Chapter 11: Social Psychology - Interacting with Those Around Us

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering key social psychology concepts from Chapter 11, including social cognition, attributions, interpersonal dynamics, conformity, group processes, and intimate partner violence.

Social Psychology

The scientific study of how we feel about, think about, and behave toward the other people around us, and how those people influence our thoughts, feelings, and behavior.

Social Cognition

The part of human thinking that helps us understand and predict the behavior of ourselves and others.

Attitudes

Our relatively enduring evaluations of people or things.

Social Norms

The accepted beliefs about what we do or should do in particular social situations.

Stereotyping

The cognitive tendency to attribute personality characteristics to people on the basis of their external appearance or social group memberships.

Prejudice

The emotional tendency to dislike people because of their group memberships.

Discrimination

Negative behaviors directed toward others based on prejudice.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

A process where our expectations about others' personality characteristics lead us to behave in ways that make those beliefs come true.

Social Identity

The positive emotions that we experience based on our group memberships.

Personal Space Zones

Four concentric spatial zones determining interpersonal physical distance: intimate distance zone, personal distance zone, social distance zone, and public distance zone.

Interpersonal Attraction

What makes people like or love each other, heavily influenced by similarity, self-disclosure, and proximity.

Mere Exposure Effect

The tendency to prefer stimuli, including people, that we have seen more frequently.

Inclusion of Other in the Self Scale

A psychological tool using sets of overlapping circles to assess relationship closeness, which is predictive of relationship satisfaction and stability.

Causal Attribution

The process of trying to determine the causes of people's behavior.

Fundamental Attribution Error

The common tendency to overestimate the role of personal factors and overlook the impact of social situations in judging others.

Self-Serving Attributions

Attributional biases that involve judging our own behaviors in overly positive ways.

Self-Monitoring

The ability to modify one's behavior in response to situational pressures, opportunities, and norms.

Self-Perception

The process whereby we use our own behavior as a guide to help us determine our own thoughts and feelings.

Cognitive Dissonance

The discomfort we experience when our behavior does not align with our thoughts or beliefs.

Foot-in-the-Door Technique

A method of persuasion in which a person is first persuaded to accept a minor request, followed by a larger request.

Sunk Cost Fallacy

Our tendency to keep pursuing a particular endeavor after we have made an investment of time, effort, or money.

Prosocial Behavior

Any behavior we engage in that benefits others.

Altruism

Any behavior designed to increase another person's welfare, particularly actions that do not seem to provide a direct reward to the person who performs them.

Reciprocal Altruism

A norm based on the principle that if we help other people now, those other people will return the favor should we need their help in the future.

Social Responsibility Norm

The accepted belief that we should try to help others who need assistance, even without any expectation of future paybacks.

Diffusion of Responsibility

The assumption that others will take action and therefore we do not take action ourselves.

Latané and Darley Model of Helping

A five-step model of emergency intervention showing that help is provided only after noticing the event, interpreting it as an emergency, assuming responsibility, and knowing the appropriate form of assistance.

Aggression

Behavior that is intended to harm another individual, physically or psychologically, which can be reactive (response to a threat) or proactive (purposeful planned attack).

Displaced Aggression

Aggression that is directed away from the actual cause of frustration.

Catharsis

The mistaken belief that observing or engaging in less harmful aggressive actions will reduce more harmful aggression later.

Desensitization

The tendency over time to show weaker emotional responses to emotional stimuli.

Culture of Honor

A social norm that condones and even encourages responding to insults with aggression.

Conformity

A change in beliefs or behavior that occurs as the result of the presence of the other people around us.

Solomon Asch's Line-Matching Research

An experimental paradigm demonstrating conformity where participants compared line lengths, finding that conformity reduced sharply when any single individual deviated from the group norm.

Obedience

Compliance with the request or demand of a perceived authority.

Milgram's Obedience Studies

A classic series of experiments using a mock shock machine where $65\%$ of participants administered shocks up to the $450\,\text{V}$ maximum following the demands of an authority figure.

Minority Influence

The phenomenon in which a smaller number of individuals influences the opinions or behaviors of the larger group.

Psychological Reactance

A strong emotional reaction that leads people to resist conformity when they feel their freedom is being threatened.

Social Facilitation

The tendency to perform easy or well-practiced tasks better or faster in the presence of others.

Social Inhibition

The tendency to perform more difficult or less-practiced tasks more poorly in the presence of others.

Drive-Arousal Model of Social Facilitation

A model stating that the presence of others produces arousal, strengthening the dominant response to yield social facilitation if the response is correct or social inhibition if incorrect.

Social Loafing

A group process loss occurring when people do not work as hard in a group as they do when working alone.

Groupthink

A group process loss in which members prioritize harmony over voicing concerns, resulting in flawed group decision-making.

Illusion of Group Productivity

The tendency for group members to overvalue the productivity of the groups they work in.

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)

The physical, psychological, or sexual abuse of one person by another in a close relationship, where the abuser's goal is to gain and maintain power and control.

Power and Control Wheel

A framework developed in 1984 detailing eight non-physical tactics used by abusive partners: coercion and threats, intimidation, emotional abuse, isolation, minimizing/denying/blaming, using children, using privilege, and economic abuse.

Gaslighting

Manipulating another person into doubting their perceptions, experiences, or understanding of events.

