Sem 2 Social Thinking and Social Influence Lecture week 12

Social Psychology

The study of how people behave in social situations, answering questions about behavior influenced by others.

Ingroup

Groups individuals identify with, associated with positive attributes.

Outgroup

Groups individuals do not identify with, linked to negative attributes.

Social Roles

Expectations for behavior based on positions in a group, like being a barista or a student.

Social Norms

Widely accepted standards of conduct for appropriate behavior in a given context.

Social Cognition

The process of thinking about oneself and others in a social setting.

Social Comparison

Evaluating abilities, achievements, and attitudes by comparing oneself to others.

Fundamental Attribution Error

Tendency to attribute others' behavior to dispositional causes over situational influences. We are prone to thinking there is something inherit about people’s behaviour that is a product of their personality instead of their environment.

Actor-Observer Bias

Tendency to attribute others' behavior to dispositional causes and one's behavior to situational causes. “They were late because they don’t care, but I was late because I was busy”

Self-Serving Bias

Tendency to attribute positive outcomes to oneself based on dispositional factors and negative outcomes to situational factors. If it’s a positive thing it’s because you are good, if it’s a negative thing it’s because you had bad factors, not because you were bad. ex. good mark on a test- I’m so smart, bad mark on a test- I didn’t have time to study

Self-Handicapping

Placing obstacles to protect self-esteem from potential failure.

Cognitive Dissonance

Discomfort from holding inconsistent thoughts, leading to justifying behaviors.

Social Facilitation

Performing better in the presence of others.

Social Loafing

Exerting less effort in a group setting where individual performance is not identifiable.

Conformity

Changing behavior to align with others.

Compliance

Yielding to requests from someone with little or no authority.

Obedience

Complying with requests from a figure of authority.

Coercion

Forced change in beliefs or behavior against one's will, like in brainwashing scenarios.