PYSCH 150 1st EditionExam # 3 Study Guide Lectures: 1 - 12Social Thinking (Social Perception) - strategies used to assess/judge othersA. Impression formation1. Primacy effect: tendency to evaluate others in terms of first impressions2. Recency effect: tendency to evaluate others in terms of the most recent impressions B. Explaining behavior – Attributions1. Attributions help us to:a. understand someone’s behaviorb. predict someone’s future behaviorc. control the situation if it should occur again2. Types of attributionsa. Situational attributions – attribute a person’s behavior to some external cause or factor, such as the social pressure found in a situation b. Dispositional attributions – attribute the behavior to some internal cause, such as a personal trait, motive, or attitude3. Attributional biasesa. Fundamental attribution bias – assumption that others act predominantly on the basis of their dispositions, even when there is evidence suggesting the importance of their situations b. Self-serving bias – tendency to attribute our successes to dispositional (internal) causes and blame our failures on situational (external) causesc. Actor-observer effect – tendency to attribute our own behavior to situational factors but to attribute the behavior of others to dispositional factorsII. AttitudesA. Three components of an attitude1. Cognitive component – thoughts and beliefs about an attitudinal object2. Emotional component – feelings toward attitudinal object3. Behavioral component – predisposition to act toward attitudinal objectB. The A-B Problem (the issue of how well we can predict behavior on the basis of attitudes)C. Forming attitudes1. learning principlesa. modeling and other forms of social learningb. classical and operant conditioning2. mere exposure effect (tendency to feel more positively toward a stimulus as a result of repeated exposure to it)D. Changing attitudes1. Elaboration likelihood modela. Two routes to attitude changei. central route - high elaboration, careful processing of info, attitude change depends on quality of arguments ii. peripheral route - low elaboration, careful processing of info does not occur, attitude change depends on presence of persuasion cues (e.g., attractiveness of person delivering message, expert source)b. Which route is followed?i. personal involvement- HIGH personal involvement – central route more likely- LOW personal involvement – peripheral route more likely2. Cognitive Dissonance Theory a. Festinger and Carlsmith study (1959)i. method:-participants performed boring, repetitive task-given either $1 or $20 to tell another person that the task was in fact quite interesting-after telling other person about the task, participants asked to rate how much they liked the taskii. results: $1 group rated the task as much more likable than $20 groupiii. conclusion: $1 group displayed the most attitude change because the money did not justify the behavior, and therefore, they changed their attitude to make it more consistent with their behavior b. Cognitive dissonance: discomfort and/or distress that result when an individual’s attitudes do not match up with his/her behaviorsc. When will behavior-attitude inconsistency produce attitude change?i. inconsistency causes distress or discomfortii. changing attitude will reduce this distress or discomfortIII. Interpersonal AttractionA. Keys to interpersonal attraction1. Situational factorsa. mere-exposure effect (tendency to feel more positively toward a stimulus as a result of repeated exposure to it)i. example: proximity increases attractiveness (physical or geographical closeness; major influence on attraction)b. first meeting in a comfortable situation increases attractiveness2. Similarity between individualsa. attitude similarity – more similar attitudes, high ratings of attractiveness3. Physical attractivenessa. attraction-similarity hypothesis – people are more likely to be romantically attracted to people who are similar in physical attractiveness than to people who are notably more or less attractiveB. Love1. Triangular model of love – Sternberg’s view that love involves combinations of three components: intimacy, passion & commitment (see p.362 in textbook)a. intimacy – refers to a couple’s closeness; to their mutual concern & sharing of feelings & resources (more important in enduring relationship)b. passion – strong romantic and sexual feelings (most crucial in short-term relationships)c. commitment – the decision to maintain a relationship (more important in enduring relationship)2. Types of lovea. Consummate love – combines all three (intimacy, passion, commitment)b. Romantic love –passion + intimacy (without commitment)c. Companionate love – intimacy + commitment (without passion)d. Fatuous love – passion + commitment (without intimacy)e. Liking – intimacy alone (without commitment or passion)f. Empty love – commitment alone (without intimacy or passion)g. Infatuation – passion alone (without commitment or intimacy)IV. Social influence – the process whereby words or actions of other people directly or indirectly influence a person’s behaviorA. Social norms – learned, socially-based rules of behavior1. Norm of reciprocity – tendency to respond to others as they have acted towards you2. Creates orderly social behaviora. BUT problem of deindividuation (the process by which group members may discontinue self-evaluation and adopt group norms and attitudes; heightened arousal & cohesiveness w/group resulting in reduced sense of personal responsibility & accountability for behavior)B. Conformity – change behavior or beliefs to match others (due to real or imagined group pressure)1. Sherif’s experiment (1937)a. method: in a dark room, a stationary light appears to move. Participants estimate how far the point of light movedb. results: when tested alone, participants estimates varied WIDELY; when tested in groups, participants estimates converged over a few sessions (conformity!)2. Asch’s experiment (1956)a. method: participants judged line lengths alone or in a group (all other people in groupwere confederates working with the experimenter); at first, confederates told the truth, then they all gave the same wrong answers b. results: participants conformed to wrong answer on 37% of trials (when in a group); 70-75% of participants conformed on at least one trial; 50% of participants conformed on