PSYC 121 - Summaries of all class notes, slides and extra resources. - Social Psychology

PSYC 121 - Summaries of all class notes, slides and extra resources. - Social Psychology Social And Community Psychology / Sosiale En Gemeenskappsigologie (North-West University) Scan to open on Studocu Studocu is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university PSYC 121 - Summaries of all class notes, slides and extra resources. - Social Psychology Social And Community Psychology / Sosiale En Gemeenskappsigologie (North-West University) Scan to open on Studocu Studocu is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university Downloaded by NAPE Martin ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|29152046.

Casey Venter PSYC121 2019 SOCIAL AND COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY Downloaded by NAPE Martin ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|29152046.

Casey Venter 1 Study Unit 1: Introduction to social psychology and the self Study Unit 1.1: Introduction: Social psychology and the influence of nature on culture What do social psychologists do? • They aim for a broad understanding of the social factors that influence how people think, feel, and act. • They focus mainly on adult human beings. The ABC triad of social psychology • Affect How people feel about themselves, others, and various issues. • Behaviour What people do, their actions. • Cognition What people think about themselves, others, and various issues in the social world. A brief history of social psychology • The 1st studies in social psychology Definition of social psychology Social psychology is the scientific study of how people affect and are affected by others. Norman Triplett • 1897 • People worked harder in the presence of others. Max Ringelmann • 1880’s • As group size increased, individual effort decreased. Downloaded by NAPE Martin ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|29152046.

Casey Venter 2 • Two major ideas from the early 20th century which had a lasting influence on social psychology How do culture and nature work together to affect choices and behaviour and make culture a better way of being social? • The psyche o It is a broader term for the mind, encompassing emotions, desires, perceptions, and all other psychological processes. • Nature and culture o These combined made the psyche the way it is. o Both have real influences. • Nature explanations o People are born a certain way (genes etc.) • Culture explanations o What people learn from their parents, society, and their own experiences. • Nature has prepared humans specifically for culture. • Characteristics that have set humans apart from other animals: o Language o A flexible self that can cold multiple roles o An advanced ability to understand each other’s mental states • These characteristics are mainly there to enable people to create and sustain culture. Gordon Allport • 1954 • Attitudes “were the most distinctive and indispensable concept in contemporary American social psychology”. • Said to be one of the founding figures of personality psychology. Kurt Lewin • Behaviour is a function of the person and the situation. • Known as one of the modern pioneers of social, organizational, and applied psychology in the United States. Frans de Waal • Nature vs. nurture isn’t a fair fight, because without nature, you have nothing. • Is a particular behaviour a direct result of nature, or is it a combination of nature and culture? Downloaded by NAPE Martin ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|29152046.

Casey Venter 3 • The Theory of Evolution (Charles Darwin) • People are social animals o We seek connections with others. • The social brain o A bigger brain doesn’t mean more intelligence. o People with bigger social networks are found to be bigger in the orbital prefrontal cortex. • Why did the social brain evolve? o To enable humans to have rich, complex social lives. Social or cultural animal? • Social animals o Term doesn’t fully acknowledge what’s unique about humans. • Cultural animals o Makes humans special. Natural selection Those members of a species that survive and reproduce most effectively are the ones that pass along their genes to future generations. The criteria is survival and reproduction. Survival Living longer. Reproduction Producing babies that survive long enough to also reproduce. Mutation A new gene or combination of genes. Inner processes serve interpersonal functions Downloaded by NAPE Martin ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|29152046.

