Comprehensive Study Guide to Foundations of Psychological Science and Social Psychology

4.1 Attribution Theory and Person Perception

Vocabulary	Definition
Social psychology	Study of how others influence our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
Person perception	Forming impressions and judgments about other people.
Attribution theory	Explaining behavior through internal or external causes.
Dispositional attribution	Explaining behavior through personality, attitudes, or abilities.
Situational attribution	Explaining behavior through circumstances or outside pressures.
Fundamental attribution error (FAE)	Overestimating personality and underestimating situations when explaining others' behavior.
Self-serving bias	Crediting success to ourselves and blaming failure on external factors.
Actor-observer bias	Explaining our own behavior through situations but others' through personality.
Explanatory style	A person's usual way of explaining events, often optimistic or pessimistic.
Internal control	Believing our own efforts determine outcomes.
External control	Believing luck, circumstances, or others determine outcomes.
Mere exposure effect	Repeated exposure makes us like something more.
Self-fulfilling prophecy	An expectation influences behavior and causes itself to become true.
Mirror-image perceptions	Two opposing groups each see themselves as good and the other as bad.
Relative deprivation	Feeling disadvantaged because others have more, even if our situation hasn't worsened.

4.2 Attitude Formation and Attitude Change

Vocabulary	Definition
Attitude	Feelings and beliefs that influence how we respond to something.
Stereotype	An overgeneralized belief about a group of people.
Explicit attitudes	Conscious attitudes that we can recognize and report.
Implicit attitudes	Automatic, unconscious attitudes.
Prejudice	An unjustified, usually negative attitude toward a group.
Discrimination	Unfair negative behavior toward people based on group membership.
Explicit prejudice	Negative attitudes toward a group that we consciously recognize.
Implicit prejudice	Automatic negative reactions toward a group without conscious awareness.
Colorism	Bias that favors lighter skin over darker skin.
LGBTQ prejudice	Negative attitudes toward people based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
Microaggressions	Subtle comments or actions that communicate bias, often unintentionally.
Social identity	The part of our identity that comes from belonging to groups.
In-group	A group we belong to; "us."
Out-group	A group we do not belong to; "them."
In-group bias	Favoring members of our own group.
Just-world phenomenon	Believing people get what they deserve and deserve what they get.
Scapegoat theory	Blaming a less powerful group for problems or frustrations.
Cognitive load	The amount of mental effort being used.
Out-group homogeneity bias	Seeing members of other groups as more alike than members of our own group.
Ethnocentrism	Judging other cultures by our own standards and believing ours is superior.
Other-race effect (cross-race effect)	Recognizing and remembering faces of our own race more accurately.
Cognitive dissonance	Discomfort when our actions contradict our beliefs or attitudes.
Belief perseverance	Holding onto beliefs even after supporting evidence is disproven.
Self-reinforcing loop	When thinking patterns or biases strengthen one another.

4.3 Social Influence, Group, Cultural, and Prosocial BehaviorA. Social Influence and Conformity

Vocabulary	Definition
Social norms	Rules or expectations about how group members should behave.
Roles	Expected behaviors associated with a social position.
Conformity	Changing behavior or thinking to match a group.
Chameleon effect	Unconsciously copying others' gestures, expressions, or behavior.
Social contagion	Spread of emotions, behaviors, or ideas through a group.
Asch conformity experiments	Studies showing people sometimes give wrong answers to fit in with a group.
Normative social influence	Conforming to gain approval or avoid rejection.
Informational social influence	Conforming because we believe others know better.
Obedience	Following direct commands from an authority figure.

B. Persuasion and Compliance

Vocabulary	Definition
Central route persuasion	Persuasion through strong arguments, evidence, and careful thinking.
Peripheral route persuasion	Persuasion through surface cues like attractiveness, celebrities, or emotions.
Halo effect	Allowing one positive impression to influence judgments of unrelated traits.
Foot-in-the-door technique	Getting someone to agree to a small request before making a larger one.
Door-in-the-face technique	Making a large request first, then a smaller one that seems more reasonable.
Low-ball technique	Getting agreement to an offer, then revealing additional costs.
Reciprocity norm	Feeling obligated to return favors or help those who helped us.

C. Group Behavior

Vocabulary	Definition
Social facilitation	Performing better on easy or well-practiced tasks when others are present.
Social inhibition	Performing worse on difficult or unfamiliar tasks when others are present.
Social loafing	Putting in less effort when working in a group than alone.
Deindividuation	Losing self-awareness and self-restraint when anonymous in a group.
Group polarization	Group discussions strengthen members' original opinions, making them more extreme.
Groupthink	Prioritizing group agreement over realistic evaluation, leading to poor decisions.
False consensus effect	Overestimating how much others agree with our opinions or behaviors.
Social traps	Individual self-interest creates harmful outcomes for everyone.
Superordinate goals	Shared goals that require different groups to cooperate.
Industrial-organizational (I/O) psychology	Application of psychology to hiring, motivation, leadership, and workplaces.

D. Culture and Social Behavior

Vocabulary	Definition
Culture	Shared behaviors, beliefs, values, and traditions passed between generations.
Tight cultures	Cultures with strict, clearly enforced social norms.
Loose cultures	Cultures with flexible, less strictly enforced social norms.
Individualism	Prioritizing personal goals, independence, and individual identity.
Collectivism	Prioritizing group goals, harmony, and belonging.
Multiculturalism	Multiple cultural groups coexist while maintaining valued identities.

E. Prosocial Behavior

Vocabulary	Definition
Prosocial behavior	Any action intended to benefit other people.
Altruism	Helping others without expecting personal rewards.
Bystander effect	People become less likely to help when more bystanders are present.
Diffusion of responsibility	Feeling less personally responsible when others are present.
Social exchange theory	Helping when perceived rewards outweigh the costs.
Social-responsibility norm	Feeling obligated to help people in need, even without repayment.