Psychology: Attribution, Social Influence, and Group Behavior Concepts

Dispositional Attribution

Attributing behavior to the person's personality rather than situational factors.

Situational Attribution

Attributing behaviors to factors external to an actor, such as the task, other people, or luck.

Explanatory Style

One's habitual way of explaining life events.

Optimistic Explanatory Style

Tendency to explain unfavorable events with attributions that are unstable, temporary, and controllable.

Pessimistic Explanatory Style

Tendency to interpret and explain negative events as internally based and as a constant, stable quality.

Actor/Observer Bias

The tendency to blame our actions on the situation and blame the actions of others on their personalities.

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency for observers, when analyzing another's behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition.

Self-Serving Bias

The tendency to perceive oneself favorably.

Internal Locus of Control

The perception that you control your own fate.

External Locus of Control

The perception that chance or outside forces beyond your personal control determine your fate.

Mere Exposure Effect

The phenomenon that repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

An expectation that causes you to act in ways that make that expectation come true.

Upward Social Comparison

Comparing ourselves to people who are better than we are with regard to a particular trait or ability.

Downward Social Comparison

Comparing ourselves to people who are worse than we are with regard to a particular trait or ability.

Relative Deprivation

The perception that one is worse off than those with whom one compares oneself.

Stereotype

A generalized belief about a group of people.

Cognitive Load

The amount of a person's mental resources needed to carry out a particular task.

Prejudice

An unjustifiable (and usually negative) attitude toward a group and its members.

Discrimination

Unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group and its members.

Implicit Attitudes

Attitudes that influence a person's feelings and behavior at an unconscious level.

Just-World Phenomenon

The tendency for people to believe the world is right and that people therefore get what they deserve.

Out-group Homogeneity Effect

The tendency to see members of out-groups as very similar to one another.

In-Group Bias

Tendency to favor individuals within our group over those from outside our group.

Ethnocentrism

Belief in the superiority of one's ethnic group.

Belief Perseverance

Clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.

Confirmation Bias

A tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.

Cognitive Dissonance

An unpleasant state that arises when a person recognizes the inconsistency of his or her actions, attitudes, or beliefs.

Social Norms

A group's expectations regarding what is appropriate and acceptable for its members' attitudes and behaviors.

Social Influence Theory

A theory that suggests that people do and report what is expected of them.

normative social influence

Influence resulting from a person's desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval

informational social influence

the influence of other people that results from taking their comments or actions as a source of information about what is correct, proper, or effective.

Persuasion

The process of creating, reinforcing, or changing people's beliefs or actions

Groupthink

the mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives

Diffusion of Responsibility

reduction in feelings of personal responsibility in the presence of others

Social Loafing

the tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable

Deindividuation

the loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity

Social Facilitation

improved performance on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others

false consensus effect

the tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors

superordinate goals

shared goals that override differences among people and require their cooperation

Elaboration Likelihood Model

A theory of how persuasive messages lead to attitude changes.

Central Route Persuasion

attitude change path in which interested people focus on arguments and facts.

Peripheral Route Persuasion

attitude change path in which people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker's attractiveness.

Halo Effect

The tendency to draw a general impression about an individual on the basis of a single characteristic

Foot-in-the-Door Technique

persuasive technique involving making a small request before incrementally increasing later requests.

Door-in-the-Face Technique

persuasive technique involving making an unreasonably large request before making the small request we're hoping to have granted

Social Trap

A situation in which the conflicting parties, by each rationally pursuing their self-interest, become caught in mutually destructive behavior

Industrial-Organizational Psychology

the application of psychological concepts and methods to optimizing human behavior in workplaces

Burnout

A state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion created by long-term involvement in an emotionally demanding situation.

Altruism

Unselfish regard for the welfare of others

Prosocial Behavior

Positive, constructive, helpful behavior

Social Debt

An emotional state that builds up guilt from negative social interactions. (?)

Conformity

Adjusting one's behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard.

Obedience

Changing one's behavior at the command of an authority figure

Individualism

giving priority to one's own goals over group goals and defining one's identity accordingly.

Collectivism

Giving priority to the goals of one's group and defining one's identity accordingly

Multiculturalism

The practice of valuing and respecting differences in culture.

Group Polarization

Tendency of group members to move to an extreme position after discussing an issue as a group

Social Reciprocity Norm

An expectation that people will help, not hurt, those who have helped them

Social Responsibility Norm

An expectation that people will help those dependent upon them

Bystander Effect

The finding that a person is less likely to provide help when there are other people nearby.

Situational Variables

Features of an environment that affect the degree to which individuals yield to group pressures.

Attentional Variables

A factor that directly influences where someone focuses their focus.