Casey Venter 4 o Culture is the essence of what makes us human. • Cultural animal theory o The view that evolution shaped the human psyche so as to enable humans to create and take part in culture. Culture defined • There is no definite definition. • It is what a large group of people have in common. • Consists of: o Shared ideas o Social system o Praxis (a practical way of doing things) o Use language to encode and share information • Culture is an information-based system, involving both shared understandings and praxis, that enables groups of people to live together in an organised fashion and to get what they need. Culture and nature interacting • Nature shapes culture and culture shapes nature. • One function of culture is to help people satisfy their biological needs. • Individualistic cultures o More common in places where disease is low. o E.g. Western cultures • Collectivistic cultures o Found in areas where there are many pathogens. o Maintaining relationships with others is more important than what you want. • ‘Co-evolution’ o Nature and culture changed together and shaped each other. • Nature provides the foundation and culture builds on top of that. • In essence, nature and culture work together as a ‘team’ to shape not only a person’s psyche, but also their behaviour. The duplex mind • The idea that the mind has two processing systems. • Automatic system (a.s.) o The parts of the mind outside of consciousness that perform simple tasks. o Interprets, organises, and categorises all the information that comes in through your eyes and ears. o Impulsive system o Intuition • Deliberate system (d.s.) o Mostly operates in consciousness. o Also called the conscious system. Downloaded by NAPE Martin ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|29152046.

Casey Venter 5 o Turns on when you wake up and switches off when you go to sleep. o Reflective system o Reasoning • Main differences: • Advantages of the d.s. o When the a.s. confronts something complex or unfamiliar, it doesn’t know how to deal with it. Therefore, when something like this appears, the d.s. is better at dealing with it. o It is able to combine information in complex, rule-driven ways. • The d.s. and a.s. work together. • Conscious override o When the two systems work against each other. § E.g. When the d.s. overrides the automatic impulse. • When you feel like doing something, but you restrain yourself. o Vital to life in culture. Study Unit 1.2: The Self What are the three main parts of the self? d.s. a.s. Slow Fast Controllable Outside of conscious control Guided by intention Unintentional Flexible Inflexible Good at combining information Poor at combining information One thing at a time Many things at once Reasoning Intuition Effortful Effortless Full-blown emotions Quick feelings of like/dislike, good/bad Depends on a.s. Can be independent of d.s. Daniel Kahneman • Influential psychologist. • Reasoning vs. Intuition Self-knowledge • Also known as self-concept. • Information about oneself. • Self-awareness • Self-esteem • Self-deception • A set of beliefs about oneself. Downloaded by NAPE Martin ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|29152046.

Casey Venter 6 • What is self-presentation? o How people attempt to present themselves to control or shape how others view them. • What is self-esteem? o It is confidence in one's own worth or abilities. o How one feels about themselves. • What is the main purpose of the self? o To gain social acceptance and play social roles. • Independent self-construal o A self-concept that emphasises what makes the self different and sets it apart from others. • Interdependent self-construal o A self-concept that emphasises what connects the self to other people and groups. Interpersonal self • Also known as the public self. • Self-presentation • Member of groups • Relationship with partner • Social roles • Reputation • The image of the self that is conveyed to others. Agent self • Also known as the executive function. • Decision making • Self-control • Taking charge of situations • Active responding • The part of the self that is involved in control, including both control over other people and self-control. Ralph Turner • Sociologist • Different cultures may differ in their ideas about the true self by placing emphasis on one of two approaches: o Emphasises the inner feelings as the true self. o Focuses on the way the person acts, especially in official roles. Downloaded by NAPE Martin ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|29152046.

Casey Venter 7 • The self comes from an interaction of inner biological processes and the sociocultural network. What is the role of self-awareness? • It is attention directed at the self. • The self-awareness theory o Self-focused attention lead people to notice self-discrepancies, motivating either an escape from self-awareness or a change in behaviour. o Suggests that there are two ways of coping with discomfort: § ‘Shape up’ • Behaving in ways that reduce self-discrepancies. § ‘Ship out’ • Withdrawing from self-awareness. • Private self-awareness o Attending to one’s inner states. • Public self-awareness o Attending to how one is perceived by others. • When people are self-aware, they are more likely to behave in ways that are consistent with their own personal values or with socially accepted ideals. • Self-awareness is vital for self-regulation and adopting others’ perspectives. Where does self-knowledge come from? • It comes from our interactions with other people. Self-regulation The process that people use to control and change their thoughts, feelings and behaviour. Charles Horton Cooley • Looking-glass self o The idea that people learn about themselves by imagining how they appear to others. o 3 components: § You imagine how you appear to others. § You imagine how others will judge you. § You develop an emotional response as a result of imagining how others will judge you. Downloaded by NAPE Martin ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|29152046.

