Unit 4 AP Psychology

Social Psychology, covers how people respond in social situations and how people adapt to the real world.

Dispositional Attribution

Attributing behavior to personality, traits, effort, or ability (internal factors)

Situational Attribution

Attributing behavior to outside circumstances, environment, etc (external factors)

Explanatory Style

Optimistically or Pessimistically explaining things: either good or bad things.

Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE)

Overestimating internal causes and underestimate situational ones when judging OTHER people.

Actor-Observer Bias

When we act, we blame external factors, but when others act we blame internal ones.

Self-serving bias

We protect our self esteem by explaining things a certain way. We externally attribute failure and internally attribute success.

Locus of Control

Overall belief of what controls your life.

If you think Internal factors do, then you will take responsibility to change, but if you think external ones do, then you will develop more learned helplessness.

Mere Exposure effect

Repeated exposure creates more liking

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Belief is held → influences behavior → performance influenced by behavior → strengthens belief

Upward comparison

Compare yourself to someone who is better off, hurts self esteem

Downward comparison

Compare yourself to someone worse off, can boost self esteem but reduces motivation

Sterotype

A generalized belief (prejudiced schema) that ignores differences and leads to discrimination

Just World Phenomenon

An implicit attitude that people get what they deserve

Out-group homogeneity bias

An implicit attitude that people in a group are all the same

In group bias

An implict attitude that benefits and gives more credit to people of your own group

Ethnocentrism

Judging countries by the standards of your own culture; implict

Belief Perserverance

Holding onto a belief even when that evdience has been discredited

Confirmation bias

Seeking information that supports a peservering belief

Cognitive Dissonance

Mental discomfort that happens when your attitudes and actions don’t match. We want to keep internal consistency with our beliefs, which is why this makes us so uncomfortable

Social Norms

Unwritten behaviors for a certain group of culture

Normative Influence

Social influence where people go along with something to be liked or avoid rejection

Informational Influence

Go along with others’ behavior because you believe they are better off

Elaboration Likelihood Model (Central)

When you recieve a message, you think about it carefully because it matters to you, focusing on evidence and logic to produce a longer change

Elaboration Likelihood Model (Peripheral)

When you recieve a message, you focus on surface-level cues because it does not matter to you as much. You focus on surface level cues, and this leads to shallow change that can fade.

Halo Effect

In the Peripheral route, this explains paying attention to attractive or famous people because you assume they have more expertise

Foot-in-the-door

Making a smaller request before making a larger one

Door-in-the-face

Giving a bigger request; when it is rejected you give a smaller one

Conformity

Going along with a group; usually an unianimous and difficult one

Obedience

Following a direct order from legit authority because responsiblity feels diffused across a group

Individualistic culture

Values independence and personal goals

Collectivistic Cultures

Value group support and shared goals

Multiculturalist Cultures

Support coexistence of diverse cultures

Group polarization

Group discussion can strenghten existing views. This also means that views can get more extreme if discussed together

Groupthink

Desire for harmony of the group overrides realistic evaluation; this ignores dissent and creates an illusion of unanimity

Social Loafing

Less effort in group work is put

Deindividuation

One’s loss of awareness in group crowds; leads to impulsive behavior

Social facilitation

Presence of others increases arousal, improves performance on easy tasks

False consensus effect

Overestimating how much others agree with you

Superordinate goals

Require cooperation between groups; success depends on working together

Social Traps

Happen when individuals act in short term self-interest, hurting a group in the long term.

Industrial Organizational psychology

Improves hiring and productivity; study how people work together. Also may examine burnout, which happens after periods of longterm stress. Overall, these people want to understand and improve corporate/teamworking conditions

Altruism

Why people selflessly help. Could be because of social reciprocity (expecting help later) or social responsibility (helping those who depend on you)

Bystander Effect

In a larger crowd, you are less likely to help because the responsibility shortens due to a diffusion of responsibility

Pluralistic Ignorance

The impact of “No one else looks concerned, so why should I?”

Evaluation Apprehension

Fear of embarrassment

Id

Operates on the pleasure principle: argues that you want immediate gratification, and these instincts are primitive, impulsive, and unconscious.

