Back to AI Flashcard MakerPsychology /GRE® Psychology Social: Various Topics Part 2
GRE® Psychology Social: Various Topics Part 2
This deck covers key concepts in social psychology, including discrimination, group dynamics, conformity, and influential studies.
What is discrimination, and how does it emerge from stereotypes and prejudices?
An action taken because of the prejudices that arise from stereotypes. An example of discrimination is calling the police about a group of people loitering in an area because you believe them to be violent, even if they have done nothing wrong.
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Key Terms
Term
Definition
What is discrimination, and how does it emerge from stereotypes and prejudices?
An action taken because of the prejudices that arise from stereotypes. An example of discrimination is calling the police about a group of people loit...
If you believe that other cultures are odd because they are not like your own, and that your culture is superior to other cultures, you are engaging in what form of bias?
ethnocentrism
Why might we see members of our out-groups as all being the same?
We have extensive experience with those who are part of our in-groups, so we see the variance therein. However, we have less experience with groups we...
Why might we engage in in-group bias?
Researchers suggest that we have a need to see ourselves as good people. If we have a social identity that we believe makes us good, we will tend to f...
When prejudice is reduced through cooperation between groups to complete a larger goal, what is this goal called, and what is this theory?
This large, shared goal is called a superordinate goal, and the theory of minimizing prejudice through cooperation with other groups is called contact...
What did Sherif's Robbers Cave study teach us about group conflict and superordinate goals?
Kids were divided into two groups in a camp; Both groups showed escalating hostility in competitive tasks resulting in prejudice; This prejudice was o...
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| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
What is discrimination, and how does it emerge from stereotypes and prejudices? | An action taken because of the prejudices that arise from stereotypes. An example of discrimination is calling the police about a group of people loitering in an area because you believe them to be violent, even if they have done nothing wrong. |
If you believe that other cultures are odd because they are not like your own, and that your culture is superior to other cultures, you are engaging in what form of bias? | ethnocentrism |
Why might we see members of our out-groups as all being the same? | We have extensive experience with those who are part of our in-groups, so we see the variance therein. However, we have less experience with groups we are not part of, so we tend to see them as all being the same. This is called out-group homogeneity. |
Why might we engage in in-group bias? | Researchers suggest that we have a need to see ourselves as good people. If we have a social identity that we believe makes us good, we will tend to favor people in our in-groups, since we believe they must also be good (or they would be part of our out-groups). |
When prejudice is reduced through cooperation between groups to complete a larger goal, what is this goal called, and what is this theory? | This large, shared goal is called a superordinate goal, and the theory of minimizing prejudice through cooperation with other groups is called contact theory. |
What did Sherif's Robbers Cave study teach us about group conflict and superordinate goals? | Kids were divided into two groups in a camp; Both groups showed escalating hostility in competitive tasks resulting in prejudice; This prejudice was only decreased when the two groups had to cooperate to complete a superordinate goal (like putting out a fire); This shows how easily in-groups form prejudices and hostility and how superordinate goals can reduce those prejudices |
How would the frustration-aggression hypothesis explain a scapegoat? | This theory asserts that frustration makes us more likely to become aggressive, and when we can't vent our aggression at the source of the frustration, we act out our aggression on someone or something else (a scapegoat). |
What did the murder of Kitty Genovese lead Darley and Latane to study? | When Genovese was murdered in view of dozens of witnesses who did nothing, Darley and Latane wanted to find out why nobody helped. This led to their research on the bystander effect and diffusion of responsibility. |
What did Darley and Latane find about the bystander effect? | They found that the more people there are involved as bystanders to an emergency, the less likely each individual will be to take action to stop the emergency. The diffusion of responsibility phenomenon spreads out the feeling of responsibility within a group so it is less and less concentrated with each additional witness. |
Why are we less scared of turbulence on an airplane if the flight attendants are smiling? | Because of informational social influence (social referencing): we look to others’ reactions to decide how to interpret a situation. This differs from pluralistic ignorance, where people misinterpret others’ lack of reaction as acceptance of a norm (e.g., the bystander effect). |
What are the four factors involved in deciding whether you may like someone? | 1. proximity/propinquity: do you see this person regularly? 2. attractiveness: is this person attractive? 3. similarity: is this person like you in a lot of ways? 4. reciprocal liking: does this person feel positively about you, too? |
What is social facilitation? | This is when the presence of one or more observers makes someone perform better at routine tasks. |
What is the difference between social facilitation and social impairment? | While social facilitation explains that we may improve performance on simple or routine tasks, social impairment shows that we may perform difficult tasks more poorly than we normally would if we were doing them without being observed. |
What is conformity? | It is the act of blending into a crowd, or following along with an idea, view, or action of others. |
Explain Solomon Asch's conformity study. | Participants were asked to participate in a group vision test, measuring the length of lines; All members of the group except the participant were confederates in the study; Even if the confederates gave an obviously wrong answer, a significant percentage of the participants would conform to this wrong answer |
What experimental findings explain how ordinary people may commit atrocities while following the orders of an authority figure? | Milgram's obedience study showed the following:; Participants were told to shock another participant (actually a confederate) when they answered a question incorrectly; More than half of the participants administered the highest level of shock to the confederate because they were ordered to do so by the experimenter; Even when the confederate screamed or begged the participant to stop, the majority of participants still followed orders to shock the confederate |
What are group norms? | These are the rules of behavior (implicit or explicit) that go along with belonging to a group. |
Why might many overachievers dislike being part of group projects? | Within groups, social loafing is common. This occurs when individual members of a group do less than they would on their own because they believe someone else will 'pick up the slack' or their performance will be less noticeable. |
What is group polarization and why might it occur? | It is the phenomenon by which ideas and actions within a group are more extreme than they would be for the individual members. This may occur because groups tend to strengthen preexisting beliefs. |
What term did Irving Janis coin, and what does it mean? | Groupthink is the mistaken unanimity of a group decision, which generally ends up negatively. Individual members of a group will downplay their own beliefs about the flaws of a plan for the sake of unanimity. |