Casey Venter 8 • Introspection o The process by which a person examines the contents of his or her mind and mental states. • Social comparison o Examining the difference between oneself and another person. o ‘Putting people first’ o Upward social comparisons § Comparing yourself to people better than you. § Discouraging o Downward social comparisons § Comparing yourself to people worse off than you. • Types of motivation o Intrinsic motivation § Wanting to perform an activity for its own sake. § Leads to best goal outcomes. o Extrinsic motivation § Performing an activity because of something that results from it. o Overjustification effect § The tendency for intrinsic motivation to diminish for activities that have become associated with rewards. • Self-perception o Opposite of the introspection theory. o Self-perception theory § Proposed in 1965 § People observe their own behaviour to infer what they are thinking and how they are feeling. • Phenomenal self (working self-concept) o The image of self that is currently active in the person’s thoughts. George Herbert Mead • Most self-knowledge comes from feedback received from other people, whether particular people or what he called the generalised other (a combination of other people’s views). Richard Nisbett and Timothy Wilson • 1977 • When people look inside, they simply make mistakes, guess, or give what they assume are plausible or socially desirable answers. • Failure of introspection. Downloaded by NAPE Martin ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|29152046.

Casey Venter 9 Three reasons for wanting self-knowledge • Appraisal motive o The simple desire to learn the truth about oneself, whatever it is. o May motivate people to start out with tasks of medium difficulty because these offer the most information. o Favoured by the deliberate system. § Strives towards a more balanced, accurate appraisal of facts. • Self-enhancement motive o The desire to learn favourable or flattering things about oneself. o Can exert a strong bias, driving people to dismiss or ignore criticism while exaggerating or inflating any signs of their good qualities. o Strongest motive. o Strong emotional appeal. o Favoured by the automatic system. § Automatic egotism • Response by the a.s. that ‘everything good is me, and everything bad is not me.’ o Consequences: § Lack resilience in the face of personal difficulties. § Poor marks § Lack social skills § Become narcissistic • Consistency motive o The desire to get feedback that confirms what the person already believes about himself or herself. o Also called the self-verification motive. o Second-strongest motive. o Cognitive appeal. • Consequences of inflated views of self: o Poor performance. o Defensiveness. o Failing to study and prepare for upcoming challenges. Self and information processing • Self-reference effect o The finding that information bearing on the self is processed more thoroughly and more deeply, and hence remembered better, than other information. o A word in connection with the self leads to better memory. • Endowment effect o The finding that items gain in value to the person who owns them. Downloaded by NAPE Martin ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|29152046.

Casey Venter 10 Can the self-concept change? • Yes. • A change in behaviour results in a change in self-concept. Self-esteem • Refers to how favourably someone evaluates himself or herself. • Conclusions about people with low self-esteem: o They don’t want to fail. o Their ideas about themselves are conflicted and uncertain, a pattern called ‘self-concept confusion’. o They focus on self-protection (trying to avoid loss of esteem) instead of self-enhancement. o They are more prone to emotional highs and lows, so they are more vulnerable to mood swings and other emotional overreactions. • Self-esteem thus works as a protective shield against terror and anxiety. • Gender differences o In adults and adolescents, males tend to have higher self-esteem than females. • Racial differences o There tends to be a lower self-esteem in minority groups and victims of prejudice and discrimination. • Benefits of high self-esteem o Provides confidence that one can do the right thing. o More willing to meet new people and speak up for oneself. o More likely to experiment with sex and drugs. o Good feelings, even in the face of failure. • Drawbacks of high self-esteem o Narcissism § Excessive self-love and a selfish orientation. o Prejudice o Relates to a person’s relationships with others. Solomon and Pyszczynski (1997) • Terror Management Theory o Humans are biologically programmed for life and self- preservation and are terrified of the inevitability of death. o To provide meaning and combat anxiety, people tend to get world views on the creation of the earth, religious explanations on the purpose of existence and a sense of history. Downloaded by NAPE Martin ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|29152046.

