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Social Psychologists
Psychologists who study the social influences that explain why the same person acts differently in different situations.
Attribution theory
The theory that we explain someone’s behavior by crediting either external factors (situational) or internal factors (the person’s traits).
Dispositional Attribution
When an individual’s behavior is attributed to factors internal to themselves.
Internal characteristics (personal traits) such as personality and intelligence
Assigning causes to personality traits, efforts, moods, judgments, abilities, motives, or beliefs.
Ex. Someone getting a good grade on a test and their disposition being their intelligence rather than how long they studied.
Situational Attributions
When an individual’s behavior is attributed to factors in their environment
Environmental factors
Assigning causes to the weather, others attitudes, task difficulty, and luck.
Ex. Getting in a fight with someone because you had a bad day: you bombed a quiz because you didn‘t get enough sleep the night before.
Explanatory Style
How people explain the causes and impacts of events in their lives and in the lives of others- can be optimistic or pessimistic
A predictable pattern of attributions
When receiving a bad grade on a test, a person with a pessimistic style might say, 'I failed because I'm just not good at this subject' (internal, stable, global), while a person with an optimistic style might say, 'I did poorly this time because I didn't study enough, but I can do better next time' (external, unstable, specific)
Someone with a pessimistic style might blame themselves for negative events, while someone with an optimistic style might attribute bad luck to the situation.
Optimistic Style
Temporary: ‘This will pass’
Local: Relates to just one situation
Not personal: ‘This isn’t entirely my fault’
Controllable: ‘There’s something I can do”
Ex. When receiving a bad grade on a test, 'I did poorly this time because I didn't study enough, but I can do better next time' (external, unstable, specific)
Pessimistic Style
Permanent: ‘This will last forever’
Pervasive: ‘This is going to undermine everything’
Personal: ‘It’s me. It’s my fault’
Uncontrollable: ‘There’s nothing I can do about it.”
Ex. When receiving a bad grade on a test, 'I failed because I'm just not good at this subject' (internal, stable, global)
Actor-Observer Bias
The tendency for those acting in a situation to attribute their behavior to external causes, but as an observer, they attribute others’ similar behavior to internal causes.
Actor: Blaming external factors when something goes wrong with us. Situational attributions
Observer: Blaming others for their mistakes. Dispositional attributions
Ex. Being late for a meeting: Actor- we blame it on the traffic jam, observer- we see them as irresponsible.
Fundamental Attribution Error
The tendency for observers analyzing others’ behavior to attribute their actions more to their internal characteristics rather than to their external situational factors
Underestimating the impact of the situation and overestimating the impact of a person’s disposition.
The error can lead to misunderstandings and oversimplifications in perceiving others.
Ex. “I believe that man is yelling because he is a bad person, not because he’s under a lot of stress”. Quiet person at a party: You may think this person is inherently unfriendly, rather than considering they may just be feeling unwell or having a bad day.
Self-serving Bias
We attribute causes of behavior to external causes if we fail and internal causes if we succeed.
The tendency to perceive ourselves favorably
Ex. ‘I passed my test because I am smart’ or ‘I failed my test because the teacher doesn't teach me well’.
Internal Locus of Control
Think they control and are responsible for what happens to them.
Ex.
Job Promotion; Believes they earned the promotion because of their hard work.
Failing an exam; Believes they failed because they didn't study enough.
External Locus of Control
Believe what happens is due to fate, luck, or others
Ex.
Job Promotion; Attribute a promotion to luck or fate, rather than their own hard work.
Life Problems; Blame their life's problems on external factors like politics, the economy, or other people.
Winning a Game; Believe that they won a game because they got lucky.
Stereotype
A generalized concept about a group
Help reduce cognitive load when making decisions or judgments
Beliefs
Can be the cause and/or the result of biased perceptions and experiences and are frequently the basis of prejudiced attitudes and discriminatory behaviors
Cognitive Load
The effort it takes to make decisions or judgements
Ex. “Oh, you’re from Texas? You must really love country music.”
Prejudice
Pre-judgment
An unjustifiable and usually negative attitude toward a group and its members.
Generally involves stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings, and a predisposition to discriminatory action and negative emotions
Ex.
A coworker says that women should be kept in the home, he's prejudiced against women.
