Pysch Unit 4a

Social Psychology

The study that examines how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others.

Situationism

The view that our behavior and actions are determined by our immediate environment and surroundings.

Dispositionism

The belief that our behavior is determined primarily by internal factors such as personality traits.

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency to overemphasize personal characteristics and ignore situational factors when judging others' behavior.

Individualistic Culture

A culture that emphasizes personal achievement and autonomy over group goals.

Collectivistic Culture

A culture that prioritizes communal relationships and values group harmony.

Halo Effect

The tendency to let an overall impression of a person influence how we feel and think about their character.

Actor-Observer Bias

The tendency to attribute other people's behavior to internal factors while attributing our own behavior to situational factors.

Self-Serving Bias

The habit of attributing positive events to our own character, but attributing negative events to external factors.

Just-World Hypothesis

The belief that the world is inherently fair, and individuals get what they deserve.

Cognitive Dissonance

Psychological discomfort resulting from holding two conflicting beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors.

Prejudice

A negative attitude and feeling toward an individual based solely on their membership in a particular social group.

Discrimination

Negative actions directed at individuals based on their group membership.

In-Group Bias

The tendency to favor one's own group over others.

Scapegoating

The act of blaming an out-group for problems faced by the in-group.

Social Role

A pattern of behavior that is expected of a person in a given setting or group.

Groupthink

A phenomenon where the desire for harmony or conformity results in irrational decision-making within a group.

Group Polarization

The tendency for group discussions to intensify group members' initial leanings.

Internal factor

A personal characteristic or trait that influences one's behavior, thoughts, and emotions.

Attribution

The process of explaining the causes of behavior and events.

Global/specific explanatory style

Global explanatory style attributes failure to overall qualities, whereas specific style attributes failure to particular situations.

Optimism

A general tendency to expect positive outcomes in the future.

Pessimism

A general tendency to expect negative outcomes in the future.

Self-serving bias

The tendency to attribute positive events to internal factors and negative events to external factors.

Relative deprivation

The perception that one is worse off compared to others.

Mere exposure effect

The phenomenon whereby people tend to develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar with them.

Internal locus of control

The belief that one has control over their life and the outcomes of their actions.

External locus of control

The belief that external factors or fate determine one's life and outcomes.

Stereotype

A widely held but oversimplified and generalized belief about a particular group of people.

Self-fulfilling prophecy

A prediction that causes itself to become true due to the behavior of those who believe it.

In-group

A social group characterized by a shared identity or common attributes.

Out-group

A social group with which an individual does not identify.

Social norm

The expected standards of behavior within a social group.

Script

A cognitive framework that guides behavior in specific situations.

Attitude

A psychological tendency expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor.

Justification of effort

The tendency to attribute greater value to an outcome if it requires significant effort to achieve.

Persuasion

The process of influencing someone's beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors.

Audience/message features

Factors that affect persuasion, including the characteristics of the audience and the content of the message.

Central route

A method of persuasion that uses logical reasoning and substantial arguments.

Peripheral route

A method of persuasion that relies on superficial factors such as attractiveness or emotional appeal.

Foot in the door technique

A persuasion strategy that involves getting a person to agree to a large request by first setting them up with a smaller request.

Confederate

An individual who is part of a research team and acts as a participant but is actually aware of the experiment.

Conformity

The act of aligning attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors with group norms.

Asch effect

The influence of a majority group on a person's judgment in a conformity experiment.

Normative social influence

The influence of others that leads us to conform in order to be liked and accepted.

Informational social influence

The influence of others that leads us to conform because we believe they have accurate information.

Obedience

The act of following direct orders from an authority figure.

Social loafing

The tendency for individuals to put in less effort when working in a group than when working alone.

Deindividuation

the loss of self-awareness and self-restraint in group situations (aka mob mentality)

Social Inhibition

The tendency of people to perform worse in the presence of other people

Foot-in-the-Door

Assumes agreeing to a small request increases the likelihood of agreeing to a second, larger request

Door-In-The-Face

Assumes that turning down a large request increases the likelihood of agreeing to a second, more reasonable request

Low-Ball

Making an agreement on a deal and then change the terms of the agreement to be more beneficial to you

Ingratiating

Becoming more likeable to the target audience so they are more likely to comply to your request

• Flattery: compliments

• Opinion Conformity: agree

• Self-presentation: appear in a likeable manner