Social Psychology

social psychology

scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual imagined or implied presence of others

attributions

explanations for the occurrence of events or actions including other's behavior

types of attributions

personal (or dispositional) attributions, situational attributions

personal (or dispositional attributions)

explanations referring to people's internal characteristics (personality, efforts, etc)

situational attributions

explanations referring ot external events (weather, traffic, etc)

fundamental attribution error

tendency to overemphasize dispositional factors and underestimate situational factors when explaining others' behaviors

actor/observer bias

tendency to focus on situational factors to explain our own behavior and to focus on dispositional factors to explain others' behavior (distinct from self-serving bias)

what affects attributional biases?

belief in a just world, cultural variability

self-fulfilling prophecy

people's tendency to behave in ways that confirm their own expectations or other people's expectations

rosenthan and jacobson study

"bloomers" - children who were said to be "gifted" did better bc treated differently

stereotypes

mental shortcuts that allow easy, fast processing of info abt people, events

maintenance of stereotypes

once stereotypes are formed, tendency to maintain them

subtyping

when confronted to non-stereotypical individuals, special categorization used instead of altering the stereotype

stereotypes (def 2)

socially shared beliefs regarding a social group, info w no emotional connotation

prejudice

usually negative feelings, opinions/attitudes, and beliefs associated with a stereotype

discrimination

inappropriate and unjustified treatment of people as result of a prejudice

social identity theory

our group memberships (ie social identities) are an important part of how we view ourselves

ingroup

groups that we belong to

outgroup

groups that we do not belong to

ingroup/outgroup categorizations

categorization of others as ingroup/outgroup members affects the way one acts towards those individuals

outgroup homogeneity effect

the tendency to view outgroup members as less varied than ingroup members

stereotype and behavior

often not conscious of the stereotypes we hold and of their influence on our perceptions and behaviors

modern racism

subtle forms of prejudice that coexist with the rejection of racist beliefs

social facilitation

the presence of others emphasizes performance

social loafing

tendency for people to work less hard in a group vs working alone; no fear of being evaluated

normative influence

going along with the majority to avoid social rejection

informal influence

going along with the majority because one believes that the majority has additional information

bystander apathy

failure to help people in need; unsure of their reading in ambiguous situation, bystanders fear making social blunders, expect others to help, can remain anonymous

milgram's shock experiment

65% of participants shocked their partner when they made a mistake in matching words repeatedly

Milgram

studied how far participants would go in harming another human when pressured to do so

zimbardo

social influence can contribute to extreme behaviors; used prison guards as study, 1/3 of guards became tyranical in their use of power