AP Psychology Vocab - Social Psychology

The scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another.

Social Psychology

The theory that we explain someones behavior by crediting either the situation or the persons disposition.

Attribution Theory

The tendency for observers, when analyzing others’ behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition.

Fundamental Attribution Error

Feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events.

Attitude

Occurs when people are influenced by individuals cues, such as a speakers attractiveness.

Peripheral Route Persuasion

Occurs when interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts.

Central Route Persuasion

The tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request.

Foot in the Door Phenomenon

A set of expectations, or norms, about a social position, defining how those in the position out to behave.

Role

The theory that we act to reduce the discomfort, or dissonance, we feel when two of our thoughts are inconsistent. For example when we become aware that our attitudes and our actions clash, we can reduce the resulting dissonance by changing our attitudes.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Understood rules for accepted and expected behavior. Prescribe “proper” behavior.

Norms

Adjusting our behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard.

Conformity

Influence resulting from a persons desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval.

Normative Social Influence

Influence resulting from ones willingness to accept others opinions about reality.

Informational Social Influence

Improved performance on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others.

Social Facilitation

The tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable.

Social Loafing

The loss of self-awareness and self0restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity.

Deindividuation

The enhancement of a groups prevailing inclinations through discussion within the group.

Group Polarization

The mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives.

Groupthink

The enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next.

Culture

An unjustifiable attitude toward a group and its members. This generally involved stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings, and a predisposition to discrimanitory action.

Prejudice

A generalized belief about a group of people.

Stereotype

Unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group and its members.

Discrimination

The tendency for people to believe the world is just and that people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get.

Just World Phenomenon

“Us” —people with whom we share a common identity.

Ingroup

“Them”—those perceived as different or apart from our ingroup.

Outgroup

The tendency to favor our own group.

Ingroup Bias

The theory that prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame.

Scapegoat Theory

The tendency to recall faces of ones own race more accurately than faces of other races.

Other Race Effect

Any physical or verbal behavior intended to harm someone physically or emotionally.

Aggression

The principle that frustration—the blocking of an attempt to archive some goal—creates anger, which can generate aggression.

Frustration Aggression Principle

A culturally modeled guide for how to act in various situations.

Social Script

The phenomenon that repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them.

Mere Exposure Effect

An aroused state of intense positive absorption in another, usually present at the beginning of a romantic relationship.

Passionate Love

The deep affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined.

Companionate Love

A condition in which people receive from a relationship in proportion to what they give to it.

Equity

The act of revealing intimate aspects of ourselves to others.

Self Disclosure

Unselfish regard for the welfare of others.

Altruism

The tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present.

Bystander Effect

The theory that our social behavior is an exchange process, the aim of which is to maximize benefits and minimize costs.

Social Exchange Theory

A expectation that people will help, not hurt, those who have helped them.

Reciprocity Norm

An expectation that people will help those needing their help.

Social Responsibility Norm

A perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas.

Conflict

A situation in which the conflicting parties, by each pursuing their self interest rather than the good of the group, become caught in mutually destructive behavior.

Social Trap

Mutual views often held by conflicting people as when each side sees itself as ethical and peaceful and views the other side as evil and aggressive.

Mirror Image Perceptions

A belief that leads to its own fulfillment.

Self Fulfilling Prophecy

Shared goals that override differences among people and require their cooperation.

Superordinate Goals

Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension-Reduction—a strategy designed to decrease international tensions.

GRIT