Psych EXAM 4 Notes - Exam 4 Review for Dr. Sarah Angulo PDF

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Exam 4 Review for Dr. Sarah Angulo...

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Social Psychology • •

Whereas personality psychologists focus on why different people may act differently in a given situation, social psychologists focus on the situation Social psychologists study influences that explain why the same person will act differently in different situations

Attribution Theory •

The theory that we explain someone’s behavior by crediting either the situation or the persons disposition

-Situational Cause: The cause of behavior is attributed to external factors (the situation: Bob is late to class; he was probably stuck in traffic -Dispositional Cause: The cause of behavior is attributed to internal factors (the person: Bob is late to class; he is probably a bad student •

Fundamental Attribution Error

-The tendency to overestimate the influence of internal factors (dispositional cause in determining behavior, while underestimating situational factors -Fundamental Attribution Error = Assuming that Bob is probably a bad student because he was late to class when he was actually just stuck in traffic. This could affect how we interact with Bob •

Effects of Attribution

-How we explain someone’s behavior affects how we react to it (situational vs. Dispositional attributions) Attitudes and Actions Persuasion: behavior follows attitudes • • • •

Knowing that attitudes affect actions, advertisers want to persuade you to buy their product. Persuaders try to influence out behavior by changing our attitudes. They can do this by two routes Peripheral mute persuasion: Produces fast results, as people respond to uninformative cues, such as celebrity endorsements, and make snap judgements Knowing that attitudes affect actions, advertisers want to persuade you to buy their product. Persuaders try to influence our behavior by changing our attitudes Central route persuasion- offers evidence and arguments that aim to trigger favorable thoughts. Occurs mostly when people are naturally analytical or are involved in this issue

EX: an automotive add itemizing a car’s great features • •

Not only will people stand up for what they believe, they will also more strongly believe in what they have stood up for Foot-in-the-door phenomenon

-The tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request. To get people to agree to something big, start small and build • 1. 2. 3. • • •

Freedman and Fraser Asked people to put a big, ugly sign in their yards (only 17% agreed) Asked people to put up a 3-inch-sign in their yards (nearly all agreed) Returned to replace the 3-inch sign with a big, ugly sign (now 76% agreed) Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Study (1972) Another important point- Deindividuation: The loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity (via uniforms, hoods, or masks) What do we, gradually become... but not everyone succumbs. Person and situation interact. Much as water dissolves sand but not salt, so rotten situations turn some people into bad apples, while others resist

Cognitive Dissonance Theory • •

The theory that we act to reduce the discomfort (Dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts (cognitions) are inconsistent When we become aware that our attitudes and actions don’t concede we experience tension, or cognitive dissonance. We can try to reduce the tension by changing to make our attitudes and actions better aligned

• Conformity • •

Conformity is adjusting our behavior or thinking to concede with a group standard Like the chameleon lizards that take on the color of their surroundings, we humans take on the emotional tones of those around us

Conformity and Social Norms • •

Normative social influence: influence resulting from a person’s desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval Informal social influence resulting from one’s willingness to accept others’ opinions about reality. We conform because we want to be accurate, and we believe the other persons answer is more accurate than out own

Conditions that Strengthen Conformity • • • • • • •

One is made to feel incompetent or insecure The group has at least three people This group is unanimous One admires the group’s status and attractiveness One as no prior commitment to a response The group observes one’s behavior One’s culture strongly encourages respect for a social standard

Obedience: Following Orders •

The Milgram Experiment

-Fun fact! Stanly Milgram and Philip Zimbardo were high school students • •

About 2/3 of research subjects compiled right up to the highest voltage shock They reported high levels of conflicting emotions – the desire to obey authority and the desire to not hurt a fellow human

Obedience Was Highest When • • • • •

The person giving the orders was close at hand and perceived to be a legitimate authority figure The authority figure was supported by a powerful or prestigious institution The victim was depersonalized or at a distance, even in another room There were on role models for defiance or resistance Another important point: Milgram exploited the foot-in-the-door technique. Shocks increased in tiny increments beginning with a tickle of electricity and escalating to enough to make one’s hair stand on end. In the minds of those throwing the switches, the small action became justified, making the next act tolerable

Group Behavior • • •

Social facilitation: improved performance on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others However, on tougher tasks, people perform worse when observers are other working on the same task are present Social loafing: the tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts towards attaining a common goal than when individually accountable

EX • • •

Working in a group makes people feel less accountable, especially if they viewed their individual contributions as dispensable When group members share equally in the benefits, regardless of how much they contribute, some may slack off and free ride on other efforts Denivelation: the loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity

Group Polarization • •

Group polarization is the enhancement of a group’s prevailing inclinations through discussion within the group If a group is like-minded, then discussion strengths its prevailing opinions

-Group polarization can feed extremism. When people interact in isolation, their views grow more and more extreme. Increasingly, they categorize the world as “us” against “them”. -Polarization can also occur in virtual groups. Social media sites prioritize content that they anticipate we will like, thus reinforces our views

