Chapter 12: Social Psychology

Social Psychology

The study of how people affect one another and the power of the situation.

Norms (social)

Rules that regulate social life, including both explicit laws and implicit cultural conventions.

Role

A social position that is governed by a set of norms for proper behavior.

Culture

A program of shared rules that governs the behavior of people in a community or society, including values, beliefs, and customs.

Obedience Study

An experiment where subjects were instructed to give increasing levels of shock for errors, demonstrating obedience to authority.

Entrapment

A gradual process in which individuals escalate their commitment to a course of action to justify their investment.

Attribution Theory

The theory that people are motivated to explain behavior by attributing causes to dispositional or situational factors.

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency to overestimate personality factors and underestimate situational influences when explaining others' behavior.

Self-serving Biases

Attributional tendencies that paint a person in a favorable light, including the belief that one is better than others.

Just-world Hypothesis

The belief that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people.

Attitudes

Beliefs about people, groups, ideas, or activities, which can be explicit or implicit.

Cognitive Dissonance

A state of tension arising from holding two inconsistent cognitions or having incongruent beliefs and behaviors.

Groupthink

The tendency for group members to think alike to maintain harmony and suppress disagreement.

Diffusion of Responsibility

In groups, the tendency of members to avoid taking action since they assume others will.

Deindividuation

The loss of awareness of one's individuality in groups or crowds.

Altruism and Dissent

Factors that can increase the likelihood of helping others by behaving courageously.

Ethnocentrism

The belief that one's own ethnic group, nation, or religion is superior to all others.

Stereotypes

Generalized beliefs about a group that can distort reality by exaggerating differences and underestimating internal variations.

Prejudice Origins

Can arise from psychological, social, economic, cultural, and national causes.

Measures of Prejudice

Evaluating prejudice through social distance, treatment inequalities, behavior under stress, brain activity, and implicit attitudes.

Reducing Prejudice

Requires equal legal status, community support, opportunities for interaction, and cooperation towards common goals.

Dispositional

a conclusion that a person’s behavior is due to something internal; something about the person

Situational

a conclusion that a person’s behavior was due to the effects of the circumstances, setting or surroundings the person is in