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| A research study in which participants are randomly assigned to conditions which are identical except with respect to some variable being manipulated at different levels. |
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| Randomly assigning subjects to the conditions of the experiment. Helps control for participant-level factors that are hard to control (and extraneous variables). |
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| Cartesian Model of Rational Thought |
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| The idea that humans are supposed to think rationally and logically. |
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| Heider's "Naive Psychology" |
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| We are all mini-psychologists trying to understand others and the world. |
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| Self-serving Biases, Attribution Theories, Cognitive Dissonance Theory |
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The study of ways in which we process, store, and remember information (about people).
Studies when we aren't rational/logical, heuristics (simple action rules), and biases (errors in the way we think) |
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| The process through which an "observer" infers the causes of another's behavior. |
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| Jones and Harris (1067) The Castro Essay Study |
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| Participants were given an anti/pro -Castro essay written by someone who was assigned the perspective to write it on. They were asked about the author's views and found that participants attributed the essay's view to the author's behavior (even though they knew the author's were assigned to be anti/pro). |
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| Ross et al. (1977) Quiz Show |
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| Participants were assigned to be a questioner, answerer, or observer. Q's had to come up with though, but not impossible questions. O's thought the Q's were smarter than A's. A's thought they were dumber than Q's. Q's were more rational in their judgments because they considered how difficult they made the questions. |
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| Dispositional Attributions |
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| The observer attributes another's behavior as being INTERNAL to them. (e.g. Personality,Feelings, etc.) |
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| The observer attributes another's behavior to the ENVIRONMENT. (e.g. environment, situation, context.) |
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| The tendency to correspond/correlate people's behaviors with their underlying attitude. |
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| The tendency to see our behavior as situational, and other's behavior as dispositional. |
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The mechanism underlying the Actor-Observer Bias.
It is the tendency to overestimate the causal impact of whatever we focus on. |
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| The tendency to come to conclusions that make you feel good. |
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How people arrange thoughts in their head unconsciously.
Humans have a strong tendency towards cognitive consistency (when there are logically inconsistent thoughts about ourselves, others, the world, our mind resolves it by rejecting or changing it though we may not realize it). |
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| Dissonance Reduction Techniques |
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Definition
Disregard it
Change it
Distort it
Add to it |
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| "When Prophecy Fails" Study |
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Definition
Festinger & co. joined a Chicago "doomsday cult" who thought a giant flood was coming but that they would be saved. But two clocks later and the flood didn't occur.
Their cognitive dissonance were resolved in different ways. Some believed "their faith saved the world from the flood." Others left the cult. But many were faced with the mentality that "they HAVE to believe" mostly because that's all they have in life to live for. |
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| Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) $1/$20 Experiment |
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Definition
| Participants had to do a really boring task (turn pegs). They rated the task = bad. They were then asked to persuade new participants that the task is interesting. They were either given $1 or $20. Those given $1 rated the task as better (resolving cognitive dissonance). |
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| Balance Theory and the basic principles thereof |
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Definition
A theory of cognitive consistency...
There are three components: P=you, 0=the other person, and X=idea/event. You seek balance among the triangular system. Balance is achieved when the product of the sides (+/-) is positive. You restore balance by the Dissonance Reduction techniques, usually via the path of least resistance. (e.g. convincing, changing your mind, etc.) |
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| The tendency of individuals to change their views and attitudes to that of others. |
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Using the Autokinetic Effect to his advantage, he had individuals or groups gauge the size of how much a spot of light was moving.
Individuals gave moderate answers based on previous trials.
Groups within trials gave similar answers, across trials gave average answers from the previous round.
When participants were in a group first, they assimilated to what other's thought than stuck to the group norm.
When they were individual first, they started off with their own opinion then gravitated towards what others thought.
Conclusions:
-Individual estimates included a personal range of answers.
-Groups use other members to estimate the range.
-Group influence persists even after leaving the group.
-In uncertain situations, group influence is high. |
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Term
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Definition
Going off of the Sherif experiment, he wanted to study if people will conform contrary to the fact.
Participants had to compare lines to find the matching line. Confederates were used to say the wrong answer.
3 Classes of Reactions resulted:
- participants said they saw what the majority saw (dist. of perception)
- their perceptions were inaccurate (dist. of judgment)
- they knew the group was wrong but went along (dist. of action)
Other findings:
3+ confederates have the same affect.
1 dissenter was enough to eliminate the conformity effect.
Conformity is still present, but less evident due to cultural shifts. |
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| Groupthink (and Challenger example) |
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Definition
A way of deliberating that group members use when what the group thinks as opposed to logic is primary. This usually leads to poor decision making.
In the Challenger Disaster, a rocket exploded and a team was put together to find out why. People on the team wanted to say they were still unsure why, even though Feynman knew it was due to the chemistry of the rubber seal thing. Feynman spoke up, breaking the groupthink mentality. |
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| The purposeful breaking of social norms. It is useful for identifying what is and is not a norm and studying how norms and conforming are upheld. |
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| Rules with a consensus that are socially sanctioned. People merely have to think that they are enforced. They vary across cultures. |
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| When a norm is privately unpopular, but publicly accepted by most people. |
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| The enforcement of a norm one privately disagrees with. This contributes to the stability of unpopular norms. |
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Kitty was stabbed and screamed for help. People in the adjacent buildings witnessed and heard her cry but no one called the cops until about 50 minutes later. Within that time the attacker was able to stab her two more times, resulting in her death.
Believed to be resultant of the diffusion of responsibility. |
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| Diffusion of Responsibility |
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Definition
| As group size increases, each person's feeling of responsibly (and expectation of blame) decreases. Therefore, as group size increased, the odds of intervention decreases. |
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