Unit 4 AP Psychology Vocab

Social psychology

Study of how people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by others.

Attribution theory (dispositional vs. situational)

How we explain others’ behavior: by personality (dispositional) or situation.

Explanatory style (optimistic vs. pessimistic)

A person’s usual way of explaining events as positive or negative.

Fundamental attribution error

Tendency to overestimate personality and underestimate situation when judging others.

Self-serving bias

Taking credit for successes but blaming outside factors for failures.

Actor/observer bias

We explain our actions by situation, others’ actions by their traits.

Attitude

A belief or feeling that makes us respond favorably or unfavorably to something.

Peripheral route persuasion

Persuasion through superficial cues (e.g., attractiveness) rather than message content.

Central route persuasion

Persuasion through careful thinking about the true merits of a message.

Elaboration likelihood model (persuasion)

Explains two routes (central and peripheral) by which persuasion occurs.

Halo effect

Overall impression of a person influences feelings about their specific traits.

Foot-in-the-door phenomenon

Agreeing to a small request increases the chance of agreeing to a larger one.

Door-in-the-face phenomenon

Refusing a large request increases chance of agreeing to a smaller one.

Role

Expected behavior in a social position; roles can strongly shape actions.

Cognitive dissonance theory

Uncomfortable tension when beliefs and actions disagree; people change beliefs or behavior.

Individualism vs. collectivism

Priority on personal goals vs. group goals.

Multiculturalism

Recognition and celebration of multiple cultural traditions within a society.

Social norms

Rules (spoken or unspoken) for accepted and expected behavior in a group.

Conformity (Asch line experiment)

Adjusting behavior or thinking to match a group standard.

Obedience (Milgram shock experiment)

Following orders from an authority figure, even if they’re harmful.

Social influence theory (normative vs. informational social influence)

Normative: seeking approval; Informational: accepting others’ info as reality.

Social facilitation

Improved performance on simple tasks when others are watching.

Social loafing

Putting in less effort when working in a group than when alone.

Deindividuation

Loss of self-awareness and restraint in group situations that foster anonymity.

Diffusion of responsibility

Feeling less personal responsibility when others are present.

Group polarization

Group discussion strengthens the group’s prevailing opinions.

Groupthink

Desire for harmony in a group leads to poor decision-making.

Culture

Shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices of a group.

Prejudice

A negative attitude toward a group and its members.

Stereotype

Generalized belief about a group of people.

Discrimination

Unjustified behavior toward a group or its members based on prejudice.

Cognitive load

Amount of mental effort being used in working memory.

Implicit attitudes

Automatic, unconscious evaluations of people or things.

Just-world phenomenon

Belief that people get what they deserve and deserve what they get.

Ingroup vs. outgroup

“us”vs “them” — perceiving outgroup members as all the same.

Ingroup bias

Favoring members of one’s own group over others.

Ethnocentrism

Judging another culture by the standards of one’s own culture.

Other-race effect

Better recognition of faces from our own racial group than others.

Belief perseverance

Clinging to beliefs despite evidence that contradicts them.

Confirmation bias

Favoring information that confirms existing beliefs.

Aggression

Any behavior intended to harm someone physically or emotionally.

Social script

Culturally provided guide for how to act in certain situations.

Mere exposure effect

Repeated exposure to something increases liking for it.

Self-fulfilling prophecy

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

Social comparison (upward or downward)

Evaluating ourselves by comparing to others (better = upward, worse = downward).

Relative deprivation

Feeling worse off compared to people who have more.

Altruism

Unselfish concern for the welfare of others.

Social debt

Feeling obliged to repay someone who has done you a favor.

Bystander effect

Less likely to help when other bystanders are present.

Social exchange theory

Social behavior is an exchange aiming to maximize benefits and minimize costs.

Reciprocity norm

Expectation that people will help those who have helped them.

Social-responsibility norm

Expectation that people will help those who need help without expecting something in return.

Internal vs. external locus of control

Internal: belief you control your life; External: belief outside forces control it.

Person perception

How we form impressions and make judgments about others.

Conflict

Perceived incompatibility of actions or goals between people or groups.

False-consensus effect

Overestimating how much others agree with our beliefs or behaviors.

Social trap

When pursuing short-term self-interest harms the group in the long run.

Mirror-image perception

Members of conflicting parties view themselves as moral and the other as evil.

Superordinate goals

Shared goals that require cooperation, reducing conflict.

Industrial-organizational psychologists (I/O)

Psychologists who apply psychology to workplace behavior and productivity.

Dispositional Attribution

The tendency to explain someone's behavior by attributing it to their internal characteristics, like personality traits, beliefs, or abilities, rather than considering external situational factors as the primary cause of their actions; essentially, blaming someone's behavior on their inherent disposition. 

Prosocial behavior 

Any action taken by an individual that intentionally benefits others or society as a whole

Social Facilitation

The phenomenon where the presence of others enhances an individual's performance on a task, meaning people tend to perform better when doing something in front of others compared to when they are alone; this is typically observed with simple or well

False Consensus Effect

A cognitive bias where people tend to overestimate how many others share their beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors, essentially assuming that their own opinions and actions are more common than they actually are within a given population; it's a tendency to believe that "everyone thinks like me.

Elaboration

Likelihood model of persuasion a theory explaining how people process and respond to persuasive messages, suggesting that individuals can be persuaded through two main routes: the central route (carefully considering message content) and the peripheral route (relying on superficial cues like the speaker's attractiveness.

Ethnocentrism

The tendency to judge other cultures based on the standards of one's own culture, often believing that one's own culture is superior and leading to negative judgments about other cultures and practices; essentially, viewing the world primarily through the lens of one's own cultural perspective

Explanatory Style

A person's habitual way of interpreting and explaining the causes of events in their life, particularly when faced with positive or negative situations, essentially describing how they attribute reasons for things that happen to them

Optimistic explanatory style

A tendency to interpret negative life events as temporary, specific, and external factors, meaning that someone with this style attributes setbacks to outside influences, believing they are not permanent or pervasive, and are therefore more likely to bounce back from challenges compared to someone with a pessimistic explanatory style.

Pessimistic explanatory style

A tendency to interpret negative events as being personal, permanent, and pervasive, meaning that when faced with setbacks, a person with this style attributes the cause to internal factors, believes it will last a long time, and sees it as affecting many areas of their life, often leading to feelings of helplessness and hopelessness.