Social Psychology Midterm

social psychology

the study of how an individual’s thoughts, feelings, and actions are affected by the actual, imagined, or symbolically represented presence of other people

abc’s of social psychology

affect, behavior, cognition

cognitive dissonance

beliefs that are contradicted by strong counter evidence

fundamental attribution error

the failure to recognize the importance of situational influences on behavior, along with the corresponding tendency to overemphasize the importance of dispositions on behavior

dispositions

internal factors that guide a person’s behavior

naive realism

the belief that we see the world directly, without any perceptual or cognitive changes

social schema

cognitive structure of organized information, or representations, about social norms and collective patterns of behavior within society

natural selection

evolutionary process that molds species so that traits enhance the probability of survival and reproduction

theory of mind

the ability to recognize that other people have beliefs and desires and that understanding that allows us to understand their behavior

naturalistic fallacy

the claim that the way things are is the way they should be

individualistic culture

people tend to think of themselves as distinct social entities, tied to each other by voluntary bonds

collectivistic culture

people define themselves as part of a collective, inextricably tied to others

four ideas of social psychology

person/situation, learned/inherited, objective/subjective reality, hot/cold

person/situation

whether behavior is determined by personality traits or the environment

learned/inherited

origin of behavior, separating innate biological predispositions from acquired skills

hot/cold

separates automatic reactivity from deliberate thought

objective/subjective reality

differentiates the world as it actually exists and the world as perceived

five core social motives

belonging, understanding, control, enhance self, trust

internal validity

how confidently you can say that the predictor caused the outcome

external validity

generalizability

necessary for true experiment

manipulation of the predictor and random assignment

random assignment

assigning participants to different conditions by chance

random selection

selecting participants from a population by chance

emotions

brief, specific, subjective responses to goal-relevant stimuli

mood

disposition to respond emotionally in a particular way that lasts longer

affect

umbrella term for feelings

functions of emotions

interpersonal, intrapersonal, social and cultural

six basic emotions

happiness, sadness, disgust, fear, surprise, anger

circumplex model

activation/deactivation, unpleasant/pleasant

face

reputation comes from how well you play your role in society

dignity

self worth is inalienable and inherent

honor

defending reputation from social standing

cultural display rules

socially learned norms that regulate how, when, and where emotions should be expressed in a given culture

ideal affect

how we prefer to feel

gene x culture

genes provide tendencies and culture shapes whether those tendencies are expressed

aggression

behavior intended to harm another person who does not want to be harmed

violence

aggression intended to cause extreme physical harm

prosocial behavior

voluntary actions intended to benefit or support others

altruism

motivation for helping that has the improvement of another’s welfare as the goal

egosim

helping others to benefit themselves

physical aggression

aggression that involves physically harming others

social aggression

intentionally harming one’s social relationships

instrumental aggression

intentional and planned at aiming to hurt someone to gain something

hostile aggression

impulsive, emotion-driven behavior aimed solely at causing pain or injury