Social Psychology Concepts and Studies

A comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards covering the core concepts of social psychology, including behavioral influences, social influence studies, and cognitive processes.

Conformity

The act of adjusting one's behavior or thinking to match a group standard.

Obedience

A form of social influence where an individual follows direct commands from an authority figure.

Social Groups

Collections of two or more people who interact with one another and share similar characteristics and a sense of unity.

Prejudice

An unjustifiable and usually negative attitude toward a group and its members based on stereotypes.

Discrimination

Unjustifiable negative behavior or actions directed toward a group and its members.

Stereotypes

Generalized beliefs about a group of people that may be positive or negative (PnN).

Heuristics

Mental shortcuts or simple strategies used to make judgments and solve problems efficiently.

Attributes

The perceived causes that individuals use to explain behavior, often categorized as situational or dispositional.

Attitudes

Evaluative beliefs and feelings that predispose individuals to respond in particular ways to objects, people, or events.

Person perception

The mental process of forming impressions and drawing conclusions about the characteristics of other people.

Group think

A mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives.

Group polarisation

The tendency for a group's prevailing inclinations to be enhanced through discussion within the group.

Social comparison

The process of evaluating one's own abilities and opinions by comparing oneself with others.

Deindividuation

The loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity.

Anonymity

A state where a person's identity is unknown, often leading to reduced social restraint and increased deindividuation.

Shift in attention

A movement of focus from internal standards and self-evaluation to external group activities and cues.

Criticisms of the shock experiment

Ethical and methodological arguments against studies measuring obedience, specifically highlighting concerns about participant distress and deception.

Anti-conformity

The deliberate act of behaving in a way that is opposite to the expectations or norms of a group.

Independence

The ability to act and make decisions based on one's own beliefs rather than being influenced by a group or reacting against it.

Psychological reactance

A motivational state that occurs when people feel their freedom is being threatened, leading them to resist influence.

Cognitive bias

Systematic errors in thinking that occur when people are processing and interpreting information in the world around them.

Cognitive dissonance

The mental discomfort experienced when an individual holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values.

Social cognition

The study of how people process, store, and apply information about other people and social situations.

Salience

The quality of being particularly noticeable or important; a stimulus that stands out relative to its neighbors.

Social Categorisation

The process of classifying people into groups on the basis of common characteristics or attributes.

Fundamental attribution error

The tendency for observers to underestimate the impact of the situation and overestimate the impact of personal disposition on others' behavior.

Status

The relative social, professional, or other standing of someone or something within a group.

Power

The capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events.

Jane Elliot’s blue eye experiment

An experiment conducted to demonstrate the nature of prejudice and discrimination by dividing children based on their eye color.

The Wave

A social experiment that illustrated how easily people can be manipulated by group pressure and authoritarian structures.

Zimbardo Study

The Stanford Prison Experiment, which examined the psychological effects of perceived power and the roles of prisoners and guards.

Asch’s study

A series of experiments demonstrating the extent to which social pressure from a majority group could affect a person to conform.

Milgram’s experiment

A famous study on obedience that measured the willingness of participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts conflicting with their personal conscience.