social psychology test 4 eidelman
"guns don't kill people; people kill people"
gun usage in usa - ANS - -no stable, industrialized country comes close to US in
gun-related violence
-are guns to blame for some aggression? partly, yes
"jigsaw classroom" aronson 1978 - ANS - -when conditions are met, contact appears
effective
-jigsaw classroom: form of cooperative learning in which children from different ethnic
groups must cooperate in order to learn a lesson
-it has been shown to improve minority students' self-esteem and performance, increase
empathy, and promote intergroup friendships
3 reasons to be skeptical of stereotypes/prejudice declining - ANS - 1. social
desirability/bogus pipeline
2. "unobtrusive measures"
3. automatic thinking/implicit association test
adam et al., 1995 porn study - ANS - -reaction formation
-men (homophobic or not) watch hetero, lesbian, and straight porn
-enjoyment stays fairly consistent by opinion
-though by monitoring circumference changes, found that the biggest change occurred
in the homophobic men watching gay porn (most enjoyment)
aggression - ANS - -behavior INTENDED (intention is important, not success) to injure
someone (physically or psychologically) who does not want to be injured
Aggression - ANS - Intentional behavior aimed at causing physical harm or psychological
pain to another person
aggression across cultures - ANS - -murder rates and gun violence are much higher in
US than anywhere else
-bonta, 1997: observational data, not causal. looked at cultures with no aggression, and
found that there was no competition and there was also an emphasis on peace and
cooperation
aggression within cultures (culture of honor) - ANS - -age (14-24), race (more violent
against blacks), and "culture of honor"
,-culture of honor: status and honor are important, and it is normal and acceptable to use
aggression to protect this stuatus
-emphasize honor and social status (especially for males), and role of aggression in
protecting that honor
-american south is more aggressive than the north because of this
Altruism - ANS - The desire to help another person even if it involves a cost to the helper
altruism vs. arousal reduction batson, 1981 - ANS - -distress is unpleasant
-according to aversive arousal, we help others to reduce out own person comfort
-in order to test this, we must manipulate the ease of escape and empathy
-batson, 1981: typical learner and shock experiment. the participant is meant to watch 10
2-minute trials, and the learner is clearly very uncomfortable. the experimenter asks if the
participant is willing to switch
-the condition: ease of escape: you only need to stay and watch for 2 of the 10 trials, and
then you can leave
-so, either watch 2 trials and leave to end your aversive arousal, or switch to put the
other person out of pain (altruistic)
-findings: low empathy and easy escape, most people left. HOWEVER, in the condition
where empathy was high, and even if it was easy to escape, participants switched
-the participants in this condition switched, not because a selfish reason, but to actually
help the person
-alternative reason to why this occurred: high empathy can also be high sadness, and
participants switched to make themselves not feel sad
altruism vs. egoism: a tentative conclusion - ANS - -in the cases we've looked at, altruism
has "won" but this doesn't necessarily prove altruism, it just supports it
-egoistic motivation exists, and often drive responses to those in need...
-under certain circumstances, data suggest motivation may be altruistic
**altruism does not occur all the time - it happens sometimes, especially when people are
feeling EMPATHY
altruism vs. empathy-specific punishments batson, 1988 - ANS - -helping allows people
to avoid possible social and self-punishments for not doing so
-do people help to increase the welfare of another person, or to avoid self/other censure?
-to test this, we manipulate justification for not helping (in the form of social norms) and
empathy
-batson et al, 1988: participants listen to katie's sad story
-half told to remain objective while other told to try to see things from her place (high
empathy condition)
, -then, when asked if they would help katie out and how many hours per week, you get to
see "previous answers" before you
-for half of participants, all of them say "no," and the other half see all "yes"
-if people helped katie only to avoid punishment, in the all "no" condition (high
justification to say no), then the participant would also say no, but most said yes (in both
high empathy conditions)
altruism vs. empathy-specific rewards batson, 1989 - ANS - -another study to see if
"feeling better" is the real motivation for helping
-helping promises social and self-rewards for doing what is good and right
-do we help because we care about others or about making ourselves feel good?
-to test this, we must manipulate anticipation of mood enhancement and empathy
-batson, 1989: participants are told they will evaluate 2 tapes to be broadcasted for a
college radio station
-first is a sad story: student katie who was in a car crash killing both her parents, etc.
-then students are given an envelope asking if they want to help katie (and how many
hours per week)
-next, to test how mood enhancement may effect the willingness to help, half of the
participants are told that afterwards they will listen to either a boring tape or a funny tape
-to test empathy, half are told to listen to the tape critically and the other half are told to
relate to katie and put yourself in her shoes
-the group testing altruism (high empathy and told they will have a mood enhancement),
if altruism is supported, would still be willing to help katie, and that is what happened
Altruistic Personality - ANS - The qualities that cause an individual to help others in a
wide variety of situations
are stereotypes and prejudice declining? - ANS - -survey data shows much more
favorable attitudes towards minorities
-evidence that stereotypes are changing as well
-princeton trilogy: 10 racial/social groups and 84 adjectives, participants must pair
adjectives to the groups
-showed a lot of stereotyping and prejudice (consistency of negative adjectives and
blacks)
-when replicated later on, less negativity
Blaming the Victim - ANS - The tendency to blame individuals (make dispositional
attributions) for their victimization, typically motivated by a desire to see the world as a
fair place
can punishment work? - ANS - -can be effective under the following circumstances:
1. immediately follows aggressive behavior