PSYC 100 GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY EXAM 4 FINAL STUDY GUIDE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Why is it that we are a part of groups Fulfills our basic human need to belong Source of information especially during ambiguous situations Help us define ourselves Establish social norms What are social norms Same as large societies groups have their own notions of appropriate behavior Power of norms on individual s behaviors become blear when one violates them often Stanford Prison Experiment Newspaper ad recruited participants 24 college students separated into prisoners and guards Everyone even researchers fell deeply into their roles o What are social roles and how is this concept related to this study Social roles shared expectations in a group about how particular people are supposed to behave o Upside we know what to expect from each other o Downside get too much into role and lose ourselves Study showed that social roles aren t just labels that you can BECOME the role Deindividuation Loosening of normal constraints on behavior when people can t be identified leading to an increase of impulsive deviant acts by large groups o Under what conditions will this likely occur o In large groups o Examples of this o Likely to do something in a mob that you wouldn t alone but when called by name or recognized you re likely to stop Conformity Conformity is a change in one s behavior due to the real or imagined influence of other people o What were the results of the Asch study textbook and video from class time o Asch study of perception of length of lines o People were reporting on length of lines and others changed their answers to match the rest of the group they conformed Obedience to authority Social norm is to be obedient in all cultures Socialized early on the be obedient to legitimate authority sources o We still follow norms even when the authority figures aren t present o What were the results of the Milgram study Shock experiment even when they could see it hurt they kept shocking the other if there was an authority figure telling them to do so We can be uneasy but we will most often keep pushing through if there is an insistent authority figure o Examples of this Even if there s no police officer present we still obey the traffic laws Prosocial behavior and altruism Prosocial Behavior any act performed with the goal of benefitting another person Altruism the desire to help another person even if it involves a cost to the helper o Video shown in class about prosocial behaviors and babies Babies were given a choice between a puppet that was mean a puppet that cooperated and they almost always chose the cooperating puppet Humans are a cooperating species Kids gave help when an object was out of reach and so did chimps Bystander effect The more people around the less likely you are to actually help someone You think someone else will help everyone is also thinking that and no one actually helps If one person steps in it breaks the bystander effect and mobilizes others to action Attributions about others Explanations about events of actions o Personal vs Situational o Personal something about the person and their character o Situational something outside of themselves that s affecting them o EX Homeless Woman Personal this woman didn t try hard enough to find a job Situational this woman left her abusive husband and can t get the resources to get back on her feet o Fundamental Attribution Error o The tendency to explain others behaviors in terms of personal factors o Underestimating the power of social influence o Actor Observer Discrepancy o The tendency to explain our own behavior in terms of situational factors AND the tendency to explain others behaviors in terms of personal factors PERSONALITY What is personality Personality is a set of characteristic thoughts emotional responses and behaviors in an individual thought to be stable over time and circumstances Compare and contrast the different theoretical approaches for understanding personality Five Factor Theory Costa McCrae o OCEAN Openness to Experience Imaginative vs Down to earth Likes variety vs like routine Independent vs Conforming Conscientiousness organized vs disorganized Careful vs careless Selfdisciplined vs Weak willed Extraversion social vs retiring Fun loving vs sober Affectionate vs reserved Agreeableness softhearted vs ruthless Trusting vs suspicious Helpful vs uncooperative Neuroticism worried vs calm Insecure vs secure Self pitying vs selfsatisfied Freud s Personality Structure o Id tries to seek pleasure and avoid pain primal instincts sex libido food aggression o Ego logical rational realistic part of the personality o Superego moral component of the personality What are the different methods of assessing personality Idiographic approaches person centered focus on individual lives and how various characteristics are integrated into unique persons Nomothetic approaches focus on how common characteristics vary from person to person Trait approaches o Objective measures self report Observer Ratings judgments of personality based on observations bedrooms Psychodynamic theory o Projective measures unconscious o Objective vs Projective measures o Objective Measures straightforward assessments such as self report questionnaires or observer ratings o Projective Measures explore unconscious processes by having people interpret ambiguous stimuli Why is Walter Mischel important Proposed that behaviors are determined more by situations than by personality traits situationalism Responses to Mischel were very intense person situation debate Temperament vs Personality Temperament biologically based tendency to respond to certain situations in similar ways Dimensions o Activity level emotionality sociability Life experiences may alter personality traits vs Innate biology of personality Self schema vs Self concept Self schema knowledge structures about the self o Integrate and summarize information and experiences relevant to the self o Considered active working structures that shape perceptions memories emotional behavioral responses o Just like every other schema we have a schema of ourselves o Schema is domain specific Self concept answers who am I o Multi faceted cognitive structure total collection of cognitions about self o Self concept is all encompassing Self as son Self as student Self as exerciser How does the description of the self change from childhood to adulthood Self at 3 to 4 years o Concrete characteristics o Very broad