Psychology SAC Unit 2 AOS1

Social cognition

Involves how we perceive and think about to understand and make judgements about ourselves and others in different situations.

Person perception

Mental processes we use to form impressions and draw conclusions about the personal characteristics of other people.

Attribution

The process by which people explain the causes of their own and other people's behaviour.

Halo effect

Cognitive bias where the impression we form about one quality of a person influences our beliefs and expectations about the person in other qualities.

Salience

Determines which information will most likely grab our attention and have the greatest influence on our perception of people and the world.

Social categorisation

Routinely classifying each other into different groups on the basis of common categorisation.

Ingroup

Those like us.

Outgroup

Those different to us.

Situational attribution

Behaviour explained in terms of the situation a person they are in.

Personal attribution

Behaviour explained in terms of their personal qualities.

Fundamental attribution error

Attributing another's behaviour to personal characteristics, instead of considering situational factors.

Actor-Observer bias

Attributing our own behaviour to situational causes, but attribute other’s behaviour to internal factors.

Self-Serving bias

Taking credit for our own successes but attributing failures to situational factors.

Attitude

An evaluation a person makes about an object, person, group, event or issue.

Affective component

Emotional reactions or feelings one has towards an object, person, group, event or issue.

Behavioural/conation component

The way an attitude is expressed through our actions.

Cognitive component

The way attitude is thought about and interpreted.

Direct prejudice

Majority group openly rejects minority group members, and their views are obvious and recognizable.

Indirect prejudice

More subtle and hidden, more likely to be accepted.

Explicit prejudice

Consciously held, deliberately thought about.

Implicit prejudice

Unconsciously held, person is usually not aware they do so.

Discrimination

Positive or negative behaviour that is directed towards a social group and its members.

Direct discrimination

When someone is treated unfavourably because of a personal characteristic protected by the law.

Indirect discrimination

When there is an unreasonable requirement, condition or practice that disadvantages a person or group of people because of a personal characteristic.

Intergroup Contact

Involves increasing direct contact between two groups who are prejudiced against each other.

The contact hypothesis

Proposes that certain types of direct contact between members of different groups can reduce prejudice.

Superordinate goals

A goal that cannot be achieved by any one group alone and overrides other existing goals which each group might have.

Equality of status

Equal status between groups.

Cognitive interventions

Changing the way in which someone thinks about prejudice.

Social Influence

The effects of the presence or actions of others, either real or imagined, on the way people think, feel and behave.

Social group

Any collection of two or more people who interact with and influence one another and who share a common goal.

Collective

Any collection of people who exert minimal influence on each other and don’t interact with every other person in the collection.

Aggregation

Collection of people in one location who have no obvious social structure or organisation and who have minimal shared purpose, interdependence or direct interaction.

Culture

The way of life of a particular society or community that sets it apart from other societies or communities.

Status

Level of importance that group members perceive regarding another group member’s position in that group.

Power

An individual or group’s ability to control or influence another person (or group) even when they try to resist this influence.

Social Power

When power is involved in a social interaction.

Role

The behaviour adopted by an individual or assigned to them that influences the way in which they function or act in different situations (and life in general).

Reward power

Power through control over rewards.

Coercive power

Power through control over punishments or other force.

Legitimate power

Power through right to require and demand obedience.

Referent power

Power through respect.

Expert power

Power through superior abilities.

Informational power

Power through access to use of informational resources.

Groupthink

A way of thinking by individual members of a group characterised by a strong tendency to seek agreement when decision making or problem-solving, thereby overriding any realistic consideration of possible alternative, better options.

Group Polarisation

The tendency of an individual group member, following group discussion, to shift their initially held views to a more extreme position.

Social comparison

The process of evaluating our attitudes and abilities by comparing ourselves to other people.

Deindividuation

Self-consciousness, inhibition, feelings of personal responsibility and inner restraint that can occur when in a group.

Shift in attention

When people are with others in a group, attention is often focused on the activities of the group and events in the environment.

Conformity

The tendency to adjust one’s thoughts, feelings or behaviour so that they become more consistent with those of other people or with accepted standards about how a person should behave in certain situations.

Factors influencing conformity

Group size, Unanimity, Informational influence, normative influence, culture, social loafing.

Anti- Conformity

Deliberate refusal to comply with accepted standard in society.

Independence

Experience freedom from the influence or control of other individuals or groups.

Psychological reactance

Response to a perceived threat to freedom that may cause an individual to rebel.

Stereotype

Any thought widely adopted about specific types of individuals or certain ways of behaving intended to represent the entire group of those individuals or behaviours as a whole.

Cognitive Dissonance

 The discomfort a person feels when their behaviour does not align with their values or beliefs.

Heuristics

 The process by which humans use mental short cuts to arrive at decisions.