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social psychology & personality
Attribution theory
How we attribute or explain the cause of our own behavior and the behavior of others.
Dispositional attribution
The tendency to attribute a person's behavior to their internal characteristics, such as their personality traits, attitudes, or abilities
Situational attribution
The tendency to attribute a person’s behavior to external factors, such as the situation or environment.
Explanatory style(s)
Optimistic: positive; brighter outlook on life
Pessimistic: negative outlook on life
Fundamental Attribution Error
Human tendencies to explain someone's behavior based on internal factors (personality/dispositional), and underestimate the possibilities of any situational, or external factors
Actor-Observer Bias (others v. ourselves)
A cognitive bias where humans tend to attribute their own actions to external or situational factors, while attributing others’ actions to internal characteristics or personality traits in order to excuse/feel better about our mistakes.
Self-Serving Bias (judging ourselves)
A cognitive bias that explains our behavior depending on whether the outcome of our behavior is positive or negative.
Individuals will attribute their success to internal factors like talent or effort, while blaming their failures on external factors like luck, others, environment.
This bias serves to maintain self-esteem and protect one's ego.
Social Comparison
Comparing yourself to others to evaluate your abilities, opinions, and overall self-worth:
Upward Comparison: Comparing yourself to someone who you perceive as superior to you. This can inspire someone to improve their quality of life or create a sense of inferior complex.
Downward Comparison: Comparing yourself to someone who you perceive as less fortunate or inferior than you in order to feel better about yourself.
Attitude
Feelings often influenced by our beliefs that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events.
Factors:
Experience
Social roles & norms
Classical & operant conditioning
Observing others
Mere-Exposure Effect
The phenomenon where people tend to develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar with them. This effect suggests that repeated exposure to a stimulus increases our liking for it.
Peripheral Route Persuasion (ethos/pathos)
A method of persuasion that relies on superficial cues rather than the content of the message, often influencing attitudes through emotional appeal or attractiveness. This approach focuses on factors such as endorsements, visual, and emotional appeals.
Lacks depth and logic
Surface level information
Uses positive association
Attitude change is weak and short-lived
Requires little conscious effort
Central Route Persuasion (logos)
Offers evidence and arguments that aim to trigger favorable thoughts.
Long-lasting attitude change
Audience must be motivated to listen
Uses logic and facts to convince people to change their attitudes or behaviors
Foot-in-the-Door Technique
People who agreed to smaller requests are more likely to comply later with a larger request based on the idea of maintaining consistency in their behavior.
Door-in-the-Face Technique
Where a person makes a large request that is likely to be rejected, but follows up with a smaller, and more reasonable request that’s more likely to be agreed upon.
Role
A set of expectations/norms about a social positioning defining how those in position must behave.
Belief Perseverance
Maintaining a belief even when presented information that refute against your beliefs or opinions.
Confirmation Bias
Search, interpret, or recall information that supports/confirms one’s beliefs or opinions.
Cognitive Dissonance
A nagging feeling of discomfort feeling when your beliefs and actions don't quite line up.
Conflicting beliefs, values, or attitudes
Discomfort feeling comes from inconsistency/contradictions
Attempt to relieve discomfort by rejecting, explaining away, or avoiding new information
Prejudice
Unjustifiable and negative behavior or attitude towards a specific group.
Explicit Attitude (directly)
Aware of the negative/harmful attitude and behavior towards the specific group.
Implicit Attitude (indirectly)
Unconscious belief or attitude towards a group or individual.
Just-World Phenomenon
The belief that the world is “just” and people will get what they deserve —> karma
Good people will be rewarded
Bad people will be punished
Out-group Homogeneity
The tendency to assume that the members of other groups are very similar to each other, while your group are all individually different from one another.
Ex:
A white person might think that all Asian people are similar to each other.Â
A basketball player might think that all cheerleaders are the same, but that the people on their team are all different.
In-group Bias
A cognitive bias that causes people to favor their own group over other groups. The tendency to favor someone whom we can relate to share a common trait or interest with.
