality and underestimate the situation.
Actor-observer bias - When explaining our own behaviour we do the opposite and blame the situation rather than our personality.
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What are the mechanisms of self-enhancement? (4)
Biased beliefs: maintaining overly positive views of oneself
Self-handicapping: creating obstacles for oneself to have an excuse for potential failure
Downward comparisons: comparing oneself to others who are worse off to feel better
The better than average effect: The result of these strategies is that most people see themselves as better than the average person
135
What are the benefits of positive illusions?
-Happiness and contentment
-The desire to care for others
-The ability to engage in productive work
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what is the self-awareness theory?
Suggests that self-focus attention leads people to notice self-discrepancies (the gap between who they are and who they want to be)
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What are the 2 paths that people usually take when coping with discrepancies?
Shape up: changing behaviour to match personal or societal standards
Ship out: withdrawing from self-awareness to escape the discomfort
138
What did the implicit associations test show? (prejudice)
Measures how quickly people associate concepts - faster response times reveal stronger automatic associations.
People were faster associating white with good and black with bad than the reverse - revealing implicit racial bias
explicit attitudes can change with education but implicit is a lot stronger to change
139
does stereotypes = prejudice?
Stereotypes are cognitive beliefs and expectations we hold about groups (beliefs)
Prejudice is an attitude or feelings towards a group
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141
Expalin the procedure and findings of Axsom & Cooper (1985) (effort jsutificaiton & weight loss).
3 groups
Effortful 'therapy'
Easy - 'therapy'
Control
Looked at weight loss of dependant measure
Control group and low effort group didn’t have much chaning in weightloss
High effirt lost a lot of weight and larger difference over time.
- Suffering for something seems to make it worth it.
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What did Joshua Correll et al. (2002) find? (shoot/ NO shoot)
People were faster to shoot Black targets, more likely to mistakenly shoot unarmed Black targets, but equally accurate at identifying weapons → bias affects speed and decision, not perception.
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What is realistic conflict theory?
Prejudice arises from competition over limited resources (e.g., “fixed pie”).
144
What is relative deprivation?
Feeling disadvantaged because another group seems better off — even if it’s not true.
145
what are the 4 things that are affected once a stereotype is activated?
- how quickly we percieve
what we notice
how we interpret what we notice
what we remember
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Johnston & Macrae (1994) findings? (stereotypes & information search)
when people thought they were meeting someone form another racial group they only seeked information that confirmed stereotypes from that racial group.
147
explain Beirnats 1993 "shifting standards" theory (objectivity vs subjectivity).
we have different standards in which we compare individuals based on their social groupings. e.g in a relationship in which the man and woman are the same height, the man may be perceived as "average at best" while the woman may be seen as tall.
148
What did Monica Biernat & Eric Vescio (2002) find about stereotypes in decision-making?
A: No gender bias when ability was clearly high or low (objective), but for medium ability players (ambiguous cases), men were given better positions and opportunities → stereotypes influence decisions when there is subjectivity.
149
What are attributional differences in gender stereotypes?
Occurs when the same outcome is explained differently:
Man succeeds → attributed to ability
Woman succeeds → attributed to luck
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what is Group serving attribution:
In group = when we do positive things it is because we are good people
When we do bad things it si because we had no choice
Out-group
When they do bad things, it is because they are bad people
When they do good things they had no choice alterior motive.
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inference vs categorisation
Categorisation allows us to make inferences about that category
Where as stereotypes allow us to make inferences about individual group members
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what is the Sherman et al (1998) "encoding flexibility model" of stereotypes
Once a steereotype is activated, it makes processing anything that fits that stereotype really easy and fast.
When we have things that are inconsistent with the stereotype, that take much more time and deliberation.
153
what si the outgroup homogenity effect?
We tend to view our in- groups as more heterogeneuos i.e. we are of the same group but all different
And other groups as more similar e.g. "they all look the same".
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what is the "self-fulfilling prophecy" of stereotypes
1. Perceiver forms expectation about target
Then
2. Perceiver acts toward target based on expectation
Then
3. Target responds so behaviour matches expectations
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What did Carl Word, Mark Zanna & Joel Cooper (1974) show about self-fulfilling prophecy?
A: Interviewers treated Black candidates more negatively (e.g., sat further away, shorter interviews), and when this same treatment was applied to others, those candidates performed worse → behaviour created the outcome.
156
What did Chen & John Bargh show about priming and behaviour?
Participants primed with Black faces became more verbally hostile, and this caused their partner (who wasn’t primed) to also become more hostile → showing a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Shows activated stereotypes can unconsciously shape behaviour others as well as yourself.