“Crows have wings”
“Women mechanics are worse than male mechanics”
Discrimination
Unjustifiable negative actions/ behaviors toward a group or its members
Ex. A hiring manager refusing to interview candidates with a certain last name
Implicit Attitudes
Attitudes that individuals hold but may be unaware of or not acknowledge.
Ex. Someone who consciously believes in racial equality but unconsciously feels more comfortable or trusting towards people of their own race, leading to subtle differences in their interactions without them realizing it.
Just-World Phenomenon
The tendency to believe the world is just (fair) and that people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get.
Ex. A person believing people who are homeless deserve to be homeless; “Homeless people are lazy and don’t work, so they deserve to be poor.”
In-Group Bias
People with whom we share a common identity
“Us”
Ex. Friend group, cliques, your school
Out-Group Bias
Those perceived as different or apart from our ingroup
“Them”
Ex. Rivaling school
Out-Group Homogeneity Bias
Overestimating the extent to which members of other groups are alike.
Perceived uniformity of attitude, personality, and appearance
Ex.
"all members of a rival sports team are equally aggressive and bad sports"
women may believe that all men are cheaters
Democrats may believe that all Republicans are conservative
Ethnocentricism
The prejudicial belief that one’s culture is superior to all other cultures.
People tend to justify their culture’s social systems while judging others as “bad” or “wrong”
Ex.
Calling other cultural practices and diets “strange” and viewing our practices as the “ONLY” way.
Attitudes
Feelings influenced by beliefs that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events.
Influences: experiences, social norms, social roles. classical and operant conditioning, or observing people in the environment
Confirmation Bias
The tendency to search for or put more value on information that confirms your beliefs while ignoring or distorting contradictory information.
Enables quick solutions, but misses finding out when first guesses are wrong.
Belief Perseverance
The tendency to hold on to beliefs even when evidence proves those beliefs to be wrong.
Less internal mental conflict but more social conflict
Ex. You might assume you’re a bad public speaker, so you avoid speaking up in meetings despite getting great feedback
Cognitive Dissonance
Unpleasant tension state, awareness that belief and action are inconsistent.
When we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts (cognitions) are inconsistent.
When we become aware that our attitudes and our actions clash, we can reduce the resulting dissonance by changing our attitudes or our actions
Ex.
Belief- smoking cigarettes is unhealthy; action- smoking cigarettes:
Change action: smoking cigarettes is unhealthy —> not smoking cigarettes anymore
Change belief: the research on smoking isn’t conclusive —> continuing to smoke cigarettes
Persuasion
The process of influencing someone to change their attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors, potentially influencing their actions
Central Route Persuasion
When interested people’s thinking is influenced by considering evidence and arguments
Ex. Getting a coffee bassed on caffeine content or the lowest price
Peripheral Route Persuasion
When people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker’s attractiveness
“The fluffy stuff”
Ex. Buying a new drink because you like the design on the can
Halo Effect
Being influenced by celebrity endorsements because you believe they’re beautiful or view celebrities as ‘being able to do no wrong’ and believe they are smart or trustworthy.
Ex. Sabrina Carpenter’s collab with Dunkin’, the Shaken Espresso
Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon
The tendency for people who have agreed to a small request to later comply with a larger request
Ex. Shopping with a friend for cake ingredients and after agreeing to help bake the cake with the friend.
‘If You Give a Mouse a Cookie’ book
Door-in-the-Face Phenomenon
When someone starts with a large request that the other person turns down and then asks a more reasonable request, the person accepts
Ex. “Can I borrow $100?” “No!” “How about $10?” “Sure.”
Social Norms
A society’s understood rules for accepted and expected behavior.
Conformity
Adjusting our behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard.
Ex. Peer pressure: engaging in risky behavior to seem cool; vaping because your friends are.
Social Influence Theory
The tendency for people to do what they see as being the “norm”
Normative Social Influence
Influence resulting from the idea that we conform to avoid rejection/disapproval or to gain social approval
Ex. Dressing in a certain way to fit in with your peer group
Informational Social Influence
Influence resulting from the idea that we conform because we want to be accurate
Ex. Going to a football game and standing up because everyone else is or agreeing with what a majority of a class says even though you had a different answer.
Asch conformity experiment.
Obedience
Changing one’s behavior at the direct command of an authority figure.
