Social Psychology Terms and Concepts

This set of flashcards covers key concepts and vocabulary from social psychology, including definitions and explanations of various psychological phenomena related to behavior and perception.

Prejudice

Disliking people because of their appearance or group memberships.

Discrimination

Negative behaviors toward others based on their appearance or their social group memberships.

Stereotyping

Attributing personality characteristics to people on the basis of their external appearance or their social group memberships.

Familiarity effect

Our tendency to like others we have seen more often.

Mere exposure effect

A psychological phenomenon that leads to increased liking based on repeated exposure.

Altruism

Helping others with no expectation of personal gain.

Reciprocal altruism

Helping others with an expectation of others helping us later.

Diffusion of responsibility

Assuming that others will help in an emergency.

Fundamental attribution error

The common tendency to overestimate the role of personality factors and overlook the impact of social situations in judging others.

Self-monitoring

The tendency to regulate behavior to meet the demands of social situations.

Self-serving attributions

Judging our own behaviors in overly-positive ways.

Emergency response model

A framework outlining steps including noticing the event, interpreting it as an emergency, assuming responsibility, and knowing appropriate means to provide help.