Social Psych Final Study Guide

Attitudes

Evaluations of people, objects, and ideas, including ourselves, that are formed based on encounters and experiences.

Affective, cognitive, and behaviorally-based attitudes

Attitudes that can be based on beliefs, feelings and values, or observations of behavior.

Operant conditioning

A learning process where behaviors are increased or decreased based on reinforcement or punishment.

Implicit and explicit attitudes

Explicit attitudes are consciously endorsed and easily reported, while implicit attitudes are involuntary, uncontrollable, and sometimes unconscious.

Self-perception theory

Theory stating that people infer their attitudes from their behavior when their attitudes are weak or ambiguous.

Cognitive dissonance theory

Theory explaining attitude change due to discomfort from conflicting beliefs or behaviors.

Attitude accessibility

The ease and speed with which an attitude comes to mind, influencing spontaneous behaviors.

Theory of Planned Behavior

Predicts deliberate behaviors based on attitudes towards the behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control.

Yale attitude change approach

An approach to attitude change involving credible and attractive speakers, including the sleeper effect.

Elaborative Likelihood Model of Attitude Change

An explanation of the two ways in which persuasive communications can cause attitude change, specifying when people will be influenced by the content of the speech (logic of arguments) and when they will be influenced by superficial characteristics (who delivers the speech or its length).

Central Route

When individuals have the motivation and ability to pay attention, they are persuaded by the logic and strength of arguments through elaboration.

Peripheral Route

When individuals lack motivation and ability to pay attention, they are persuaded by surface characteristics such as charisma, attractiveness, celebrity status, liking, and trust of the persuader.

Heuristic-Systematic Model of Persuasion

Describes two ways in which persuasive communication can cause attitude change - systematically processing the merits of arguments or using mental shortcuts (heuristics).

Fear Arousing Communications

Persuasive messages that aim to change attitudes by arousing fear, often used in public service ads to promote behaviors like wearing seat belts or avoiding drugs.

Attitude Inoculation

Making individuals immune to attitude change attempts by exposing them to small doses of arguments against their position, helping them become immune to later attempts to change their attitudes.

Social Influence

The effect that the presence of other people has on individual behavior, leading to conformity.

Conformity

A change in behavior or belief as a result of real or imagined group pressure.

Informational Conformity

Conforming because we believe others have more accurate information and can guide our behavior.

Normative Conformity

Conforming to gain acceptance and approval from others, even if we do not believe in the behavior.

Sherif’s Autokinetic Effect Study

A study demonstrating how individuals adjust their beliefs based on group consensus in ambiguous situations.

Private Acceptance

Conforming because we genuinely believe others are correct, often resulting from informational social influence.

Public Compliance

Conforming outwardly without truly accepting the group's beliefs or behaviors.

Social Norms

Implicit or explicit rules that outline expectations for group members, with deviance often leading to punishment.

Asch’s Line Judgment Study

A study showing how individuals conform to incorrect group answers in a perceptual task.

Social Impact Theory

The idea that conformity depends on the strength, immediacy, and number of people in the influencing group.

Idiosyncrasy Credits

Tolerance earned by conforming to group norms, allowing occasional deviation without retribution.

Minority Influence

When a minority group influences the majority, often requiring consistency in their views over time.

Types of Social Norms

Injunctive norms (perceptions of acceptable behavior) and descriptive norms (perceptions of what people actually do).

Boomerang Effect

When informing a group about their behavior leads to an increase in undesirable actions, especially with added approval or disapproval signals.

Foot-in-the-door technique

A social influence strategy where getting people to agree first to a small request makes them more likely to agree later to a second, larger request.

Door-in-the-face technique

A social influence strategy where first asking people for a large request that they will probably refuse makes them more likely to agree later to a second, smaller request.

Propaganda and social influence in Nazi Germany

A deliberate, systematic attempt to advance a cause by manipulating people's attitudes and behaviors, often through misleading or emotionally charged information, as used by the Nazis.

Joseph Goebbels

Minister of Popular Enlightenment in Nazi Germany who controlled all forms of media and used propaganda to promote loyalty and patriotism.

Obedience

A social norm universally valued, where individuals are socialized to obey legitimized authority figures, even in their absence.

Milgram’s shock studies

A series of studies in social psychology examining obedience, particularly focusing on how long people will continue to administer shocks to others based on wrong answers.

Groups

Two or more people who interact and are interdependent, influencing each other's needs and goals, with benefits including a source of information, identity establishment, and social norms.

Norms

Expectations about behavior within a group.

Roles

Shared expectations about how particular people are supposed to behave in a group, which if enmeshed in, can lead to loss of individual identities and personalities.

Social Facilitation

The phenomenon where individuals perform better on simple tasks but worse on complex tasks when in the presence of others whose performance can be evaluated.

Dominant Response

The most likely behavior or response that is expected to occur in a given situation, influenced by the presence of others.

Social Loafing

The tendency for individuals to exert less effort when working in a group compared to when working alone, especially prevalent in Western cultures.

Deindividuation

The loss of self-awareness and restraint in group situations, leading to impulsive and deviant behaviors.

Process Loss

Any hindrance in group interaction that impairs effective problem-solving, such as lack of communication or domination by one individual.

Transactive Memory

The concept where the combined memory of two individuals is more efficient than each individual's memory alone, often by assigning different responsibilities for remembering information.

Groupthink

A mode of thinking where maintaining group cohesion is prioritized over critical evaluation of facts, leading to flawed decision-making.

Group Polarization

The tendency for group decisions to be more extreme than the initial inclinations of individual members, often leading to more extreme attitudes through group discussions.

