AT Psych Unit Four • Social Psychology

Attractiveness Stereotype

Attractive people generally seem more agreeable, conscientious, and socially skilled than less attractive individuals, leading to positive evaluations across various dimensions

Illusory Correlation

When people estimate they’ve encountered more confirmations of association between social traits than they actually have (+ underestimate disconfirmations)

Attributions

Inferences people draw about causes of events and behavior

Internal Attribution

Ascribing causes of behavior to personal dispositions, traits, abilities, feeling

External Attributions

Ascribe causes of behavior to situational demands and environmental constraints

Actor-Observer Bias

Tendency to attribute causes of others’ behavior to internal factors but own to external ones

Fundamental Attribution Error

Observers’ bias in favor of internal attributions in explaining others’ behavior

Self-Serving Bias

Tendency to attribute success to personal factors and failure to external ones. Strengthens with time.

Stable

More permanent factor in cause

Cognitive Component

Beliefs people hold about object of attitude

Attitude

Positive/negative evaluation of object of thought

Behavioral Component

Predispositions to act in certain ways toward an object of attitude

Affective Component

Emotional feelings stimulated by object of thought

Attitude Strength

How firmly held and durable an attitude is

Attitude Ambivalence

How conflicting or not your evaluations are toward an object of thought

Attitude Accessibility

How often and quickly an attitude comes to mind

Implicit Attitudes

Covert, subconscious attitudes expressed in subtle automatic responses

Explicit Attitudes

Consciously held, readily describable attitudes

Mere Exposure Effect

Repeated exposure to a stimulus promotes greater liking of it

Evaluative Conditioning

Efforts to transfer emotion attached to an unconditioned stimulus to a new conditioned stimulus (e.g. popular actors modeling jewelry to transfer positive feelings to the jewelry)

Operant Conditioning

Social reinforcement or condemnation of attitudes expressed publicly can strengthen or weaken commitment to a viewpoint

Dissonance Theory

Inconsistency among multiple attitudes held by one person propels them in the direction of attitude change

Effort Justification

Changing attitudes toward an object of thought depending on the amount of effort related (e.g. believing something worked better than it did because it was painful)

Elaboration Likelihood Model

Durability of attitude change depends on the extent to which people think about the content of persuasive communications

Central Route

People ponder the logic and content of persuasive messages carefully. More effective in the long-term.

Peripheral Route

Persuasiveness depends on non-message factors such as the attractiveness/credibility of a source or conditioned emotional responses. Less effective in the long-term.

Normative Influence

People conform to social norms for fear of social consequences

Informational Influence

When people look to others for guidance about how to behave in ambiguous situations

Bystander Effect

People less likely to provide needed help when in groups than when alone

Diffusion of Responsibility

With responsibility divided between many people, each person feels a decreased sense of responsibility

Social Loafing

Reduction of effort by individuals when working in groups compared to when they work by themselves

Group Polarization

When group discussion strengthens group’s dominant point of view and produces a shift toward more extreme decision in that direction.

Groupthink

When members of a cohesive group emphasize concurrence at the expense of critical thinking in arriving at a decision