Social Psychology Concepts

These flashcards cover a comprehensive range of social psychology concepts discussed in the lecture, providing definitions and explanations of key terms.

Automatic Thinking

Non-conscious, unintentional, involuntary thought that requires low effort.

Controlled Thinking

Conscious, intentional, and voluntary thought that requires a high amount of effort.

Schemas

Mental structures that organize knowledge about the social world, influencing what we notice, think about, and remember.

Assimilation

The process of fitting new information into existing schemas.

Accommodation

The process of changing or creating new schemas to incorporate new information.

Availability Heuristic

The tendency to select information based on how easily examples come to mind.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

A situation where one's false expectations about another lead that person to adopt those expected attributes and behaviors.

Counterfactual Reasoning

Mentally changing aspects of the past to imagine alternative outcomes and their emotional implications.

Planning Fallacy

The tendency to be overly optimistic about how soon a project will be completed, even when having failed to complete projects on time in the past.

Covariation Model (Kelley)

A model that states, to form an attribution about the cause of behavior, we note the pattern between behavior and causal factors.

What does the Covariation Model focus on and examine?

1. focuses on how behaviour "covaries" across time, place, actor and targets. 

2. examines how the perceiver chooses an internal or an external attribution.

Three stages of the Covariation Model (Kelley)

Consensus, Distinctiveness, and Consistency.

Consensus

The extent to which others behave similarly towards the same stimulus.

Distinctiveness

The extent to which a specific actor behaves differently towards different stimuli.

Consistency

The extent to which behavior between one actor and one stimulus remains the same across different situations.

When does internal attribution occur?

When consistency is high, consensus is low, and distinctiveness is low.

When does external attribution occur?

When consistency is high, consensus is high, and distinctiveness is also high.

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency to attribute others' behaviors to their dispositions rather than the situation.

Actor-Observer Bias

The tendency to attribute our own behaviors to situational factors while attributing others' behaviors to their dispositions.

Self-Serving Attribution Error

The tendency to attribute successes to internal factors and failures to external factors.

We make self-serving attributions because …

1. We want to maintain self-esteem

2. We want other people to think well of us and to admire us.

We know more about the situational factors that affect our own behaviour than we do about other people's.

Perceptual salience

the seeming importance of information that is the focus of people's attention.

Belief in a Just World

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

Belief Perseverance

The tendency to cling to an initial judgment even when faced with conflicting evidence.

Self-Concept

The overall set of beliefs about one’s own personal attributes.

Self-Esteem

The global evaluation of oneself.

The Two-Step Process of Attributions

1. People make dispositional attributions automatically. This is known as perceptual salience - the seeming importance of information that is the focus of people's attention.

2. Only later do people use situational information to discount it. People don't tend to get to this second step unless the context is very compelling or salient.

Self-Schemas

Cognitive representations of oneself that influence behavior, memory, and judgments.

How are self-schemas organised?

Self-schemas are organised like other schemas and guide behaviour in relevant situations.

What are the aids of self-schemas?

Self-schemas aid memory for relevant information, and can influence inferences, decisions, and judgements.

They can also help to describe dimensions along which you think about yourself.

Independent View of the Self

A way of defining oneself in terms of one's own internal thoughts, feelings, and actions and not in terms of the thoughts, feelings, and actions of other people.

Interdependent View of the Self

A way of defining oneself in terms of one's relationships to other people, recognising that one's behaviour is often determined by the thoughts, feelings, and actions of others.

Introspection

The process of examining one's own thoughts, feelings, and motives.

Self-Awareness Theory

The idea that focusing on oneself leads to evaluations of behavior against internal standards.

Self-Perception Theory

The theory that we infer our attitudes and feelings by observing our behavior in context.

Two-Factor Theory of Emotion

The theory that emotional experiences result from the combination of physiological arousal and cognitive interpretation.

Intrinsic Motivation

The desire to engage in an activity for its own sake, due to enjoyment or interest.

Extrinsic Motivation

The desire to engage in an activity for external rewards or pressures.

Overjustification Effect

The phenomenon where extrinsic rewards undermine intrinsic motivation.

Fixed Mindset

The belief that abilities are static and cannot change.

Growth Mindset

The belief that abilities can develop through hard work and learning.

Social Comparison Theory

The theory that we evaluate our own abilities and attitudes by comparing ourselves to others.

Upward Social Comparison

Comparing oneself to someone better to improve self-perception.

Downward Social Comparison

Comparing oneself to someone worse to enhance self-esteem.

Ingratiation

The process of trying to be liked by another person, often through flattery.

Self-Handicapping

Creating obstacles to excuse potential failure.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

The theory that inconsistency between beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors causes discomfort.

