Last Vocab AP Psych

Social psychology

The scientific study og how we think about, influence, and relate to one another.

Stereotypes

Generalized beliefs about a group of people

Self-fufilling prophecy

A belief that leads to its own fulfillment

Attribution

The theory of how we explain someone’s behavior by creating either the situation or the person’s disposition

Dispositional causes

Explaining behavior by crediting a person’s stable enduring traits.

Situational causes

Explaining behaviro by crediting the situation.

Fundamental Attribution error

The tendancy for observers when analyzing other behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition.

Self-serving bias

This is a congnitive bias where individuals tend to attribute their successes to internal factors while attributing their failures to external factors

Attitude

Is a relatively stable and enduring evaluation of a person, object, or idea

Cognitive dissonance

Developed by Leon Festinger this theory posits that individuals experiance discomfort when holding two or more conflicting cognitions.

Elaborative likehood model

This dual-process theory of persuasion developed by petty and cacioppo suggests that there are two main roots to attitude and change.

Attraction

This encompasses the feelings of liking positive regardand even love for another person.

Matching Hypothesis

This theory suggests that indivudals are more likely to form romantic relationships with others who are percieved as similar to themselves in terms of physical attractiveneess and other traits

Proximity

This is the physical or geographical closeness between two people

Reciprocity

This is the principle that we tend to like people who like us back

Bystander Intervention

This refers to the phenomenon of a person or people stepping forward to help someone in need when other are present.

Prosocial behavior

This encompasses any action that is intended to benefit another person.

Social norms

These are the implicit or explicit rules a group has.

Prejudice

This is a preconceived negative attitude toward a group and its individual members

Discrimination

this refers to unjustified negative behavior toward a group and its members

In groups

These are social groups with whom an indivdual identifies and feels a sesne of belonging

Out groups

These are social groups with whom an individual does no identify with them

Out group negativism

This is the tendancy to favor one’s own groups and its members/ products

In gorup favoritism

This is the tendancy to favor one’s own group and its members/ products

Out group homogeneity

This is the perception that members of out groups are more similar to each other than are members of one’s own in gorup

Authoritarian personality

This personality syndrome identified by Adorno and colleagues is characterized by a cluster of traits like intolerance and aggression.

Racism

This encompasses prejudiced attitudes and discriminatory behavior toward people of a given race.

Sterotype threat

This is a situational predicament in which individuals are at risk of confirming negative sterotypes.

Contact hypothesis

This theory proposed by Gordon Allport suggests that intergroup contact between members of different groups can reduce prejudice under certain optimal conditions.