Found. of Psych 3

Social context

The real, imagined, or symbolic presence of others, including activities and interactions among people, the setting in which behavior occurs, and the expectations and social norms governing behavior in that setting.

Social psychology

The study of how people's thoughts and feelings influence their behavior toward others and how the behavior of others influences people's own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Social cognition

The mental processes associated with people's perceptions and reactions to other people.

Self-concept

The way one thinks about oneself.

Self-esteem

The evaluations one makes about how worthy one is as a human being.

Situationism

The perspective assuming that the external environment, or behavioral context, can have both subtle and forceful effects on people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Dispositionism

The perspective that attributes behavior to internal factors, such as genes, personality traits, and character qualities.

Attribution

A judgment about the cause of a person's behavior.

Dispositional Attribution

A judgment assigning the cause of a person's behavior to personal qualities or characteristics.

Situational Attribution

A judgment assigning the cause of a person's behavior to the environment.

Correspondence bias

The tendency to infer that behavior is a result of permanent dispositional traits, presuming that what someone does corresponds to who they are.

Fundamental attribution error

The tendency to overestimate internal, dispositional factors and underestimate situational factors when explaining behavior.

Just-World Belief

The assumption that good things happen to good people, and bad things happen to bad people.

Actor-observer bias

A bias that occurs when we use situational variables to explain our own behavior, while using dispositional variables to explain the behavior of others.

Self-serving bias

A protective bias where individuals attribute their successes to dispositional variables and their failures to situational factors.

Attitude

A positive or negative evaluation that predisposes behavior toward an object, person, or situation, comprised of affect, behavior, and cognition.

Affect (in attitude formation)

The component of attitude that addresses the emotional responses toward an object.

Cognitive Dissonance

The uncomfortable feeling that occurs when an individual's behavior and attitudes do not match.

Cognitive Consistency

A preference for holding congruent attitudes and beliefs without tension.

Persuasion

A change in attitude in response to information provided by another person.

Elaboration Likelihood Model

A model that predicts responses to persuasive messages by distinguishing between the central route and the peripheral route to persuasion.

Central route to persuasion

A path to persuasion that occurs when a person considers persuasive arguments carefully and thoughtfully, leading to more enduring attitudes.

Peripheral route to persuasion

A path to persuasion that occurs when a person responds to situational cues without considering the quality of the argument.

Social Norms

Usually unwritten or unspoken rules for behavior in social settings, which can be explicit (conscious) or implicit (unconscious).

Conformity

Matching one's behavior and appearance to perceived social norms.

Compliance

Agreement with a request from a person who possesses no perceived authority, such as a stranger or a friend.

Obedience

Compliance with a request from an authority figure.

Milgram study

A classic psychological experiment on authority and ethics where participants blindly followed orders to administer electric shocks to a confederate because the experimenter assumed authority.

Foot-in-the-door

A persuasive technique in which compliance with a small request is followed by compliance with a larger request that might otherwise have been rejected.

Low-balling

A compliance strategy involving making further requests of an individual who has already committed to a course of action.

Door-in-the-face

A persuasive technique in which compliance with a target request is preceded by a large, unreasonable request.

Asch studies

Experiments testing conformity in which a subject was placed with four confederates to test whether peer presence would alter decision-making even when the peer consensus was clearly wrong.

Diffusion of responsibility

The dilution or weakening of each group member's obligation to act when responsibility is perceived to be shared among all group members.

Groupthink

Flawed decision-making in which members of a group attempt to conform their opinions to what each believes to be the consensus, failing to question decisions critically.

Social Facilitation

A phenomenon wherein the presence of other people alters individual performance, often improving performance on well-practiced skills.

Social Loafing

The reduced motivation and effort displayed by individuals when working in a group.

Deindividuation

The immersion of an individual within a group that leads to anonymity, causing them to potentially engage in negative behavior when surrounded by the group.

Group Polarization

The intensifying of an attitude following group discussion, leading members to adopt a more extreme position than usual.

Prejudice

A prejudgment, usually negative, of another person on the basis of their membership in a specific group.

Stereotype

A simplified set of traits associated with membership in a group or category.

Discrimination

Unfair behavior directed toward individuals based on stereotyping and prejudice.