Ego

Operates on the reality principle; it accepts awareness and mediates between id and superego morals. Partly conscious.

Superego

Internalized morals that you hold

Repression

An ego-based, unconscious defense mechanism where you push thoughts out of awareness.

Denial

Refusing to accept reality by insisting that things are the opposite of what they are

Regression

Reverting to earlier developmental behavior

Reaction formation

Expressing the opposite of your true feelings

Rationalization

Creating logical but untrue excuses

Sublimation

Challenging unacceptable impulses into socially valued behavior

Projection v Displacement

Projection changes who owns the feeling; while displacement changes who recieves the feeling

Projective tests

Psychologists use projective tests to reveal hidden motives and conflicts; they ask people to see what’s in an inkblot (for example). interpretation focuses on themes and patterns that may not be reliable or valid.

Thematic Apperception Tests

Person creates stories about ambigious scenes; analyze recurring motives, fears, and relationships. Again, these themes may be controversial because they are not reliable or as valid

Unconditional Positive Regard

Being accepted and valued without conditions

Self-concept

A person’s ability to have an idea of who they are. Meanwhile, conditional love makes a person confuse between their real and ideal self.

Self-Actualizing Tendency

Humans have an innate drive to grow and reach their full potential

Humanistic Assessment Methods

Humanistic psychologists care about personal growth. They perfer to use methods like open-ended interviews, subjective POV, and self-report questionaires to understand how people see themselves.

Reciprocal Determinism

Social-cognitive theory says that factors influence one’s behavior is person’s factors (personality and attitudes) → behavior (actions and choices) and → environment (social/physical surroundings) factors.

Self-efficacy

Your belief to succeed at specific tasks: high = more effort/risilience, low = give up

Self-esteem

Sense of self-worth

Trait theorists

Personality is made of enduring characteristics/traits that lead to consistent patterns of behavior

Openness to experience

Curious, imagnitive, open to new ideas. One of the factors assessing personality

Conscientiousness

Organized, responsible, disciplined. One of the factors assessing personality.

Extraversion

Outgoing, energized, sociable. One of the factors assessing personality.

Agreeableness

Cooperative, trusting, compassionate. One of the factors assessing personality.

Neuroticism

Prone to anxiety, mood swings, negativity. One of the factors assessing personality.

Personality inventory

Standardized questionaires that rely on factor analysis

Factor analysis

Groups responses, looks at patterns, and identifies personality dimensions

Drive-reduction theory

A cognitive theory suggesting that behaivor is motivated by the need to reduce physical discomfort and maintain homeostasis.

Arousal Theory

We are motivated to maintain an optimal level of alertness: not bored, but not stressed out

Yerkes-Dodson Law

Performance is best at moderate arousal, with the ideal level depending on task difficulty

Self-determination theory

A theory that differentiates between doing something because it’s intrinsically (internally) or extrinsically (externally) motivated.

Incentive theory

Behavior is motivated by money, praise, and privileges

Instincts

Innate, fixed patterns of behavior triggered by stimuli. Usually only occurs in animals, because humans show few instincts and are motivated and learned

Approach-Approach Conflict

Internal conflict between choosing two good options

Avoidance-Avoidance

Choosing between two bad options

Approach-avoidance Conflict

One options has both positives and negatives

Sensation seeking

People are motivated by a need for novelty and intensity

Eating and Motivation

It can be biologically motivated where hormones are released from the hypothalamus, or it can be externally motivated because of environmental cues.

Sequential Models

Propose that emotion occurs in steps

Simultaneous models

Propose that physiological arousal and experiences occur at the same time

Cognitive Label

Determines which emotion you feel; interprets the arousal to a specific emotion

Facial-feedback hypothesis

facial expressions influence emotional experience. Depending on your expression, you will feel that way

Broaden and build theory

What emotions do to your thinking → positive broadens thinking, negative narrows it

Universal emotions

Across culture, 6 different emotions are unviersally interpreted. The evidence is mixed though, but for the most part this is true

Display Rules

Cultures about where, when, and how to show emotion: across culture and demographic, this varies

Elicitors

Events and situations that trigger emotions