Conformity

A change in behavior due to the influence of others.

Informational Social Influence

Relying on others for correct information in ambiguous situations.

Normative Social Influence

Conforming to be accepted or liked by others.

Social Impact Theory

A theory explaining how group characteristics influence conformity.

Injunctive Norms

Perceptions of what behaviors are approved or disapproved by others.

Descriptive Norms

Perceptions of how people actually behave in a given situation.

Foot-in-the-Door Technique

A compliance technique where agreeing to a small request increases the likelihood of agreeing to a larger request later.

Door-in-the-Face Technique

A compliance technique involving making a large request first to increase compliance with a smaller request later.

Obedience to Authority

A change in behavior resulting from direct influence by an authority figure.

Group

Two or more individuals interacting and influencing one another with shared goals.

Three reasons why people join a group

Entitativity

The degree to which a collection of individuals is perceived as a cohesive group.

Low Entitativeness

Random gatherings, such as waiting rooms, public transport, people waiting in a queue, etc.

High Entitativeness

Family, basketball team, school class, close colleagues, etc.

Social Facilitation

The tendency to perform better on simple tasks in the presence of others.

Social Loafing

The tendency for individuals to exert less effort in a group than when alone.

In social loafing, what reduces motivation?

Merging into a group and becoming less noticeable than when alone

Deindividuation

The loss of self-awareness and individual accountability in groups.

Social Dilemma

A conflict where individual rational actions lead to negative collective outcomes.

Attraction

The interpersonal force that draws two people together.

Determinants of Attraction

Proximity leads to attraction for four different reasons:

Propinquity Effect (Miller et al.)

The finding that proximity increases the likelihood of friendship or intimacy.

Mere Exposure Effect

The tendency to develop a preference for things simply because we are exposed to them. (Montoya et al., 2017)

Familiarity promotes liking for four separate reasons:

Limits to the mere exposure effect

Reciprocity

The tendency to return favorable actions; influences attraction.

Halo Effect

A cognitive bias where a person's positive traits influence the perception of their other traits.

Who said similar personality characteristics are important?

(Gonzaga et al., 2007, Smith et al., 2014).

The more that partners matched each other on a trait measure of masculinity-femininity …

… the more cohesive, expressive and satisfied those couples tended to be (Bartova et al., 2017).

Individuals are more likely to become friends and romantically involved with those who share similar ____ views (Mayer & Puller, 2008)?

Political

Physically attractive people are rated as more desirable potential mates by both _____ (____) ?

heterosexual and homosexual individuals (Ha et al., 2012).

People prefer others who are _____?

simple to themselves as it feels more rewarding, has less cognitive dissonance, and can be more successful than with different others.

How can physical attractiveness influence attraction?

Benefits to online dating

1. Aggreguates a large number of profiles

2. Relies on computer-mediated communication

3. Only matches users based on analyses of compatibility

Limitations to online dating

1. We aren’t always accurate at predicting the mate characteristics that will lead to satisfying relationships

2. Communication style and sexual compatibility can’t be assessed online

3. Potential deception (catfishing; Ellison et al., 2012; Mosley et al., 2020)

Perceived partner phubbing

the perception that a partner's phone use interferes with the face-to-face communication quality due to reduced partner attention (Roberts and David, 2016).

Liking (Ruben 1970)

a favourable evaluation of another person, having respect for another person, and sharing similarities. 

Love (Ruben, 1970)

an affiliative and dependent need component, with an exclusiveness and absorption component, and a predisposition to help the other person.

Passionate Love

An intense longing for another person characterized by physiological arousal (shortness of breath, thumping heart).

How is passionate love described?

wildly emotional, uncontrollable, and often characterised by a preoccupation and idealisation of the other person.

Companionate Love

feelings of intimacy and affection we have for someone that are not accompanied by passion or physiological arousal.

What does companionate love consist of?

affection we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined, as well as trust, care, and tolerance for that person.

When can people experience companionate love?

in nonsexual close friendships, or in romantic relationships in which they experience great feelings of intimacy but not as much of the heat and passion as they once felt.

Passion

Deep physical attraction to the person; sexual desire

Intimacy

Emotional closeness; promote welfare of loved one

Commitment

Degree of connection; decision to love the other and maintain that love

What are “rewards”?

love, money, status, information, services.

What are “costs”?

Time, energy, conflict, others' disapproval, opportunity.

Sternberg's Triangular Theory of Love (1986).

Defines love through three components: passion, intimacy, and commitment.

Social Exchange Theory

The idea that relationship satisfaction is based on perceived rewards and costs.

Outcome - Comparion = _____?

Satisfaction

Rewards - Cost = ____?

Outcome