Unit 4 - Social Psychology and Personality

Attribution Theory

theory that we explain people’s behavior by creating either the situation or the person’s disposition (ex. that man is yelling because he’s a bad person)

Dispositional Attributions

internal characteristics (personal traits) such as personality and intelligence

Situational Attributions

environmental factors

Explanatory Style

a psychological attribute that describes how people explain the causes and impact of events in their lives, whether positive or negative

Actor-Observer Bias

Tendency to attribute one’s own actions to external causes while attributing other people’s behavior to internal causes

Fundamental Attribution Error

the tendency for observers, for analyzing others’ behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of a person’s disposition (Ex: he’s yelling because he’s a bad person, not because of his high stress)

Self-Serving Bias

attributing causes of behavior to external causes if we fail & internal causes if we succeed (I passed my test because I am smart/I failed my test because my teacher doesn’t teach well) (aka “i’m not the problem, i’m the best 😗”)

Internal locus of control

think they control and are responsible for what happens to them

external locus of control

believe what happens is due to fate, luck, or others

mere exposure effect

the phenomenon that repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

a belief that leads to its own fulfillment (ex: you think you’re going to do bad on a test, so you have anxiety during the test and don’t remember what you studying because you thought you wouldn’t, therefore affecting your performance and actually causing you to do bad on the test)

Social Comparison Theory

is the idea that people compare themselves to others to evaluate their abilities, opinions, and attitudes; to gain a better understanding of themselves

relative deprivation

the idea that someone feels deprived or entitled to something based on a comparison to others (ex. you get a new phone for your birthday but your friend got a car for their birthday, then you feel deprived womp womp)

stereotype

a generalized (sometimes accurate but often overgeneralized) belief about a group of people

prejudice

unjustifiable and usually negative attitude toward a group and its members. generally involves stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings, and a predisposition to discriminatory action (ex. disdain to the Bennets because they’re in the countryside and not London)

Discrimination

the ability to differentiate between stimuli (a kid says “momma” when they see their mother but not when they see other women, sorting clothes on clothing type) OR the act of acting on prejudice

Cognitive Load

refers to the amount of information our working memory can process at any given time

Implicitly attitudes

evaluations that occur without conscious awareness toward an attitude object or the self

Just-World Phenomenon

the tendency for people to believe the world is just and that people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get (ex. Homeless people are lazy and don’t work so they deserve to be poor)

Out-group homogeneity effect

the perception of out-group members as more similar to one another than are in-group members

In-group bias

our tendency to favor our own group as opposed to the outgroup

Ethnocentrism

the prejudicial belief that one’s culture is superior to all other cultures. People tend to justify their culture’s social systems while judging others’ as “bad” or “wrong”

Belief Perseverance

clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited

Confirmation bias

the tendency to search for or put more value on information that confirms your beliefs, while disregarding opposing information

Cognitive Dissonance

the theory that we act to reduce the discomfort we feel when two of our thoughts are inconsistent (ex. we become aware that are attitudes and actions clash, we can reduce the resulting dissonance by changing our attitudes)

Social Norms

rules for accepted and expected behavior

Social Influence Theory

proposes that social pressure to behave or think in certain ways can be normative or informational

Normative Social Influence

influence resulting from a person’s desire to gain approval to avoid disapproval (ex. you get a stanley and wear oversized sweatshirts in the middle of the summer to fit in with them popular kids)

Informative Social Influence

influence resulting from one’s willingness to accept others’ opinions about reality (ex. you go to poetry event for the first time and snap instead of clap because everyone else is snapping)

Persuasion

the process of influencing someone to change their beliefs or actions

Peripheral Route Persuasion

occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker’s attractiveness (you obey a non-smoking ad because LeBron James was the spokesperson, ethos & pathos)

Central Route to Persuasion

occurs when interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts (logos, car dealers trying to get you to buy a car based on car safety, gas mileage)

Halo effect

believe someone is good, you will interpret all of their actions as good, and fail to notice their bad traits (ex. wowie! this person is conventionally attractive! they must be super kind and intelligent!)

