Social Psychology

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

1. Minimal external pressure
2. Attitude awareness
3. 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:

1. Proximity - Mere-exposure effect - More exposure = more attraction
2. Reciprocal Liking - More likely to like someone who likes you
3. Similarity - Opposites do not attract; Same pack flock together; Similarity breeds content.
4. Liking through associations
5. 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.