Psychology Chapter 12 (Social Psychology) Vocab

Social psychology

the study of causes and consequences of sociality

Aggression

behavior that is meant to cause harm

Frustration-aggression hypothesis

animals aggress when their goals are frustrated (obstructed)

Proactive aggression

aggression that is planned and purposeful

Reactive aggression

aggression that occurs spontaneously in response to a negative affective state

Cooperation

behavior by two or more individuals that leads to mutual benefit

Group

collection of people who have something in common that distinguishes them from others

Prejudice

an evaluation of another person based solely on their group membership

Common knowledge effect

the tendency for group discussions to focus on information that all members share

Group polarization

the tendency for groups to make decisons that are more extreme than any member would have made alone

Groupthink

the tendency for groups to reach consensus in order to facilitate interpersonal harmony

Deindividuation

a phenomenon that occurs when immersion in a group causes people to become less concerned with their personal values

Diffusion of responsibility

tendency of individuals to feel diminished responsibility for their actions when they are surrounded by others who are acting the same way

In terms of bystanders — people are less likely to help an innocent person in distress bc there are other bystandrs present

Bystander intervention

the act of helping strangers in an emergency situation

Altruism

intentional behavior that benefits another at a potential cost to oneself

Kin selection

the process by which evolution selects for individuals who sooperate with their relatives

Reciprocal altruism

behavior that benefits another with the expectation that those ebenfits will be returned in the future

Exposure effect

the tendency for liking of a stimulus to increase with the freuqnecy of eposure to that stimulus

Passionate love

an experience involing feelings of euphoria, intimacy, and intense sexual attraction

Companionate love

an experience involving affection, trust, and concern for a partner’s well-being

Social cognition

the processes by which people come to understand others

Stereotyping

the process of drawing inferences about individuals based on their category membership

Perceptual confirmation

the tendency of observers to see what they expect to see (which can further perpetuate stereotypes)

Behavioral confirmation

the tendency of targets to behave as observers expect them to behave

Stereotype threat

the target’s fear of confirming the observer’s negative stereotypes

Attributions

influences about the causes of people’s behaviors

Situational attributions

when we decide that a person’s behavior was caused by some temporary aspect of the situation in which it happened

Correspondence bias

the tendency to make a dispositional attribution when we should instead make a situation attribution

actor-observer effect

the tendency to make situation attributions for our own behaviors while making dispositional attributions for the identical behavior of others

Social influence

the ability to change or direct another person’s behavior

Overjustification effect

a reward decreases a person’s intrinsic motivation to perform a behavior

Reactance

an unpleasant feeling that arises when people feel they are being coered

Norm of reciprocity

the unwritten rule that people should benefit those who have benefited them

Normative influence

a phenomenon in which another person’s behavior provides information about what is appropriate

Conformity

the tendency to do what others do

Soloman Asch

Studies the effects of group pressure on the modification and distortion of judgments.

Attitude

enduring positive or negative evolution of stimulus

Belief

an enduring piece of knowledge about a stimulus

Informational influence

another person’s behavior provides information about what is good or true

Persuasion

a person’s attitudes or beliefs are influences by communication from another person

Systematic persuation

the process by which attitudes or beliefs are changed by appeals to reason

heuristic persuasion

the process by which attitudes or beliefs are changed by appeals to habit or emotion

foot-in-the-door technique

making a small request and then folliwng it with a large request

cognitive dissonance

an unpleasant state that arises when a person recognisses the inconsistency of their actions attitudes, or beliefs