User:Gulita

What is social psychology?

 * Human behaviour in social context

History & research in social psychology

 * Originated in Europe and North America (late 18th-19th century)
 * First social psychological experiment
 * Norman Triplett
 * in 1989
 * Social facilitation
 * people perform better when they are being watched by others

What is the “self”?

 * Many different theories
 * Psychology
 * collection of cognitively-held beliefs that a person possesses about themselves (Lecture 2, p. 2)

What is the “social self”?

 * part of self that interacts with others

Self-Constructs

 * Self-Esteem
 * Feelings of self-worth
 * Often based on social comparisons
 * Degree of which we like our self
 * High self-esteem = positive view of self
 * Positive aspects of high self esteem:
 * take more initiative
 * feels good
 * more likely to try harder/again if fail at something
 * Negative aspects of high self-esteem:
 * Narcissism
 * prejudice
 * Low self-esteem = negative/lack of positive view of self
 * Self-Concept
 * Cognitive representation of the self (Lecture 2, p. 7)
 * Can self concept change?
 * People expect you to stay the same
 * Change of social environment may change self
 * Self-Efficacy
 * Belief in one’s ability to succeed at a given task (Lecture 2, p.7)
 * Self-Congruence
 * Rogers believes that the self does not exist at birth but infants gradually differentiate self from non-self
 * Self-complexity
 * people generally think that they are more complex than others
 * individual variations
 * self-discrepancy
 * actual self does not match ideal self
 * self-monitoring
 * High = adjusts behaviour to situation / monitors situation
 * Low = principle attitude determines behaviour
 * Self-regulation
 * Regulate and control our behaviour
 * Self-awareness
 * Attention directed at the self (Lecture 2, p. 11)
 * People spend a lot of time thinking about self-presentation and self-preservation and less time actually thinking about themselves
 * Can improve behaviour
 * Become more socially desirable
 * Can cause us to notice self-discrepancies therefore reduce self-esteem
 * To cope we either adjust or withdraw

LECTURE 3 – SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

 * Social Thinking
 * Initially, social psychology was influence by behaviourism (1930’s-1950’s)
 * By 1970’s, cognitive psychology lead to greater interest in social thinking and feeling
 * Social perception
 * How people form impressions of one another and
 * Make assumptions about other people
 * Knowledge structures:
 * Schemas
 * Scripts
 * Stereo types
 * Priming
 * Activating a concept in the mind (Lecture 3, p. 4)
 * Framing
 * Context influences interpretation (Lecture 3, p.4)
 * Attribution Theory
 * People perceive behaviour as being caused (Lecture 3, p. 5)
 * Fritz Heider: “people are naive scientists who attempt to use rational processes to explain events.”
 * Both disposition and situation cause behaviour
 * Correspondent Inference Theory
 * Behaviour corresponds to a person’s internal beliefs
 * Fundamental Attribution Error
 * Tendency to attribute others’ behaviour to enduring dispositions (Lecture 3, p. 8)
 * Underestimate situational factors
 * Overestimate dispositional factors

