AP Psych Unit 1 Vocab

Social psychology

How we think, shape, and connect with others

Attribution theory

We can explain behavior by crediting the situation or the person’s disposition

Fundamental attribution error

Trend for observers to underestimate the impact of the situation and overestimate the impact of personal disposition

Peripheral route persuasion

People are influence by incidental cues (ie, speaker’s attractiveness)

Central route persuasion

Interest people focus on arguments and respond w/ favorable thoughts

Foot in the door

Small request → Larger request

Role

Set of expectations about a social position

Cognitive dissonance

conflicting thoughts and behaviors

Upward comparison

Comparing oneself to those who are better off

Social comparison

Comparisons between others and ourselves

Downward comparison

Comparisons between ourselves to those who are worse off

Relative deprivation

When we compare ourselves w/ peers and realize that regardless of what have, others will have more

False consensus

Overestimate how others share opinions

Dispositional (internal) attributions

Explain behavior using internal terms

Situational (external) attributions

External traits

Actor-Observer Bias

Tendency to explain the behavior of others with dispositional attributions (FAE), but attribute our own behavior as the actor to situational factors.

Self-serving Bias

Tendency to attribute our successes to dispositional factors and our failures to situational factors.

Individualistic cultures

FAE, SSB, value on independence

Collectivist cultures

Favor groups

Multiculturalism

Recognizes and values diverse cultural backgrounds

Door in the face

People say no to a huge request but comply with a smaller one

Explanatory style

Explaining events in your life/others

Optimistic ES

Positive → Internal

Negative → External

Pessimistic

Negative → Internal

Positive → External

Norms

Conditioned social rules that provide info on how to behave

Conformity

Change behaviors to fit in with others

Normative social influence

Influence from a person’s desire to gain approval

Informational social influence

Influence from one’s willingness to accept about others opinions reality

Social facilitation

Tendency for an individual’s performance to increase when easy or well-rehearsed tasks are performed in the presence of others

Social loafing

Occurs when a person contributes less when working with others in a group than when performing the same task alone, due to the lessoning of personal accountability

Deindividuation

state of lessened personal responsibility and self-restraint due to feelings of anonymity created by being part of a crowd

Group polarization

tendency for a group of like-minded individuals who interact to make more extreme decisions after an issue is discussed

Groupthink

tendency for a cohesive decision-making group to ignore or dismiss reasonable alternatives because of the desire for a unanimous decision

Culture

Behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by a group

Prejudice

Negative attitudes toward a group

Stereotype

Cognitive component of prejudice that are schemas for an entire group that generalize 

Discrimination

Negative behavior towards a group

Just-world

The world is just and people get what they deserve and deserve what they get

In-group

Us

Outgroup

Them

Ingroup bias

Tendency to favor our own group

Scapegoat

Prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to balance

Implicit attitudes

Unconscious preference

Ethnocentrism

Favor your own culture/ethnicity

Aggression

Any verbal or physical action to hurt others

Frustration-aggression principle

Stress from being blocked from doing something → aggression

Social script

Culturally guided model for how to act in situations

Mere exposure

repeated contact → like stimulus more

Passionate love

Intense positive absorption at the beginning of a relationship

Companionate love

Deep affectionate attachment we feel for those w/ whom are lives are intertwined

Similarity

More likely to be attracted to similar people

Matching hypothesis

Individuals pair up with those of similar attractiveness

Halo effect

Rate an individual with a positive trait because they’re attractive

Altruism

Doing things selflessly

Bystander effect

Less likely to help if there are lots of people

Social exchange theory

Balance costs and awards

Reciprocity norm

Help with the expectation they will help

Social responsibility norm

People will help those needing help

Conflict

Perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas

Social trap

In pursuing self-interest > the good of the group, 2 groups engage in mutually destructive behavior 

Self-fulfilling prophecies

Belief leads to its fulfillment

Superordinate goals

Obstacle that requires cooperation to ensure success → reduces prejudice

Diffusion of responsibility

Each individual in a crowd thinks they don’t need to help because someone else will take action