Psychology Unit 2: Social Cognition, Influence, and Behaviour

Vocabulary flashcards covering social cognition, cognitive biases, heuristics, prejudice, discrimination, group influence, power, obedience, and conformity from Unit 2 Psychology.

Social Cognition

How we perceive, think about and use information to understand and make judgments about ourselves and others in different social situations.

Person Perception

The mental processes we use to form impressions and draw conclusions about the personal characteristics of other people.

Schema

A concept or idea that helps us to organise and interpret information.

Halo Effect

A cognitive bias in which the impression we form about one quality of a person influences our beliefs and expectations about the person in other qualities.

Salience

Determines which information will most likely grab our attention and have the greatest influence on our perception of people and the world.

Social Categorisation

The process of placing people into social groups on the basis of common characteristics.

Ingroups

Social groups consisting of people who are like ourselves.

Outgroups

Social groups consisting of people who differ from ourselves.

Attribution

The process by which people explain the causes of their own and other people's behaviour.

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency to overestimate the influence of personal factors and underestimate the impact of situational factors on other people's behaviour.

Actor-Observer Bias

Our tendency to attribute our own behaviour to situational causes, yet attribute others' behaviour to internal factors.

Self-Serving Bias

A bias occurring when judging ourselves where we tend to take credit for our successes and attribute failures to situational factors.

Attitude

An evaluation a person makes about an object, person, group, event or issue.

Affective Component

The emotional reactions or feelings an individual has towards an object, person, group, event or issue.

Behavioural Component

The way in which an attitude is expressed through our actions.

Cognitive Component

The beliefs we have about an object, person, group, event or issue linked to what we know about the world.

Stereotype

A collection of beliefs that we have about the people who belong to a certain group, regardless of individual differences among members of that group.

Social Stigma

Negative labels associated with disapproval or rejection by others who are not labelled in that way.

Cognitive Dissonance

A situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviours, which produces a feeling of mental discomfort.

Cognitive Bias

A subconscious systematic error in thinking that leads you to misinterpret information from the world around you.

Anchoring Bias

The tendency to rely heavily on the very first piece of information received when making a decision.

Attentional Bias

The tendency to prioritise attention to certain information over other information.

Confirmation Bias

The tendency to seek, recall or interpret information in a way that confirms existing beliefs or expectations, while dismissing contradictory evidence.

False-Consensus Bias

The tendency to overestimate the extent to which other people share one's beliefs, personal characteristics or behaviours.

Hindsight Bias

The tendency, only after an event has occurred, to overestimate the extent to which the outcome could have been foreseen.

Misinformation Effect

The tendency for information acquired after an event to influence the accuracy of the memory of the original event.

Optimism Bias

The tendency to overestimate the likelihood of experiencing positive events and underestimate the likelihood of experiencing negative events in the future.

Dunning-Kruger Effect

A cognitive bias whereby people overestimate their knowledge or ability, particularly in areas with which they have little to no knowledge or experience.

Heuristic

A strategy for solving a problem or making a decision that is based on experience with similar types of problems but cannot guarantee a correct outcome.

Availability Heuristic

Making a judgment based on how easy or difficult it is to bring specific examples to mind.

Representativeness Heuristic

Categorising a person, object, or event by judging how closely it matches our idea of a typical member of the category.

Affect Heuristic

Making a judgment that is influenced by the emotion being experienced at the time.

Prejudice

Holding a negative attitude towards the members of a group, based solely on their membership of that group.

Old-Fashioned Prejudice

A form of prejudice where the majority group openly rejects minority group members and their views towards the minority group are obvious and recognisable to others.

Modern Prejudice

Prejudice that is subtle, hidden, and expressed in ways more likely to be accepted within the majority group.

Explicit Prejudice

Prejudice that is consciously held and usually deliberately thought about.

Implicit Prejudice

Prejudice that is typically unconsciously held, where the person holding such prejudice is not usually aware that they do so.

Discrimination

Positive or negative behaviour that is directed towards a social group and its members.

Direct Discrimination

Occurs when someone is treated unfavourably because of a personal characteristic protected by the law.

Indirect Discrimination

Occurs when there is an unreasonable requirement, condition or practice that disadvantages a person or group because of a personal characteristic.

Intergroup Contact

Increasing direct contact between two groups who are prejudiced against each other under specific conditions.

Contact Hypothesis

Proposes that certain types of direct contact between members of different groups can reduce prejudice.

Mutual Interdependence

A condition where two different groups must have contact that makes them dependent on each other.

Superordinate Goal

A goal that cannot be achieved by any one group alone and overrides other existing goals which each group might have.

Equality of Status

A condition where groups must have equal status in the contact situation for prejudice between them to be reduced.

Cognitive Intervention

Changing the way in which someone thinks about prejudice, such as encouraging understanding of others based on individual characteristics.

Social Influence

The effects of the presence or actions of others, either real or imagined, on the way people think, feel and behave.

Group

Any collection of two or more people who interact with and influence one another and who share a common purpose.

Aggregation

A collection of people who have no obvious social structure, and have minimal shared purpose, interdependence or direct interaction.

Culture

The way of life of a particular society or community that sets it apart from other societies and communities.

Status

The importance of an individual's position in the group, as perceived by members of the group.

Power

An individual's or group's ability to control or influence the thoughts, feelings or behaviour of another person or group.

Reward Power

Power based on the ability to give positive consequences or remove negative consequences in response to specific behaviour.

Coercive Power

Power based on the ability to give negative consequences or remove positive consequences in response to specific behaviour.

Legitimate Power

Power arising from an individual's status or position that gives them the right to exercise power over others.

Referent Power

Power arising when individuals identify with or want to be like or liked by a person.

Expert Power

Power derived from having special knowledge and skills that are desirable or needed.

Informational Power

Power derived from having resources or information that are useful and not available elsewhere.

Role

The behaviours adopted by an individual or assigned to them that influence the way in which they function or act in different situations.

Groupthink

A way of thinking by individual members of a group characterised by a strong tendency to seek agreement when decision making or problem solving, overriding realistic considerations of alternative options.

Group Polarisation

The tendency of an individual group member, following group discussion, to shift their initially held views to a more extreme position.

Deindividuation

A state characterised by reduced self-consciousness, inhibition, feelings of personal responsibility and inner restraint that can occur when in a group or crowd.

Anonymity

When an individual feels invisible and less accountable when in a group or crowd.

Shift in Attention

When individuals within a group become focused on the group's activity or aims at the expense of self-reflection about potential consequences.

Obedience

Occurs when we follow the commands of someone with authority, or the rules or laws of our society.

Compliance

Changing one's behaviour in response to a request to do so without necessarily involving an authority figure.

Social Proximity

Refers to the closeness between two or more people, both physically and/or the closeness of their relationship.

Conformity

The tendency to adjust one's thoughts, feelings or behaviours so that they are consistent with those of a particular individual or group, or accepted standards.

Normative Influence

Refers to a person's tendency to go along with the group so that they will fit in and gain the approval of other group members.

Informational Influence

Refers to the increased tendency to conform when uncertain of one's ability to give a correct answer and believing others are more capable of making accurate judgements.

Unanimity

Refers to the agreement of all individuals involved in a task.

Social Loafing

The tendency of an individual to reduce their effort when working in a group, compared with when they are working alone.

Anti-Conformity

The deliberate refusal to comply with accepted standards in a society.

Independence

Evident when experiencing freedom from the influence or control of other individuals or groups.

Reactance

Acting to protect one's sense of freedom when it is being threatened by strong social pressure.