LECTURE 4 – AGGRESSION
Aggression (Lecture 4, p. 1) Violence Anti-social Behaviour Types of aggression: Theories of, and factors contributing to, aggression Inner causes of aggression Cognitive theories of aggression Age and aggression Gender and aggression Other inner causes of aggression Interpersonal causes of aggression Domestic and relationship violence Displaced aggression Environmental or situational contributors to aggression Why does watching media violence contribute to aggression? Unpleasant environments (that contribute to aggression) Chemical influences (that contribute to aggression) Self and Culture Culture of honour Other anti-social behaviour Norms What makes us human? Crowd Behaviour Controlling and preventing aggression
 * Intentional behaviour
 * Intention is to harm
 * Aggression with goal of physical harm
 * Behaviour that damages interpersonal relationships (Lecture 4, p. 2)
 * Hostile (hot, impulsive)
 * Instrumental (cold, premeditated)
 * Passive (harming by withholding a behaviour)
 * Active (harming by performing a behaviour)
 * Studies of aggression in animals (Lorenz )
 * Ethological Perspective
 * Evolutionary Perspective
 * Lorenz
 * Studying animals in their natural environment
 * Natural history of aggression
 * Instinct Theories of Aggression
 * Freud = human motivation is based on instinct
 * Aggression is a learned behaviour (modelling)
 * Bandura and colleagues = children who see aggression are more likely to be aggressive
 * Nature and Nurture
 * Both learning and instinct are relevant
 * frustration-aggression hypothesis
 * drive theory
 * frustration ultimately leads to aggression
 * frustration creates anger which creates aggression
 * Relative deprivation theory
 * Deprivation relative not absolute
 * Sense of having less than one entitled to
 * Egoistic relative deprivation theory (compare self to others)
 * Fraternal relative deprivation theory (compare in-group to out-groups)
 * Personality (more prone to aggression)
 * Type A
 * Of “Big Five”: agreeableness and emotional stability
 * Hostile attribution bias – think others actions are stemmed from hostile intent
 * Excitation-transfer
 * Arousal in one situation is transferred to another situation
 * Mistaking arousal for aggression
 * Unpleasant moods
 * Increase aggression
 * But is not necessary for aggression
 * Anger
 * Does not directly or inevitably cause aggression
 * If one believes it will then more likely to get aggressive
 * Scripts
 * How to behave in particular situations
 * Attributions
 * Reasons for aggression
 * 25% of toddlers in day-care display physical aggression
 * Males = fight or flight
 * Females = tend and befriend
 * Men mostly commit violent acts
 * Females more indirect aggression
 * Men more instrumental
 * Hormones (testosterone)
 * Genes (XYY chromosome)
 * Direct provocation
 * Alcohol
 * Social learning theory (Bandura)
 * Aggression is not innate
 * Learned through experience
 * Modelling
 * Children more likely to imitate same-sex examples
 * If reinforced
 * Occurs within home
 * Aggression highest between siblings
 * Leading cause of injury toward women
 * Women actually attack their partners more than men but with less harm
 * Taking your aggression out on something not related (e.g. kicking the dog because you’re mad at your mum)
 * Relative deprivation
 * Not much hope in improving a situation legitimately so act aggressively
 * Aggressive ‘cues’
 * Trigger aggression
 * Weapons effect (just the sight of weapons triggers aggression)
 * Mass media
 * Being exposed to violent media increases aggression
 * (Strongly debated)
 * Aggression and the media
 * Children in U.S. witness 10,000+ acts of violence (on T.V.) per year
 * Desensitization
 * Excitation-transfer
 * Modelling
 * Priming
 * Hot temperature
 * Loud noise
 * Foul smell
 * Air pollution
 * Crowding
 * Testosterone
 * Serotonin (low levels)
 * Alcohol
 * Reduces inhibitions
 * Reduces attention levels
 * Decreases self-awareness
 * Disrupts executive function
 * Nutrition
 * Junk food
 * Vitamin supplements
 * Norms and values
 * Cultures can promote violence
 * people may believe aggression is uncontrollable but they’re wrong
 * Self-Control
 * poor self-control is a main cause and predictor of crime
 * Wounded pride
 * violent people are often narcissistic
 * Southern U.S.
 * Respond in violence if honour is threatened
 * Higher levels of violence
 * Humiliation
 * Cheating (highly related to self-control)
 * Stealing
 * Littering (males litter more than females ☺, young people more than older people)
 * Injunctive norms
 * Specify what most approve or disapprove of
 * Descriptive norms
 * Specify what most people do
 * In some ways we are more aggressive than animals
 * Attempt to restrain aggression
 * Deindividuation (lowered personal responsibility and self-awareness)
 * Emergent norm theory – no clear norms for behaviour in crowds
 * Imitate what others are doing in the crowd
 * Commonly provokes anti-social behaviour
 * Social identity theory – people don’t lose identity in crowds (Reicher)
 * Take on different identities (social identities)
 * Example of intergroup behaviour
 * Learning theories
 * Positive role models
 * Effective punishment
 * Violent punishment may be modelled
 * Catharsis
 * Express aggression in safe way (e.g. sport)
 * Effects appear to be temporary
 * Aggression may increase
 * Cognitive interventions
 * Changing attributions
 * Relearning scripts
 * Interpersonal interventions
 * Social skills training (i.e. anger management)
 * Non-aggressive models
 * Co-operation between groups
 * Superordinated goals
 * Re-categorisation

