PSYC101: Topic 6 - Social Psychology

Social Psychology

Study of the way in which peoples thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people

Attributions

The process of assigning causes to behaviour

• Internal: Inference that a person is behaving in a certain way because of something about them such as attitude, character, or personality

• External: Inference that a person is behaving a certain way because of something about the situation they are in

Fundamental Attribution Error

Tendency as human beings to overestimate the extent to which peoples behaviour is due to dispositional influences and to underestimate the role of situational factors

Conformity

A change in behaviour resulting from the real or imagined influences of other people

Need-to-belong theory

Inherent motivations to seek out and sustain at least some social connections

Why are we susceptible to social influence?

• Social influence is typically adaptive

• Can “good” or “bad”; negative effects are considered to be by-products of adaptive social influence

• Allow us to engage in social comparison → aids in self evaluation

• Social Contagion → look to others, especially in ambiguous situations

Deindividuation

Tendency of people to engage in atypical behaviour when they are stripped of their usual identities

Social Roles

Expectations that are shared by group members about how individuals should behave

Groupthink

An emphasis on group unanimity at the expense of critical thinking

Cult

A group of individuals who exhibit intense and unquestioning devotion to a single cause

Inoculation effect

approach to convincing people to change their minds about something by first exposing them to reasons why the perspective might be correct, and then debunking those reasons

Obedience

Adherence to instructions from authority figures

Norm of obedience

Overarching social norm that we are conditioned to obey, we learn we should follow authority generally speaking

Prosocial behaviour

Any act performed with the goal of benefiting another person or group

Bystander effect

The finding that the greater the number of bystanders who witness an emergency, the less likely it is that any one of them will help

Pluralistic Ignorance

Error or assuming that no one in the group perceives things as we do

Diffusion of responsibility

Reduction in feelings of personal responsibility in the presence of others

Altruism

Helping others for unselfish reasons, even if there is a personal cost