Casey Venter 11 Reality and illusion • Depression is linked to low self-esteem. • How people fool themselves: o Self-deception strategies § Mental tricks people use to help them believe things that are false. o Self-serving bias § A pattern in which people claim credit for success but deny blame for failure. Self-presentation • Any behaviour that seeks to convey some image of self or some information about the self to other people. • Self-presentation creeps into many behaviours that might not at first seem to have an interpersonal aspect. • Dieting is also guided by self-presentation. • Some people engage in risky behaviour to make a good impression. Study Unit 1.3: The self in control Making choices • Two steps: o Moving from many to a few choices. o Careful consideration of the remaining choices. • Influences on choice o Risk aversion § In decision making, the greater weight is given to possible losses rather than possible gains. o Temporal discounting Shelley Taylor and Jonathon Brown (1988) • Positive illusions o Non-depressed people overestimate their good qualities, claiming that they are better than average. o Those who aren’t depressed overestimate their control over events. o Non-depressed people are unrealistically optimistic. Mark Leary • Sociometer theory o A measure of how desirable one would be to other people. Downloaded by NAPE Martin ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|29152046.

Casey Venter 12 § In decision making, the greater weight is given to the present rather than the future. o Certainty effect § In decision making, the greater weight is given to a definite outcome rather than to probabilities. o Keeping options open § Some people prefer to postpone hard decisions and keep their options open for as long as possible. • Error management theory o The idea that both men and women seek to minimise the costliest type of error, but that men’s and women’s goals, and so their worst errors, differ. Why people don’t choose • Status quo bias o The preference to keep things the way they are rather than change. • Omission bias o The tendency to take whatever course of action does not require you to do anything. o Also called the default option. Jack Brehm • Reactance theory o The idea that people are distressed by loss of freedom or options and seek to reclaim or reassert them. • Main consequences of reactance: o Makes forbidden things more attractive and more greatly desired. o Motivates you to take action to reclaim the lost option. o Makes you feel or act aggressively toward the person who has restricted your freedom. Downloaded by NAPE Martin ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|29152046.

Casey Venter 13 Freedom to change Freedom of action • Relative freedom is important to social behaviour. • Belief in free will is valuable for society. o Helps cultural animals act in more prosocial ways, therefore helping the social system function better. Carol Dweck • Entity theorists o Those who believe that traits are fixed, stable things (entities) and thus people should not be expected. o Prefer to do things that they’re good at, that success can gain them credit and admiration. o They dislike criticism or bad feedback; this is due to the fact that they think that bad traits are permanent. o More likely to choose the easiest task because they want to be guaranteed success. o When entering a new, challenging environment, they are often discouraged and overwhelmed, and their performance decreases. o Learned helplessness § A belief that one’s actions will not bring about desired outcomes, leading one to give up and quit trying. o Interpret other people’s behaviour as reflecting their traits. • Incremental theorists o Those who believe that traits are subject to change and improvement. o More likely to enjoy learning and challenges. o They don’t mind criticism or initial failure as much because they expect to improve. o Prefer harder, more challenging tasks where they can learn. o When entering a new, challenging environment, they keep striving to improve and often show gains in performance. o When they fail, they simply try harder to improve. o Interpret other people’s behaviour as being caused by temporary states and external factors. Downloaded by NAPE Martin ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|29152046.