"Ghosts of Rwanda"

 * Documentary about the Rwandan genocide
 * Through interviews of people who were there (i.e. Tutsi survivors), explains genocide first-hand
 * 800,000 Rwandans killed by Hutu extremists
 * International community did/could not help
 * Follows politics of U.S.
 * Investigates relationship between Africa and the west
 * Shows how Hutu people made sure west would not intervene
 * Philippe Gaillard (from Red Cross) was only representative of major aid organisation to remain in Rwanda during the genocide – he was killed

Comments: hopefully the world has learned a lesson!

LECTURE 5 – PREJUDICE AND STEREOTYPES
Prejudice Racism Aversive racism Discrimination Stereotype Subtypes ABC’s of Intergroup Relations Prejudice and intergroup relations Common prejudices and targets Stigma Stigma by association ‘Modernisation’ of racism Why prejudice exists Us versus them: groups in competition Evolution and groups in competition Stereotypes and heuristics Accuracy of stereotypes '''Is bad stronger than good? Why aren’t there more good stereotypes?''' Inner processes Overcoming stereotypes, reducing prejudice Mental processes of non-prejudiced people Discrimination in reverse Motives for overcoming prejudice Impact of prejudice on targets Stereotype threat Stereotype maintenance Contact hypothesis Changing stereotypes and reducing prejudice Australian research
 * A negative feeling toward an individual based solely on his/her particular membership in a group
 * Categorisation
 * Human nature to group objects
 * Social categorisation
 * Sorting people in to groups based on common characteristics
 * Prejudice attitudes toward a particular race
 * Simultaneously having egalitarian values and negative feelings
 * Unequal treatment based on group membership
 * Beliefs that associate groups with traits
 * Categories for people who don’t fit a general stereotype
 * Affective component
 * Prejudice
 * Behavioural component
 * Discrimination
 * Cognitive component
 * Stereotyping
 * Out-group members (them)
 * In-group members (us)
 * Eye-witnesses are better at identifying people of their own race
 * Most prejudices are related to external characteristics
 * Most people claim that they are not prejudice
 * Arabs
 * especially after 9/11
 * People who are over-weight
 * Anti-fat attitudes begin as early as pre-school
 * Homosexuals (homophobia)
 * Both men and women are intolerant of homosexuality of their own gender
 * Individual’s characteristics considered socially unappealing
 * Discrimination toward people who associate with a stigmatized person
 * Reduction of anti-African American attitudes in U.S. over last 50 years
 * ‘aversive racism’
 * Desire to maintain non-prejudiced self-image
 * Prejudice expressed but justified on non-racial grounds
 * May be innate
 * In-group favouritism
 * Minimal group affect
 * Rationalisation for oppression
 * To maintain power
 * Self-esteem
 * Some may think that if others are inferior, it must make them superior
 * Intergroup relations at Robber’s Cave
 * After one week of competition between two groups, both groups became extremely hostile
 * Initiate co-operation = superordinate goals
 * Realistic conflict theory
 * Competition for limited resources leads to inter-group conflict and hostility
 * Some countries have little/no competition
 * Peaceful
 * Economically undeveloped
 * Competition (positive)
 * Progress
 * Advancement
 * Motivation
 * Competition (negative)
 * Prejudice
 * Hostility
 * Aggression
 * Groups that are based on prejudice and act on it are more likely to survive
 * For in-group members, doing good deeds helps them survive
 * Stereotypes as mental shortcuts
 * Law of least effort (Allport, 1954)
 * Simplify process of thinking about others
 * Conserve energy / effort
 * Use information from other people rather than our own experience
 * May be based on real differences but generalised
 * Accuracy may be based on roots
 * Heuristics
 * Exaggerated with little bias
 * Stereotypes can be positive or negative
 * most stereotypes are negative
 * More durable
 * Harder to disconfirm
 * Stereotypes can be made based on salience
 * Scapegoat theory
 * Blame all problems on out-group
 * Self-serving bias
 * People make internal attributions for success but refuse external attributions for failure
 * During difficult times people behave more aggressively toward out-groups
 * Conflict and stress can cause stereotypes
 * Modern Australians much better now than before
 * Have to consciously make an effort to overcome prejudice
 * Automatic
 * Implicit prejudices
 * People may act consciously to make themselves appear or actually overcome prejudices
 * Internal and external motivations
 * Internal = morally wrong
 * External = avoid social disapproval
 * mental processes that underlay prejudice
 * both groups had equal knowledge of stereotypes
 * non-prejudice people have to consciously look beyond the stereotype
 * People who are accused of being prejudice often act like they’re really not to prove otherwise
 * To overcome prejudice people must make a conscious effort
 * Plant & Devine’s measure
 * Internal motivation – based on inner belief that prejudice is wrong
 * External motivation – socially unacceptable
 * Self-fulfilling prophecy
 * People start acting like the stereotypes that are expected of them
 * Self-defeating prophecy
 * People avoid certain behaviours to make sure that they do not to become what is expected/the stereotype
 * Fear that your behaviour might actually fit the stereotype
 * Selective perception
 * Selective/bias attention
 * Direct contact between groups = reduced prejudice
 * Stereotype monitoring
 * People can avoid stereotyping if they make a conscious effort to think differently
 * Bookkeeping model
 * Stereotypes eventually change the more it is proved untrue
 * Conversion model
 * Stereotype changes because of one incident
 * Sub-typing model
 * Maintain original stereotype even after disconfirmed
 * One nation supports scored high on racism (especially modern racism)
 * Studies show that Sydney 2000 Olympics may have changed the way Australians view/categorise Aboriginal Australians

