Social Psychology

Social Psychology

The study of how people affect one another’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and how situations influence behavior.

Intrapersonal Topics

Topics that pertain to the individual, including emotions, attitudes, the self, and social cognition.

Interpersonal Topics

Topics that involve interactions between people and groups, such as aggression, helping behavior, prejudice, and relationships.

Situationism

The view that behavior is primarily determined by the immediate environment and surrounding circumstances.

Dispositionism

The view that behavior is primarily determined by internal factors such as personality traits and temperament.

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency to overemphasize internal causes of others’ behavior while underestimating situational influences.

Quizmaster Study

A study showing that people often attribute success to intelligence rather than recognizing situational advantages.

Halo Effect

The tendency for an overall positive impression of a person to influence judgments about their character.

Individualistic Culture

A culture that emphasizes personal achievement, autonomy, and independence.

Collectivistic Culture

A culture that emphasizes group harmony, relationships, and interdependence.

Actor-Observer Bias

The tendency to attribute others’ behavior to internal factors while attributing one’s own behavior to situational factors.

Attribution

A belief about the cause of an outcome or behavior.

Locus of Control

Whether a cause is viewed as internal or external.

Stability

The extent to which a cause is considered permanent or changeable over time.

Controllability

The extent to which a person can control the factors that influence an outcome.

Self-Serving Bias

The tendency to attribute successes to internal factors and failures to external factors.

Just-World Hypothesis

The belief that people generally get the outcomes they deserve.

Victim Blaming

Assigning responsibility for a person's misfortune to that person rather than considering situational factors.

Social Role

A pattern of behavior expected of a person in a specific setting or group.

Social Norm

A group’s expectation about appropriate thoughts and behaviors for its members.

Script

A person’s knowledge of the sequence of events expected in a particular situation.

Stanford Prison Experiment

A study by Philip Zimbardo demonstrating the powerful influence of social roles, norms, and situations on behavior.

Attitude

An evaluation of a person, object, idea, or issue that can be positive or negative.

Affective Component of Attitude

The emotional or feeling aspect of an attitude.

Behavioral Component of Attitude

The way an attitude influences behavior.

Cognitive Component of Attitude

The beliefs, thoughts, and knowledge associated with an attitude.

Cognitive Dissonance

Psychological discomfort caused by holding conflicting attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors.

Festinger’s Theory of Cognitive Dissonance

The theory that people are motivated to reduce inconsistency among their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.

Reducing Cognitive Dissonance

Changing behavior, changing beliefs, or adding new beliefs to restore consistency.

Justification of Effort

The tendency to value goals or groups more highly when significant effort was required to attain them.

Persuasion

The process of changing attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors through communication.

Yale Attitude Change Approach

A model explaining how source, message, and audience characteristics affect persuasion.

Credibility

The extent to which a communicator is perceived as knowledgeable and trustworthy.

Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)

A model proposing that persuasion occurs through either the central route or peripheral route.

Central Route to Persuasion

Persuasion based on careful evaluation of facts, evidence, and logical arguments.

Peripheral Route to Persuasion

Persuasion based on indirect cues such as attractiveness, emotions, or celebrity endorsements.

Product Placement

The inclusion of branded products in media to subtly influence attitudes and behavior.

Foot-in-the-Door Technique

A persuasion strategy that begins with a small request followed by a larger request.

Principle of Consistency

The tendency to behave in ways that are consistent with previous commitments and actions.

Conformity

Changing behavior to match a group, even if one disagrees with the group.

Asch Effect

The influence of a majority group on an individual’s judgments.

Confederate

A person who secretly works with the researcher in an experiment.

Compliance

Agreeing to a request or demand, even if one privately disagrees.

Normative Social Influence

Conforming to gain acceptance, fit in, or avoid rejection.

Informational Social Influence

Conforming because the group is believed to have accurate information.

Obedience

Changing behavior in response to a command from an authority figure.

Milgram Experiment

A study demonstrating the extent to which people obey authority figures, even when causing harm to others.

Groupthink

The tendency for group members to prioritize consensus and cohesion over critical evaluation of alternatives.

Symptoms of Groupthink

Illusions of invulnerability, belief in group morality, self-censorship, pressure on dissenters, and illusion of unanimity.

Group Polarization

The strengthening of a group’s initial attitudes after discussion among group members.

Social Trap

A situation in which individuals pursue short-term interests that lead to negative long-term consequences.

Social Loafing

Reduced individual effort when working in a group because personal contributions are not easily evaluated.

Deindividuation

A reduction in self-awareness and accountability that can occur when people are part of a group.

Majority Size Effect

The tendency for conformity to increase as the number of people in the majority increases.

Dissenter Effect

The reduction of conformity when at least one person disagrees with the majority.

Public Responses

Public answers increase conformity because individuals fear social disapproval.

Private Responses

Private answers reduce conformity because social pressure is minimized.

Achievement-Oriented Culture

A characteristic of individualistic cultures emphasizing personal success.

Relationship-Oriented Culture

A characteristic of collectivistic cultures emphasizing social connections and group harmony.

Analytic Thinking Style

A focus on individual objects and their attributes, common in individualistic cultures.

Holistic Thinking Style

A focus on relationships and context, common in collectivistic cultures.