PSY Chapter 12: Social Psychology – Flashcards

See how many ordinary men, chosen to be healthy and normal, would respond to a radical change in their normal roles in life.

24 College students made the cut, divided into two groups, guards or prisoners, by coin flip.

Prisoners: A dress, smock with no underclothes with a prison ID number, bolted chain and covered hair
Guards: Guard uniform, weapons

Privilege Cell: 3 prisoners involved in riot given special privileges in order to turn prisoners against each other.
Switched out good with bad prisoners in order to break alliances, divide and conquer.

Produced greater solidarity amongst guards, began to really think prisoners meant harm, no longer just an experiment

5 Prisoners had to leave earlier, experiment lasted 6 out of 14 days

Turning them into objects and instilling in them feelings of hopelessness

State of reduced individuality, reduced self awareness and reduced attention to personal standards

Why were the soldiers, ordinary men, coerced into committing such heinous crimes against the Jewish population?

65%, 26/40 participants administered the 450 volt shock.

Think: Small fraction would be prepared to inflict the maximum voltage
Actual: 65%

When facing the dilemma of obeying an authority figure, most people find it very difficult to disobey authority

Groups naturally develop their own cultures, status structures and boundaries, roots of conflict are created, conflict can be resolved by introducing these superordinate goals, stretching beyond the boundaries of the group itself

1. Boys ganged up on a common enemy (an individual member)
2. Both groups ganged up on the Experimenters

Power of social roles and the situation/context/environment in which you are placed

Power of authority on conforming to expectations over moral judgements

Dynamics of intergroup conflict and conflict resolution

How people influence other people’s thoughts, feelings and actions

Initial impressions largely determined by facial expressions, gestures, mannerisms and movements

-Seconds long observations provide lasting and often accurate impression
-Soundless 30 second film clips of college teachers lecturing, asked to rate teaching ability, ratings corresponded very highly with the ratings given by the instructor’s actual students

Explanations for events or actions, including other people’s behavior

When bad things happen to people, we make sense of it by blaming the victim, victims must have done something to justify what happened to them

Things within people, such as abilities, moods or efforts (internal or dispositional)

Outside events, such as luck, accidents or the actions of other people (external)

F= Situational, unstable or uncontrollable factors in a way that casts us in a positive light
S= Personal, permanent factors in a way that gives us credit for doing well

Overemphasis of personality traits and underemphasize the importance of the situation

Our own behavior= focus is on the situation
Other people’s behavior= focus is on dispositions
IE being late to class

Tendency to behave in ways that confirm our own or others’ expectations (Bloomers Experiment)

Negative feelings associated with a stereotype

Inappropriate and unjustified treatment of people as a result of prejudice

In working together toward a greater purpose, people can overcome intergroup hostilities

Robbers cave experiment: People who work together achieve a common goal often break down subgroup distinctions as they become one larger group

-Students work together in mixed race or mixed sex groups
-Each member of their own groups is an expert on one aspect of the assignment and teach their team members

Through experience and observation

The more we are exposed to something, the more we tend to like it

Attitudes that a person can report

Attitudes that influence a person’s feelings and behavior at an unconscious level

An uncomfortable mental state due to a contradiction between two attitudes or between an attitude and a behavior
Ex: People who smoke even though they know smoking might kill them

Changing attitudes can be done by changing behaviors first, using as few incentives as possible ($1 lied more then 20$)

When people put themselves through pain, embarrassment to join a group, they experience a great deal of dissonance, to resolve the dissonance, they inflate the importance of the group and their commitment to it.

The presence of others enhances performance

People work less hard when in a group than when working alone
Participants did not shout as loudly when they believed that others were shouting with them

Altering one’s behaviors and opinions to match those of other people or to match their expectations
IE. Participant in the middle doubting his own answers

Any behavior that involves the intention to harm someone else
-Common in young children but relatively rare in adults

Acting for the benefits of others

Selfless: Motivated by empathy
Selfishness: To relieve one’s negative mood
Inborn tendency to help others

Helping when it is needed without any apparent reward for doing so

-Evolutionary Perspective
-Reciprocation

Murdered while walking from work in NYC and witnesses did nothing to help

The failure to offer help by those who observe someone in need

Symmetrical Faces

Participants rated the averaged faces as more attractive