Indigenous Australians
 * Many Aboriginals removed from their home as children
 * Lost contact with their families
 * Abused both sexually and physically
 * Also cut off from their culture, land and language
 * Prejudiced Australian Aboriginals receive from mainstream Australians causes problems and difficulty for current and future generations

LECTURE 6 – RELATIONSHIPS
The need to belong (Affiliation) Marriage Integration Similarity Matching hypothesis
 * Desire to form and maintain close, lasting relationships with other individuals
 * Human beings:
 * Need contact with other people
 * Have a powerful drive to form and maintain relationships
 * Usually form relationships easily
 * Reluctant to end relationships
 * Seek balance between social contacts and solitude
 * Not unique to humans
 * People don’t form too many close relationships
 * Typically 4-6
 * Most social circles = 6
 * People who marry are healthier and live longer
 * People who stay married live longer than those who divorce
 * Happy marriage is important factor
 * What people do to make others like them
 * common and significant cause of attraction
 * couples more similar in attractiveness more likely to have committed relationship
 * people are more attracted to others that look like them

Self-monitoring Reinforcement theory Reciprocity The gain loss hypothesis Playing hard to get Social exchange theory Equity/Balance theory Propinquity Beauty Not belonging is bad for you Social exclusion
 * people change to become more like those they interact with
 * behaviours reinforced tend to be repeated
 * people are generally attracted to those that reward them
 * we like those who like us
 * mimicking increases liking
 * we like people most if they initially dislike us and then later like us
 * we prefer people who are ‘moderately’ selective / difficult to obtain
 * turned off by people who are too eager/available
 * people like high benefits (e.g. love, companion, sex) and low costs (e.g. effort, conflict, compromise, sacrifice, risk) in their relationships
 * people are most satisfied when their relationship has equal benefits and contribution
 * prefer relationships that are psychologically balanced
 * Exposure/psychological proximity
 * Best predictor of relationship is proximity/nearness
 * Mere-exposure effect
 * The more time we spend with something the more we like it
 * Familiarity
 * Like familiar things more
 * Overexposure can reduce liking
 * People agree who is beautiful but not why
 * Evolutionary psychology:
 * Beauty in women = health, youth, fertility
 * Symmetry
 * Typicality (average/composite faces more attractive than individual faces)
 * Even babies show preference
 * Cultural and historical differences in perception
 * High death rates
 * Physical and mental health problems
 * Rejection
 * Ostracism = excluded, rejected, ignored
 * can create aggression
 * Loneliness
 * Painful wanting of human contact
 * Occurs in times of transition and disruption (e.g. moving, divorce, etc)
 * Unattached lonelier than attached
 * Loneliest group = 18-30 year olds
 * Widowed, divorced lonelier than never married
 * Bad for physical health
 * Social rejection
 * Children rejected because:
 * Aggressive
 * Unsocial
 * Different
 * Adults rejected because:
 * Different
 * Bad apple effect = one person breaks the rules, others may follow
 * Fear of rejection = good behaviour
 * Romantic rejection and unrequited love
 * Women reject more than men
 * Men stalk more than women

What is love?


