It is the study of how we think, influence, and relate
Social Thinking
Attribution Theory - Casual explanation for behavior
- Behavior to situation or person's disposition
Fundamental Attribution Theory - Habit to underestimate the impact of a situation and overestimate the impact of personal disposition.
Teacher - commonly attributed to personality
Attitude - Belief or feeling that predisposes one to respond in a particular way to something
Action Guidance
- Minimal external pressure
- Attitude awareness
- Relevant attitude to behavior
Foot-in-the-door - Tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply with a larger request
Door-in-face - Person says no to big request -> Agrees to small request
Cognitive-Dissonance Theory - We do not like when we have either conflicting attitudes or when our attitudes do not match our actions.
Clash -> Adapt attitude for balance
Social Influence
Conformity - Adjusting behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard
Conditions:
- One made to feel incompetent
- Group has at least 3 people
- Unanimous group
- One admire's the group's status
- No prior commitment
- Person is observed
Reasons:
- Normative - Approval or avoid disappointment
- Informational - Willingness to accept others' opinions about reality
Social Facilitation - Better performance around others, especially with simple or well learned tasks. (Not with difficult or learning tasks)
Yerkes-Dodson Law - Optimal level of arousal for the best performance
Easy = High / Difficult = Low / Others = Moderate
Social Loafing - Habit for people in a group to exert less effort in polling efforts toward a common goal then if they were individually accountable.
Deindividuation - Loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity.
Group Polarization - Group's attitude is one of extremes; rarely normal.
EX: Black Panthers, KKK
Groupthink - Thinking that occurs when desire for harmony in decision-making overrides common sense.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecies - Person's belief about others leads one to act in ways that induce the others to appear to confirm that belief
Social Relations
Prejudice - An unjustifiable attitude towards a group of people
Stereotype - Generalized assumption about a group of people
Social Inequalities
- Ingroup - "us", common identity
- Outgroup - "them", the outcasts
- Ingroup bias - tendency to believe own group is the best.
Scapegoat Theory - Prejudice provides an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame
Aggresion - Any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy.
Biology - Genetics, Neutral Influences, Biochemical
Frustration-Aggressive Principle - Blocking of an attempt to achieve some goal creates anger, which leads to aggression.
Conflict - Perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas.
Social Trap - Situation where people must choose between act highly beneficial to self or moderately to all.
Attraction
Factors to gaining attraction:
- Proximity - Mere-exposure effect - More exposure = more attraction
- Reciprocal Liking - More likely to like someone who likes you
- Similarity - Opposites do not attract; Same pack flock together; Similarity breeds content.
- Liking through associations
- Physical Attractiveness
Love
- Passionate - Aroused state of intense positive absorption of another
- Compassionate - Deep affectionate attachment we feel in intertwined lives (Contains equity and self-disclosure
Altruism - Unselfish regard for the welfare of others.
Bystander Effect - Less willing to help if in vicinity of others
Social Exchange Theory - Our social behavior is an exchange process, which we maximize benefits and minimize costs.
Peacemaking - Give people superordinate(shared) goals that can only be achieved through cooperation.
GRIT- (Graduated Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension Reduction)
Motivation and Emotion
Motivation - Psychological Process that directs and maintains your behavior toward a goal.
Motive - Need, want, interest and desire that propel or drive people in certain directions
Instinct Theory - Motivated by our inborn automated behaviors.
Biological - Hunger, Thirst, Sex, Sleep
Social - Achievement, Order, Play, Autonomy, Affiliation
Drive Theory - Biological internal motivation (homeostasis)
Incentive Theory - Environmental motivation (not as much homeostasis, outside forces)
Drive-reduction Theory - Need or drive -> motivated to reduce need or drive; source of motivation lies within the person.
Hunger
- Not from stomach - from hypothalamus
- Why? Glucose - provides major source of energy for body tissues.
- Insulin converts glucose to fat.
Hypothalamus
- Lateral - Stimulation makes hunger; destroyed -> never be hungry
- Ventromedial - Stimulation makes you feel full; destroyed -> no limit in hunger
Set Point Theory - Hypothalamus acts like a thermostat - maintain stable weight.
- Lateral -> diet
- Ventromedial -> gain weight
Eating Disorders
- Bulimia Nervosa - Binging ( eating large portions) and purging (ridding food)
- Anorexia - Be 85% below normal body weight, still see self as fat; mostly affects women
- Obesity - Severely overweight to cause problems; mostly eating habits, some predisposed
Achievement Motivation
- Intrinsic - Internal rewards (enjoyment, satisfaction)
- Extrinsic - Outside rewards (grades, money); Great in short run
- Over Justification - Reward for doing something you like to do results in you seeking reward as motivation for doing task. (Diminishes intrinsic motivation.
Management Theory
- Theory X - Employees work for benefits or if threatened; Extrinsically motivated; Maslow's lower needs
- Theory Y - Employees internally motivated to do good work; Maslow's higher needs; Policies should encourage this internal motive
Social Conflict Situations
- Approach- Approach - 2 posi outcomes (only 1 chosen)
- Avoidance-Avoidance - 2 nega outcomes (only 1 chosen)
- Approach-Avoidance - Both options have posi and nega outcomes
- Multi Approach - Multi choices and outcomes
Emotion
Response of the whole organism (physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, conscious experiences)
James-Lange Theory - Experience of emotion is awareness of physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli.
Cannon-Bard Theory - Stimuli stimulate both physiological response and subjective experience of emotion.
Two-Factor Theory - Experiencing emotion needs physical arousal and cognitive label.
Polygraph - Machine used to decipher lies by measuring perspiration, cardiovascular rates, and breathing changes (Physiological responses following emotion)
Amygdola - Neural key to fear learning
Catharsis - Emotional release
- "Releasing" aggressive energy relieves aggressive urges.
Feel-good, do-good phenomenon - Tendency to be helpful when already in a good mood.
Adaption-Level Phenomenon - Tendency to form judgments relative to a "neutral" level (brightness, volume, level of income); defined by prior experience.
Relative Deprivation - Perception that one is worse off relative to those with whom one compares oneself.
