Social Psychology and Personality

Conformity

The process by which individuals adjust their thoughts, feelings, or behavior to align with those of a group, as a result of real or imagined group pressure.

Normative Social Influence

The influence to conform to the positive expectations of others, driven by the desire to be liked or accepted by the group.

Social Norms

Unwritten rules that dictate acceptable behavior within a society or group, influencing how individuals act and interact.

Social Comparison

The process of evaluating oneself by comparing with others, often to assess one's abilities, status, or opinions.

Relative Deprivation

A feeling of dissatisfaction or injustice experienced when individuals compare themselves to others and perceive that they are worse off.

Upward Social Comparison

Comparing oneself to others who are perceived to be better off or more skilled, which can motivate self-improvement but may also decrease self-esteem.

Downward Social Comparison

Comparing oneself to others who are perceived to be worse off or less skilled, which can boost self-esteem but may also foster complacency.

Informational Social Influence

The influence to accept information from others as evidence about reality, often occurring in situations where the correct action or belief is uncertain.

Obedience

The act of following direct commands, usually from an authority figure, even if they contradict personal beliefs or morals.

Social Facilitation

The tendency for people to perform differently when in the presence of others, typically showing improved performance on simple or well-practiced tasks and worse performance on complex or new tasks.

Group Polarization

When people in a group talk about an idea, they often end up agreeing even more strongly with each other, making their group opinion more extreme.

Groupthink

the desire for harmony or conformity in a group leads to irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcomes. Members suppress dissenting opinions, leading to a loss of individual creativity and responsibility.

Bystander Effect

The phenomenon where individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when other people are present. The greater the number of bystanders, the less likely any one individual is to help.

Diffusion of Responsibility

The tendency for individuals to feel less responsible for taking action or helping in a situation when others are present, leading to a decrease in the likelihood of intervention.

Social Loafing

The tendency for individuals to exert less effort when working in a group than when working alone.

Deindividuation

A psychological state where individuals lose their self-awareness and sense of individuality in group settings, often leading to impulsive and deviant behavior.

Attribution Theory

Explains how people decide whether someone's behavior is caused by their personality or their situation.

Disposition Attributions

Assuming a person's actions are due to their personality, not their situation.

Situational Attributions

Assuming a person's actions are due to their circumstances, not their personality.

Explanatory Style

How a person usually explains the reasons behind events—whether they blame themselves or outside factors.

Optimistic Explanatory Style

The habit of explaining good things as likely to happen again and bad things as one-time events.

Pessimistic Explanatory Style

The habit of explaining bad things as likely to happen again and good things as one-time events.

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency to blame people's actions more on their personality and less on their situation.

Actor-Observer Bias

The habit of blaming our own actions on the situation but blaming other people's actions on their personality.

Self-Serving Bias

The tendency to attribute one's successes to personal characteristics and failures to external factors, enhancing one's self-esteem.

Internal Locus of Control

The belief that one's own actions and decisions directly influence the outcomes and events in their life.

External Locus of Control

The belief that outcomes and events are determined by external forces or fate, rather than one's own actions.

Altruism

The selfless concern for the well-being of others, leading to behavior that benefits others at a personal cost.

Social Responsibility Norm

The societal expectation that people should help others who need assistance, without regard to future exchanges.

Stereotype

A generalized belief about a particular category of people, often oversimplified and not based on direct experience.

Confirmation Bias

A tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one's preexisting beliefs or hypotheses.

Belief Perseverance

The tendency to hold on to one's initial beliefs even after they have been shown to be false, often ignoring contradictory evidence presented.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

When a belief about a situation or a person leads to actions that make the belief come true.

Prejudice

an unjustifiable and usually negative attitude toward a group and its members. Prejudice generally involves negative emotions, stereotyped beliefs, and a predisposition to discriminatory action.

Discrimination

unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group or its members.

Implicit Attitudes

Unconscious beliefs or feelings that influence a person's behavior and perceptions without their awareness.

Just-World Phenomenon

A belief that the world is fundamentally fair, leading people to rationalize injustice or misfortune as deserved.

Out-Group Homogeneity Bias

The tendency to see members of an outgroup as more similar to each other than they really are, often perceiving them as less varied than members of one's own group.

In-Group Bias

The tendency to favor and extend loyalty to members of one's own group over those in other groups, often leading to preferential treatment and judgment.

Mere Exposure Effect

The phenomenon where repeated exposure to a stimulus increases an individual's preference for that stimulus.

Ethnocentrism

The belief in the inherent superiority of one's own ethnic group or culture, often accompanied by a feeling of contempt for other groups.

Collectivism

A cultural value that emphasizes the importance of the group or community over individual goals and desires, prioritizing group cohesion and interdependence.

Multiculturalism

The view that promotes the acknowledgment and respect of diverse cultural backgrounds and traditions, encouraging the coexistence and value of various cultural identities within a society.

Superordinate Goals

Shared goals that require cooperation among individuals or groups, typically overriding smaller or individual conflicts and fostering collaborative efforts.

Social Traps

Situations in which individuals or groups pursue immediate rewards that later prove to have negative or even catastrophic consequences for the larger community.

Persuasion

The process of influencing others' attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors through communication, often involving appeals to reason, emotions, or authority.

Elaboration Likelihood Model

A theory that describes how people process persuasive messages in two ways: through deep, thoughtful analysis (central route) or based on quick cues like how appealing or trustworthy the speaker seems (peripheral route).

Central Route of Persuasion

A method of persuasion that involves deeply engaging with the content of a message, leading to careful analysis and thoughtful consideration, typically resulting in more durable attitude change.

Peripheral Route of Persuasion

A method of persuasion that relies on superficial cues such as attractiveness or credibility of the speaker, rather than the actual content of the message, leading to temporary attitude changes.

Halo Effect

The cognitive bias where a positive impression in one area (like attractiveness) leads to positive evaluations in other areas, influencing overall judgments about a person.

Foot-in-the-Door Technique

A persuasive strategy where agreement to a small, initial request increases the likelihood of compliance with a larger, subsequent request.

Door-in-the-Face Technique

A persuasion strategy where a large, initial request is made knowing it will be refused, followed by a smaller, more reasonable request that is more likely to be accepted.

False Consensus Effect

A cognitive bias where people overestimate how much others agree with their own beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes.

Cognitive Dissonance

A psychological discomfort experienced when simultaneously holding conflicting beliefs, attitudes, or values, often leading to an alteration in one of the beliefs or behaviors to reduce the discomfort.

Industrial-Organizational (I/O) Psychologists

Psychologists who apply psychological principles and research methods to the workplace to improve productivity, select and promote employees, and enhance organizational culture and structure.