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Attitudes

Beliefs and feelings that predispose people to respond in particular ways to situations and other people.

Central route to persuasion

A method of persuasion in which you are convinced by the content of the message.

Peripheral route to persuasion

A method of persuasion in which you are convinced by something other than the message’s content.

Mere-exposure effect

The tendency to like new stimuli more when you encounter it more frequently.

Foot-in-the-door technique

A persuasive technique that begins with a small request to encourage compliance with a larger request.

Door-in-the-face technique

A persuasive technique that begins with an outrageous request in order to increase the likelihood that a second, more reasonable request is granted.

Cognitive dissonance

An uncomfortable state of mind arising when you recognize inconsistencies in your beliefs and/or behaviors.

Attribution theory

A theory that describes how people explain their own and others’ behavior.

Dispositional attribution

A type of attribution in which you assign responsibility for an event or action to the person involved.

Situational attribution

A type of attribution in which you assign responsibility for an event or action to the circumstances of the situation.

Stable attribution

An attribution in which you believe a cause to be consistent and relatively constant over time.

Unstable attribution

An attribution that credits a one-time source as the cause of an event.

Fundamental attribution error

The tendency to make dispositional attributions instead of situational attributions for other people’s behavior.

Self-serving bias

The tendency to make dispositional attributions about your successes and situational attributions about your failures.

Just-world hypothesis

The belief that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people.

Attraction

The ways in which you take interest in and feel positively towards others (romantically or platonically).

Physical attractiveness

The possession of outward physiological characteristics deemed to be appealing.

Matching hypothesis

The tendency for people to pick partners who are roughly equal in level of attractiveness to themselves.

Proximity

The tendency to like people geographically close to you.

Similarity

The tendency to be attracted to people who share characteristics with you.

Reciprocal liking

The tendency to like people who like you.

Altruism

Prosocial behaviors that benefit other people at a cost to yourself.

Kin selection

An evolutionary explanation for altruism proposing that people are altruistic to family members to ensure the continuation of their genes.

Reciprocity

The tendency to help people who help you, which helps to explain altruistic behavior towards non-family members.

Sexual selection

The tendency for genes that increase reproductive fitness to perpetuate.

Aggression

Any type of behavior, physical or verbal, that is intended to harm or destroy.

Instrumental aggression

'Cold' aggressive behaviors that are carried out to attain a certain goal.

Hostile aggression

'Hot' aggressive behaviors that aim to inflict pain or harm.

Frustration-aggression model

Proposes that, when a desired goal is unmet, a person becomes frustrated, which can lead to aggressive behaviors.

Group

Two or more people who interact in some way. Members of groups may share a common worldview, purpose, or identity.

Norms

Expectations about how group members behave.

Roles

Specific positions within a group governed by particular norms, including privileges or responsibilities.

Relations

Specific patterns of interactions between group members.

Social facilitation

The tendency for people to perform simple tasks and tasks they’ve extensively practiced better in front of an audience.

Kitty Genovese

A young woman who was brutally murdered outside of her New York City apartment in 1964, often cited in discussions of the bystander effect.

Bystander effect

The tendency not to intervene while in a crowd, related to diffusion of responsibility.

Diffusion of responsibility

Tendency for members of a crowd to assume less responsibility for taking action.

Social loafing

Tendency for some members of a group to avoid doing their fair share of work.

Groupthink

The tendency of particular groups to make poor decisions as a result of members’ desire to maintain harmony.

Conformity

Tendency for people to follow implicit social norms and mimic the attitudes or behaviors of a group’s majority.

Asch conformity experiment

A famous study where participants would conform with the group, even when group members gave obviously wrong answers.

Obedience

When individuals follow the explicit directives of an authority figure.

Compliance

When individuals follow explicit requests from peers.

Authority

An individual in a position of social power.

Milgram experiment

An experiment in which participants demonstrated obedience to authority, administering dangerous shocks when instructed.

Self-fulfilling prophecy

A set of expectations about a social situation that causes that situation to come into being.

Pygmalion effect

A self-fulfilling prophecy in which higher expectations lead to improved educational performance.

Deindividuation

The loss of self-identity within a group, often accompanied by uncharacteristic behavior.

Stanford prison experiment

An experiment where deindividuation of participants roleplaying as prison guards led to uncharacteristic aggression.

Group polarization

Tendency for groups to adopt more extreme positions and make more extreme decisions.

Social trap

A situation where individuals within a group act in their own short-term self-interest to the overall long-term detriment of the group.

Social and cultural categories

Categories like gender, race, and ethnicity that play important psychological roles.

Self-concept

The collection of ways you define yourself.

Gender identity

A component of self-concept based on whether you identify as masculine, feminine, androgynous, gender-fluid, or undifferentiated.

Sexual orientation

A component of self-concept based on the type of people you are romantically or sexually attracted to.

Ethnic identity

A component of self-concept based on belonging to one or more ethnic groups.

In-group

A group you belong to.

Out-group

A group you don’t belong to.

Stereotypes

Cognitive beliefs about characteristics that define a group, typically based on limited information.

Prejudice

A negative emotional response toward a particular group.

Discrimination

Differential treatment of members of different groups.

Racism

Stereotyping, prejudice, or discrimination directed against marginalized racial or ethnic groups.

Sexism

Discrimination based on sex or gender, typically against women.

Ethnocentrism

Judging other cultures based on the values of your own culture.

Stereotype threat

When a member of a stereotyped group performs worse due to fear of confirming a stereotype.

Individual discrimination

When one person discriminates against a group.

Institutional discrimination

Discriminatory treatment by social, cultural, or governmental organizations.

Superordinate goals

Shared objectives that require cooperation between groups.

Robbers Cave experiment

An experiment where two groups of boys overcame prejudices by focusing on shared goals.

Important Contributors

Notable individuals in psychology who contributed to understanding social behavior.

Solomon Asch

Known for his conformity experiments.

Albert Bandura

His Bobo doll experiment suggested that observational learning plays a key role in the development of aggression.

Leon Festinger

Introduced the concept of cognitive dissonance.

Irving Janis

Developed the theory of groupthink.

Harold Kelley

Contributed to attribution theory by identifying cues that influence attributions.

Stanley Milgram

Known for his experiments investigating obedience.

Muzafer Sherif

Known for the Robbers Cave experiment.

Philip Zimbardo

Most famous for the Stanford prison experiment.

Mental health professionals

Individuals providing psychological treatment.

Psychotherapy

An ongoing relationship between a patient and a therapist.

Pharmacological treatment

When a mental health professional prescribes a drug for psychological distress.