Social Psychology - ANS The scientific study of the feelings, thoughts, and
behaviours of individuals in social situations.
Stanford Prison Experiment. He paid 24 undergrad men chosen for good character
and mental health. Flipped a coin, half were guards, half were prisoners. - ANS
Guards turned to verbal abuse and physical humiliation, etc. Produced extreme
stress reactions, experiment to be ended. Experimenter: Philip Zimbardo
Hannah Arendt - ANS Wrote Eichmann in Jerusalem, concluded that anyone is
capable of performing acts of brutality.
Kurt Lewin - ANS Founder of modern social psychology, believes that the
behaviour of people is a function of the field of forces in which they find
themselves. These forces are psychological as well as physical. People's attributes
interact with the situation to produce the resulting behaviour. The main situational
influences on our behaviour are other people.
People had to give shocks to others (who were actually confederates) each time
they made a mistake. Any time the experimentee balked, the experimenter asked
them to continue. - ANS The majority of people went all the way to the 450-volt
level. The experimenters didn't expect so many to continue. Poor external validity,
yet has occasionally happened and will happen again so it's still useful.
Experimenter: Stanley Milgram.
,Picked students concerned with religion. Asked them to go somewhere else to give
a sermon. Some were told to hurry, some weren't. On the way, they passed a
person clearly in need of help. - ANS Whether good samaritans were in a hurry or
not was the biggest predictor of whether or not they helped a person they passed
in the street (far more than how religious they were). Randomly assigned people in
the two conditions so they're the same kind of people which demonstrates that
something related to being late is what caused it. Deception study. Experimenters:
Darley and Batson.
Dispositions - ANS Internal factors, aka beliefs, values, personality traits and
abilities. Have much less influence than most people think (this is fundamental
attribution error)
Fundamental Attribution Error - ANS Failure to recognize the importance of
situational influences on behaviour, and the tendency to overemphasize the
important or dispositions. Coined by Lee Ross. Comes into play with Milgram
experiment, which probably says more about the situation than the people,
though people still think they would never do such a thing.
Channel Factors - ANS Situational circumstances that appear unimportant on the
surface but have great consequences for behaviour- facilitating it, blocking it, or
guiding it in a certain direction. Coined by Kurt Lewin.
Had some students read scary materials about tetanus and showed them pictures
of people with extreme tetanus. Then told them they could get a vaccine to
prevent it. The other half of participants were given a map of campus that showed
where the health centre was. They had to map out when they could go and get the
shot and how they'd get there. - ANS The people who had to plan it out were much
,more likely to get the vaccination. This experiment is about channel factors; the
channel factor was the requirement to shape a vague intention into a concrete
plan. Experimenter: Howard Leventhal
Gestalt psychology - ANS Objects are perceived by active nonconscious
interpretation of what the object represents.
Naïve Realism - ANS The belief we have that we see the world directly, without any
complicated perceptual or cognitive machinery.
Construal - ANS An interpretation of or inference about the stimuli or situations
people confront. Construals affect our perceptions of others actions, which in turn
affect our behaviour.
Schema - ANS Generalized knowledge about the physical and social world. Lead us
to have expectations so we don't have to invent the world anew all the time.
Schemas can sometimes operate very subtly to influence judgements.
Two groups ranked professions in terms of prestige (one was politician). In one
group, before they gave ratings, they were told that fellow students had ranked
politicians near the top in prestige, the other group was told that fellow students
had ranked politicians near the bottom in prestige. - ANS Participants in the first
group took the label politician to refer to statesmen like Thomas Jefferson and
FDR. People in the second group were rating corrupt political hacks. It was the
different schemas activated by their peers rating that defined what they were
supposed to be judging. This experiment shows that schemas can sometimes
operate very subtly to influence judgements. Experimenter: Solomon Asch
, Stereotypes - ANS Schemas we have for people of various kinds. Personal features
trigger stereotypes people use to form judgments about others, even when they're
unaware it's happened.
Automatic Processing - ANS Automatic and nonconscious, based on emotional
factors. One of two ways the mind processes information. Occurs before
controlled processing (so emotional reactions can occur without any special
thought). Give rise to implicit attitudes and beliefs that can't be readily controlled.
Faster than controlled processing and can operate in parallel.
Controlled Processing - ANS Conscious and systematic, controlled by careful
thought. Comes after automatic processing. Give rise to explicit attitudes and
beliefs of which we are aware, though they may become implicit/nonconscious
over time. These processes are slow and run serially (one step at a time).
Whites read words reminiscent of African-Americans and then read a description
of someone who's race wasn't specified. - ANS Participants were more likely to
report that the individual was hostile than people who hadn't read such words.
This experiment shows how automatic and controlled processing can result in
different attitudes in the same person towards members of outgroups. People
with low expressed prejudice may reveal feelings towards people in the outgroup
that are almost as prejudiced as people who admit to disliking the group.
Experimenter: Patricia Devine
Anthony Greenwald - ANS Majority of white people take longer to associate black
faces with pleasant stimuli than to classify white faces with pleasant stimuli, even
for participants who showed no overt prejudice.
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller Schoolflix. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $14.99. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.