Foot-In-The-Door Phenomenon

tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request (ex. can I have a dollar? sure! —> can i have ten bucks? sure!)

Door-In-The-Face Phenomenon

when someone starts with a large request that the other person would turn down, then asking a more reasonable request that the person would accept (ex. may i please have $100? heck no. —> could i have… $10 dollars? seems fine, sure)

Conformity

adjusting our behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard

Social Norms

rules for accepted and expected behavior

Obedience

changing one’s behavior at the direct command of an authority figure

Conditions that strengthen obedience

• presence of an authority figure

• distance from the victim

• legitimacy of the authority

• group influence

• lack of personal responsibility

Individualists

more emphasis on independent self, self-defined by personal values, personal goals, personal attitudes

Collectivists

more emphasis on collective self, self-defined by connections with family and friends with the goals of the group having higher priority than individual goals

Multiculturalism

the quality or condition of a society in which different ethnic and cultural groups have equal status and access to power but each maintains its own identity, characteristics, and more

Group Polarization

the enhancement of a group’s prevailing inclinations through discussion within the group (ex. political rallies tend to strengthen people’s views because of this, having a discussion with people of the same opinion)

Group Think

the mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmon in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives (ex. most people at the meeting think what the CEO said is terrible, but they all agree on saying it’s a wonderful idea in order to not anger the CEO or cause conflict)

Diffusion of Responsibility

a phenomenon whereby a person is less likely to take responsibility for action or inaction when other by standards or witnesses are present (ex. murder of Kitty Genovese, surely someone else will call 911 and help)

Social Loafing

the tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individual accountable (ex. if it’s a group project, you’re going to put in less work)

Deindividuation

the loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity (ex. mob mentality, everyone starts screaming at a concert so you also start screaming and yelling)

Social Facilitation

improved performance on simple or well learned tasks in the presence of others (ex. actor performs better with an audience than by himself)

False Consensus Effect (Consensus Bias)

the tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors (ex. you’re really invested in streamers, so you assume everyone’s heard of KSI’s new song, “Thick of It;” you think people are living under a rock when they don’t know who KSI is)

Superordinate Goals

shared goals that can only achieved through cooperation

Social trap

a situation in which the conflicting parties, by each rationally pursuing their self-interest rather than the good of the group, become caught in mutually destructive behavior

Industrial-Organizational

help organizations and companies select and train employees, boost morale, productively design products, and implement systems

Prosocial behavior

refers to any action that benefits other people

Altruism

unselfish concern for the welfare of others (ex. saving someone’s life despite having to risk your own)

Social Responsibility Norm

largely learned, it is a norm that tells us to help others when they need us even though they may not repay us

Bystander effect

the idea that people are less likely to help if others are around, because we assume that someone else will help instead

Personality

an individual’s characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting

Psychodynamic theories view of personality

view human behavior as a dynamic interaction between the conscious mind and the unconscious mind, including associated motives and conflicts

Unconscious

a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories

Ego

the largely conscious, “executive” part of personality that, mediates among the demands of the id (instincts), superego (morality), and reality (this is ego)

Defense mechanisms

unconscious strategies that people use to protect themselves from anxiety or threats to their self-esteem

Repression

banishing anxiety arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories form consciousness (ex. you forget a traumatic memory after it happened)

Regression

an individual faced with anxiety retreats to a more infantile psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated (ex. if anxious on the first day of school, a child might go back to a “thumb sucking” phase to get through the day)

Reaction Formation

the ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulses to their opposite; people may express feelings that are opposite of their unconscious feelings (ex. unfortunately, this can be when an individual bullies someone or is overly rude while they internally are attracted to or fawn over their victim)

Projection

people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others (ex. if you feel unqualified for a position and you lash out at a coworker and say they don’t know what they’re doing)

Rationalization

offers self-justification explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one’s actions. (Ex. student who don’t study may think “all work and no play makes me a boring person” or someone who is an alcoholic may say “I only drink in social settings.”)