Casey Venter 14 • Panic button effect o A reduction in stress or suffering due to a belief that one has the option of escaping or controlling the situation, even if one doesn’t exercise it. Goals, plans, intentions • Individuals may choose from a variety of goals offered by their society based on personal factors. • Goal o An idea of some desired future state. • Two major steps in goal pursuit: o Setting goals § Time to be open minded, evaluate whether it’s realistically feasible to reach the goal. o Pursuing goals § Focus on how to complete the goal, being optimistic rather that realistic is helpful. Goal setting Goal pursuit/striving Function Deciding what to do Deciding how to do it and doing it Attitude Open-minded Closed-minded Mental focus Feasibility and desirability Means and obstacles Core question Why should I do it? How do I do it? Style of thought Realistic thinking Optimistic thinking Ed Deci and Richard Ryan • Self-determination theory o The theory that people need to feel at least some degree of autonomy and internal motivation. o Builds on intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation. o People may be motivated to perform well out of a deep passion for excellence or because of a bribe. o They may be motivated to behave modestly out of an inner moral sense or because they fear that others are watching them. o They may be motivated to work hard because they love what they are doing or because they feel pressured to meet a looming deadline. o People who act on belief derive more satisfaction, have better confidence, and often perform better, persist longer and show greater creativity. § Contributes to vitality, self-esteem and general well-being. Downloaded by NAPE Martin ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|29152046.

Casey Venter 15 • Zeigarnik effect o A tendency to experience automatic, intrusive thoughts about a goal whose pursuit has been interrupted. o The a.s. reminds the individual of unmet goals. Hierarchy of goals • We often have long term goals with interlinked short-term goals. o Without short-term goals, we are unlikely to meet our long-term goals. • The a.s. can keep track of the goals and initiate behaviour while the d.s. takes care of issues along the way. • Goal shielding o Occurs when the activation of a focal goal the person is working on inhibits the accessibility of alternative goals. • Common mistakes in planning o Planning fallacy § The tendency for plans to be overly optimistic because the planner fails to allow for unexpected problems. o Individuals are more realistic in providing estimates for others. o Unrealistic optimism is more likely when the goal is far into the future. Self-regulation and habits • Self-regulation o The self’s capacity to alter its own responses. o Self-control o It enables humans to live in a culture and adapt to new circumstances. o It is a factor in success in many areas of human life. • Monitoring o Keeping track of behaviours or responses to be regulated. o TOTE § The self-regulation feedback loop. § Test • Comparison of self against the standard. § Operate • Exert conscious control to change. § Test • Have I changed? § Exit • If you have changed, you can proceed to exit the loop. § Borrowed from the cybernetic theory (World War II) o Key ingredient in self-regulation. § Presents the best opportunity for immediate improvement in self-regulation. o Dieting is a good example of the importance of monitoring. o Eating binges have been linked to failures in monitoring. o Factors that interfere with monitoring: § Emotional distress Downloaded by NAPE Martin ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|29152046.

Casey Venter 16 § Distraction § Alcohol intoxication • Capacity for change o The active phase of self-regulation. o Willpower • Decision fatigue o A state of depleted willpower caused by making decisions, which can affect subsequent decisions by causing people to fail to think to think and choose carefully. • Habits o An acquired behaviour that, if followed regularly, will become almost automatic. o Self-control is often needed to break habits. Irrationality and self-destruction • Self-defeating behaviour o Any action by which people bring failure, suffering or misfortune on themselves. o Two main reasons: § People accept a negative outcome to gain the positive outcome that comes from the same behaviour. § Faulty knowledge and reliance on strategies that don’t work. o Capacity to delay gratification § The ability to make immediate sacrifices for later rewards. o Suicide seems to be the ultimate in self-destructive behaviour § Involves a trade-off between continued suffering and immediate cessation of those feelings. § More common in richer countries, at nicer times of the year. § Individuals who commit suicide were often highly self-aware. § Suicidal people tend to be more emotionally numb rather than distressed. § Those who commit suicide often focus on the immediate numbing misery rather than the possibility of a better future. They focus more on the present than the future. § Suicidal people feel that they are a burden to those around them. Downloaded by NAPE Martin ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|29152046.

