Social Psychology Basic Flashcards - Course Material

Exactly 200 vocabulary-style flashcards covering the entire social psychology transcript, including experiments, theories, and historical foundations.

Social Psychology

The scientific study of how people’s thoughts, emotions and behaviours are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of other people.

Gordon Allport (1954)

The psychologist who defined social psychology as the study of how the presence of others influences thoughts, emotions, and behaviours.

Kurt Lewin’s Equation

$B = f(P, E)$, where Behaviour is a function of the Person and their Environment.

Individual-Centred Perspective

The view, championed by Aristotle, that society exists because of humans' inherent social nature and internal characteristics.

Socio-Centred Perspective

The view, championed by Plato, that human beings are products of their social environment, culture, and institutions.

Aristotle (384-322 BCE)

Philosopher who argued that internal characteristics like reason and motivation determine behaviour, with society merely providing opportunities for expression.

Plato (427-347 BCE)

Philosopher who proposed that individuals are shaped by culture, institutions, education, and social norms.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)

Philosopher who argued that the human mind develops historically through language, culture, conflict, and shared experience.

Collective Mind

Hegel's concept that individuals inherit ways of thinking from the societies they belong to, suggesting thought develops collectively.

Volkerpsychologie

Translated as "Psychology of Peoples," introduced by Moritz Lazarus and Heymann Steinthal to study collective psychological products like language and customs.

Wilhelm Wundt

The founder of experimental psychology who believed higher mental processes required observational and historical approaches rather than just lab experiments.

Experimental Psychology (Wundt)

The branch of psychology that studies basic mental processes like perception and sensation using controlled laboratory variables.

Volkerpsychologie (Wundt)

The study of higher cognitive functions like language, religion, and morality through observation and historical comparison.

Interactionist Perspective

The modern view that behaviour results from the interaction between personality traits and situational pressures.

WEIRD samples

A criticism of foundational studies for relying on participants from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic societies.

Observational Experiments

Controlled studies where participants are placed in designed social situations to systematically observe their behaviour and manipulate variables.

Introspection

A method of self-report that is often insufficient in social psychology because individuals may be unaware of the social forces influencing them.

Demand Characteristics

A limitation where participants modify their behaviour if they become aware of the study's aims.

Ecological Validity

The extent to which laboratory findings can be generalised to real-world social environments.

Social Cognition

The mental processes through which people perceive, interpret, remember, and respond to social information.

Attention (Social Information Processing)

The first stage of social cognition where people selectively attend to certain social stimuli while ignoring others.

Interpretation (Social Information Processing)

The second stage of social cognition where observed behaviour is given meaning.

Storage (Social Information Processing)

The third stage where social information is organised within memory into existing knowledge structures.

Response (Social Information Processing)

The fourth stage where the interpretation of social information guides an individual’s final behaviour.

Schema

An organised mental framework that represents knowledge, expectations, and beliefs about people, groups, or situations.

Person Schemas

Mental frameworks containing expectations about specific individuals.

Role Schemas

Mental frameworks regarding the behaviours expected of people in particular social positions.

Self-schemas

Organised knowledge structures about oneself.

Event Schemas (Scripts)

Mental frameworks about the sequence of events expected in specific social situations.

Attribution

The process of inferring the causes of behaviour, whether arising from personal characteristics or situational influences.

Fritz Heider (1958)

The founder of attribution theory who proposed that people function as "naïve psychologists."

Internal (Dispositional) Attribution

Explaining behaviour through personal characteristics such as personality, intelligence, or motivation.

External (Situational) Attribution

Explaining behaviour through environmental circumstances such as luck, social pressure, or task difficulty.

The Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE)

The tendency to overestimate personal causes while underestimating situational influences when explaining others' behaviour.

Lee Ross (1977)

The researcher who proposed the concept of the Fundamental Attribution Error.

Perceptual Salience

A cause of FAE where the actor is more visually noticeable than the situation, leading observers to focus on the person.

Cognitive Simplicity

The idea that internal explanations are cognitively easier and require less mental effort than considering situational factors.

Actor-Observer Bias

The tendency to attribute our own mistakes to circumstances while attributing others' mistakes to their personality.

Self-serving Bias

Attributing personal success to internal factors and failures to external factors to protect self-esteem.

Stereotype

A widely shared cognitive belief or expectation about the characteristics of members of a particular social group.

Social Categorisation

The cognitive process of classifying people into groups to reduce complexity and predict behaviour.

Confirmation Bias

The tendency to remember information that confirms existing stereotypes while overlooking contradictory information.

Cognitive Function of Stereotypes

Reducing mental effort by simplifying information processing.

Social Function of Stereotypes

Reinforcing group identities by distinguishing between "us" and "them."

Motivational Function of Stereotypes

Protecting self-esteem by favouring one's own group while devaluing others.

Illusory Correlation

The mistaken perception that two events or characteristics are associated when no objective relationship exists.

Hamilton & Gifford (1976)

Researchers who demonstrated that people form false associations between minority groups and distinctive (usually negative) behaviours.

Distinctiveness-based Illusory Correlation

Bias occurring because rare events (like minority membership and negative behaviour) attract greater attention and memory.