Proximity

The concept that people tend to organize objects close to each other into a perceptual group and interpret them as a single entity.

Propinquity Effect

The finding that the more we see and interact with people, the more likely they are to become our friends.

Functional Distance

A certain aspect of architectural design that makes it more likely for some people to come into contact with each other more often than with others.

Festinger, Schachter, and Back (1950)

Researchers who tracked friendship formation among couples in various apartment buildings and found that residents who lived close were more likely to be friends.

Mere Exposure Effect

The finding that the more exposure we have to a stimulus, the more likely we are to like it.

Similarity

The concept that "birds of a feather flock together" and that people are more attracted to those who are similar to them.

Selection Bias

Situations you choose to be in expose you to others with similar interests, leading to the formation of close friendships.

Reciprocal Liking

The idea that we like people who like us, which can overcome initial dissimilarities in attitudes.

Familiarity

The concept that people prefer faces that resemble their own, and that familiarity can lead to attraction.

Physical Attractiveness

The role physical appearance plays in liking, with attractiveness being a significant factor in initial attraction.

Evolution

The process by which traits are determined by genes, supporting survival and allowing genes to be passed on, while inhibiting traits that hinder survival.

Evolutionary Psychology

The study that attempts to explain social behavior in terms of genetic factors that evolved over time based on natural selection principles.

Evolutionary Pressures on Male Reproduction

The pressures on men to mate widely, have low investment, and seek fertile females.

Evolutionary Pressures on Female Reproduction

The pressures on women to mate wisely, have high investments, and find males who can provide for them and their children.

Mating Preferences

The preferences of males and females in choosing partners based on resources, appearance, fertility, and other factors.

Gender Differences

Varied perspectives on gender differences including status, cultural, and methodological influences.

Types of Love

Compassionate love characterized by intimacy and affection, and passionate love marked by intense longing and physiological arousal.

Attachment Styles

Secure, Anxious/Ambivalent, and Avoidant attachment styles based on early caregiver relationships, influencing adult relationships.

Prosocial Behavior

Acts performed with the goal of benefiting others, including altruism which involves helping others at a cost to oneself.

Kin Selection

Behaviors favoring genetic relatives to ensure the survival of shared genes in future generations.

Reciprocity Norm

The expectation that helping others will increase the likelihood of receiving help in return.

Social Exchange Theory

The theory that people's feelings about a relationship depend on rewards, costs, perceived relationship quality, and chances of a better relationship elsewhere.

Empathy

The ability to put oneself in the shoes of another person and to experience events and emotions the way that the person experiences them.

Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis

When we feel empathy for a person, we will attempt to help that person purely for altruistic reasons, regardless of what we have to gain.

Diffusion of Responsibility

The phenomenon wherein each bystander's sense of responsibility to help decreases as the number of witnesses increases.

Bystander Effect

The finding that the greater the number of bystanders who witness an emergency, the less likely any one of them is to help.

Five Steps to Helping:

Noticing – are there distractions?

Interpreting – what is the relationship? Is there ambiguity?

Responsibility – diffusion of responsibility or social roles?

Deciding How – can I help? Am I qualified?

Deciding to – is there audience inhibition? What are the costs and rewards?

Misregulation

When energy expended is misguided or used in ineffective ways in meeting goals.

Fixed Traits

Traits believed to be innate and unchangeable.

Malleable Traits

Traits that can be improved with practice, learning, and effort.

Self-theories

Beliefs individuals hold about their own abilities and qualities.

Karen Horney's theory of "fraudulent bookkeeping"

Altering one's mental ledger to maintain positive self-perceptions.

Attachment Theory

Describes how early relationships with caregivers can shape one's beliefs about themselves and others.

Secure Attachment

Children with warm, responsive parents who set high standards.

Anxious Attachment/Preoccupied

Inconsistent parenting leading to chronic attachment anxiety.

Avoidant Attachment/Dismissing

Dismissive parenting style resulting in difficulties with emotional interactions and intimacy.

Disorganized Attachment/Fearful

Nonresponsive or frightening parenting leading to issues with emotional regulation and social competence.

Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy

Intervention for couples based on attachment theory, involving stages of de-escalation, creating bonding events, and generalizing changed patterns.

Affect Heuristic

The tendency for people to make judgments and decisions based, in part, on their feelings. It may lead to overconfidence when decisions are made based on "gut feelings."

Availability Heuristic

Information that is more easily remembered will have a greater impact on judgment. The ease of remembering information can be related to its vividness and the strength of verbal associative connections.

Anchoring and Adjustment Heuristic

Making judgments under uncertainty by anchoring on available information and adjusting until a plausible estimate is reached. It involves starting with an initial idea and adjusting beliefs based on that starting point.

Representativeness Heuristic

Making judgments by deciding if a person is representative of a category. For example, clinicians compare clients to mental representations of what a person with a particular disorder would look like.

Gender Bias

Mental health professionals viewing female clients as less psychologically healthy than male clients, which has been refuted. Gender stereotypes can influence diagnoses and treatment.

Social Class Bias

Psychological problems are more common and severe in people with lower socioeconomic status due to additional stressors of poverty. Clinicians may make biased decisions about therapy based on social class.

Racial Bias

Most pervasive bias, particularly in the diagnosis and treatment of psychotic patients. White patients are more likely to be correctly diagnosed, while black patients tend to receive lower-quality medical care.

Self-regulation

The self-management of behaviors, cognitions, and emotions where individuals choose goals, develop plans to achieve them, and regulate their behaviors in pursuit of these goals.

Nine components of self-regulation:

Goals

What a person is trying to accomplish or avoid.

Plans

The strategy for accomplishing the goals.