Social Psychology 1 and 2

Attribution

How we make judgements about the causes of behavior

Dispositional attribution

Behavior due to internal factors (personality, intelligence).

Situational attribution

Behavior due to external factors (environmental setting, distractions, and circumstance).

Correspondence bias

General tendency to overestimate dispositional factors and underestimate situational factors

Fundamental attribution error

Complete failure to consider situational factors, reliance on dispositional factors.

Actor-observer bias

Emphasize dispositional factors to explain the behavior of others, emphasize situational factors to explain own behavior.

Self-serving bias

Attribute our own successes to dispositional factors, attribute our own failures to situational factors

Group-serving bias

Attributions made by a group or organization, attribute group’s successes to dispositional factors and group’s failures to situational factors.

Just-world belief

Assume that good things happen to good people, assume bad things happen to bad people.

Attitudes

Favorable or unfavorable evaluations that predispose behavior toward a person, object or situation.

Attitude formation

Attitude adoption as social inclusion, learning, or genetic influences.

Cognitive dissonance

Uncomfortable cognitive state due to perception of contradictory information, action does not match beliefs.

Dissonance reduction

Trying to reduce mental discomfort when beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors don’t match.

Cognitive consistency

Preference for holding congruent attitudes and beliefs.

Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)

Explanation for response to persuasive messages. 2 main routes the brain takes when processing persuasive information.

Central route

Consider arguments carefully and thoughtfully. Quality of argument.

Peripheral route

Evaluation shortcuts. Number of arguments, how the message is presented, and characteristics of the speaker. Requires less attention.

Defensive avoidance

Avoids thinking about, learning about, or dealing with information because it is threatening, uncomfortable, or anxiety-provoking. May make fear appeals less effective.

Belief perserverence

The tendency to cling to one’s initial belief even after receiving new information that contradicts or disconfirms the basis of that belief.

Backfire effect

Given evidence against their beliefs, people can reject the evidence and believe even more strongly.

Prejudice

Attitude or prejudgment about others. Usually negative.

Stereotypes

Simplified sets of traits associated with group membership.

Confirmation bias

We search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms our preexisting beliefs and hypotheses.

Process of stereotyping

Arises from our tendency to categorize and generalize. Stereotyped categories can contain accurate information, but become inaccurate by oversimplifying, exclusion of information.

In-group favoritism

We tend to favor people in our own group. We tend to view people in an out-group more negatively. Evolutionary basis.

Stereotype threat

Feeling of being at risk of conforming to stereotypes about your social group.

Social norms

Rules for behavior in social settings. Explicit (no smoking indoors). Implicit (saying bless you).

Conformity

Matching behavior and appearance to perceived social norms.

Compliance

Agreement to requests from others with no perceived authority.

Obedience

Compliance to requests from authority figures.

Reasons for conformity

Useful in new or ambiguous situations, reduces risk of social rejection.

Foot-in-the-door compliance technique

Smaller request (yes), then larger request.

Door-in-the-face compliance technique

Larger request (no), then more moderate request

Deindividuation

Immersion of the individual within a group, leading to anonymity.

Dehumanization

Depriving a person or group of positive human qualities.

Social facilitation

The presence of others changes individual performance. Familiar tasks - better performance. Unfamiliar tasks - poorer performance. Heightened arousal for complex tasks.

Social loafing

Lower effort and motivation when working in a group vs. working alone.

Group polarization

During discussion, members tend to take more extreme positions in direction they were inclined to hold.

Groupthink

Group does not question its decisions critically; often leads to flawed decisions.