Groupthink • • •

• •

The mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives More importance is placed on maintaining group cohesiveness than on addressing a problem Group thinking is fed overconfidence, conformity, self-justification, and group polarization

Is prevented when a leader welcomes various opinions, invited experts’ critiques of developing plans, and assigns people to identify potential problems

-The suppression of dissent bends toward bad decisions, and open debate often shapes good decisions. None of us are as smart as all of us. -Preventing Groupthink • • •

Recognizing groupthink Seeking information that challenges emerging agreement Assign Devil’s Advocate

Antisocial Relations Prejudice

Means “pre-judgment” An unjustifiable and negative attitude towards a group, often a different culture, ethnic or gender group • Prejudice is a negative attitude, whereas, discrimination is a negative behavior • Like all attitudes, prejudice is a three-part mixture of 1. Beliefs (in this care stereotypes) 2. Emotions (for example, hostility or fear) 3. Predispositions to actions (to discriminate) • Prejudice can be explicit (overt), subtle (as in microaggressions), and implicit (automatic or unconscious)

• •

-Microaggressions: the everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership -Modern studies indicate that prejudice is often implicit, an automatic attitude, an unthinking kneejerk response -Unconscious prejudices can cause discimination even without conscious disciminatory intent

Prejudicial Attitudes are formed via: • • • •

Direct contact with people, situations, objects, or ideas Direct instruction from others Interacting with other people who hold a certain attitude Vicarious conditioning: watching the actions and reactions of others to ideas, people, objects, and situations

Microaggression Examples: Gender •

• •

An assertive female manager is labeled as a “bitch”, while her male counterpart is described as a ‘forceful leader” (Hidden Message: Women should be passive and allow men to be the decision makers) A female physician wearing a stethoscope is mistaken as a nurse. (Hidden Message: Women should occupy nurturing and not decision-making roles. Women are less capable than men) Whistles or catcalls are heard from men as a woman walks down the street (Hidden message: Your body/appearance is for the enjoyment of men. You are a sex object)

Implicit Association Tests (IATs) IATs measure the degree of people's automatic association between concepts Using IATs, researchers have demonstrated that even people who deny harboring prejudice may carry unconscious negative associations Unconscious Patronization

•

Unconscious Patronization may occur when people (like teachers) calibrate their evaluations or expectations based on stereotypes of other people (like their students) leading to less exacting standards and a patronizing attitude

-Low expectations result in inflated praise, and insufficient criticism may hinder student achievement So, what can be done about this? • • •

Awareness is the first step It is what we do with our feelings that matters By being mindful of our feelings and actions, and by replacing old habits with new ones based on new friendships, we can work to free ourselves from prejudice

Social Roots of Prejudice • •

When some people have money, power, and prestige, and others do not, the “haves” usually develop attitudes that justify things as they are. Stereotypes rationalize inequalities Just-world phenomenon: The tendency for people to believe that the world is just and that people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get

-Can lead to the erroneous belief that those who succeed must be god and those who suffer must be bad Us vs. Them: Ingroup and Outgroup • •

We have inherited some of our Stone Age ancestors’ need to belong, to live and love in groups; in the wild there was a safety in solidarity Evolution prepared us, when encountering strangers to make instant judgements: friend of foe? Based in appearance and even sound (like, regional accents)

-Ingroup: “us” people with whom we share a common identity -Outgroup: “them” those perceived as different or apart from our ingroup. -Ingroup bias: the tendency to favor one’s own group

Emotional Roots of Prejudice • • •

Scapegoat theory – The theory that prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame Evidence for the scapegoat theory of prejudice come from high prejudice among economically frustrated people And, evidence comes from experiments in which temporary frustration intensifies prejudice

-Students who experience failure or were made to feel insecure often restored their self-esteem by disparaging a rival school or another person (Cialdini and Richardson, 19080; Crocker et al. 1987) How People Learn to Overcome Prejudice

• • • •

Education and intergroup contact Equal status contact: contact between groups in which the groups have equal status, with neither group having power over the other Expose groups to tasks that require their cooperation: superordinate goals-shared goals that override differences among people and require their cooperation Dr. Sherif’s Robbers Cave study

More Antisocial Relations Aggression •

Biological influences on aggression

-Alcohol has impact on aggression -Predisposition toward violence (MAOA gene AND childhood trauma together = higher risk; extra Y chromosome in males) -Lower levels of serotonin (more obsessive, impulsive behavior) -Amygdala (hyperactive – greater arousal) -Frontal lobes (hypoactive – less emotion regulation; more impulsivity) -Higher levels of testosterone (higher raw aggressive response) Psychosocial Factors • • 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Frustration-aggression principle: the principle that frustration (the blocking of an attempt to achieve some goal) creates anger, which can generate aggression Some triggers include: Hot temperatures Physical pain Personal insults Foul odors Cigarette smoke