Displacement

shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person; redirecting anger toward a safer outlet. (Ex. bullying)

Denial

people refuse to believe or even perceive painful realities (ex. see your boyfriend cheating, but still don’t believe it)

Sublimation

a type of defense mechanism where socially unacceptable impulses are transformed into socially acceptable actions or behavior

Projective Test

personality test that provides ambiguous stimuli and test-takers tell a story about it)

Preconscious

includes stored information about yourself or your environment that you are not currently aware or thinking of but can easily call to mind when asked

Humanistic Psychology

emphasized human potential, focused on the ways “healthy” people strive for self-determination and self-realization

Unconditional Positive Regard

we are all born with a need for acceptance and love from others independent of how we behave, and positive self-regard from ourselves

Self-Actualization

motivation to fulfill potential and to become a fully functioning person

Social-Cognitive Theory of Personality

states that our traits and social environments interact with one another, and those traits are learned through observation or imitation

Reciprocal determinism

a social-cognitive theory that states that a person’s behavior, environment, and cognition all influence and interact with each other

Self-Concept

all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves “Who am I?”

Self-esteem

a person’s subjective evaluation of their own worth, including their beliefs about themselves and their emotional states

Self-Efficacy

the belief that you can do a particular task greatly increases the chances that you can actually do it

Trait

a characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition and act, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer report

Personality Inventory

a questionnaire on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors; used to assess selected personality traits

Factor analysis

a statistical method used to describe variability among observed variables in terms of fewer unobserved variables called factors. It helps identify clusters or groups of related items on psychological tests.

The Big Five Personality Factors

model of personality traits that describes five basic trait dimensions (OCEAN)

Openness

do you like change? Can you adapt to it? - Low score: practical, prefers routine, comforting - High score: imaginative, prefers variety, independent

Conscientiousness

are you organized and careful? - Low score: disorganized, careless, impulsive - High Score: organized, careful, disciplined

Agreeableness

how well do you get along with others? - Low score: ruthless, suspicious, uncooperative - High score: soft-hearted, trusting, helpful

Extraversion

are you shy or outgoing? - Low score: retiring, sober, reserved - High score: sociable, affectionate, fun-loving

Neuroticism

are you anxious often? - Low score: calm, secure, self-satisfied - High score: anxious, insecure, self-pitying

Drive Reduction Theory

the idea that a physiological need creates an aroused tension state that motivates an organism to satisfy the need

Arousal Theory

human motivation aims to increase arousal - We feel driven to experience stimulation

Optimal Level of Arousal

individuals are motivated to reach an ________, where they feel alert and engaged but not stressed

Yerkes-Dodson Law

people perform best at a moderate level of arousal

Self-Determination Theory

the theory that we feel motivated to satisfy our needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness

Intrinsic Motivation

motivation that stems from internal factors, benefits associated with the process of pursuing a goal (autonomy, mastery, purpose)

Extrinsic Motivation

motivation that stems from external factors, benefits associated with achieving a goal or avoiding punishment (compensation, punishment, reward)

Instinct

complex, inherited behavior that patterns a characteristic of a species that is unlearned

Instinct Theory

people are motivated to behave in certain ways because they are evolutionarily/genetically programmed to do so with survival instincts

Approach-Approach

the least stressful social conflict that involved 2 option, only one of which you can choose (ex. accepted to both Harvard and Dartmouth—pick)

Avoidance-Avoidance

involves 2 negative options, one of which you must choose (ex. mow the lawn or wash the dishes)

Approach-avoidance

involves whether or not to choose an option that has both a positive and negative consequence(s). You are both attracted and repelled to the same goal (Ex. You like spicy food, but it gives you heartburn)