ap psy unit 9 Flashcards

a person's behavior can either be indicative of that person's personality or be indicative of a person's situation

(consist dispositional attibutionand situational attribution)

when a person blames or credits another person's internal characteristics for the behavior

when a person blames or credits that situation for causing the behavior

when looking at someone's behavior, we normally blame who they are rather than looking at their situation.

(observer underestimates the significance of a situation and overestimates the impact of personal disposition)

ex:

during lunch, A teacher views Jade as an extrovert as she always talking and laughing with her peers

during class, B teacher views Jade as an introvert since she doesn't interact much with her peers

Conclusion: both teachers are focused on disposition, not the situation
-> Oftentimes it is easy to overestimate the impact of a person's personality when situations actually have more power than you think

tendency to attribute one's own actions to external causes while attributing other people's behaviors to internal causes

-> blame others rather than self

- when we as individuals look at our actions, and or reflect back on events we were part of

-> if negative result, attribute the responsibility to the situation

-> if positive result, give credit for achievement to ourselves (dispositional)

tendency for people to believe that the world is fair and things are the way they are for a reason

-> if you good person, good things happen to you

-> if you bad person, bad things happen to you because you bad

(associated with victim blaming)

tendency to seek information that aligns with our point of view and dismiss information that challenges our beliefs

-> often helps support and reinforce our self-serving bias

- take the blame and put it onto the victim

- blaming the victim for their misfortune

ex: basketball tryout

-> Assume people who didn't make the team are not the best

(the world is fair and the best players make the team -> associated with the Just-world hypothesis)

* ignore the possibility that there were other factors at play

such as the player's health, mood of the coach,...

when a person interprets the actions and information of another person in a favorable way

ex: when your friend fail a test, you're more likely to empathize with them and say that the test is not fair

when a person overestimates how others think and act

-> leads a person to think more people think like them than they really do

why is it occurring?

we as people want to believe that our views and beliefs are normal and accepted in society, so we tend to adopt the view that other people must also think like us

--> attitude influences our actions and perceptions -> lead to self-fulfilling prophecy

if you believe something will happen, it will happen

-> belief that influences the behavior of the individual, ultimately leads to success

- interested in how we deal with situations where our thoughts, situations, and behavior may not align

- proposed the idea of "Cognitive dissonance"

a phenomenon that happens when an individual changes their attitude to match a situation or behavior

- change in attitude or belief to match the behavior

ex: you think killing a cow is bad, but you eat cheeseburger

-> Thoughts and behavior are inconsistency

you may change your eating habit or change your opinion

- explain how people are persuaded

how much a person thinks about the information being presented in an argument

proposes two primary routes (central route to persuasion and peripheral route to persuasion)

arguments that focus on facts and logic
-> Individuals use complex thinking to come to a logical conclusion

facts, evidence, logical arguments

- long lasting impact

arguments that focus on emotions and reactions

- the goal is to get you to feel something

--> get a person to make a quick decision and require loew levels of elaboration

- individuals make quick decisions without focusing on details

emotional argument, commercial

doing things because the group does

nine confederates in the room and the tenth person was a participant

-> the majority of them conformed to what they knew was the wrong answer

-> the participant choose the wrong answer to keep the association with the group

when someone starts with a small request and builds up to larger request

when someone starts with the large request that other person would turn down, and then asks a more reasonable request that the person would accept

- following instructions or requestions

-> some aspects are foot-in-door phenomenon and door-in-the-face phenomenon

based on our assumption that group is smarter than individual

-> we conform because we want to be accurate and we accept others' versions of reality

just want to fit in, we conform because we want to avoid rejection/ gain approval

unconsciously imitating others' expressions, postures, voice tons

-> help empathize by causing our brains to mirror other's emotion

-> you might fond someone if you mirror someone's expression

people's desire for harmony in group causes them to suppress or selfcensor dessenting opinions

one day when the shuttle was about to launch, NASA received a warning one of the parts of the rocket might malfunction. however due to pressure from NASA executives to carry out the launch, whole group agreed to take the risk and launch the rocket, which led to tragic disaster

--> groupthink can be prevented when leader welcomes many options and viewpoints into a discussion

- studying show how big an impact our roles have on us

experiment:

When randomly assigned to behave like prison guards or prisoners, subjects adopted that role to the point where guards became abusive to prisoners and prisoners planned a rebellion against the guards (even though subjects were allowed to opt out at any time). This emphasizes the power of role play.

similar to compliance

-> requires a person who gives orders or instructions to be in a position of authority

obedience -> order, while compliance -> request

demonstration of how people will obey authority figures even when they disagree

experiment:

Subjects were instructed to sit in a chair and ask a learner, who was actually working with Milgram, to list pairs of words. If the learner got it wrong, a scientist would instruct the subject to deliver an electric shock to the learner. Milgram discovered that over half of the participants would deliver what they believed to be a fatal shock to the learner, showing that humans have very strict obedience to authority. This experiment is very unethical.

a social psychological phenomenon where individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when other people are present.

involves the process of resolving a conflict by providing each side's needs so that they are satisfied with the outcome.

refers to decreased performance or discomfort caused by perceived high density or number of people within an environment.

losing self-awareness and self-restraint in group situation

tend to put less effort into tasks when we are in a group compared to when we are working alone

an individual's improved performance on easy or well-learned tasks when they are with others

-> other observe, we become aroused

perform better on easy tasks but worse on difficult task

perform worse on difficult tasks

a group will move farther and farther toward their individual ideas over time, group discusses their belief with like-minded people

- bring groups closer together, but also facilitates unrealistic think and hatred

-> lead to group biases

tendency to favor our own group rather than other