Sociocultural Factors • •

Social Script: Culturally modeled guide for how to act in various situations People sometimes imitate what they’ve viewed

-Watching risk-glorifying behaviors (dangerous driving, extreme sports, unprotected sex) increases viewers’ real-life taking •

Music lyrics may also write social scripts

-German university men who listened to women hating song lyrics administered hotter chili sauce to a woman. Men-hating song lyrics likewise increased aggression in women Biopsychosocial Understanding of Aggression

Prosocial Relations • •

Altruism is an unselfish concern for the welfare of others Altruism became a major concern of social psychologists after the stabbing of Kitty Genovese in 1964

Bystander Effect •

The tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present

-When more people share responsibility for helping, there is a diffusion of responsibility that makes any single bystander less likely to help Five Steps in making a decision to help

Psychological Disorders Early Explanations of Mental Illness

What is abnormality? Is it... • • • • •

A behavior that is statistically rare? A behavior or thinking that deviates from the norms of society? Dependent on the situational context? Something that causes subjective discomfort? Characterized by an inability to function in society?

Psychologists’ Working Definition of Abnormality 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Statistically rare Deviant from social norms Causes subjective discomfort Does not allow day-to-day functioning Causes a person to be dangerous to self or others

Models of Abnormality •

Biological Model

-Disorder is caused by biological changes in the chemical, structural, or genetic systems of the body •

Psychodynamic view

-Disorder is the result of repressing one’s threatening thoughts, memories and concerns in the unconscious mind •

Behaviorism

-Disordered behavior is learned, just like normal behavior

•

Cognitive perspective

-Maladaptive functioning is the result of illogical thinking patterns Models of Abnormality •

Sociocultural Perspective

-Focuses on the relationship between social behavior and culture. Abnormal thinking and behavior (as well as normal are seen as the product of learning and shaping within the context of the family, the social group to which one belongs, and the culture within which the family and the social group exist -Cultural relativity •

The need to consider the unique characteristics of the culture in which the behavior takes place

•

Biopsychosocial Perspective

-Abnormal thinking or behavior is seen as the result of the combined and interacting forces of biological, psychological, social, and cultural influences Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) • • •

Published in 1952 Revised multiple times as knowledge and ways of thinking about psychological disorders has changed Most recent edition published in 2013, the DSM-5

Disorders in the DSM • •

Useful in providing clinicians with descriptions and criteria for diagnosing mental disorders Examples include: Depressive disorders, Anxiety disorders, Schizophrenia Spectrum and other psychotic disorders, neurodevelopmental disorders

How common are Psychological Disorders? • • •

26.2 % of American adults over age 18 have a mental disorder in any given year 61.5 million people in the U.S 1 in 5 people suffer from psychological disorder

Anxiety Disorder: Phobias • •

Phobia: irrational, persistent fear of an object, situation, or social activity Agoraphobia: fear of places and/or situations from which escape is difficult or impossible

Panic Disorder • •

A panic attack is a sudden onset of intense panic in which multiple physical symptoms of stress occur, often with feelings that one is dying In panic disorder, attacks occur more than once or repeatedly, and cause persistent worry or changes in behavior

Generalized Anxiety Disorder • • •

Feelings of dread/doom and physical stress lasting at least six months Source of anxiety often cannot be pinpointed Worry about things most people would not worry about

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder •

With DSM-5, this disorder is no longer classified as an anxiety disorder

-Now falls in the category of “Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders” • •

Obsessive, recurring thoughts create anxiety Compulsive, ritualistic, repetitive behavior or mental acts reduce that anxiety

Acute and Posttraumatic Stress Disorders

Causes of Anxiety Disorders

Disorders of Mood • • •

Bipolar and Related Disorders and Depressive Disorders Affect an emotional reaction Disorders of mood: Disturbances in emotion ranging from milk to moderate, or can be extreme

Major Depressive Disorder • • •

Severe depression, sudden, no apparent external cause Most common of the diagnosed disorders of mood 1.5 to 3 times more likely in women as it is in men

Bipolar 1 and Bipolar 2

Eating Disorders

Causes of Eating Disorders • • •

Adolescents and young adults are most at risk Eating disorders have been observed in non-Western cultures that are not focused on thinness Genetic components for eating disorders account for 40 to 60 percent of the risk for anorexia, bulimia, and binge-eating disorder

Reverse Anorexia/Body Dysmorphia •

People with this condition see themselves as smaller than they actually are, and no matter how much they workout, they are never large enough

Dissociative Disorders •

Break in conscious awareness, memory, and/or sense of identity

-Dissociative amnesia: Memory loss for personal information, either partial or complete

-Can occur with or without dissociative fugue, sudden travel away from home with amnesia for trip and possibly personal identity -Dissociative identify disorder: Person seems to have two or more distinct personalities Causes of Dissociative Disorders

Schizophrenia • •

Severely disordered thinking, bizarre behavior, inability to separate fantasy from reality Causes include: