Social Psychology: Foundations, Social Cognition, Influence, and Evolutionary Perspectives

Comprehensive practice flashcards in vocabulary style covering the entire university lecture series on Social Psychology: theoretical foundations, empirical methodologies, social cognition, influence and conformity, intergroup relations, aggression, prosocial dynamics, intimate relationships, culture, and Liotti's cognitive-evolutionary motivational systems.

Implicit Presence (Allport)

The psychological influence exerted by mental representations of others, such as internalized social norms that shape behavior even in the complete absence of other people.

Operationalization

The methodological process of translating an abstract psychological construct into a concrete, quantifiable, and empirically measurable variable (such as reaction time or error count).

Ceiling Effect (Effetto Tetto)

A measurement distortion occurring when an experimental task is excessively easy, causing virtually all participants to obtain the maximum score and masking group differences.

Floor Effect (Effetto Pavimento)

A measurement distortion occurring when an experimental task is so difficult that measurements cluster at the lowest possible value, preventing the detection of significant variance.

Demand Characteristics

Implicit cues within an experiment that lead participants to infer the researcher's hypotheses and unconsciously alter their behavior to conform to perceived expectations.

Internal Validity

The degree of certainty that observed changes in the dependent variable ($Y$) are solely caused by the systematic manipulation of the independent variable ($X$) rather than extraneous factors.

Experimental Realism

The extent to which an experimental laboratory setting psychologically engages and activates participants, eliciting authentic and deep emotional responses.

Cyberball Paradigm

A computerized virtual ball-tossing task with high experimental realism designed to study social ostracism and its disruptive effects on belonging, control, self-esteem, and meaningful existence.

Reductionism

The theoretical attempt to explain complex social phenomena exclusively through lower-level, simpler units of analysis, such as biological, chemical, or purely individual psychological processes.

Doise's Four Levels of Explanation

An integrated framework to overcome reductionism in social psychology comprising: intrapersonal, interindividual/situational, positional (status and power), and ideological levels of analysis.

Social Cognition

The subdiscipline of social psychology that examines how individuals construct mental representations of the social world, balancing the drive for accuracy with cognitive energy conservation.

Naive Scientist Metaphor

A rationalist cognitive model describing human beings as active observers who systematically gather data and test causal hypotheses to make sense of the surrounding social environment.

Central Traits (Asch)

Core personality dimensions, such as the warm-cold dimension, that exert a disproportionate organizing effect on the overall perception and mental restructuring of another person.

Primacy Effect

The cognitive phenomenon wherein information encountered first in a sequence carries a dominant, disproportionate weight in structuring an overall impression.

Accentuation Principle (Tajfel)

The perceptual effect whereby categorizing stimuli or individuals into distinct groups automatically maximizes perceived similarities within the same group and magnifies perceived differences between groups.

Optimal Distinctiveness Theory (Brewer)

The conceptual model positing that social categorization balances two conflicting human needs: the need for inclusion within broad social categories and the need for differentiation through specific categories.

Subtyping (Sottotipi)

A cognitive revision strategy that isolates disconfirming evidence by creating narrow, specialized subcategories within an existing schema, thereby preserving the general stereotype intact.

Bargh's Four Stages of Social Encoding

The four sequential phases of mental representation: pre-attentive analysis, focal attention, comprehension, and inferential elaboration.

Priming

The cognitive mechanism by which the prior activation of specific memory nodes or categories increases their accessibility, unconsciously influencing the interpretation of subsequent stimuli.

Illusory Correlation

The cognitive error of perceiving a statistical relationship between two variables when none exists, often fueled by pre-existing associations or the shared distinctiveness of unusual events.

Representativeness Heuristic

A mental shortcut in which the likelihood of an event or category membership is judged by how closely an instance resembles a prototypical exemplar.

Availability Heuristic

A cognitive shortcut where people assess the frequency, probability, or severity of an event based on how readily concrete instances can be retrieved from memory.

Anchoring and Adjustment (Accomodamento)

A cognitive heuristic where initial evaluations are tied to an initial value or existing schema, with subsequent adjustments remaining insufficient and biased toward that reference point.

Kelley's Covariation Model

An attribution theory stating that observers identify causes by systematically tracking covariation across three dimensions: consistency over time, distinctiveness across situations, and consensus across individuals.

Weiner's Attributional Dimensions

A motivational attribution framework classifying causes along three bipolar dimensions: locus of control (internal vs. external), stability (stable vs. unstable), and controllability (controllable vs. uncontrollable).