Safety Plan

A personalized, practical plan to improve a person's safety while experiencing abuse, preparing to leave an abusive situation, or after leaving.

Strategies for Preventing Intimate Partner Violence

Comprehensive intervention approaches including teaching healthy relationship skills, engaging influential adults and peers, disrupting developmental pathways, creating protective environments, strengthening economic support, and supporting survivors.

Social psychology

The scientific study of how we feel about, think about, and behave toward the people around us, and how those people influence our thoughts, feelings, and behavior.

Social cognition

The part of human thinking that helps us understand and predict the behavior of ourselves and others.

Attitudes

Our relatively enduring evaluations of people or things.

Social norms

The accepted beliefs about what we do or should do in particular social situations.

Stereotyping

The cognitive tendency to attribute personality characteristics to people on the basis of their external appearance or social group memberships.

Prejudice

The emotional tendency to dislike people because of their group memberships.

Discrimination

Negative behaviors toward others based on prejudice.

Self-fulfilling prophecy

The process by which our expectations about others' personality characteristics lead us to behave in ways that make those beliefs come true.

Social identity

The positive emotions that we experience based on our group memberships.

Personal space zones

The spatial distances we maintain around ourselves depending on our relationship with others, divided into intimate, personal, social, and public zones.

Interpersonal attraction

The phenomenon of what makes people like or love each other, influenced by factors such as similarity, self-disclosure, and proximity.

Mere exposure effect

The tendency to prefer stimuli (including people) that we have seen more frequently.

Inclusion of Other in the Self Scale

A measurement tool using overlapping circles of varying degrees of closeness to assess relationship closeness, predictive of satisfaction and relationship durability.

Causal attribution

The process of trying to determine the causes of people's behavior, distinguishing between personal (dispositional) and situational factors.

Fundamental attribution error

The common tendency to overestimate the role of personal factors and overlook the impact of social situations in judging others.

Self-monitoring

The ability to modify one's behavior in response to situational pressures, opportunities, and norms.

Self-perception

The process occurring when we use our own behavior as a guide to help us determine our own thoughts and feelings.

Foot-in-the-door technique

A persuasion method in which a person is first persuaded to accept a minor request and is subsequently asked for a larger request.

Cognitive dissonance

The discomfort experienced when our behavior does not align with our thoughts or beliefs.

Sunk cost fallacy

The tendency to continue pursuing a particular endeavor after having invested time, effort, or money into it.

Prosocial behavior

Any behavior that an individual engages in to benefit others.

Altruism

Any behavior designed to increase another person's welfare, particularly actions that do not appear to provide a direct reward to the person who performs them.

Reciprocal altruism

The behavioral norm that if we help other people now, those individuals will return the favor if we need their assistance in the future.

Social responsibility norm

The societal expectation that we should try to help others who need assistance, even without any expectation of future paybacks.

Diffusion of responsibility

The assumption that others will take action in an emergency, resulting in an individual choosing not to take action themselves.

Latané and Darley model of helping

A five-step sequential model describing the cognitive and behavioral stages required for an individual to provide help: noticing the event, interpreting it as an emergency, assuming responsibility, knowing the form of assistance, and providing help.

Aggression

Behavior that is intended to harm another individual, physically or psychologically.

Reactive aggression

Aggressive behavior that occurs as an impulsive, hot response to an immediate threat.

Proactive aggression

Aggressive behavior characterized by a purposeful, cold, and planned attack.

Displaced aggression

Aggression that is directed away from the direct cause of the frustration toward a different target.

Catharsis

The mistaken belief that observing or engaging in less harmful aggressive actions will reduce more harmful aggression at a later time.

Desensitization

The tendency over time to show weaker emotional responses to emotional or violent stimuli.

Culture of honor

A social norm that condones and encourages responding to insults and threats with aggression.

Conformity

A change in beliefs or behavior that occurs as a result of the presence of other people around us.

Obedience

Compliance with the explicit request or demand of a perceived authority figure.

Minority influence

The process whereby a smaller number of individuals successfully influences the opinions or behaviors of the larger majority group.

Psychological reactance

A strong emotional reaction that leads individuals to resist conformity and social pressure when they feel their personal freedom is being threatened.

Social facilitation

The tendency to perform easy or well-practiced tasks better or faster in the presence of others.

Social inhibition

The tendency to perform more difficult or less-practiced tasks more poorly in the presence of others.

Drive-arousal model of social facilitation

A theoretical model proposing that the presence of others creates physiological arousal, eliciting a dominant response that produces facilitation when correct and inhibition when incorrect.

Social loafing

A group process loss wherein individuals do not work as hard when working together in a group as they do when working alone.

Groupthink

A phenomenon wherein group members who prioritize harmony fail to voice concerns about a decision, ultimately resulting in flawed group decision making.

Illusion of group productivity

The tendency for members of a group to overvalue the productivity and effectiveness of the groups they work in.

Intimate partner violence (IPV)

The physical, psychological, or sexual abuse of one person by another within a close relationship.

Power and Control Wheel

A diagrammatic framework developed in 1984 detailing eight distinct non-physical and physical tactics abusers use to exert dominance and control over intimate partners.

Gaslighting

Manipulating another person into doubting their own perceptions, experiences, or understanding of events.

Safety plan

A personalized, practical plan developed with a trained professional to improve a person's safety while experiencing abuse, preparing to leave an abusive situation, or after leaving.