Normative Social Influence
Influence resulting from a person’s desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval. Conforms; agrees with others’ opinions because they feel the need to belong and to feel accepted.
Informational Social Influence
Influence resulting from one’s willingness to accept others’ opinion about reality. Conforms to gain knowledge or because they think that person knows better, therefore, they are right, and they should obey.
Factors of Conformity
Appealing to societal standards; fear rejection & being different
Blending in with the majority
Feels incompetent or insecure
Peer pressure
Being observed
Admire the group’s status and attractiveness
No prior commitment/collaboration
Obedience
Complying to direct orders from an authority figure.
Factors:
The authority figure was present in the room with the subject.
Prestigious institution
Authority holds high status
No one else is disobeying
Intimidation/fear tactics; avoid consequences
No sense of self-responsibility; assigning responsibility to the authority
Social Facilitation
Strengthened performance in other’s presence; do well when people are watching.
Social Inhibition
Performance worsens in other’s presence.
Social Loafing
When in a group setting, your performance effort decreases due to not holding your actions accountable; decreased self-responsibility. Because you’re in a group setting, you believe that you do not have a lot of impact, and slack off.
Loaf —> cat loafing (loaf bread position = chill)
Deindividuation
Losing one’s self-identity, individuality, self-awareness, and self-restraint when participating in a group. It can lead to people acting in ways they might not otherwise, such as engaging in impulsive, deviant, or violent behavior.Â
Ex:
Anonymity: Feel less accountable for their actions because they’re unidentifiable and can get away with it
Group size: “Everyone else is doing it, so I can do it too.”, “The crowd is too big, I won’t get caught.”
Group Polarization
The belief and attitudes we bring to a group grow stronger as we discuss them with like-minded others. Occurs when like-minded people reinforce each other’s opinions and they become/grow more extreme as they’re discussed.
Us v. Them mentality; isolate group from “outsiders" (those with opposing opinions and beliefs)
Ex:
Political discussions
Extremist groups
Terrorist organizations
Cults
Groupthink
Fed by overconfidence, conformity, self-justification, and group polarization. It is a psychological phenomenon that occurs when a group of people make irrational decisions due to a desire for harmony or conformity.
Lack of critical thinking
Poor decision making by dismissing/suppressing differing opinions and not exploring alternative solutions
Lack of perspective
Ignore warning signs & doesn’t reconsider beliefs
Altruism
Selfless, prosocial behavior.
Bystander Effect
A social psychological theory that describes how an individual is less likely to intervene in a conflict when there are multiple witnesses/bystanders present.
Social Exchange Theory
A sociological and psychological theory that explains how people make decisions based on the costs and benefits of their actions and relationships.
Ex: “If I help them, what will I gain from it? Will it benefit me? What will I get in return?”
Social Reciprocity Norm
Repaying what another has provided - mutual benefits and cooperation.
Ex: Treat people how they treated you
Social Responsibility Norm
A belief that people have a moral obligation to help others, even if they are not directly benefiting from it; no personal gains. Act in ways that benefit others and contribute to the community.
Conflict
A state of opposing forces, such as desires, emotions, or behaviors. It can occur between individuals, groups, or within an individual.
Social Traps
A conflict of interest or perverse incentive where individuals or a group of people act to obtain short-term individual gains, which in the long run leads to a loss for the group as a whole.
Self-fulfillment
A prediction that becomes true because someone believes it will.
A person's belief or expectation influences their actions
Expectation leads to fulfillment
Peace
Attained through the following:
Contact: Involve equal status between individuals and a shared goal requiring cooperation.
Cooperation: With people towards a shared goal – superordinate goals; Overcoming differences in order to achieve a shared goal.
Communication: Promote understanding, and foster peaceful relationships between individuals and groups.
Conciliation: Facilitating communication and reaching an agreement between conflicting parties, often through the involvement of a neutral third party, with the goal of resolving conflict peacefully, and promoting reconciliation.
Note 
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