Social Psychology Lecture Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards generated from the Social Psychology course lecture notes covering historical figures, cognitive heuristics, self-concept, intergroup relations, and prejudice reduction interventions.

Wilhelm Wundt

First person to distinguish psychology as a science, first to call himself a psychologist, and pioneer of experimental psychology; argued experiments are unsuitable for social psychology due to complexity.

Floyd Allport

Restricted the definition of social psychology to the study of individual behavior and reactions directed toward social objects.

Kurt Lewin

Social psychologist who focused on subjective perceptions of environments, developed field theory, and incorporated group dynamics into social psychology.

Leon Festinger

Entrenched the experimental method through narrow operationalizations and systematic manipulation, showing people are sometimes motivated by reducing dissonance rather than incentive.

Henri Tajfel

Originator of social identity theory, which explains how our various identities and group memberships shape us.

Serge Moscovici

Developed minority influence theory and social representation theory.

Experimental social psychology

The dominant framework in social psychology since the late 20th century, aiming to discover universal laws of the human condition.

Field theory

Kurt Lewin's theory that behavior is a function of the person and their subjective perception of the environment.

Field theory formula

$B = f(P, E)$, where Behavior ($B$) is a function of Person ($P$) and Environment ($E$).

Group dynamics

The study of groups and group-level phenomena, introduced into social psychology by Kurt Lewin.

Cognitive dissonance

Leon Festinger's concept describing discomfort resulting from inconsistency between beliefs/behaviors or between oneself and another.

WEIRD bias

Bias toward Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich, Democratic populations in research samples.

Pre-science

Stage of a scientific discipline characterized by having no paradigm and unsystematic research.

Normal science

Stage of a scientific field working within an established paradigm.

Minority influence theory

Serge Moscovici's theory of how minority groups in local communities spread their ideas to the broader community/society.

Social representation theory

Serge Moscovici's theory asserting that people construct social reality, culture, and physical embodiment themselves.

Causal inference

The process of drawing a conclusion about a genuine cause-and-effect relationship from data or experiments.

Agent-based modeling

Computational modeling used to build a systems theory of society, simulating how individual agents interact with and influence nearby agents.

Complex adaptive systems

The idea that society is constantly shaped and reshaped by interactions among individuals.

Social cognition

The process by which we think about and make sense of ourselves, other people, and social situations by applying cognitive psychology methods and theories.

First impression

An initial read on another person's personality, emotions, role, and identity.

Face perception

A perceptual process in social cognition, such as how people categorize racially ambiguous faces.

Person memory

Memory process evaluating whether people remember behaviors or people that align with their stereotypes.

Belonging (Social Motif)

Processing social information in ways that help us fit in.

Understanding (Social Motif)

Creating schemas, stereotypes, and mental models to organize social information.

Control (Social Motif)

Seeking cause-and-effect relationships to feel control over the social environment.

Self-enhancement (Social Motif)

Processing information in ways that protect or improve one's self-concept.

Trusting (Social Motif)

Generally assuming others have good intentions unless proven otherwise.

"Good enough" understanding

The concept that social cognition does not need to be fully accurate, just functional enough to support social interaction and survival needs.

Warmth

Perception dimension answering "what are this person's intentions?" which determines the direction of their impact on you.

Competence

Perception dimension answering "can this person carry out those intentions?" which determines the magnitude of their impact on you.

Communion

Kind, trustworthy, and considerate traits categorized as "other-profitable".

Agency

Competent, ambitious, capable, and assertive traits categorized as "self-profitable".

Sociability

Friendly, pleasant, outgoing, and warm traits, serving as a subcomponent of warmth.

Morality

Honest, trustworthy, and sincere traits; a subcomponent of warmth hypothesized to driver warmth dominance.

Outcome dependency

Condition when a perceiver's outcomes depend on another's abilities, causing competence to become more consequential in judgment.

Representativeness heuristic

Judging the likelihood of an event or target by its resemblance to a prototype.

Availability heuristic

Judging the frequency or likelihood of an event by how easily examples come to mind.

Simulation heuristic

Judging likelihood by how easily an alternative outcome or scenario can be imagined.

Anchoring and adjustment heuristic

A cognitive heuristic where final judgments are biased toward an initial starting point.

Self-reference effect

Tendency to better remember information when it is related to oneself due to easier elaboration and organization.

Self-complexity

Reflects how many distinct aspects or "piles" one sorts their self-concept into; higher self-complexity promotes resilience and moderate stress reactions.

Identity complexity

Having multiple, socially created identities that lead to lower stress impacts and greater tolerance for ambiguous situations.

Self-perception theory

Learning about oneself by observing one's own behavior.

Social comparison

Learning about oneself by comparing oneself to others.

Introspection

Learning about oneself by noticing inner feelings.

Looking-glass self

Forming one's self-concept from hearing what others say about them.

Social identity

Self-concept shaped by group memberships (e.g., scientist, athlete, student).

Social roles

Self-concept shaped by relational roles (e.g., daughter, son, sister, brother).