Casey Venter 17 § One theory cannot account for all suicides. Individuals have other reasons to commit suicide, such as the reasons held by suicide bombers. Study Unit 2: Social Cognition, Emotion and Social Influence Study Unit 2.1: Social Cognition What is social cognition? • A movement in social psychology that began in the 1970s that focused on the thoughts about people and about social relationships. • Cognitive miser o A term used to describe people’s reluctance to do much extra thinking. Automatic and deliberate thinking • Automatic thinking o Relies on knowledge structures § Organised pockets of information that are stored in memory. o Not guided by intention. • Deliberate thinking o Relies on conscious control. o Deliberate thinkers are better at knowing what they know. Schemas • Knowledge structures that represent substantial information about a concept, its attributes and its relationships to other concepts. Scripts • Knowledge structures that define situations and guide behaviour. James Ridley Stroop • Stroop effect o The finding that people have difficulty overriding the automatic tendency to read the word rather than name the ink colour. o 1935 • Stroop test o A standard measure of effortful control over responses, requiring participants to identify the colour of a word (which may name a different colour). Downloaded by NAPE Martin ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|29152046.

Casey Venter 18 Priming • Activating an idea in someone’s mind so that related ideas are more accessible. • William James • Research has often used priming as a technique to trigger automatic processes. Framing • Whether messages stress potential gains (positively framed) or potential losses (negatively framed). • Gain-framed appeal o Focuses on how doing something will add to your health. • Loss-framed appeal o Focuses on how not doing something will subtract from your health. • Makes less favourable activities more palatable. Thought suppression and ironic processes • When people want to suppress a thought, their mind sets up two processes: o One process keeps a lookout for anything that might remind the person of the unwanted thought. § An automatic process that checks all incoming information for danger. o A deliberate process redirects attention away from the unpleasant thought. • Counterregulation o The ‘what the heck’ effect that occurs when people indulge in a behaviour that they are trying to regulate after an initial regulation failure. • The paradoxical effects of thought suppression have been linked to a variety of psychological disorders, especially anxiety disorders. Downloaded by NAPE Martin ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|29152046.

Casey Venter 19 Attributions and explanations: Why did that happen? • Attributions o The causal explanations people give for their own and others’ behaviours, and for events in general. Explaining success and failure • One early aim of attribution theory was to map out how people interpret success and failure. • Internal, stable attributions o Involves ability. § Ability attribution is important because they appeal to relatively permanent aspects of the self. § Individualistic cultures emphasise ability. • Internal, unstable attributions o Involves effort. § Effort is unstable because it can change. § Collectivist cultures emphasise effort. • External, stable attributions o Point to the difficulty of the task. § Success means that the task was easy. § Failure means that the task was difficult. • External, unstable attributions o Involves luck. § If you attribute someone’s success or failure to luck, there is very little credit or blame due to the person, nor is there any reason to expect the same result next time. Fritz Heider • First to propose that differentiating between seeing behaviour caused by internal factors and seeing behaviour caused by external factors has shaped a generation of social psychologists. Downloaded by NAPE Martin ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|29152046.

Casey Venter 20 • Self-serving bias o The tendency to take credit for success but deny blame for failure; or internal attributions for success, external attributions for failure. o Occurs for several reasons: § Interpreting events in that way helps people believe they have high ability and makes people feel good. o Self-serving bias is especially strong when people are explaining their successes and failures to others. o Important feature of self-presentation. § The self-presentational nature of the self-serving bias reflects that inner processes serve interpersonal ends. • Actor/observer bias o The tendency for actors to make external attributions and observers to make internal attributions. o Can produce many misunderstandings and disagreements. o Fundamental attribution error (correspondence bias) § The tendency for observers to attribute other people’s behaviour to internal or dispositional causes and to downplay situational causes. § Several explanations: • Behaviour is more noticeable than situational factors. • People don’t gibe enough weight to situational causes even when they are made aware of them. • People are cognitive misers; they often take quick and easy answers rather than thinking long and hard about things. § More common in individualistic cultures than collectivistic cultures. Heuristics: Mental shortcuts • Heuristics o Mental shortcuts that provide quick estimates about the likelihood of uncertain events. • Representativeness heuristic o The tendency to judge the frequency or likelihood of an event by the extent to which it resembles the typical case. o E.g. Sipho is a 41-year-old who reads non-fiction books, listens to talk radio stations rather than music, and plays golf in his spare time. Which is more likely? Bertram Malle • Challenged the attribution theory. • There was no consistent tendency for observers to make more dispositional attributions than actors. • Says the actor/observer bias is wrong. Downloaded by NAPE Martin ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|29152046.

