AP Psych Unit 4:

Social Roping

• How the presence of others influences individual behavior, decision making, and identity

Social facilitation theory

the tendency to perform better on simple or well-learned tasks when in the presence of others, and worse on difficult or new tasks

Social loafing

Tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling efforts toward a common goal than if they were individually accountable

Group polarization

Groups tend to make more extreme decisions than the individual

Foot-in-the-door phenomenon

Securing a compliance with a small initial task gives a likelier chance to increase the agreement of a bigger task.

Door-in-the-face Phenomenon

Large request (refused) is then followed by a smaller request. More likely to accept the 2nd request.

Social reciprocity norm

Internalized rule to give people gifts, return favors, or acts of kindness

Social Debt

Unspoken obligations to others, when unfulfilled it leads to guilt and anxiety

Prosocial behavior

Voluntary actions intended to help others

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

People want to have consistent attitudes and behaviors — when they are not — experience dissonance (unpleasent tension) —> change their attitude

Humanistic Theory of Personality

• Emphasizes free will and choice

• Assumes the best of people’s intentions — we all want to be good

• Describes a mentally healthy, well adjusted person as someone who’s true self and ideal self match

Trait Theory of Personality

Interested in the measurements of traits

• Habitual pattterns of behavior, thought, and emotion

• Individual’s personality is made up of OCEAN

• OCEAN: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism

Psychoanalytic Perspective

posits that human behavior, personality, and mental health are determined by unconscious drives, childhood experiences, and interpersonal relationships

Psychodynamic Perspective

emphasizes that unconscious mental processes, early childhood experiences, and interpersonal relationships shape personality and behavior

Diffusion of responsibility

Individuals are less likely to help because they assume someone else will

Self Fulfilling Prophecy

a social-psychological phenomenon in which an initial, often false, expectation or belief leads a person to behave in ways that cause that expectation to come true

Asch’s Results

• 1/3 of participants conformed

• 70% conformed at least once

• Normative v. Informational Influence
  To strengthen conformity

  • Atleast 3 people

  • Group is unanimous (fully in agreement)

Locus of control

representing an individual's belief system regarding the causes of their life experiences, falling on a continuum between internal and external. It determines whether people believe their actions (internal) or outside forces like fate or luck (external) control their outcomes.

Exploratory style

a person's habitual way of explaining life events (positive or negative) to themselves, impacting motivation, emotion, and health

James Lange

emotions occur as a result of physiological reactions to events

Cannon Bard

emotional experiences and physical physiological responses (like racing heart or sweating) occur simultaneously and independently when a stimulus is perceived

Schater Singer

proposes that emotion is based on two factors: physiological arousal and cognitive label. It suggests that when an event causes bodily arousal, we look to our environment to interpret and label this physical reaction to define the specific emotion felt.

Lazarus

cognitive appraisal (thinking/interpretation) of a situation precedes both physiological arousal and emotional experience. He argued that we first decide if an event is harmful or beneficial, which then triggers the emotion.

Bandura’s Theory of Personality

We learn by watching

Social Learnig Theory

We learn new behaviors by observing and modeling others

Drive Reduction Theory

• Drive-Reduction Theory: A physiological need creates a tension state (drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy that need, aiming for homeostasis (a balanced internal state).

  • Need (food)

    Drive (hunger)

    Behavior (eating).

Fundamental Attribution Error

Overestimating internal causes for others’ behavior

Actor-Observer Bias

We blame situations for ourselves, but traits for others

Self-Serving Bias

Success = internal, failure = external

Disposition (Internal) Attribution

Behavior is caused by personality, traits, or characte

Situational (External) Attribution

Behavior is caused by environment or circumstances

Peripheral Route

Persuasion based on cues (looks, emotions, popularity) rather than facts

Central Route

Persuasion based on logic, facts, and careful thinking

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

• Physiological (food, water)

• Safety

• Love/belonging

• Esteem

• Self-actualization