Summary Psychology Semester 2

A snapshot of the summary - Psychology Semester 2

• 1 Social Psychology

• When are attitudes likely to affect behaviour?

  When external influences are minimal and when attitude is stable
• What is central route?

  Persuasion that uses evidence and arguments that triggers careful thinking
• What is peripheral route?

  Use attention grabbing techniques to try and make you make an emotional judgement really quickly
• What are the two types of theories to show that actions can affect our attitudes?

  Foot-in-the-door phenomenon and role playing
• What is role playing theory?

  If we put people in certain roles and we get them to live that role for a certain period of time, that will affect their attitude eventually b/c there are certain behaviours attached to roles 
• What did Festinger propose?

  People experience discomfort when they hold conflicting beliefs OR when actions contradict beliefs. They will try to reduce the dissonance to relieve the discomfort (anxious, guilty, ashamed).
• What is the drive to resolve dissonance called?

  Principle of cognitive consistency
• What did Asch's experiment show?

  People have a natural need to be part of a group, so they will conform to the norms of groups so they will be accepted and not rejected
• What is normative social influence?

  Conform because of our desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval. The price we pay for being different may be severe (ridicules, left out etc.) - we need to belong 
• What is informational social influence?

   The desire to be right – when we conform because we are unsure of the situation or lack knowledge, so we look to others who we believe may have more information than us.