Casey Venter 21 § (a) Sipho is a university professor. § (b) Sipho is a truck driver. § Most people would answer (a) because Sipho seems like a typical professor. People fail to consider that there are a lot more truck drivers than there are professors. Thus, in making that judgement, people rely on one kind of information (representativeness, which means how well Sipho resembles the category of professors) instead of another (how many people are in the category). o Related to the base rate fallacy. • Availability heuristic o The tendency to judge the frequency or likelihood of an event by the ease with which relevant instances come to mind. o E.g. People overestimate the frequency of dramatic deaths and underestimate the frequency of less dramatic deaths. o Might help explain extrasensory perception (ESP). • Simulation heuristic o The tendency to judge the frequency or likelihood of an event by the ease with which you can image (or mentally simulate) it. o E.g. Mr Crane and Mr Tees were scheduled to leave the airport on different flights, at the same time. They travelled from town in the same taxi, were caught in a traffic jam, and arrived at the airport 30 minutes after the scheduled departure time of their flights. Mr Crane is told that his flight left on time. Mr Tees is told that his flight was delayed and just left 5 minutes ago. Who is more upset, Mr Crane or Mr Tees? § Most people would think that Mr Tees would be more upset than Mr Crane. The reason is that it would be easier for people to imagine how Mr Tees could have made his flight (if only the plane had waited a little longer, if only the traffic jam had cleared a few minutes earlier, etc.). § Mr Crane would’ve missed his flight even if all of those things had happened. • Anchoring and adjustment heuristic o The tendency to judge frequency or likelihood of an event by using a starting point (called an anchor) and then making adjustments up or down. o E.g. If one party in a negotiation starts by suggesting a price or condition, then the other party is likely to base its counter offer on this anchor. Errors and biases • Confirmation bias o The tendency to notice and search for information that confirms one’s beliefs and to ignore information that disconfirms one’s beliefs. Downloaded by NAPE Martin ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|29152046.

Casey Venter 22 Study Unit 2.2: Emotion and Affect What is emotion/affect? • Emotion o A conscious evaluative reaction that is clearly linked to some event. • Affect o The automatic response that something is good (positive affect) or bad (negative affect). • Mood o A feeling state that is not clearly linked to some event. • Conscious emotion o A powerful and clearly unified feeling state, such as anger or joy. • Automatic affect o A quick response of liking or disliking toward something. James-Lange theory of emotion • The theory that the bodily processes of emotion come first, and the mind’s perception of these bodily reactions then creates the subjective feeling of emotion. • Facial feedback hypothesis o The idea that feedback from the face muscles evokes or magnifies emotions. • Researchers tried for many years to prove this theory, but they were generally unsuccessful. Schachter-Singer theory of emotion • The idea that emotion has two components: o A bodily state of arousal. § It determines that there’s going to be an emotion, and how strong it’ll be. o A cognitive label that specifies the emotion. § It determines what emotion will be felt. Some important emotions • Happiness o Feeling good right now. o Affect balance Francis Bacon • “It is the peculiar and perpetual error of the human understanding to be more moved and excited by affirmatives than by negatives” Downloaded by NAPE Martin ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|29152046.