Conditions that Strengthen Obedience
Proximity of an authority figure, distance from the victim, legitimacy of authority, social support, gradual escalation, and lack of personal responsibility.
Milgrims Shock Study
An experiment that even though invalid (lack of debriefing, caused harm, etc.) demonstrated the power of social influence.
Tested how far people would obey an authority figure even if it meant harming another person.
Social Facilitation
Improved performance on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others and exhibit worse performance on difficult tasks.
Social context: Individual being observed
Psychological effect on others’ presence: Increased arousal
Behavioral effect: Amplified dominant behavior, such as doing better on what one does well or doing worse on what is difficult
Ex. Professional Athletes
Social Loafing
The tendency for some people to exert less effort when working in a group toward a common goal vs when working individually.
Social context: Group Projects
Psychological effect on others’ presence: Diminished feelings of responsibility when not individually accountable.
Behavioral effect: Decreased effort
Ex. Not doing anything to contribute to a group project.
Deindividuation
The loss of self-awareness and self-restraint in group situations where people feel anonymity and excitement.
Social context: Group setting that fosters excitement and anonymity
Psychological effect on others’ presence: Reduced self-awareness
Behavioral effect: Lowered self-restraint
Ex. Acting more wild at a concert or a sporting event.
Group Polarization
The tendency for individuals in a group to make more extreme decisions or adopt more radical positions after group discussions, compared to their initial individual decisions.
The enhancement of a group’s prevailing inclinations through discussion within the group
Ex. a group of moderate Republicans coming to an extremely right-wing conclusion about something. Politics, religion, and jury duty.
Groupthink
The mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group outweighs alternative and more realistic options
“Hive mind”
Ex. During debates, many people will agree to disagree to avoid conflict.
Proximity
Geographical nearness
‘Friendships most powerful predictor’
Ex. Becoming friends with someone because you sit next to each other in multiple classes.
Mere Exposure Effect
Cognitive bias
The things we’re exposed to repeatedly become more favorable to us.
Ex. People are more likely to prefer a shop they see regularly on their way to work over a shop they see randomly, or a song they hear repeatedly on the radio over a random song.
Individualists
More emphasis on independent self. Self defined by personal values, personal goals, and personal attitudes.
Collectivists
More emphasis on collective self. Self-defined by connections with family and friends with the goals of the group having higher priority than individual goals.
Altruism
A selfless concern for the well-being of others
Where someone prioritizes the needs of others over their own personal gain
Sometimes an act of prosocial behavior because they may feel like they have a ‘social debt’ to others.
Ex. Saving someone’s life despite having to risk your own or helping an elderly person cross the street
Bystander Effect
The idea that people are less likely to help if others are around because we assume that someone else will help instead
Ex. When someone is on the floor in the middle of a crowded mall, you don’t help because you assume someone else will.
Social Reciprocity Norm
An expectation that people will help, not hurt, those who have helped them
Social Responsibility Norm
Tells us to help others when they need us even though they may not repay us
An expectation that people will help those needing their help
Largely learned
Ex. Donating blood
Self-fulfilling Prophecy
A belief leading to its own fulfillment
Not always positive
Cycle; Beliefs—> Expectations—> Behavior—> Results
Ex. If a teacher believes a student will fail an exam, the teacher will unconsciously treat the student differently and give them less help, influencing their bad score.
Superordinate Goals
Shared goals that override differences among people and can only be achieved through their cooperation
Social Traps
A situation in which 2 parties do NOT unite. The conflicting parties, by each rationally persuing their self-interest rather than the good of the group, become caught in mutually destructive behavior.
Ex. Split or steal.
Robber’s Cave Experiment’s Demonstration of Superordinate Goals
Superordinate goals helped to reduce ingroup biases
Created conflict between the two groups, then made them work together for a goal that would benefit both groups and eventually dissolve the original ingroup outgroup conflict.
Industrial/Organizational Psychologist
Apply psychology’s principles in the workplace. They might use such techniques to improve relationships among people working together for a common company or program. They also study work performance, work management, and employee burnout.
False Consensus Effect
The tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors.
Ex. someone who strongly believes that eating vegetarian is the best lifestyle choice, assuming that most people also think that way.
Prosocial Behavior
Actions that benefit other people
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