PSYC 221 Fall 2012 Study Guide for Final Exam I Religion Morality Functions of religion a Terror management death anxiety Humans are aware of our own mortality and have a natural desire for self preservation When reminded of our mortality there is a potential for a paralyzing terror which alters behavior Terror management theory when we think about our death Increased belief in supernatural agents afterlife mind body distinctions b Social identity communication bonding cooperation altruism handles free rider problems Religious identity is stronger than other social identities ethnic geographic etc Knowing ones identity allows for sharing and advertising of the self and beliefs to connect with others Having an identity gives a better ease to generate values and influence judgments and decisions c Formation facilitation of large groups and common goals causes Groups with strong moral norms had a competitive advantage over those that didn t Morality binds large communities Norms morals and values promote in group cooperation eliminate the free rider problem keep authority and structure intact assists in mobilizing around common causes Trust facilitates cooperation in large groups d Compliance with rules laws social norms and in group loyalty Social contract rules norms Moral Foundations Theory 6 foundations of morality care harm people feel compassion when they see other humans suffer fairness humans readily form alliances which leads to reciprocal altruism leads us to develop virtues related to fairness and justice loyalty develop emotions related to recognizing trusting and cooperating with people in your group while being distrustful of people in other groups authority respect and obedience for people in leadership prestigious positions purity belief that people aren t pure and have disgust for those who act upon sexual desires moralizes normative behavior liberty feeling of reactance and resistance towards those who dominate them and restrict their liberty e Coping with stress pain suffering Everyone undergoes suffering even innocent people Community as social support Effects of religious beliefs and or belief in God a Reduced cheating dishonesty Christians and Jews both believe that adultery is wrong Christians believe that lust is just as bad b Coping and or social support from others in religious group or God Seek proximity to God in times of trouble and stress c Moralizing normative behavior 1 Association between social norms and suicide rates Lower rates of suicide in societies with more social norms tighter societies d Competition conflict between groups in group favoritism Similarities between religious people and secular atheists Religious people are less likely to be adulterous and have more general life happiness Atheists and secular people have religious experiences feeling unity with humanity transcendence of time space emotions like elevation and awe cognitions like karma and fate and have participated in behaviors such as rituals Discrimination against atheists Most distrusted least liked group by far Discriminated against during job hiring Christians are trusted more Moral dumbfounding intuitiveness Searching for a reason that something is wrong Acting in some way because it is instinctive logic and reason are afterthoughts Disgust and elevation promote moral judgments Morality at 2 levels individual group level morality Individual vs group level morality Individual is care fairness and liberty Group is loyalty within the group authority and purity 6 moral foundations differences for liberals conservatives described in Haidt s TED talk on moral roots of liberals conservatives and the article New Synthesis on Moral Psychology Conservatives treat all these six factors as moderately important liberals however focus almost exclusively on the harm caring or fairness reciprocity principles Free will a Why it s a flawed concept yet beneficial Useful for organizing society Priming free will increases motivation effort altruism job performance and decreases aggressive behavior and cheating Doesn t take into account emotions and other mental states II Political psychology Change or lack thereof across the lifespan in ideology attitudes Modeling learning through rewards and punishments Genetic correlations with political attitudes and similarities Psychological differences between liberals conservatives Conservatives are more psychologically restricted a E g Restricted vs open cognition Increased need for closure certainty stability Decreased openness to experience Decreased tolerance for ambiguity Liberals are quicker to integrate new stimuli information The moral foundations and their association with political ideology Conservatives rhetoric prioritizes traditional American values Liberals rhetoric prioritizes worldliness and human rights What variables make people more conservative a Situational variables priming Priming danger and death increases conservative ideology Perceptions of income inequality and economic behavior Steadily rising people underestimate the income inequality don t know its rising Association with mortality people who don t have a lot of money are living longer Overall state of economy trumps individual economic status Motivated reasoning and skepticism for incongruent political Hot automatic vs cold conscious rational processing for political arguments evidence information System justification Role of the media III Group Behavior Commons dilemma AKA public good dilemma Tendency for shared or jointly owned resources to be squandered and not used in the optimal fashion Doing something for the good of everyone vs the good of yourself with communal resources a Free rider problem social loafing deindividuation Free rider problem I ll take while others give watching others act selfishly increases selfish behavior Social loafing people reduce effort when working in a group Deindividuation makes people more willing to act on their own impulses which can increase antisocial behavior b Ways to reduce selfish behavior in groups Identifiability Individuation making the size of the group smaller recognizing people for what they contribute to a group Establish norms positive role modeling Rewards incentives Pluralistic ignorance Mere exposure Belief that others are right or know more than you Individual input results in either social facilitation or social inhibition a Impact on performance evaluation apprehension Social impact theory Belief that when others
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