Individualist culture

Culture that prioritizes autonomy and the individual's needs over the group's.

Collectivist culture

Culture that prioritizes the community and group needs over individual needs.

Independent self

Autonomous, self-oriented self-concept linked to individualist cultures, characterized by egocentric earliest memories and stable self-knowledge across situations.

Interdependent self

Socially embedded self-concept linked to collectivist cultures, characterized by neutral early memories centered on family/roles and fluid, adaptable self-knowledge.

Self-esteem

The degree to which the qualities or characteristics in one's self-concept are perceived as positive.

Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale

A 10-item scale used to measure self-esteem.

Actual self

One's own current image of who they really are.

Ideal self

Whom a person (or someone else) wants them to be.

Ought self

Who a person feels they should be, based on their own or others' sense of obligation.

Actual-ideal discrepancy

Discrepancy between actual self and ideal self that leads to dejection-related emotions such as disappointment, sadness, and depression.

Actual-ought discrepancy

Discrepancy between actual self and ought self that leads to agitation-related emotions such as worry, nervousness, and anxiety.

Self-evaluation maintenance theory

Theory describing how people maintain self-esteem in relation to others' performance during social comparison.

BIRGing (Basking in Reflected Glory)

Feeling proud and sharing in the success of a close associate when their success is in a domain not personally relevant.

Threat to self-esteem

Feeling threatened or inferior when someone close excels in a domain that is personally important to us.

Affective forecasting

Predicting how future events will make us feel.

Durability bias

Overestimating the duration of our emotional reactions to future events.

Self-presentation

Strategically presenting ourselves based on context, goals, audience, situation, and society.

Ingratiation

Self-presentation strategy aimed at being liked.

Self-promotion

Self-presentation strategy aimed at being seen as competent.

Intimidation

Self-presentation strategy aimed at appearing dangerous.

Exemplification

Self-presentation strategy aimed at being seen as worthy or moral.

Supplication

Self-presentation strategy aimed at being seen as helpless or incompetent.

Resource depletion

Psychological exhaustion occurring when excessive self-regulation or self-presentation depletes psychological resources.

Realistic conflict theory

Theory stating that realistic threats lead to intergroup conflict, whereas superordinate goals lead to intergroup cooperation.

Robbers Cave experiment

Classic study illustrating realistic conflict theory through competition and superordinate goals.

Superordinate goals

Shared goals that require intergroup cooperation to achieve, thereby reducing conflict.

Minimal group paradigm

Experimental method showing intergroup conflict can arise even from arbitrary or minimal group categorizations.

Categorization (Social Identity Theory)

The process of sorting people into ingroup vs. outgroup.

Identification (Social Identity Theory)

Identifying with one's ingroup such that the membership genuinely matters to the person.

Comparison (Social Identity Theory)

Making social evaluations between one's ingroup and an outgroup.

Positive distinctiveness

The motivational underpinning of social identity theory: the drive to see one's ingroup as favorably distinct from outgroups.

Categorization threat

Identity threat of being viewed solely as a member of an ingroup rather than as an individual.

Value threat

Identity threat based on morality vs. competence, where one's group is perceived as immoral or incompetent.

Distinctiveness threat

Identity threat regarding the feeling that one's ingroup lacks distinctiveness from other groups.

Acceptance threat

Identity threat concerning whether one is accepted or belongs within their own ingroup.

Stereotyping

Applying cognitive expectations and associations about a group onto an individual.

Prejudice

Reacting emotionally to an individual based on feelings about their group as a whole.

Discrimination

Acting on stereotypes and prejudices by denying equitable treatment to people based on group membership.

Self-categorization theory

John Turner's theory explaining how people form social categories, generate group prototypes, and define themselves via those prototypes.

Meta-contrast principle

Categorization principle that minimizes differences within groups while maximizing differences between groups.

Depersonalization

The process by which individuals define themselves in terms of ingroup prototypes rather than unique individual traits.

Uncertainty identity theory

Michael Hogg's theory stating that identifying with entitative groups reduces self-uncertainty by providing clear prototypes.

Entitativity

The degree to which a collection of individuals is perceived as a cohesive, unified, "real" group.

Entitativity threat

A threat targeting the perceived cohesion or "groupiness" of a collective.

Systemic prejudice

Prejudice embedded and normalized within society's systems, laws, and institutions.

Racial zoning

Historical practice (e.g., Baltimore's 1910 ordinance) of legally excluding groups from neighborhoods based on race.

Normative influence

The tendency to conform to what most people do, thereby reinforcing existing systemic patterns.

Status quo bias

Preference for the current state of affairs, creating resistance to systemic changes.

Cohen's d

Statistical measure of effect size calculated via $d = \frac{M_1 - M_2}{SD_{\text{pooled}}}$.

Publication bias

The systemic tendency for studies to remain unpublished based on the direction or statistical strength of their results.

Applied interventions

Prejudice interventions involving multiple theoretical mechanisms, focused on program evaluation, and grounded in pragmatism.