AP Psychology Unit 9: Social Psychology

Based off of Barron's 2024

Attiude

Set of positive or negative beliefs and feelings

Mere exposure effect

If a person is exposed to an idea or object more, then there is a higher chance that they will like it or choose it (advertizing)

Central route

Deeply processing a message’s content (asking why?)

Peripheral Route

Processing a message less deeply and including other aspects aside from the content such as the communicator

Richard LaPiere

This person conducted an experiment with people’s willingness to serve Chinese people on the phone and in real life

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

The idea that people are motivated to have consistent attitudes and behaviors. When they do not, they experience mental tension and are forced to change their attitude to be free of it

Compliance Strategies

Getting people to comply with what you want

Foot in the door phenomenon

If people agree to a small request, it is more likely that they agree to a larger one

Door in the face strategy

If people refuse a large request, they are more likely to accept a smaller one

Norms of reciprocity

If someone does something nice, it is common to feel that you need to do the same

Attribution Theory

This explains how people determine the cause of what they observe (person/situation and stable/unstable)

Harold Kelley

This person described what determines how we attribute the cause of an event (Consistency, distinctiveness, consensus)

Consistency

Part of Harold Kelley’s description of what causes people to make certain attributions

• How similar does the individual act over time in the same situation?

Distinctiveness

Part of Harold Kelley’s description of what causes people to make certain attributions

• How similar is this situation to other ones?

Consensus

Part of Harold Kelley’s description of what causes people to make certain attributions

• How would others in this situation may have responded?

Pygmalion in Classroom

This experiment was performed by Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson and informed teachers that some of their students had a potentially high IQ. This demonstrated self-fulfilling prophecy as those students were actually normal and then ended up scoring higher on the IQ tests.

Self-fulfilling prophecy

Expectations about others can influence the way they behave

Fundamental Attribution Error

People systematically overestimate dispositional factors in influencing behavior

False-Consensus Effect

Overestimating how many people agree with you

Self-serving bias

Taking more credit for good outcomes than bad ones

Just-world bias

Thinking that bad things only happen to bad people

Stereotypes

Positive or negative opinions about a whole group of people (Californians are lazy)

Prejudice

Undeserved, usually negative attitude towards a group of people that is applied uncritically to all

(I don’t like Californians)

Discrimination

Involves an action (acting on prejudice)

(I won’t rent out apartments to Californians)

Ethnocentrism

Thinking that your own culture is the best

Out-group homogenity

Seeing members of your own group (in-group) as more diverse (not all Californians are lazy: some are hard-working, some are funny, etc.)

In-Group Bias

Preference for one’s own group

Contact Theory

Contact between hostile groups reduces animosity

Superordinate Goal

Working towards a goal that is beneficial for all as part of contact theory

Instrumental Aggression

Aggression intended to secure an end

Hostile Aggression

Aggression without a clear purpose

Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis

A hypothesis that states that higher frustration leads to higher aggression

Bystander Intervention

Conditions where people feel more likely to help each other

Diffusion of responsibility

If there are more witnesses, people feel less individual responsibilityP

Pluralistic Ignorance

People decide what counts as appropriate behavior by looking at others

Similarity, Proximity, Reciprocal Liking

Three factors of attraction

Self-Disclosure

Sharing pieces of personal information with another person; an indicator of attraction

Social Facilitation

The presence of others improves performance

Social Impairment

The presence of others may worsen performance when there is a difficult task

Conformity

Going along with views or actions of others

Obedience

Willingness to do what someone else says (Milgram: delivering shocks)

Norms

Rules about how members of a group should act

Roles

People in groups often have these well-defined

Social Loafing

Not putting in as much effort in a group as one would when working alone

Group Polarization

Groups make more extreme decisions than individuals

Groupthink

Some groups have a tendency of making bad decisions when members suppress reservations

Deindividuation

People feel more anonymous and aroused when part of a group