AP Psych Unit 4

stereotype

putting someone in a group of characteristics, ignoring individual traits

person perception

use of heuristic thinking, schemas, and prototypes to compare ourselves and categorize others

attribution theory

we explain someone’s behavior by crediting situation or person’s stable traits (aka. situational and dispositional attribution)

fundamental attribution error (FAE)

when looking at other’s behavior, we overestimate the impact of personal dispositions

actor-observer bias

depending on whether we are actor or observer, if we are actor we blame on our situation and if we are observer we use FAE

upward social comparison

comparing yourself to someone who you perceive as better - leads to relative deprivation

relative deprivation

the feeling of being (unfairly) deprived or lacking something, especially in terms of justice, equity, or social standing

prejudice

unjustifiable and negative attitude towards a group and its members

just-world phenomenon

people get what they deserve because the world is just - leads to victim blaming

ingroup/outgroup bias

we prefer those in our group

outgroup homogeneity

“they’re all the same” mindset

scapegoat theory

prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame

ethnocentrism

judging other cultures according to the preconceptions of our own cultures

confirmation bias

searching only for information that confirms our beliefs that already exist

belief perseverance

occurs when a belief persists even if evidence suggests it is not true

cognitive dissonance

inner drive to hold attitudes and beliefs in harmony to avoid disharmony/dissonance - happens when attitudes don’t line up with actions → we change our attitudes/thinking to match our actions

social norms

expectations and roles a society may have for its members in individual and social situations

conformity

adjusting our behavior/thinking to coincide with a group standard

normative social influence

to avoid rejection and gain social approval

informational social influence

because we want to be accurate and accept others’ opinions about reality

obedience

obeying an authority figure

what were the milligram obedience studies about?

obeying an authority figure → subjects were asked to deliver a shock to confederate under the command of an authority figure

what was the stanford prison experiment about?

conformity and deindividuation

persuasion

the techniques applied to convince the self or others of particular ideas, actions, and beliefs

elaboration likelihood model of persuasion

a theory that when we mentally elaborate on a message we more often retain it:

message → high elaboration → central route → careful processing → attitude change depends on information

message → low elaboration → peripheral route → note careful processing → attitude change depends on cues

halo effect

we generalize positive qualities to other aspects, even if there is no direct evidence to support it. (ex: if someone is beautiful, we might expect they are kind as well.) → example of peripheral route of persuasion

foot in the door

if a respondent complies with a small initial request, they will be more likely to agree to a more significant request later

door in the face

following up a large, unreasonable request someone will likely refuse with a smaller request to get compliance

social facilitation

when a group is around, an individual performs better

social inhibition

when we curb our behaviors, comments, and personality for fear of not matching social awareness

social loafing

tendency for people in groups to exert less effort when pooling their effort toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable (usually presented when people are doing group work)

prosocial behavior

behavior that is intended to benefit others

antisocial behavior

behavior that is intended to injure others or deprive them of rights

nonnormative behavior

behavior that clearly violates social norms but does not directly help or harm others

deindividuation

temporary loss of self-awareness when we are in a group (usually when we are in a crowd/group and are anonymous)

diffusion of responsibility

lessening of a person’s sense of accountability (as in the bystander effect)

group polarization

when group members’ decisions and opinions become more extreme than they were originally when they were individuals (common in politics)

groupthink

mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives

culture

the endearing behaviors/ideas/attitudes/values/traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next

individualistic culture

a society that prioritizes individual rights/needs over the group → usually prioritizes personal achievement

collectivist culture

a society that prioritizes group harmony and its best interests in mind

tight culture

a place with clearly defined and reliably imposed norms

loose culture

a place with flexible and informal norms

aggression

any physical or verbal behavior intended to harm someone physically or emotionally

industrial-organizational psychology

the study of how people perform in the workplace and best practices in management of work

mere exposure effect

people develop a preference for things simply because they are familiar with them

altruism

helping others even when there’s nothing in it for us

social exchange theory (utilitarianism)

the theory that our social behavior is an exchange process (we’ll do something if we think the benefit outweighs the cost)

reciprocity norm

an expectation that people will help, not hurt those who have helped them

social-responsibility norm

an expectation that people will help those needing their help

social trap

a situation in which two parties, by each pursuing their self interest rather than the good of the group, become caught in mutually destructive behavior

competition

working towards a goal while denying access to that goal to others

cooperation

people working together to reach a goal

self-fulfilling prophecy

we tend to change our behavior in response to a belief, thereby making a prediction about our behavior come true

superordinate goals

shared goals that could only be achieved through cooperation

personality

an individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting

psychoanalysis

freud’s theory of personality that attributes our thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; largely from childhood experiences

defense mechanisms

tactics to reduce or redirect anxiety by distorting reality

repression

is a defense mechanism; excluding from our consciousness anxiety-arousing wishes and feelings

reaction formation

switching unacceptable impulses into their opposites

projection

disguising one’s own threatening impulses by attributing them to others

rationalization

offering self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening unconscious reasons for one actions

displacement

shifting sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person

sublimation

transferring of unacceptable impulses into socially valued motives

denial

refusing to believe or even perceive painful realities

thematic apperception test (TAT)

people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they makeup about ambiguous scenes

rorschach inkblot test

inkblot test (widely used)