Unit 4 Social Psychology

Normative Social Influence

Conforming to society to avoid being rejected or disliked

Informational Social Influence

Conforming to society because you believe other people are correct or informed

Upward Social Comparison

Comparing yourself to people who are perceived better off

Downward Social Comparison

Comparing yourself to people who are perceived to be worse off

Social Loafing

Not working as hard with people in a group

Social Facilitation

Enhancing a performance with people watching

Diffusion of Responsibility

Individuals feel less personal accountability to act or help in a group setting, assuming others will intervene; bystander effect

Deindividuation

-The loss of self-awareness, personal identity, and individual accountability that occurs when people are in a group, crowd, or anonymous situation

-Causes people to abandon normal self-restraint and act impulsively or antisocially

Group Polarization

When you’re in a group, you all agree more strongly, making riskier decisions

Groupthink

Desire for group harmony

Dispositional Attributions

-Assuming a person’s actions due to their personality

-People commonly apply this to others instead of themselves

Situational Attributions

-Assuming a person’s actions due to the circumstances/situation

-People commonly apply this to themselves instead of others

Fundamental Attribution Error

-Tendency to blame people’s actions more on their personality and less on their situation

-Ex: Someone cuts you off while driving and you get upset

Self Serving Bias

-Tendency to attribute one’s success to personal characteristics and failures to external factors, enhancing one’s self-esteem

-Ex: Good grades = Smart, Bad grades = Bad teacher

Actor Observer Bias

-The habit of blaming our own actions on the situation, but blaming other people’s actions on their personality

-Ex: Someone slacks off in a group project = lazy, but if you’re slacking, then you’re tired

Central Route

An attitude is influenced by deep and thoughtful analysis

Peripheral Route

An attitude is influenced by factors beyond the message

Halo Effect

-The cognitive bias that leads individuals to assume that if a person is attractive, they possess other positive traits as well

-Ex: Believing that an attractive person is also kind, intelligent, or morally upright.

Foot-in-the-Door

A persuasive strategy where agreement to a small request increases the likelihood of a larger request

Door-in-the-Face

Large request comes first, smaller request comes second

Projection

The mental process by which people attribute to others what is in their own minds

Denial

Involves blocking external events from awareness; if some situation is too much to handle, the person refuses to experience it

Repression

The rejection from consciousness of painful or disagreeable ideas, memories, feelings, or impulses.

Regression

Defense mechanism where individuals faced with anxiety return to an earlier psychosexual stage, or basically, where they return to something comforting.

Displacement

The redirection of an impulse (usually aggression) onto a powerless substitute target (Kicking the dog syndrome)

Reaction Formation

A person unconsciously replaces an unwanted or anxiety-provoking impulse with its opposite, often expressed in an exaggerated or showy way

Sublimation

Satisfying an impulse with a substitute object, in a socially acceptable way

Intellectualization

-Intellect and reasoning is used to block confrontation with an unconscious conflict and its associated emotional stress

-Ex: After someone is diagnosed with a terminal disease, they spend their time researching the disease instead of processing sadness

Compartmentalization

Thoughts and feelings that seem to conflict are kept separated or isolated from each other in the mind

The Big Five

A widely accepted psychological framework that categorizes human personality into five broad, independent dimensions: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism

Openness

Measures how creative, imaginative, down to earth or pragmatic someone is (Low = Realistic, High = Creative)

Conscientiousness

Measures preference from an organized approach to life in contrast to a spontaneous one (Low = Bold, High = Reliable, Consistent)

Extroversion

Measures a tendency to seek stimulation in the external world, the company of others and to express positive emotions (Low = Introvert, High = Extrovert)

Agreeableness

Relates to a focus on maintaining positive social relations, being friendly, compassionate, and cooperative (Low = Skeptical, Indifferent, High = Friendly)

Neuroticism

Measures the tendency to experience mood swings and emotions such as guilt, anger, anxiety, and depression (Low = Calm, Confident, High = Anxious, Impulsive)