Social psych exam- game time!!!!!

Social influence

The direct effects that words and actions of others have on our own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Construal

The way people perceive, comprehend, and interpret the social world.

Fundamental attribution error

The tendency to explain others' behavior in terms of personality and not situation.

Behaviorism

The theory that to understand behavior, one should look at the reinforcing properties of the environment.

Gestalt psychology

The approach that suggests we should study the way things are subjectively perceived as a whole.

Behavior is a function of personality and environment

b=f(p,e)

Naive realism

The belief that we perceive things exactly as they are without any bias.

Self esteem motive

The need to protect one's self-esteem.

Social cognition motive

The need to be accurate in understanding the social world.

Social cognition

How people select, interpret, remember, and use information to make judgments and decisions.

Ethnography

A research method where researchers attempt to understand a group by experiencing it from the inside without preconceived notions.

Archival analysis

A research method where researchers study accumulated documents to understand a group.

Extraneous variable

A variable that accounts for correlation between two other variables.

internal validity keeps everything except the independent variable the same while external validity relates to generalizing findings to an entire population

internal v external validity

Replications

The ultimate test of external validity.

Basic vs applied research

Basic research seeks to find answers, whereas applied research aims to find solutions.

Availability heuristic

A mental shortcut relying on immediate examples that come to a person's mind when evaluating a specific topic.

Representative heuristic

A mental shortcut that involves making judgments based on how well something fits into a category.

Attribution theory

The theory that explains how people assign causes to behaviors.

Covariation model

Harold Kelley’s model that explains how people make attributions based on consensus, consistency, and distinctiveness.

Bias blind spot

The belief that others are more susceptible to attribution errors than oneself.

Independent vs interdependent view of self

Independent view defines self based on own thoughts and feelings, while interdependent view defines self in terms of relationships with others.

Self awareness theory

A theory suggesting that when individuals look inwards, they compare their actions to their morals.

Causal theories

Theories that explain what causes our own behavior.

Self perception theory

The theory stating that when feelings are ambiguous, we look to our behaviors to understand ourselves.

Two factor theory of emotion

The concept that we experience physiological arousal first, then find a cognitive explanation for it.

Implementation intentions

Specific plans regarding when, how, and where to achieve goals.

Impression management

The process of controlling how one is perceived by others.

planned behavior is predicted by intention, which is shaped by specificity of attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control

theory of planned behavior

attitude change depends on who (central v peripheral), what (primacy and recency effect) to whom (distraction)

yale attitude change approach

Elaboration likelihood model

A model that distinguishes between the central route and the peripheral route to persuasion.

Heuristic systematic model of persuasion

The model indicating that when taking the peripheral route, people use emotional heuristics to make decisions.

Reactance theory

The theory suggesting that when individuals feel their freedom is threatened, they will resist persuasive messages.

Three ways to reduce dissonance

Change behavior, change attitude, or add new cognition.

External vs internal justification

External justification reduces cognitive dissonance using the environment, while internal justification involves changing one's beliefs.

Insufficient punishment

Dissonance created when individuals lack sufficient external justification for resisting temptation, leading to devaluation of the temptation.

Hypocrisy induction

Creating dissonance by highlighting a behavior and its conflicting attitudes to encourage behavioral change.

Self affirmation theory

The idea that individuals can reduce threats to self-esteem by affirming themselves in other areas.

Self evaluation maintenance theory

A theory stating that dissonance occurs in a relationship when a close person outperforms us on a task significant to our self-esteem.

theory where conforming to normative influences depends on the group’s importance, immediacy, and size

social impact theory

Idiosyncrasy credits

Credits that allow an individual to deviate from group norms after conforming to them over time.

how people think others will perceive an action v how people think others actually engage in a behavior

injunctive v descriptive norms

Boomerang effect

The phenomenon where individuals who perform above average may be motivated to engage in behavior less after seeing how others engage in behavior

Consonant cognitions

Rationalizations made to align with existing beliefs, often seen as the easiest way to reduce dissonance.

Low balling involves withholding information to gain agreement, while foot in the door involves two requests with the second being more likely accepted.

low balling v foot in the door

individuals performing worse/better in the presence of others v individuals performing worse due to deindividuation

social facilitation v social loafing

group effort is worse than individual effort due to deindividuation v problem solving inhibited due to group dynamics

coordination loss v process loss

Transactive memory

The collective memory of a group that is more efficient than that of individuals.

Contingency theory of leadership

A theory suggesting that leadership effectiveness depends on whether a leader is task-oriented or relationship-oriented, and the level of control they have over the group.

Social exchange theory

The perspective that all human interactions aim to maximize rewards and minimize costs.

Empathy altruism hypothesis

The hypothesis that feeling empathy for another leads to altruistic helping behavior regardless of personal gain.

Bystander intervention decision tree

A model outlining the five steps people go through to decide whether to intervene in an emergency.

Implicit association test

A measure of the speed of individuals' positive and negative associations with target groups to assess implicit prejudice.

Social identity threat

A threat experienced when individuals see themselves primarily as group representatives rather than as unique individuals.

Social identity theory

The theory that part of a person's self-concept is derived from their identification with certain groups.

Ethnocentrism

The belief that one’s own culture is superior to others.

Ingroup bias vs outgroup homogeneity

Ingroup bias is the preference for one's own group, while outgroup homogeneity reflects the tendency to see outgroup members as more similar than they really are.

Realistic conflict theory

The theory that competition for limited resources leads to conflict between groups, resulting in prejudice and discrimination.

Contact hypothesis and extended contact effect

The idea that direct contact with outgroup members decreases prejudice; extended contact through ingroup members can also reduce prejudice.

equal status, common goals, intergroup cooperation, and support from laws or social norms

factors that reduce prejudice

Expectancy confirmation

The idea that stereotypes lead people to seek out confirmatory evidence rather than challenge their expectations.

Hostile sexism encompasses negative attitudes towards women, while benevolent sexism refers to positive but patronizing beliefs that women are inferior.

hostile v benevolent sexism