Saturday, December 04, 2010
Psychology Insights
Som of important concepts of social psychology :
1. Cognitive Dissonance : People feel tension in holding two contradicting views in their mind. They try to reduce this tension by rationalising.
Example 1 : the harder it is to gain membership in a group, the more highly the group is valued by the person who is accepted. We convince ourselves we love what has caused us pain in order to feel that the pain was worthwhile.
Example 2 : When people behavee in ways that they are liveky to see as either stupid or immoral they change theiur attitueds to as to believe that their beavious is sensible and justified. (smokers tend to believe that the proof against smoking is inconslusive)
2. Obedience to authority : People generally are obedient to authority. (Shock experiment).
3. The Bystander effect : People do nothing if they believe that someone else will do it. The bigger the size of the crowd, the more will a particular person be motivated to act. Related to social loafing.
4. Attribution : Refers to processes by which we make inferenace about the causes of events in our lives and behaviour of others.
5. The Big Five of Personality :
i) Extraversion : Sociability, activity and interpersonal involvement.
ii) Neuroticism : emotionality, emotional stability and adjustment
iii) Openess to experience : inquiring intellect, intelligence etc.
iv) Agreeableness : trust, altruism, likeability
v) Conscientiousness : dependebility, restrained self-discipline etc.
6. GroupThink : Groupthink is a type of thought within a deeply cohesive in-group whose members try to minimize conflict and reach consensus without critically testing, analyzing, and evaluating ideas. It is a second potential negative consequence of group cohesion.
7. The Abilene paradox is a paradox in which a group of people collectively decide on a course of action that is counter to the preferences of any of the individuals in the group.It involves a common breakdown of group communication in which each member mistakenly believes that their own preferences are counter to the group's and, therefore, does not raise objections. A common phrase relating to the Abilene paradox is a desire to not "rock the boat".
8. Locus of control : Circle of influence and circle of control.
1. Cognitive Dissonance : People feel tension in holding two contradicting views in their mind. They try to reduce this tension by rationalising.
Example 1 : the harder it is to gain membership in a group, the more highly the group is valued by the person who is accepted. We convince ourselves we love what has caused us pain in order to feel that the pain was worthwhile.
Example 2 : When people behavee in ways that they are liveky to see as either stupid or immoral they change theiur attitueds to as to believe that their beavious is sensible and justified. (smokers tend to believe that the proof against smoking is inconslusive)
2. Obedience to authority : People generally are obedient to authority. (Shock experiment).
3. The Bystander effect : People do nothing if they believe that someone else will do it. The bigger the size of the crowd, the more will a particular person be motivated to act. Related to social loafing.
4. Attribution : Refers to processes by which we make inferenace about the causes of events in our lives and behaviour of others.
5. The Big Five of Personality :
i) Extraversion : Sociability, activity and interpersonal involvement.
ii) Neuroticism : emotionality, emotional stability and adjustment
iii) Openess to experience : inquiring intellect, intelligence etc.
iv) Agreeableness : trust, altruism, likeability
v) Conscientiousness : dependebility, restrained self-discipline etc.
6. GroupThink : Groupthink is a type of thought within a deeply cohesive in-group whose members try to minimize conflict and reach consensus without critically testing, analyzing, and evaluating ideas. It is a second potential negative consequence of group cohesion.
7. The Abilene paradox is a paradox in which a group of people collectively decide on a course of action that is counter to the preferences of any of the individuals in the group.It involves a common breakdown of group communication in which each member mistakenly believes that their own preferences are counter to the group's and, therefore, does not raise objections. A common phrase relating to the Abilene paradox is a desire to not "rock the boat".
8. Locus of control : Circle of influence and circle of control.
