Social Psychology Key Terms: Attraction, Aggression, and Group Dynamics

The physical attractiveness stereotype

The tendency to assume that physically attractive people also possess other positive traits (e.g., kindness, intelligence, competence);

Aggression

Intentional behavior aimed at causing physical or psychological harm to another person who is motivated to avoid that harm.

Emotional/impulsive aggression

Reactive, "hot-blooded" aggression triggered by strong negative emotions (especially anger) and performed with little planning or forethought.

Geographic proximity

Physical nearness or distance between people (e.g., living in the same neighborhood or building), which increases the likelihood of interaction and attraction.

Functional proximity

How frequently and easily people's paths cross in everyday life (e.g., same workplace, same class schedule), even if they are not geographically very close.

Instrumental/cognitive aggression

Planned, "cold-blooded" aggression used as a deliberate tool to achieve a specific goal (e.g., money, power, intimidation).

Mere exposure effect

Repeated exposure to a person, object, or idea increases liking for it simply because it becomes familiar.

Priming (of aggression)

Exposure to stimuli (words, images, violent media, weapons) that temporarily activates aggressive thoughts or scripts, making aggressive behavior more likely.

Passionate love

Intense, highly arousing romantic love marked by sexual desire, obsession, idealization, and emotional highs and lows.

Companionate love

Deep affection, attachment, trust, caring, and mutual respect that develops over time in long-term relationships.

Desensitization

Repeated exposure to violence or aggression reduces emotional and physiological reactivity to it (e.g., becoming emotionally numb to violent content).

Entitativity

The degree to which a collection of individuals is perceived as a coherent, unified group rather than a loose aggregate. (My group feels more like a group that yours)

The "Fast friends" procedure

A structured activity in which pairs of strangers ask and answer 36 increasingly personal questions to rapidly generate feelings of closeness and intimacy.

Injunctive norms

Social standards that specify what behaviors are approved or disapproved of by the group.

Prescriptive norms

Injunctive norms that tell people what they ought to do (approved behaviors).

Proscriptive norms

Injunctive norms that tell people what they should not do (forbidden behaviors).

Self-disclosure

The voluntary sharing of personal information, thoughts, feelings, or experiences with another person.

Role Stress

Psychological strain arising from conflicting, ambiguous, or excessive demands associated with a social role.

The Disclosure Reciprocity Cycle

The escalating pattern in which one person's self-disclosure prompts a matching level of disclosure from the other, gradually deepening intimacy.

Communal relationships

Relationships in which benefits are given based on need or to show caring, without expecting repayment (typical of family and close friends).

Exchange relationships

Relationships in which benefits are given with the expectation of receiving comparable benefits in return (typical of acquaintances and business partners).

Social identity

The part of an individual's self-concept that comes from perceived membership in social groups.

Sternberg's Triangular Model of Love (Commitment, Intimacy, Passion)

Theory stating that love is composed of three components: intimacy (emotional closeness), passion (romantic/sexual attraction), and commitment (decision to maintain the relationship).

Secure Attachment

An attachment style characterized by comfort with intimacy and independence, trust, and low fear of abandonment.

Insecure Attachment

Attachment styles (anxious, avoidant, or disorganized) marked by discomfort with closeness, fear of abandonment, or difficulty trusting partners.

Social facilitation

Improvement in performance on simple or well-learned tasks when other people are present.

Social inhibition

Impairment in performance on complex or novel tasks when other people are present.

Dominant response

The response most likely to occur in a given situation; social presence strengthens the dominant response (correct on easy tasks, incorrect on hard tasks).

Process loss

Reduction in group effectiveness due to coordination difficulties, social loafing, etc., causing the group to perform worse than the sum of individual potential.

Process gain

Increase in group effectiveness beyond individual potential due to synergy, motivation, or division of labor.

Altruism

Helping behavior motivated by concern for others' welfare with no expectation of personal reward.