 * Two types of love:
 * Passionate love
 * Intense
 * Physiological arousal
 * Important for starting a relationship
 * Companionate love
 * Caring and affection
 * High levels of self-disclosure
 * Lasting marriage/relationship


 * Schacter’s 2-factor theory of emotion:
 * 1. Physical arousal
 * 2. Cognitive appraisal

Attachment
 * Bowlby:
 * Influenced by Freud and learning theory
 * Childhood attachment predicts adult relationship
 * Shaver:
 * Attachment styles (in adult relationships):
 * Anxious/ambivalent
 * Secure
 * Avoidant

Attachment and sex Self-esteem and love Sex and gender Homosexuality Extradyadic sex Reasons for straying Ending relationships
 * Secure
 * generally have good sex lives
 * Preoccupied
 * may use sex to get people close to them
 * Avoidant
 * Have a desire for connection
 * May avoid sex, or use it to avoid intimacy
 * Popular belief that you need to love yourself before you can love others
 * Men have higher sex drive than women
 * Coolidge affect
 * More sexually aroused when with someone new than someone familiar
 * Separating sex and love
 * Men get more out of sex than love
 * Women get more out of love than sex
 * Challenges theories of sexuality
 * Most cultures condemn it
 * Natural selection does not support it
 * Infidelity is rare in modern western marriages
 * Tolerance for cheating is low
 * Monogamous relationships more common amongst humans
 * Men like novelty
 * Women’s reasons more related to emotion
 * 4 stages once relationship has started to fail (Rusult & Zembrodt, 1983):
 * 1) Loyalty – wait for improvement
 * 2) Neglect – allow deterioration
 * 3) Voice behaviour – work on improving
 * 4) Exit behaviour – end

LECTURE 7- GROUPS & LEADERSHIP
What is a group? Advantages of (human) groups Social loafing Transactive memory Groupthink Risky shift Persuasive arguments theory Social comparison/value theory Self-categorisation theory Realistic Conflict Theory Conclusions Power and Leadership Modern thought on leadership Leadership roles Power
 * 2 or more people
 * “doing or being something together” (Baumeister & Bushman, 2008, p. 480)
 * Accumulation of knowledge
 * Economic exchange
 * In human evolution:
 * Safety
 * Helps find food
 * Accomplish harder tasks
 * People put in less effort when in a group
 * Members of small group remember different things
 * when group members think alike
 * stems from desire to get along
 * Groups make more risky decisions than individuals
 * Become more convinced of initial argument
 * Competition between group members to represent valued position
 * Prototype
 * What group has in common compared to out-group
 * Mutually exclusive goals = intergroup conflict and ethnocentrism
 * Shared goals requiring intergroup interdependence for achievement= less conflict
 * Conflict will not occur in group when there is no personal gain for individual
 * Groups influence behaviour of individuals
 * Group decisions = different to individual decisions
 * Leadership in social psychology
 * relationship
 * group phenomenon
 * form of social influence
 * process of getting cooperation from others to achieve goal
 * After WW1 = loss of “hereditary leadership”
 * After WW2 = observable behaviours
 * 1960s = situational leadership
 * Recently = transactional to transformational leadership
 * Early studies identified 3 different styles:
 * 1) Autocratic
 * 2) Democratic
 * 3) Laissez-faire
 * What is power?
 * Ability to get people to do what you want / the way you want
 * Effect of power on leaders
 * Feel good
 * Reward-orientated
 * Changes relationship with other people
 * Rely more on automatic processing
 * Take more action
 * Effect of power on followers
 * pay more attention to leaders
 * foster peace
 * adapt to expectations of people with power
 * Bad bosses
 * most people do not like their boss
 * Bad bosses: Four types
 * 1) Promoted above ability (Peter Principle)
 * 2) Fails to build a good team (poor hiring choices)
 * 3) Poor interpersonal skills (arrogant, etc.)leading to conflicts
 * 4) Undermines the group (e.g., betrays trust)

