Social Psychology Review

Flashcards about social psychology.

Social psychology

Study of how groups influence individuals' attitudes and behavior.

Social group

Two or more people sharing common goals and interests interact and influence the behavior of the other(s).

Norms

Either implicit or explicit rules that govern the behavior of group members.

In-groups

Groups to which we belong and tend to favor.

Out-groups

Groups to which we do not belong; we tend to attribute negative qualities to out-groups.

Roles

Social positions and defined behavior expectations in groups.

Social loafing

The tendency of individuals to put less effort into group projects than when they are individually accountable.

Deindividuation

Loss of self-awareness and self-restraint in situations that promote high arousal and anonymity in groups.

Social facilitation

Improved performance of well-learned tasks in front of others.

Group polarization

Like-minded people share ideas resulting in a more extreme position for every individual.

Groupthink

Individuals self-censor beliefs to preserve harmony in the group.

Bystander intervention

The active involvement of a person in a situation that appears to require his or her aid.

Diffusion of responsibility

An explanation of the failure of bystander intervention stating that when several bystanders are present, no one person assumes responsibility for helping.

Altruism

The unselfish concern of one individual for the welfare of another.

Social cognition

The way people gather, use, and interpret information about their social world.

Attribution theory

A way to understand how people explain others' behaviors.

Dispositional factors

Individual personality characteristic that affects a person's behavior.

Situational factors

Environmental stimuli that affect a person's behavior.

Fundamental attribution error

Tendency when judging others' behaviors to overestimate the role of personal factors and underestimate situational factors.

Self-serving bias

To take personal credit for our own achievements and blame our failures on situational factors.

Self-fulfilling prophecy

A tendency to let preconceived expectations influence one's behavior, thus evoking those very expectations.

Actor-observer bias

Tendency to attribute our behaviors to situational factors and others' behaviors to dispositional factors.

Stereotype

Scheme used to quickly judge others; can be an overgeneralized belief about the characteristics of members of a particular group.

Prejudice

Unjustified attitudes we hold about others.

Discrimination

Unjustified action against an individual or group based on prejudice.

Scapegoat theory

Attributes prejudice to frustration; when own self-worth is in doubt or in jeopardy, we find others to blame.

Ethnocentrism

Belief that our culture or social group is superior to others.

Just-world phenomenon

Tendency to believe in fairness, that people get what they deserve and deserve what they get.

Out-group homogeneity

Belief that members of another group are more similar in their attitudes than they actually are.

Contact theory

If members of two opposing groups are brought together in an emergency situation, group cooperation will reduce prejudicial thinking.

Conformity

The adoption of attitudes and behaviors shared by a particular group of people.

Compliance

Engaging in a particular behavior at another person's request.

Foot-in-the-door

Agreement to smaller request leads to agreement to larger request later.

Reciprocity

Small gift makes others feel obligation to agree to later request.

Attitudes

Learned predisposition to respond favorably or unfavorably to certain people, objects, or events.

Mere exposure effect

Increased liking for a person or another stimulus resulting from repeated presentation (exposure).

Elaboration likelihood model

Attitudinal change through two routes: central or peripheral.

Central route of persuasion

Relatively stable change by carefully scrutinizing facts, statistics, and other information.

Peripheral route of persuasion

Pairs superficial positive factors (supermodels and celebrities) with an argument leading to less stable change in attitudes.

Informational social influence

Accepting others' opinions about reality, especially under conditions of uncertainty.

Normative social influence

Going along with the decisions of a group in order to gain its social approval.

Aggression

The intention to do harm to others.

Instrumental aggression

Aggression to achieve some goal.

Hostile aggression

Aggression to inflict pain upon someone else.