157
what are the 3 types of harm that result from "isms and phobias".
harm to:
- Mental health
- Physical health
- Systemic effect
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"isms and phobias" effect on Mental health
Higher rates of
* Depression
* Anxiety
* PTSD
* Eating disorders
* Sustance abuse
* Self-injury
* Suicide
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"isms and phobias" effect on physical health
Higher reates of
* Cardiovascular issues
* Diabete and arthritis
* Autoimmune disease
* Cancer
* Pregnancy issues
* Violent attacks
* Early death
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"isms and phobias" effect on systemic effects
Less access to:
Safe, stable houseing
* Healthy food and water
* Quality educations
* Economic opportunity
* Health care services
* Menatal health systems
* Judicial systems/justice systems
161
Minority stress theory/ model (Meyer, 2003)
external and internal stressors that creates a particlar form of stress called minority stress
162
Buttber er al findings on Minority stress (ball toss game)
Play ball tossing game with two other people (robots)
Either include yo uor exclude you from passing
Found that when you play over and over and are constantly excluded people would feel extremely high level of stress
Those included = less stress
Shows being excluded is not something we ever get used to/ acclimate to.
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What creates minority stress?
Interaction between:
External stressors (prejudice, discrimination)
Internal stressors (self-doubt, vigilance)
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What are external stressors?
Systems of prejudice that disadvantage minority groups (e.g., discrimination, exclusion).
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What are internal stressors?
Psychological responses like:
Self-doubt
Pressure to perform
Hypervigilance
166
What did Kenneth Clark & Mamie Clark (1949) show?
Black children preferred white dolls → shows internalisation of societal prejudice.
167
How do external and internal stressors interact?
it is a feedback loop: External prejudice → internalised beliefs → reinforces external systems → cycle continues.
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What did Jojanneke van der Toorn et al. (2020) show?
Heteronormative beliefs can exist even within LGBTQ+ communities.
169
explain Foucault's panopticon (circular prison) and how this relates to the LBGT community
Prison designed aroudn guard tower in the middle
When you have prisons like this, found that prinsoner start ot self police themselves as they don’t know who is watching them at any one time.
Applicable to queer community and you never know when someon is going to act towards you with prejudice
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Spencer et al., 1999
Minority identity: women
Stereotype that woman are bad at math actually affected their scores
Woman were infomed about the stereotype - told that woman are bad at math
= external stressor
Interal stressor
= pressure to perform
Self-doubt
Exclusion
Could lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy / create stress to overperform
= minority stress
Found woman in experimental condition did in fact do worse than control group (not told women are bad at math).
Aksed "how strongly do you I dentify with womanhood". The stronger the were, the more effected they were in controll group
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Example: Stereotype threat
Cheryan & Bodenhausen, 2000
(woman & asain stereotype)
Looked at stereotype pf 'woman are bad at math' compared to 'asains are good at math' - comparing outcomes of stereotype compassion
Minority identity: woman + asain
External stressors: gender & ethnicity made salient
Asked to answer questions such as "I am a good representation of a woman/asain" to mak sure stereotype was salient
Internal stressors : need to perform to prove worthiness.
Found :
- People who had their ethnicity more salient performed the worse out fo the conditions
Something about having ethnicity stereotype made aprticipants choke - pressure ot live up to expectations
No difference between gender and __
Does not matter if it is a good stereotype or a bad stereotype, the both create stress
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what are the 3 key ways in which someone mitigates or copes with stereotypes and minority stress?
1. Conceal
- Trying ot hide identity
- E.g. masking, closeted sexuality etc
- Believe you wont be a targey of prejudice
- But comes at a high cost - imposter syndrome etc
2. Disidentify
- Some things cannot be concealsed, so may resort to disidentifying
- E.g. distancing yourself form the norms of the stereotype
- Adopting behaviours of non-minority groups
- In order to disidentify from a hated ingroup member, you reject those ingroup members to0.
3. Social change
- Can be representation
- Staying informed
- Having hard conversations with people you care about
- Problem with social change: inherently comes with risk - e.g. protests are dangerous, loosing career, mental health effects, distancing from people in your life.
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The Lisa Diamond & Andrew Alley (2022) social safety perspective says:
Stress is naturally “on”, and it only turns off when we feel socially safe.
two types of threats:
1. Objective threats (real, external):
Discrimination laws
Rejection (e.g., religion, community)
Hearing slurs/jokes
2. Subjective threats (perceived, internal):
Fear of being judged or mistreated
Fear of rejection or exclusion
Fear of disrespect or danger
PSYC221
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