Social psychology part 1

Norman Triplett

The man credited with the first published research article in social psychology, discovered the social facilitation effect

Social facilitation effect

people will perform better at a task when in the presence of others

Social loafing effect

discovered by Max Ringelmann, this states that people will put less effort into a group task if individual effort cannot be measured

Kurt Lewin

Established that behaviour is the product of interactions between a person and the environment

George Allport

Founding personality psychologist, studied prejudice

Marlowe Crowne desirability scale

The most common social desirability test, composed of 33 true or false statements

Balanced inventory of desirable responding

Social desirability scale that has 2 parts. First part tests for self deception enhancement and the second part measures impression management

Demand characteristics

A response bias referring to the unintentional cues in an experiment that may guide participant behaviour

Experimenter effect

When a researcher is looking for a specific response/behaviour, they will be more attentive for that specific behaviour

Mundane realism

The extent to which an experiment is similar to situations encountered in every day life

Experimental realism

the extent to which an experiment engages the participant and forces them to take it seriously

Psychological realism

The extent to which the psychological processes that occur in an experiment are the same as the psychological processes that occur in every day life

Cross cultural psychology

the central goal of this branch of psychology is to work towards a basic understanding of the psychological functioning of all human beings to establish a universal psychology

Cultural psychology

The central goal of this branch of psychology is to understand how the mind and culture interact with each other in specific contexts.

power distance in Hofstede’s dimensions of culture

the extent to which members of a society accept the unequal distribution of power

Uncertainty avoidance in Hofstede’s dimensions of cultur

the level of anxiety within the members of a society when in unstructured or ambiguous situations

Individualism in Hofstede’s dimensions of culture

a preference for a loose social frameworks in which individuals care for themselves and their immediate family

Masculinity in Hofstede’s dimensions of culture

The degree to which sex roles are sharply differentiated

Complexity-simplicity cultural syndrome

The amount of roles and choices within individuals of a society

Tightness-looseness cultural syndrome

How controlled behaviours are in a society and how strict norms are, more isolated societies are more controlling in this aspect

social comparison theory

theory that state that in order to measure traits we compare ourself to others

downward social comparison

Social comparison commonly used to maintain positive self-esteem in individualist cultures

Upward social comparison

Social comparison used to motivate oneself, but risks damaging self-esteem

Attribution theory

theory that posits that we can understand a person’s behaviour and reaction to events if we understand the reasons they give for other’s actions

sociometer theory

The theory that self esteem is a gauge for how much a person believes others value their relationship

self serving attributions

a bias in which we are more likely to internalize positive outcomes as being due to our actions