Correspondent Inference Theory (Jones & Davis)

The model proposing that observers preferentially attribute another person's action to stable underlying personality traits, provided the action was performed freely and produced non-common effects.

Fundamental Attribution Error

The systematic tendency to overestimate dispositional personality factors and underestimate external situational influences when explaining the behavior of others.

Actor-Observer Effect

The tendency to attribute other people's behaviors to internal dispositions while attributing one's own behaviors to external circumstances, driven by attentional focus and information availability.

False Consensus Effect

The cognitive bias whereby people overestimate the degree to which others share their personal opinions, values, and behavioral choices.

Self-Handicapping

The proactive establishment of external obstacles or excuses before an evaluative performance to shield self-esteem from failure and enhance it in case of success.

Belief in a Just World (Langer)

The cognitive conviction that the world is inherently fair and orderly, where good actions are rewarded and evil is punished, often resulting in victim-blaming.

Ultimate Attribution Error (Taylor & Jaggi)

An intergroup attribution bias whereby positive ingroup and negative outgroup actions are attributed to internal causes, whereas negative ingroup and positive outgroup actions are attributed to situational factors.

Theory of Social Representations (Moscovici)

The theory explaining how complex or scientific knowledge is collectively transformed and popularized into shared common-sense representations that guide everyday social practices.

Objective Self-Awareness

A transient psychological state where the individual focuses attention upon the self as an object of evaluation, comparing the actual self against private or public standards.

Overjustification Effect

The reduction of intrinsic motivation toward an enjoyable task following the introduction of salient extrinsic rewards, shifting the perceived locus of causality from internal interest to external payoff.

Self-Discrepancy Theory (Higgins)

The theoretical framework contrasting the actual self with two internal guideposts: the ideal self (aspirations and desires) and the ought self (duties and obligations).

Regulatory Focus Systems

Two distinct self-regulatory motivational systems: the promotion system, geared toward achieving the ideal self and gains, and the prevention system, focused on fulfilling the ought self and avoiding losses.

Self-Enhancement Triad

Three adaptive cognitive distortions that protect self-esteem: overestimating one's virtues (better-than-average), overestimating personal control over life events, and unrealistic optimism regarding the future.

Terror Management Theory

The existential theory positing that self-esteem and cultural worldviews function as psychological buffers designed to shield the individual from the paralyzing terror of inevitable mortality.

Goffman's Dramaturgical Model

A sociological perspective viewing human social interaction as a theatrical stage where individuals utilize impression management to enact specific roles tailored to their audience.

Tripartite Model of Attitudes

A classical structural model defining attitudes as an organized constellation of three components: cognitive (beliefs), affective (feelings), and behavioral (action tendencies).

Mere Exposure Effect

The psychological phenomenon whereby repeated, unreinforced exposure to a previously neutral stimulus increases perceptual familiarity and positive evaluation.

Subtle Prejudice (Pettigrew & Meertens)

A covert, rationalized form of prejudice expressed through three strategies: defense of traditional ingroup values, exaggeration of intergroup cultural differences, and denial of positive outgroup emotions.

Theory of Planned Behavior

A model extending the Theory of Reasoned Action by establishing that behavioral intentions and actions are jointly determined by attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control.

Cognitive Dissonance (Festinger)

A state of psychological discomfort caused by holding contradictory cognitions, driving individuals to modify their attitudes to restore internal cognitive consistency.

Elaboration Likelihood Model (Petty & Cacioppo)

A dual-process persuasion model identifying two persuasion routes: the central route (high motivation and ability, deep cognitive scrutiny) and the peripheral route (reliance on superficial cues).

Protection Motivation Theory

A health communication model stating that fear appeals encourage adaptive changes only when perceived threat appraisal is balanced by perceived coping appraisal and self-efficacy.

Sherif's Autokinetic Effect Experiment

A foundational study demonstrating that individuals in an ambiguous visual setting collectively converge on a shared reference frame, proving that social norms emerge spontaneously from interaction.

Asch Conformity Paradigm

A classic experiment showing that individuals conform to an obviously incorrect majority on an unambiguous line-matching task due to normative influence and informational influence.

Milgram's Agentic State

A psychological state in which an individual obeys authority by viewing themselves as a mere instrument carrying out external orders, relinquishing personal moral responsibility.

Minority Influence (Moscovici)

A social influence process whereby a consistent, committed numerical minority creates cognitive conflict, triggering systematic cognitive elaboration and private conversion within the majority.

Entitativity

The perceived degree of cohesiveness, internal unity, and organization that leads observers and members to view a collection of individuals as a distinct social entity.

