Critical Thinking Exercise

 

�    Do you think prejudice still exists in our culture?� Why or why not?

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction

 

�    Social Psychology - the _________________________ of how a person�s thoughts, feelings, and behavior are influenced by the real, imagined, or implied presence of others.

 

Social Cognition: Thinking About Others

 

Impressions

 

�    Impression Formation � the process of understanding and making __________________ about others.

� Primacy Effect - the very _______________________ one has about a person tends to persist even in the face of evidence to the contrary (Anderson & Barrios, 1961).

� Halo Effect - the tendency to infer that a person has other positive traits if you notice a ________________ about them (Feingold, 1992).

�    Impression Management - a persons efforts to ________________ how others will view him or her.

� Self-Enhancement Strategy - attempts to make one�s self _________ ____________ through grooming, etc.

� Other Enhancement Strategy � eliciting a ______________________ or reaction from the other person to make a good impression.

 

Attributions

 

�    Attribution - the process of explaining ______________ and why people do what they do (Heider, 1958).

�  Situational cause- cause of behavior attributed to __________ factors.

�  Dispositional cause - cause of behavior attributed to _____________ factors, such as personality or character.

�    Fundamental Attribution Error - the tendency to overestimate the influence of internal factors in determining behavior while underestimating __________________ factors (Weiner, 1985).

 

Attitudes

 

�    Attitude - a tendency to respond _______________ or ______________ toward a certain person, object, idea, or situation (Triandis, 1971).

�  Cognitive: the way a person __________________________ about a person, object, idea, or situation.

�  ____________________: the way a person feels about a person, object, idea, or situation.

�  Behavioral: the ________________ a person takes regarding a person, object, idea, or situation.

 

How Attitudes Form

 

�    Direct _________________ with the person, situation, object, or idea.

�    Direct __________________ from parents or others.

�    __________________ with other people who hold a certain attitude.

�    _________________ the actions and reactions of others to ideas, people, objects, and situations.

 

Changing Attitudes

 

�    Persuasion - the process by which one person tries to _______________ the belief, opinion, position, or course of action of another person through argument, pleading, or explanation.

 

When Attitudes and Behavior Clash

 

�    Cognitive Dissonance - sense of ________________ or _____________ that occurs when a person�s behavior does not correspond to that person�s attitudes (Festinger & Carlsmith, 1959).

�  Change the behavior to match the ________________.

�  Change the attitude to justify the behavior.

�  Form ___________________ to justify the behavior.

 

Specific Types of Attitudes

 

�    Stereotype - a belief (or set of beliefs) about people in a particular category (cognitive component).

�  May be ___________ or _______________.

�    Prejudice - negative attitude held by a person about the members of a particular social group (_______________ component).

�  Racism, sexism, ageism, sizeism, etc.

�    Discrimination - _______________ people differently because of prejudice toward the social group to which they belong (behavioral component).

 

Reasons for Prejudice

 

�    In-Groups - social groups with whom a person identifies (�______�).

�    Out-Groups - social groups with whom a person does not identify (�__________�).

�    Realistic Conflict Theory - competition for ________________________ amongst groups produces negative attitudes (Bobo, 1983).

 

Overcoming Prejudice

 

�    Equal Status Contact - contact between groups in which neither group has ______________ over the other.

�  Robber�s Cave Study (Sherif et al., 1961).

�    Recategorization - shifting the categories of �us� vs. �them� so that the two groups are no longer ________________ entities.

�    Mutual Interdependence - when groups rely upon one another for a ___________________________.��

�  Jigsaw Classroom (Aronson et al., 1978).

 

Social Behavior: Interacting With Others

 

Interpersonal Attraction

 

�    Physical Attractiveness - very subjective, but still important.

�    Proximity - physical or geographical __________________.

� Mere Exposure Effect - a natural and usually unconscious tendency to grow ________________ of a �novel stimulus� the more often they are exposed to it (Bornstein, 1989; Zojonc, 2001).

�    Similarity - people are attracted to others with ___________________ attitudes, beliefs, interests, and values (Hartfield and Rapson, 1992).

� What about opposites attract?� Initially, differences may seem interesting and appealing, but in time, those very same differences begin to clash and cause friction (McPherson et al., 2001).

�    Reciprocity - tendency to like other people who ____________________ (Curtis & Murray, 1986).

 

Sternberg�s Triangular Theory of Love (1986, 1987, 1997)

 

�         Intimacy - emotional ___________________ with the other person.

�         Passion - physical arousal and ____________________.

�         Commitment - cognitive and __________________________ to be and stay with the other person.

 

Helping Others

 

�    Altruism - prosocial behavior that is done with _____________________ of reward and may involve the risk of harm to oneself.

�    Bystander Effect - the effect that the presence of other people has on the decision to help or not help, with help becoming ___________________ as the number of bystanders increases (Darley & Latane, 1968).

�  Diffusion of Responsibility - when a person fails to take responsibility for actions or for inaction because of the ______________________ _______________ who are seen to share the responsibility (Leary & Forsyth, 1987).

 

Social Influence: Impacting Others

 

Social Influence

 

�    Social Influence - the process through which the real or implied presence of others can directly or indirectly _____________________ the thoughts, feelings, and behavior of an individual.

 

Three Types of Social Influence

 

Conformity

 

�    Conformity - changing one�s own behavior to ________________ that of other people.

�    Asch�s Classic Study on Conformity (1951)

�  Participants were told they were participating in an experiment on visual judgment.

�  All but the last person were confederates.

�  Participants conformed a little over 1/3 of the time.

�    Stanford Prison Study (Zimbardo, 1971)

�  Social Role - pattern of behavior that is expected of a person who is in a particular social position.

�  Participants were randomly assigned to be guards or prisoners.

�  Guards treated prisoners so harshly that the experiment had to be ended early.

�  Demonstrated conformity to social roles.

�    Groupthink - kind of thinking that occurs when people place more importance on maintaining ___________________________ than on assessing the facts of the problem with which the group is concerned (Janis, 1972; 1982).

 

Compliance

 

�    Compliance - changing one�s behavior as a result of other people ______________ or ______________ for the change.

 

Four Ways to Gain Compliance

 

�    Foot-In-The-Door Technique - asking for a small commitment and, after gaining compliance, asking for a ______________ commitment (Freedman & Fraser, 1966).

�    Door-In-The-Face Technique - asking for a _____________ commitment and being refused, and then asking for a smaller commitment (Cialdini et al., 1975).

�    Lowball Technique - getting a commitment from a person and then raising the ____________ of that commitment (Burger & Petty, 1981).

� Involves raising the cost of the SAME commitment.

�    That�s-Not-All Technique - technique in which the persuader makes an offer and then ____________________________ to make the offer look better before the target person can make a decision (Burger, 1986).

 

Obedience

 

�    Obedience - changing one�s behavior at the _________________ of an authority figure.

�    Milgram�s Classic Study (1964)

� Participants were told they were participating in an experiment on the effects of punishment on learning.

� Participants were told to shock confederates when they made a mistake.

�  No shocks were really administered.

� 65% continued to the final �shock� level of 450 volts.

 

Group Dynamics

 

�    Social Facilitation - the tendency for the presence of other people to have a _______________________ on the performance of an easy task (Zajonc, 1965).

�    Social Loafing - the tendency for people to put _________________ into a simple task when working with others on that task (Latane et al., 1979).