Implicit Bias

Automatic, unconscious attitudes or associations that influence judgment without conscious intention.

Explicit Attitudes

Conscious, deliberate, and self-reported beliefs.

Implicit Attitudes

Unintentional, automatically activated, and indirectly measured associations.

The Implicit Association Test (IAT)

An assessment developed in 1998 to measure the relative strength of automatic associations between concepts in memory.

Anthony Greenwald

One of the developers of the Implicit Association Test (IAT).

Relative Associative Strength

What the IAT specifically measures by looking at reaction times between different word or image pairings.

Attitude

A relatively enduring psychological tendency to evaluate an object, person, or issue with favour or disfavour.

Tricomponent Model of Attitudes

The theory that attitudes consist of the Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioural components (ABC Model).

Rosenberg & Hovland (1960)

The theorists who developed the Tricomponent Model of Attitudes.

Cognitive Component (Attitudes)

The beliefs, thoughts, knowledge, and expectations held about an attitude object.

Affective Component (Attitudes)

The emotions or feelings associated with an attitude object.

Behavioural Component (Attitudes)

The actions or behavioural intentions resulting from an attitude.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

The theory that psychological discomfort arises when someone holds conflicting cognitions or behaves against their beliefs.

Leon Festinger (1957)

The social psychologist who developed Cognitive Dissonance Theory.

Festinger’s $1 vs $20 Experiment

A study where participants paid $1$ to lie about a boring task reported more genuine enjoyment than those paid $20$, due to dissonance.

Internal Justification

Reducing dissonance by changing one's own attitude when external rewards are insufficient (e.g., the $1$ condition).

External Justification

The reduction of dissonance through outside factors, such as being paid $20$ to perform an action.

Self-Perception Theory

The argument that people infer their attitudes by observing their own behaviour without necessarily experiencing discomfort.

Bidirectional Relationship

The concept that attitudes can influence behaviour and behaviour can reshape attitudes.

Conformity

Modifying thoughts, feelings, or behaviours to align with group norms, expectations, or standards.

Normative Social Influence

Conforming to be liked, accepted, or to avoid rejection, even if privately disagreeing.

Informational Social Influence

Conforming because of a belief that others possess more accurate information or knowledge.

Solomon Asch (1951)

Psychologist known for the Line Judgement Experiments investigating social pressure and conformity.

Asch’s Critical Trials

The 12 out of 18 trials where confederates deliberately gave incorrect answers.

Asch's Conformity Rate

Approximately $32\%$ of responses conformed to the incorrect majority answer.

Group Unanimity

A factor in conformity where the presence of just one ally giving a different answer dramatically reduces group pressure.

Group Size (Conformity)

Asch found conformity increases up to a group of 3 or 4, after which additional members have little effect.

Obedience

Changing behaviour in response to a direct command from a hierarchical authority figure.

Stanley Milgram (1963)

Researcher who conducted famous experiments at Yale University to investigate obedience to authority.

Agentic State

A psychological state where an individual sees themselves as an agent carrying out another's wishes, surrendering personal responsibility.

Autonomous State

A psychological state where individuals perceive themselves as personally responsible for their own actions.

Agentic Shift

The transition from an autonomous state to an agentic state when facing legitimate authority.

Milgram's Maximum Shock Results

$65\%$ of participants continued to the maximum level of $450\,volts$.

Milgram’s Minimum Shock Results

$100\%$ of participants continued to at least $300\,volts$ in the original study.

Proximity (Obedience)

The physical or psychological distance between the authority, the participant, and the victim which influences obedience levels.

Legitimacy of Authority

The perception that an authority figure is justified or socially credible, often supported by institutions like Yale or symbols like lab coats.

Gradual Commitment

The "foot-in-the-door" effect where small initial steps (small shocks) make it harder to refuse larger requests later.

Moral Strain

The psychological tension experienced when an authority figure’s orders conflict with one’s personal moral beliefs.

Social Role

A set of socially expected behaviours, attitudes, and responsibilities associated with a particular position.

Philip Zimbardo (1971)

Lead researcher of the Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE).

Situational Hypothesis (SPE)

The proposal that the environment and assigned roles, rather than personality, caused abusive behaviour in prisons.

Deindividuation

A psychological state of reduced self-awareness and weakened personal responsibility within a group or anonymous situation.

Anonymity (Deindividuation)

A factor that contributes to deindividuation by making individuals feel their identity is hidden.

Diffusion of Responsibility

The reduction of individual accountability when part of a group.

Social Identity Theory (SIT)

The theory that self-concept is derived from group membership and people favour their own groups to maintain self-esteem.

Henri Tajfel

The social psychologist who developed Social Identity Theory.

Personal Identity

Characteristics and traits that distinguish an individual from others.

Social Identity

Aspects of the self-concept derived from belonging to social groups.

Social Identification

The process of adopting the norms, values, and behaviours of a group as part of one's identity.

Social Comparison

Evaluating one's own group against others to achieve a positive social identity.

In-group

The group with which an individual identifies.

Out-group

A group perceived as different from one’s own.