Social Psychology Cheat Sheet (DRAFT) by Ieva Dambrauskaite

Raised using an artificial terry towelling mother. Monkeys who were reared in isolation from birth turned out to be incapable of commun­icating with or learning from others of their kind, unlike those reared with their natural mothers

People who have a higher need for affili­ation tend to be very active in pursuing social contacts and place a high premium on positive outcomes in such pursuit.

Desire to gain knowledge about ourselves and the world through social compar­isons

Why?

Positive Outcome Dependence (Outcome Depend­ence)

Student couples living in student housing at Massac­husetts Institute of Technology

At the end of year, students were asked to name their 3 closest friends

Physically similar couples are more intimate in public settings and report greater love for one another than physically mismat­ched.

Similarity in age and family background not only influence affili­ation rates, but similarity in attitudes also - Newcombs 1961

Proximity not only provides opport­unity for attraction but it also provides the motivation

People’s inner qualities – person­ali­ties, points of view, attitudes, beliefs, values, ambitions and abilities – play an important role in determ­ining their sustained interest in each other, and there isn’t much mystery about the kinds

When someone shares our attitudes and beliefs, we feel a bit more confident that those attitudes and beliefs are correct (Byrne and Clore, 1970). Indeed, research shows that when the accuracy of a person’s attitudes and beliefs is challe­nged, simila­rity becomes an even more important determ­inant of their attraction to others (Greenberg et al., 1990; Hirsch­berger et al., 2002).

For example, intell­igence, sense of humour, sensit­ivity and ambition are high on just about everyb­ody’s list (Daniel et al., 1985)

If we like people who share our attitudes and beliefs, we can reasonably expect them to like us for the same reason, and being liked is a powerful source of attraction

Attitudes are presumed to influence behavi­ours.

Attitude is more likely to be defined as a positive or negative evaluation of an object

Stats and Statts (1958)

Demons­trated how easy it is to make subject like or dislike Dutch or Swedish people.

Second group = word "­Swe­dis­h" was associated with negative word.

Instead of attitudes causing behaviour, it is behaviour that causes attitudes.

Attitudes can be manipu­lated by changing facial expres­sion, body posture or other motor responses.

When we are hungry, we open the fridge and grab an apple because our attitudes tell us that apples taste good and our beliefs tell us that those tasty apples are to be found in the fridge. In a sense, attitudes tell us what we should do (‘Eat an apple’) and beliefs tell us how we should do it (‘Start by opening the fridge’)

For example, in one study, university students heard a speech that contained either strong or weak arguments in favour of instit­uting compre­hensive exams at their school (Petty et al., 1981). Some students were told that the speaker was a university professor, and others were told that the speaker was a secondary school student. Some students were told that their university was consid­ering implem­enting these exams right away, whereas others were told that their university was consid­ering implem­enting these exams in 10 years. As figure 15.10 shows, when students thought the new exams might affect them person­ally, they were motivated to consider the evidence, and they were system­ati­cally persuaded.

. That is, their attitudes and beliefs were influenced by the strength of the arguments and not by the status of the speaker. But when students thought the new exams would not affect them person­ally, they were not motivated to consider the evidence, and thus they were heuris­tically persuaded. That is, their attitudes and beliefs were influenced by the status of the speaker but not by the strength of the arguments