LECTURE 8 – PRO-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR
What is pro-social behaviour? What is anti-social behaviour? What is altruism? Reciprocity Fairness Rule of law Learning theory Obedience Conformity Forgiveness Empathy-altruism hypothesis Personal determinants of helping Mood Attraction and helping Bystander effect What processes underlie bystander apathy?
 * Doing something good for people/society
 * Doing something bad to someone/society
 * Helping others just for the sake of helping others (no self interest)
 * Returning what another has done for us
 * Norms that promote fairness
 * Equity
 * Equality
 * Everyone in society is obliged to obtain the law
 * Boosts quality of life
 * Classical and operant conditioning
 * Observational learning = modelling behaviour (parents, media)
 * Following the rules
 * Can be pro-social
 * Going along with everyone else
 * Both positive and negative
 * Ceasing to feel anger or seek revenge on someone who has wronged you
 * Helps repair relationships
 * Who is more likely to forgive?
 * Religious people
 * people in a relationship
 * Not self-centred/narcissistic people
 * Empathy motivates people to reduce others stress
 * Personality
 * Competence
 * Attribution
 * Self and personal norm
 * Values
 * Good mood = likely to help
 * Bad mood = less likely to help
 * People are more likely to help attractive people
 * Men help women more than men
 * People are less likely to help when they are in a group (or presence of others) than when they are alone
 * Diffusion of responsibility
 * Assumption because more people around they’ll do something so you don’t have to
 * Audience inhibition
 * fear negative judgement/embarrassment from others if intervene and situation is not an emergency
 * Social influence
 * look to others as a model for action - normative and informational influence

LECTURE 9 – ENVIRONMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
What is environmental psychology? Environmental psychology (general) Negative environmental influences
 * "Environmental psychology studies the interactions and relations between people and their environments" (Oskamp & Schultz, 1998, p. 206)
 * Relatively new discipline
 * Grew out of social psychology
 * Evolved in its own direction
 * Interdisciplinary
 * Human spatial behaviour
 * Density (# of people in a space)
 * Crowding
 * Environmental stressors
 * Crowding
 * Daily hassles
 * Noise
 * Temperature
 * Environmental Risks
 * Natural disasters
 * Diseases
 * Pollution
 * Food contamination
 * Accidents
 * Nuclear power
 * Terrorism
 * Environmental design
 * Assessing and planning
 * Architectural psychology
 * Consumer psychology
 * Permaculture
 * Wayfinding

“We shape our buildings and our buildings shape us” – Churchill


 * Natural Environment
 * Preference
 * Evolutionary Psychology
 * Biophilia Hypothesis
 * Nature's Psychological Effects
 * Nature-Deficit Disorder
 * Evolutionary psychology
 * "If today I had a young mind to direct, to start on the journey of life, and I was faced with the duty of choosing between the natural way of my forefathers and that of the... present way of civilization, I would, for its welfare, unhesitatingly set that child's feet in the path of my forefathers. I would raise him to be an Indian!“ (Tom Brown)
 * Biophilia hypothesis
 * Human beings have a genetic predisposition towards “life-like” or “nature” processes
 * Humans evolved as creatures deeply enmeshed with the intricacies of nature, and that we still have this affinity with nature ingrained in our genotype

LECTURE 10 – REVIEW/ goodbye!! ☺
I’ve said it all in the last 9 lectures!!! ☺

So I’m just going to babble on for a bit...

I really enjoyed this course!! (Thanks James!)

Really nervous about the exam!! But doing this e-journal has really helped me keep up to date with what we’ve learned throughout the semester.

I particularly enjoyed learning about relationships and aggression.. they were my favourite topics!

Hope everyone has an awesome summer!!!

Remember: LIFE’S TOO SHORT SO BE HAPPYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!! ☺☺☺

Sincerely,

Gulita xx