Social Facilitation (Zajonc)

The drive-theory model stating that the presence of conspecifics increases innate arousal, facilitating well-learned, dominant responses on simple tasks while inhibiting performance on complex tasks.

Social Loafing (Inerzia Sociale)

The reduction in individual effort observed when individuals perform collectively in a group compared to when they work alone, caused by diffusion of responsibility and loss of coordination.

Groupthink (Janis)

A dysfunctional mode of decision-making in highly cohesive, insulated groups where the desire for consensus suppresses critical dissent, resulting in poor and irrational outcomes.

Group Polarization

The tendency for group discussion to shift the initial average opinions of group members toward a more extreme position in the direction already favored prior to the debate.

Realistic Conflict Theory (Sherif)

The intergroup conflict theory demonstrated in the Robbers Cave study positing that zero-sum competition for limited resources breeds prejudice, which can be mitigated only through superordinate goals.

Minimal Group Paradigm (Tajfel)

An experimental framework showing that the bare categorization of participants into arbitrary groups without shared history is sufficient to trigger ingroup favoritism and outgroup discrimination.

Allport's Contact Hypothesis

The theory stating that intergroup prejudice decreases through direct contact if three conditions are met: equal social status, cooperation toward common goals, and institutional support.

Excitation Transfer Theory (Zillmann)

The physiological theory positing that residual arousal from an initial stimulus can transfer to and amplify an aggressive reaction in a subsequent setting if contextual cues elicit aggression.

Weapons Effect (Berkowitz & LePage)

The aggression phenomenon wherein the mere physical presence of a weapon acts as a situational prime, automatically increasing the accessibility of aggressive thoughts and escalating retaliation.

Bystander Effect (Latané & Darley)

The social psychological phenomenon whereby the presence of multiple witnesses to an emergency reduces the likelihood of individual intervention, dropping help rates from 70% alone to 40% in pairs.

Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis (Batson)

The proposition that pure altruistic motivation arises from genuine empathic concern for the victim, aimed directly at ending their suffering rather than escaping personal distress.

Sternberg's Triangular Theory of Love

A relational model defining love along three core structural components: intimacy (closeness), passion (physical attraction), and commitment (endurance), which together yield consummate love.

Steve Duck's Dissolution Stages

A four-phase chronological model of relationship breakdown consisting of: intrapsychic phase, dyadic phase, social phase, and grave-dressing phase.

Ethnolinguistic Vitality (Giles)

The structural strength and survival probability of a minority language group in a multilingual setting, determined by economic autonomy, shared social self-esteem, demographics, and institutional backing.

Display Rules (Ekman)

Culturally acquired social norms that dictate the appropriateness, intensity, and modification of universal facial emotional expressions in public interpersonal situations.

Liotti's Evolutionary Motivational Hierarchy

A tri-level model of behavioral systems: Level 1 non-interpersonal/reptilian (defense, predation), Level 2 interpersonal limbic (attachment, caregiving, rank, cooperation), and Level 3 intersubjectivity.

Peer Cooperation System (Giovanni Liotti)

An evolved Level 2 interpersonal motivational system emerging around 9 months of age that enables shared goals, symmetrical reciprocity, and joint intentionality (marked by the pointing gesture).

Motivational Disorganization

A clinical and systemic failure in which two evolutionary motivational systems with conflicting goals activate simultaneously (e.g., attachment and defense in trauma), fragmenting behavior and the sense of self.

Social Value Orientation (SVO)

A stable personality predisposition governing resource allocation in social dilemmas, distinguishing pro-self individuals (individualists, competitors) from pro-social individuals (cooperators, altruists).

Violence Inhibition Mechanism (Blair)

An evolved neurocognitive safety mechanism designed to arrest aggressive attacks upon perceiving non-verbal distress or submissive displays from a conspecific.

Empathy Switch (Keysers)

The neuroscientific framework proposing that psychopathy is characterized not by a permanent structural loss of mirror neurons, but by an uncalibrated default switch that activates only under explicit instructions.

Predatory Violence

A cold, premeditated, and unemotional form of violence rooted in the primitive predatory motivational system, characterized by complete emotional detachment and the absence of autonomic distress.

Moments of Meeting (Boston Process Group)

Shared moments of profound intersubjective attunement and implicit relational knowing between two people that restructure the relational bond beyond basic biological drives.

CESPA Procedure

A structured 5-step self-observation technique utilized to analyze relational episodes: Context (Contesto), Emotions (Emozioni), Somatic sensations (Sensazioni), Thoughts (Pensieri), and Actions (Azioni).