Casey Venter 23 § The frequency of positive emotions minus the frequency of negative emotions. o Life satisfaction § An evaluation of how your life is generally and how it compares to some standard. o Hedonic treadmill § A theory proposing that people stay at about the same level of happiness regardless of what happens to them. o Emodiversity § The degree to which a person experiences the variety and relative abundance of human emotions. • Anger o An emotional response to a real or imagined threat or provocation. o Testosterone contributes to anger. o Often linked to aggression. o Widely recognised as a problem. o Dealing with it § Don’t show it. • Can be detrimental. § Vent one’s anger. • Catharsis theory o The idea that expressing negative emotions produces a healthy release of those emotions and is therefore good for the psyche. • Worsens interpersonal conflicts. • Linked to higher risk of heart disease. • Intense physical exercise. § Try and get rid of one’s anger. • Relax and count to 10 before responding. • Guilt and shame o Guilt § An unpleasant moral emotion associated with a specific instance in which one has acted badly or wrongly. § Associated with acts that could damage a relationship that you care about. § “I did a bad thing.” § Usually constructive. § Interpersonal emotion. § More linked to relationships than other emotions. o Shame § A moral emotion that, like guilt, involves feeling bad but, unlike guilt, spreads to the whole person. § “I am a bad person.” § Usually destructive. o Effects of guilt § Guilt motivates people to do good acts, such as apologising. § Apologies can help repair damage to relationships because they: • Convey the implicit agreement that the act was wrong. Downloaded by NAPE Martin ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|29152046.

Casey Venter 24 • Suggest that the person will try not to do it again. • Counteract any implication that the bad action meant that the person doesn’t care about the relationship. o Survivor guilt § An unpleasant emotion associated with living through an experience during which other people have died. § Taken from World War II. • Forgiveness o A process that consists of a change in emotion and attitude toward an offender. o Reconciliation or the restoration of a relationship can be viewed as an aspect of forgiveness. o Benefits: § It fosters psychological healing through positive changes in affect. § It aids physical and mental health. § It restores a victim’s sense of personal power. § It helps to bring about reconciliation between the offended and the offender. § It encourages hope for the resolution of real-world intergroup conflicts. • Disgust o A strong negative feeling of repugnance and revulsion. o It is especially important among humans because our constitution is delicate compared to most other animals, and there are many things we shouldn’t eat. o Women seem to have stronger disgust reactions than men. o Can be considered part of a ‘behavioural immune system’ that supports health. Why do we have emotions? • They promote belongingness. • They communicate social information. • Traditionally it has been assumed that emotion causes behaviour. • Emotions guide thinking and learning. o Affect-as-information hypothesis § The idea that people judge something as good or bad by asking themselves ‘How do I feel about it?’. • Emotions that are anticipated, guides decisions and choices. o Affective forecasting § The ability to predict one’s emotional reactions to future events. • They help and hurt decision-making. o Risk-as-feelings hypothesis § The idea that people rely on emotional processes to evaluate risk, with the result that their judgements may be biased by emotional factors. • Positive emotions counteract negative emotions. Downloaded by NAPE Martin ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|29152046.

Casey Venter 25 o Broaden-and-build theory § The proposition that positive emotions expand an individual’s attention and mindset and promote increasing one’s resources. Group differences in emotion • Most emotions may be quite similar across cultural boundaries. Arousal, attention and performance • The relationship between arousal and performance is U-SHAPED. o Increasing arousal first makes for better performance, then for worse. Paul Ekman • Six basic emotions that can be seen in facial expressions: o Anger o Surprise o Disgust o Happiness (or joy) o Fear o sadness Robert Yerkes and John Dodson • 1908 • Yerkes-Dodson law o The proposition that some arousal is better than none, but too much can hurt performance. J.A. Easterbrook • One major effect of arousal is to narrow attention. • Explains both slopes of the U-shaped curve of Yerkes-Dodson law. • The effects of stress on thinking go along with this theory. o Under stress, people focus more narrowly on the task at hand, so up to a certain point, stress makes people perform better, after that point, it makes people ignore relevant information. Downloaded by NAPE Martin ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|29152046.