PSYC 102 – Lecture 6: Social Psychology Core Vocabulary

A comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards covering the major concepts, theories, and findings discussed in PSYC 102 Lecture 6 on Social Psychology.

Social psychology

The scientific study of how people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others.

Social cognition

The way individuals perceive, interpret, and remember themselves and others in their social world.

Attitude

A relatively stable, enduring evaluation of an object, person, or idea.

ABC model of attitudes

Proposes that attitudes have affective, behavioural, and cognitive components.

Affective component

The emotional feelings linked to an attitude object (how we feel).

Behavioural component

The predisposition to act toward an attitude object (how we behave).

Cognitive component

The beliefs or thoughts people hold about an attitude object (what we think).

Mere thought effect

The tendency for attitudes to become more extreme simply by thinking about them.

Cognitive dissonance

Emotional discomfort from holding contradictory beliefs or when behaviour contradicts beliefs, motivating attitude change.

Self-perception theory

Idea that people infer their attitudes by observing their own behaviour when attitudes are uncertain.

Social desirability

The tendency to report attitudes that match what we believe others find acceptable.

Implicit attitude

An attitude that exists outside conscious awareness.

Stereotype

An oversimplified, fixed belief about a group or its members.

Prejudice

Negative, unjust feelings toward individuals based on their group membership.

Realistic conflict theory

View that inter-group hostility arises from competition over scarce resources.

Social identity theory

Framework suggesting prejudice stems from group categorization, identification, and favourable comparison.

Social categorization

Classifying people (including oneself) into groups to help interpret the social environment.

Social comparison

Evaluating one’s own group as superior to enhance self-esteem.

Central route persuasion

Attitude change based on careful processing of message content and logic.

Peripheral route persuasion

Attitude change based on superficial cues such as attractiveness or emotion rather than content.

Foot-in-the-door technique

Persuasion method that starts with a small request to increase compliance with a larger request later.

Door-in-the-face technique

Persuasion method beginning with an extreme request followed by the smaller request actually desired.

Appeals to fear

Persuasion strategy implying negative consequences if one fails to comply.

Forewarning

Advance notice of a persuasive attempt that raises audience resistance.

Attribution

A causal explanation for someone’s behaviour.

Dispositional attribution

Explaining behaviour as caused by internal characteristics of the person.

Situational attribution

Explaining behaviour as caused by external circumstances.

Fundamental attribution error

Tendency to over-emphasize dispositional factors when explaining others’ behaviour.

Actor-observer effect

The tendency to attribute one’s own actions to situations but others’ actions to dispositions.

Self-serving bias

Attribution pattern that credits successes to self and failures to external factors.

Norm

A shared rule about how group members should think, feel, or behave.

Descriptive norm

Expectation about what people in a group actually do.

Injunctive norm

Expectation about what people in a group ought to do.

Social role

A set of norms defining behaviours expected of someone in a particular position.

Conformity

Yielding to real or imagined social pressure.

Obedience

Following direct commands, usually from an authority figure.

Social facilitation

Performance enhancement when others are present.

Social loafing

Reduced effort by individuals working in a group compared with alone.

Group polarization

Intensification of initial group attitudes after discussion.

Groupthink

Faulty decision making in cohesive groups that value consensus over accuracy.

Additive task

Group task where members perform parallel actions; productivity increases with size.

Conjunctive task

Group task limited by the performance of the weakest member.

Disjunctive task

Group task requiring a single solution; best member’s performance is critical.

Divisible task

Group task that can be split into subtasks performed simultaneously.

Bystander effect

Decreased likelihood of helping as the number of bystanders increases.

Diffusion of responsibility

Sharing of responsibility in groups that leads to reduced personal accountability.

Altruism

Self-sacrificing behaviour performed solely to benefit others.

Egoistic helping

Assistance motivated by the desire to reduce one’s own distress or gain rewards.

Frustration–aggression hypothesis

Theory that aggression results when goals are blocked and frustration occurs.

Relational aggression

Harm through manipulation of relationships, more common in females.

Direct aggression

Verbal or physical harm attacks, more common in males.

Similarity (attraction)

Tendency to like others who are similar in attitudes, interests, or background.

Proximity

Physical closeness that increases likelihood of interaction and liking.

Self-disclosure

Revealing personal information to others, fostering intimacy.

Sternberg’s triangular theory of love

Model positing love has three components—intimacy, passion, commitment—whose combinations form different love types.

Secure attachment

Adult style marked by comfort with closeness and trust in partners.

Avoidant attachment

Adult style characterized by discomfort with intimacy and difficulty trusting others.

Anxious-ambivalent attachment

Adult style involving worry about abandonment and desire for extreme closeness.

Orbitofrontal cortex

Brain area involved in social reasoning, reward evaluation, and reading others.

Ventromedial prefrontal cortex

Region critical for processing rewards/punishments and making social and moral decisions.

Insula

Brain structure important for empathy and perceiving others’ internal states.

Amygdala

Brain region that detects emotional facial expressions and signals potential threat or reward.

Group dynamics

The ways group membership influences individuals’ thoughts and behaviours.

Social neuroscience

Field examining how brain regions underpin social processes and behaviour.