Social Behaviour Practice Flashcards

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards based on the Social Behaviour lecture notes, covering person perception, attributions, attraction, attitudes, group dynamics, and social neuroscience.

Social Psychology

The branch of psychology that studies person perception, attribution processes, interpersonal attraction, attitudes, conformity, obedience, behaviour in groups, and social neuroscience.

Social Schemas

Clusters of beliefs that guide information processing about various types of people, such as sophisticated professionals or working-class stiffs.

Attributions

The processes by which people explain the causes of behaviour, categorized by Heider as internal versus external.

Internal Causes

Causal factors in Weiner's model that represent personal traits such as effort, mood, fatigue, ability, and intelligence.

External Causes

Causal factors in Weiner's model that represent situational influences such as luck, task difficulty, chance, and opportunity.

Stability Dimension

A dimension in Weiner's model of attribution that classifies causes as either unstable (temporary) or stable (permanent).

Fundamental Attribution Error

According to Gilbert ($1989$), the tendency to automatically make personal (internal) attributions with little effort, while adjusting for situational factors requires effortful thought.

Defensive Attribution

A bias in attribution used to explain behaviour in a way that protects one's own sense of security or self-esteem.

Self-serving Bias

A bias where individuals attribute their successes to personal factors and their failures to situational factors.

Matching Hypothesis

The concept that people are attracted to others who have a similar level of physical attractiveness.

Passionate Love

A complete absorption in another that includes tender sexual feelings and the agony and ecstasy of intense emotion.

Companionate Love

Warm, trusting, tolerant affection for another whose life is deeply intertwined with one's own.

Triangular Theory of Love

Sternberg's theory that love includes three fundamental components: intimacy, passion, and commitment.

Secure Attachment (Adult)

An adult attachment style characterized by finding it easy to get close to others, feeling comfortable depending on them, and not worrying about being abandoned.

Avoidant Attachment (Adult)

An adult attachment style characterized by discomfort with being close to others and difficulty trusting or depending on them.

Anxious/ambivalent Attachment (Adult)

An adult attachment style where individuals worry that their partner does not really love them and have a desire to merge completely which may scare others away.

Cognitive Component of Attitude

The part of an attitude involving beliefs and ideas, such as believing 'women should be wives, not workers.'

Affective Component of Attitude

The part of an attitude involving emotions and feelings, such as being scared by guns or getting angry at sexism.

Behavioural Component of Attitude

The part of an attitude involving predispositions to act, such as voting for gun-control advocates or refusing to hire a specific group.

Explicit Attitudes

Attitudes that individuals hold consciously and can easily describe.

Implicit Attitudes

Covert attitudes that are expressed in subtle, automatic responses and are not necessarily held consciously.

Implicit Association Test (IAT)

A test that assesses implicit prejudice by tracking how quickly participants respond to pairings of images and positive or negative words.

Source Factors

Variables influencing persuasion related to the person communicating, including credibility, expertise, trustworthiness, and physical attractiveness.

Message Factors

Variables influencing persuasion related to the content, including fear appeals, one-sided versus two-sided arguments, and repetition.

Channel Factors

The medium through which a message is communicated, such as in person, via television, radio, or computer.

Receiver Factors

Variables influencing persuasion related to the individual receiving the message, including expectations, prior knowledge, and strength of existing attitudes.

Dissonance Theory

Festinger and Carlsmith's ($1959$) theory suggesting that high dissonance about counterattitudinal behaviour (e.g., being paid only $\$1$ to say a dull task is fun) causes attitude change.

Self-perception Theory

Bem's theory that behaviour often determines attitudes, meaning people draw inferences about their attitudes based on their actions.

Conformity

The act of yielding to real or imagined social pressure, investigated by Solomon Asch ($1950s$) using line-matching experiments.

Normative Influence

A type of influence in conformity where individuals conform to the expectations of others to be liked or accepted.

Informational Influence

A type of influence in conformity where individuals look to others for guidance on how to behave in ambiguous situations.

Obedience

A form of compliance that occurs when people follow direct commands, usually from someone in a position of authority, as studied by Stanley Milgram ($1960s$).

Social Roles

Widely shared expectations about how people in certain positions are supposed to behave, as demonstrated in the Stanford prison experiment.

Bystander Effect

The finding by Darley and Latané ($1968$) that people are less likely to provide help when they are in groups than when they are alone.

Diffusion of Responsibility

The reduction in a sense of personal obligation to help when multiple observers are present, leading to the bystander effect.

Social Loafing

A reduction in effort and productivity that occurs when people work in actual groups compared to when they think they are working alone.

Group Polarization

The phenomenon where group discussion strengthens a group's dominant point of view and produces a shift toward a more extreme decision.

Groupthink

A process of flawed decision-making in groups where the desire for harmony overrides realistic appraisal of alternatives.

Social Neuroscience

The integration of social psychological theories and neuroscience, studying topics like empathy, ostracism, and stereotyping.

Prejudice

A negative attitude held toward members of a group, which can exist without discrimination.

Discrimination

Behaving differently or unfairly toward members of a group, which can occur with or without accompanying prejudice.