chapter 13 - social psychology

social psychology

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

implicit attitudes

1. Automatic, unconscious evaluations that can influence behavior without conscious awareness.

explicit attitudes

1. conscious, deliberate evaluations and beliefs that individuals are fully aware of and can easily articulate

cognitive dissonance

1. Psychological discomfort experienced when a person's beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors are inconsistent.

   1. Example:

      1. Knowing smoking is harmful but continuing to smoke

      2. The discomfort often motivates attitude or behavior change.

fundamental attribution error

1. a cognitive bias where we overemphasize someone's personality or character to explain their behavior, while drastically underestimating the impact of their external circumstances.

2. Judging a book by its cover

conformity

1. changing behavior or beliefs to match those of a group

asch’s line study

1. Conducted famous conformity experiments showing that people often conform to incorrect group opinions.

2. Participants gave obviously wrong answers about line lengths because others in the group did so first.

Stanley Milgram

studied obedience to authority

obedience

following direct orders from an authority figure

Philip Zimbardo

1. Conducted the Stanford Prison Experiment in order to see whether social roles play a huge role on behavior 

stanford prison experiment

1. Conducted by Philip Zimbardo.

   1. Key finding:

      1. Social roles and situational pressures can strongly influence behavior.

      2. Participants acting as guards became increasingly authoritarian.

bystander effect

People are less likely to help in an emergency when other people are present.

diffusion of responsibility

1. The tendency for individuals to feel less personally responsible for taking action when others are present.