Social Psychology and Personality - AP Psychology

social psychology

how we think about, influence, and relate to others

attributions

how people explain behavior and mental processes of themselves and others

dispositional attribution

explaining someone's behavior by attributing it to their internal qualities, such as personality, character, or beliefs

situational attribution

explaining someone's behavior by attributing it to factors outside of their control, such as the environment or circumstances

attribution theory

we explain behaviors by crediting the situation or the person’s internal disposition (personality)

fundamental attribution error

tendency to blame a person’s disposition (personality) and not consider the situation (that guy cut me off because he’s a jerk—not that his wife could be in labor)

actor-observer bias

when its others—blame the person, when its you, blame the situation

self-serving bias

self only—our successes are because of us and our hard work, our failures are someone else’s fault

self-fulfilling prophecy

a belief that leads to its own fulfillment

social comparison

we evaluate ourselves based on comparison to society and social circles

upward comparison

compare to people you think are better then you (I want to be like them)

downward comparison

compare to someone you think is worse off than you (at least I do not have it as bad as them)

relative deprivation

judge what we are lacking relative to others

explanatory style

how people explain good and bad events in their lives and others—either optimistic (positive) or pessimistic (negative)

external locus of control

chance/outside focuses control your fate

internal locus

we control our own fates

mere exposure effect

repeated exposures to novel stimuli increases liking of them (the more time you spend around something the more you like it)

stereotype

generalized concept about a group (a label)

• reduces cognitive load (mental effort) when making decisions

• usually the basis of prejudice and discrimiantion

prejudice

negative reaction towards a person/group with out any advance experience with that group (a belief/emotion)

discrimination

different treatment of a person/group than how you would treat others (a behavior)

implicit attitudes

unconscious bias—leads to ingroup bias, ethnocentrism, outgroup homogeneity bias, just-world phenomenon, belief perseverance, cognitive dissonance

ingroup bias

tendency to favor our own group

ethnocentrism

tendency to see your own group as more important than others

outgroup homogeneity bais

perception that out-group members are similar, while the in-group members are diverse

just-world phenomenon

tendency for people to believe that the world is just and therefore people get what they deserve

belief perseverance

stick to your original belief even when given evidence to disprove it

cognitive dissonance

two opposing thoughts conflict with each other, causing discomfort, which makes us find ways to justify the situation

social norms

define expectations and roles for individuals and social situations

social influence theory

people’s thoughts and actions are influenced by others

normative social influence

we conform to gain approval or to not stand out from the group

informational social influence

we conform to others because we think their opinions must be right

elaboration likelihood model

a theory of persuasion that explains how people process persuasive messages through two main routes: the central route and the peripheral route

central route to persuasion

change people’s attitudes through logical arguments and explanations; leads to long term behavior change

peripheral route to persuasion

change people’s attitudes through incidental cues (like a speaker’s attractiveness); can also use emotional appeals; leads to temporary behavior changes

halo effect

overall impression of a person/thing that is influenced by a single positive trait or characteristics

foot in the door phenomenon

complying with a small request then leads to going along with a larger request

door in the face phenomenon

a large request is turned down, when then leads you to be more likely to comply with a small request

conformity

change in a person’s behavior to more closely match the group (classic experiemtn—showed lines of different lengths, confederates gave wrong answers to see if others would go along with it)

factors that influence conformity

person is insecure, group has three or more people, group is unanimous, person admires group, person has no prior commitment to a response, others observe their behavior, cultural expectations (collectivistic)

obedience

complying with an order or command (classic experiment: participants were to “teach” another indivudal using shocks; ~65% of participants would administer lethal shocks to another person simply because they were told)

factors that could lead to influence obedience

proximity of authority figure, legitimacy or prestige of the figure, distance from the victim, role models for defiance

cultural influences conformity and obedience through..

collectivistic and individualistic

collectivistic

encourages social and group ties (more conformity/obedience)

indivudalistic

encourages individuality (less conform/obedience)

group polarization

the more time spent with a group the stronger their thoughts/opinions will become (must have same opinion already)

groupthink

desire for harmony within a group leads to everyone going along with the same thinking, ignoring other possibilities or bad ideas

bystander effect (diffusion of responsibility)

the more people around the less likely we are to help someone in need

deindividualization

loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that encourage anonymity

social loafing

tendency for people in a group to expert less effort when pooling their efforts together

social facilitation

perform better on a simple or well learned tasks in the presence of others

false-consensus effect

we overestimate the degree to which everyone else thinks/acts the way we do

superordinate goals

two or more groups work together to achieve a common goal, creates cohesiveness

social trap

people put their own needs before the group needs, results in bad outcome

industrial/organizational psychology

psychology of work—best practices, relationships in the workplace or with company, how you feel about job (burnout)

altruism (prosocial behavior)

unselfish interest in helping other people, happens because of social reciprocity norm and social responsibility norm, and gaining social approval

social reciprocity norm

we give so we can get something in return

social responsibility norm

act in ways that benefit the community (moral sense of good)

stanford prison experiment (zimbardo)

classic “experiment” where individual were assigned to be guards/prisoners, within days they took on their roles and went too far; highly unethical study