Social Psychology Notes t1
Social Psychology Notes t1
Social Psychology Notes t1
Prefrontal Cortex Activity: Mason and Macrae (2004) found that the
prefrontal cortex is active when processing information about people rather
than animals or objects.
Dehumanization of Social Groups: Harris & Fiske (2006, 2007) showed that
processing information about certain social groups, like the homeless, did not
activate the prefrontal cortex, indicating dehumanization.
Krendl, Moran, & Ambady (2012): Dehumanization of the homeless occurs
when homelessness is seen as unchangeable (essentialized).
Processing in Interaction: Hood & Macrae (2007) found that when people
look directly at us, we process their features more fully and remember them
better.
First Impressions: Impressions form in less than 100 milliseconds (Bar, Neta,
& Linz, 2006). Initial traits influence later judgments (Primacy Effect).
Facial Impressions:
Political Candidates: Todorov et al. (2005) found that people judge political
candidates' competence from faces shown for just 1 second.
Accuracy of Impressions: First impressions based on facial appearance are
often accurate (Ambady and Rosenthal, 1993).
Emotional Expression:
Nonverbal Communication:
Detecting Deception:
Lie Detection: People detect lies correctly only 54% of the time (Bond &
DePaulo, 2006).
Linguistic Cues: Linguistic style, including pitch and speed, can give away
deception (Ekman and Friesen, 1974; De Paulo et al., 2003).
Attribution Theories: Internal vs. External Attributions
Attributions in Relationships:
Happy Marriage:
o Positive Behaviors: Internal attributions are made for a partner's
positive actions.
o Negative Behaviors: External attributions are made for a partner's
negative actions.
Distressed Marriage:
o Positive Behaviors: External attributions are made for a partner's
positive actions.
o Negative Behaviors: Internal attributions are made for a partner's
negative actions.
Actor-Observer Effect:
People tend to attribute their own behavior to situational factors but attribute
others' behavior to their disposition.
Cultural Differences:
Brain activation patterns differ between Americans and East Asians when
attending to or ignoring contextual information, reflecting cultural influences.
Self-Serving Attributions:
People with low self-esteem tend not to use self-protection bias and attribute
failures internally.
Depressive realism suggests mildly depressed individuals make more accurate,
less biased judgments.
Culture and Self-Serving Bias:
Interpersonal Attraction:
o Positive evaluation of others.
o Strength of liking or loving another person.
Physical Attractiveness:
o Characteristics evaluated as beautiful or handsome.
o Element of romantic attraction.
Agreement on Physical Attractiveness:
o Good agreement across cultures and ages.
o Studies show consensus on who is considered physically attractive.
Physical Appearance Impact:
o Strong effect on interpersonal attraction.
o Physical attractiveness influences evaluations in various contexts.
Features of Physical Attractiveness:
o Women: Cute/child-like or mature with prominent cheekbones.
o Men: Cute/boyish or mature and masculine.
o Youthful appearance is valued.
Symmetry and Grooming:
o Symmetry signifies health and familiarity.
o Well-groomed individuals are perceived as attractive.
Averaging Faces:
o Averaged faces are perceived as more attractive.
o Familiarity and frequent exposure contribute to attractiveness.
Benefits of Beauty:
Proximity:
o Physical closeness increases the likelihood of friendships.
o Propinquity effect: More interaction leads to increased friendship.
Mere Exposure Effect:
o Increased exposure leads to increased liking.
o Familiarity breeds attraction.
Similarity vs. Complementarity:
o Overwhelming support for similarity over complementarity.
o Similar interests, attitudes, values, and personality traits foster liking.
Affiliation and Need for Social Contact:
o Need for affiliation: Desire for regular social contact.
o Affiliation linked to life satisfaction.
o Desire for relationships and social networks.
Consequences of Rejection:
o Ostracism: Being excluded or ignored.
o Rejection sensitivity: Tendency to expect and be oversensitive to
rejection.
o Consequences include health problems and violence in relationships.
Cyberostracism:
o Online ostracism leads to sadness, loss of control, and conformity.
Impact of Ostracism:
o Ostracized individuals experience coldness perception and desire warm
food.
o Activates neural systems associated with physical pain.
Loneliness and Health:
o Loneliness associated with health problems and immune system
impairment.
o Rejection and ostracism affect mental and physical well-being.
Evolutionary Psychology:
o Attributes differences in sexual behaviors to reproductive roles.
o Men's unlimited reproductive capacity vs. women's limited capacity.
Mate Selection Criteria:
o Men focus on physical attractiveness and youth.
o Women prioritize resources and prefer older partners.
o Universal desire for warmth, loyalty, attractiveness, vitality, status, and
resources.
Mate Preferences in Personal Ads:
o Men emphasize physical appearance.
o Women focus on partner's status and material resources.
Gender Differences in Sexual Behavior:
o Men tend to be more promiscuous.
o Women are more cautious and selective.
o Men more jealous of sexual infidelity, women more jealous of
emotional infidelity.
Promiscuity and Sexual Desire:
o Men more willing for casual sex.
o Desire for sexual variety higher in men.
o Men may over-perceive sexual interest, leading to higher infidelity
rates.
