MIDTERM SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Conformity


  Acting differently due to the influence of others
• Compliance


  Conforming to an expectation or request without really believing in what you are doing
• Acceptance


  Genuinely believing in what the group has persuaded you to do
• Obedience


  Complying with a direct command
• Sherif's studies of norm formation

  1. Participant estimates light movement in dark room

  2. Participant estimates change to match group

  3. Group norm emerges
• Milgram's obedience studies


  1. Participant acts as "teacher" and administers shocks to "learner"

  2. Obedience affected by victim's emotional distance

  3. Obedience affected by closeness and legitimacy of authority

  4. Obedience affected by institutional authority

  5. Conformity can also be constructive
• Factors that predict conformity

  • Group size
  • Unanimity
  • Cohesion
  • Status
  • Public response
  • Prior commitment
• Normative influence


  Conformity based on desire to be accepted and avoid rejection
• Informational influence


  Conformity based on desire to be correct and accept evidence from others
• Predictors of who conforms

  • Personality (openness to experience)
  • Culture (working class vs middle class)
  • Social roles
• William Shakespeare's character Jaques in As You Like It: 'Social life is like acting on a theatrical stage, with all its scenes, masks, and scripts'
• Social roles allow some freedom of interpretation but some aspects must be performed
• A student must at least show up for exams, turn in papers, and maintain some minimum grade point average
• Persuasion


  Clearing several hurdles to increase the likelihood of persuasion
• The Central Route


  1. People are motivated and able to think about an issue, focusing on the arguments

  2. If arguments are strong and compelling, persuasion is likely

  3. If arguments are weak, thoughtful people will counterargue
• The Peripheral Route


  1. People are not motivated or able to think carefully, focusing on cues that trigger automatic acceptance without much thinking

  2. Easily understood, familiar statements are more persuasive than novel statements with the same meaning
• Elements of persuasion


  • The communicator
  • The message
  • How the message is communicated
  • The audience
• Communicator Credibility


  • Believability, perceived as both expert and trustworthy
• Sleeper Effect


  A delayed impact of a message that occurs when an initially discounted message becomes effective
• Communicator Characteristics


  • Perceived expertise
  • Speaking style
  • Perceived trustworthiness
  • Attractiveness and liking
• Logical message


  More persuasive than one that arouses emotion
• Presenting both sides of an argument can be advantageous
• Foot-in-the-door phenomenon


  The tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request
• Lowball technique


  A tactic for getting people to agree to something by first offering a lower price or request, then increasing it
• Door-in-the-face technique


  When a large request is refused, a smaller request is then made as a counteroffering
• Commonsense psychology places faith in the power of written words for persuasion
• Life cycle explanation


  Attitudes change (e.g. become more conservative) as people grow older
• Generational explanation


  Attitudes do not change; older people largely hold onto the attitudes they adopted when they were young
• Attitude Inoculation


  Exposing people to weak attacks upon their attitudes so that when stronger attacks come, they will have refutations available
• The best way to build resistance to brainwashing is not just stronger indoctrination into one's current beliefs, but teaching how to counter persuasive appeals
• People who live amid diverse views become more discerning and more likely to modify their views only in response to credible arguments
• Social Psychology Definition


  A branch of psychology that studies how individuals think, feel, and behave in social situations.
• Social Identity Theory


  A theory that explains how people define themselves and others based on group membership and categorization.
• Availability Heuristic


  A cognitive bias where people overestimate the likelihood of events that are more vivid or recent in their memory.
• Group Polarization


  A phenomenon where a group's opinions and behaviors become more extreme over time due to social influence.
• Obedience


  The willingness of individuals to follow orders or instructions from authority figures.
• Conformity


  The tendency for individuals to adopt the behaviors and attitudes of others in a given situation.
• Evolutionary Psychology


  The study of the evolution of cognition and behavior using principles of natural selection.
• Natural Selection


  A process by which heritable traits that best enable organisms to survive and reproduce in particular environments are passed to ensuing generations.