Social loafing

Reduced individual effort when working in a group compared to working alone.

Kinship altruism

Helping directed toward genetic relatives to promote the survival of shared genes.

Groupthink

A dysfunctional decision-making process in cohesive groups where desire for consensus overrides critical thinking.

Reciprocal altruism

Helping non-relatives with the expectation (often implicit) that the favor may be returned in the future.

Production blocking

Loss of productivity in brainstorming groups because only one person can speak at a time, causing ideas to be forgotten or not shared.

Reciprocity norm

The social expectation that people will help those who have helped them and harm those who have harmed them.

Group polarization

The tendency for group discussion to shift members' attitudes toward a more extreme position in the direction they were already leaning.

Social responsibility norm

The belief that people should help those who are dependent on them or in need, especially the disadvantaged.

Latane and Darley's stages of helping

The five sequential steps required for bystander intervention: notice → interpret as emergency → assume responsibility → know how to help → implement help.

Pluralistic ignorance

A situation in which people mistakenly believe that their own private attitudes or feelings differ from those of others because everyone publicly conforms.

Diffusion of responsibility

The more bystanders present, the less any single individual feels personally responsible to act.

Social categorization

The cognitive process of dividing the social world into groups (ingroups and outgroups) based on salient characteristics.

Outgroup homogeneity

The perception that members of outgroups are more similar to one another than members of one's ingroup.

Stereotype

A fixed, overgeneralized belief about the traits or behaviors of a particular group and its members.

Bogus pipeline procedure

A research technique that convinces participants a machine can detect lies, leading to more honest self-reports of socially sensitive attitudes.

Implicit association test (IAT)

A reaction-time measure of automatic, unconscious associations between concepts (e.g., race) and evaluations (good/bad).

Stereotype threat

Anxiety about confirming a negative stereotype about one's group, which ironically impairs performance in the stereotyped domain.

Ingroup favoritism

Preferring and allocating more positive outcomes or resources to members of one's own group.

Black sheep effect

Judging undesirable ingroup members more harshly than comparable outgroup members to protect the group image.

The contact hypothesis

Prejudice can be reduced by interpersonal contact between majority and minority group members under conditions of equal status, cooperation, common goals, and institutional support.

Jigsaw classroom

Cooperative learning technique in which each student in a diverse group is given a unique piece of information needed for the group to succeed, promoting interdependence.

Extended contact hypothesis

Learning that an ingroup member has a close outgroup friend can reduce one's own prejudice, even without direct contact.

Common ingroup identity

Recategorizing separate groups into one superordinate group (e.g., "we are all human" or "we are all university students") to reduce intergroup bias.

Realistic group conflict

Intergroup hostility that arises when groups compete over scarce resources.

Social conventional morality

Judgments based on cultural rules, traditions, or authority that do not involve direct harm.

Harm-based morality

Judgments based on whether an action causes direct physical or psychological harm or injustice to others.

Distributive fairness

Perceived fairness of how outcomes and resources are distributed among individuals or groups.

Procedural fairness

Perceived fairness of the processes and rules used to determine outcomes.

False consciousness

When members of a disadvantaged group accept the legitimacy of their lower status and the existing social system.

Social creativity

A strategy used by low-status groups to achieve positive distinctiveness by redefining or finding new dimensions on which their group excels.

Collective action

Coordinated efforts by members of a disadvantaged group to challenge and change the status quo.

Harvesting/commons dilemma

A social dilemma in which individuals can over-exploit a shared limited resource (e.g., overfishing, pollution), leading to depletion if too many do so.

Contributions dilemma

A social dilemma in which a public good will only be provided if enough people contribute, but each individual benefits regardless of whether they contributed (free-rider problem).

Dual concern model of cooperation and competition

A model of conflict styles based on two dimensions: concern for self (assertiveness) and concern for others (cooperativeness), resulting in five styles: competing, accommodating, avoiding, compromising, and collaborating.