Natural Differences and Gender Equality:
o Gender inequality may influence attractiveness preferences.
o Negative association between gender equality and mate preferences
differences.
Controversy:
o Evolutionary Psychology and Sexual Economics Theory argue women
repress female sexuality due to competition.
o Feminist response: Men, due to societal dominance.
Sexual Double Standard:
o Men receive prestige for multiple sexual partners.
o Societal dominance contributes to sexual double standards.
o Patriarchy reinforces unequal agency and citizenship rights.
Support for Double Standards:
o Some theories suggest women are more supportive.
o Feminist response: Men may play a role in discouraging women.
Gender Inequality:
o Ongoing issues despite progress.
o Gender pay gap, lack of representation, and sexual harassment persist.
Impact of Intersectionality:
o Factors such as race and socio-economic status intersect with gender,
influencing experiences of sexual violence.
In summary, the topics cover evolutionary explanations for sexual behaviors, mate
preferences, gender differences, sexual economics theory, societal dynamics, gender
inequality, and the role of sexual assault in repressing women sexually. The
discussion emphasizes the intersectionality of these issues and their broader societal
implications.
Types of Relationships:
o Exchange Relationships: Governed by equity concerns.
o Communal Relationships: Primary concern is responsiveness to each
other's needs.
Factors Contributing to Relationship Maintenance:
o Similarity: Shared interests and values enhance satisfaction.
o Reciprocity: Mutual self-disclosure develops intimacy.
o Equity: Fairness in contributions is crucial.
o Responsiveness: Partners recognizing, valuing, and supporting each
other.
Relationship Satisfaction Factors:
o Sacrifices indicate commitment.
o Perceived partner responsiveness promotes trust and intimacy.
Attachment Styles:
Definition:
o Social cognition involves understanding how people select, interpret,
and use information for judgments about themselves and the social
world.
Automatic and Controlled Thinking:
o Automatic thinking is quick, biased, and unconscious.
o Controlled thinking is deliberate and effortful.
o Both modes often work together effectively.
Heuristics:
o Mental shortcuts for quick judgments.
o Can lead to biased or erroneous conclusions.
o Examples include cognitive accessibility, salience, and
representativeness heuristic.
Schemas:
o Mental structures organizing and simplifying information processing.
o Function as filters, screening information and affecting attention,
encoding, and retrieval.
Stereotypes:
o Rigid schemas about social groups, denying individuality.
o Justify inequality and influence self-perception and behavior of others.
o Activated automatically, biasing information processing.
Stereotype Content Model:
o Dimensions: Warmth (communion) and Competence (agency).
o Elicit different emotions, some stereotypes are ambivalent.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy:
o Beliefs influencing behavior, confirming expectations.
o Example: White students' discomfort in interviews affecting African
American candidates.
Stereotype Threat:
o Apprehension that behavior might confirm stereotypes.
o Example: Performance anxiety on a test reflecting badly on one's race.
Pygmalion Effect:
o Rosenthal & Jacobson's study: Expectations influencing IQ test
performance.
o Similar to self-fulfilling prophecy.
Primed Stereotypes:
o Priming: Recent experiences increasing schema accessibility.
o Example: Participants forming positive/negative impressions based on
primed words.
Embodied Social Cognition:
o Metaphors relate abstract concepts to concrete, tangible ones.
o Embodied social cognition involves bodily experiences in processing
social information.
o Metaphors prime attitudes, memory, judgment, perception, and
behavior.
Accessibility and Priming:
o Accessibility: Extent to which schemas are at the forefront of one's
mind.
o Priming: Process increasing accessibility due to recent experiences or
goals.
Attitudes: Summary
Components of Attitudes:
Types of Attitudes:
People infer their attitudes from their behaviors under certain conditions.
Conditions include a weak or ambiguous initial attitude and no other plausible
explanation for behavior.
Origins of Attitudes:
Genetic Influence: Identical twins share more attitudes than fraternal twins.
Learning: Classical conditioning, subliminal conditioning, mere exposure
effect, and operant/instrumental conditioning.
Observational Learning: Acquiring attitudes or behaviors by observing
others.
Attitude-Behavior Link:
Observational Learning:
Attitude-Behavior Consistency:
Prejudice:
Stereotypes:
Different groups elicit various emotions and behaviors (Cottrell & Neuberg,
2005).
Example emotions include disgust (towards gay men), pity (towards Native
Americans), fear (towards African Americans), and envy (towards Asian
Americans).
Forms of Discrimination:
Subtle Discrimination:
o Comfort with own group, discomfort with out-group, exclusion, and
avoidance of the out-group.
Blatant Discrimination:
o Open expression of negative emotions, hate, contempt, disgust,
hostility, aggression aiming to harm out-groups.
Hostile Sexism:
Benevolent Sexism:
Ambivalent Sexism:
A mix of hostile and benevolent sexism, categorizing women into liked and
disliked groups (traditional vs. modern, career women, or lesbians).
Effects of Discrimination:
Reducing Prejudice: