Unit 4: Social Psychology and Personality

Attributions

how people explain behavior and mental processes of themselves and others

Attribution Theory

the theory that we explain someone's behavior by crediting either the situation or the person's stable, enduring traits.

Dispositional Attribution

relate to internal qualities of others (such as intelligence or personality)

Situational Attribution

relate to external circumstances that are experienced

Explanatory Style

how people explain good and bad events in their lives and in the lives of others.

-can be optimistic or pessimistic

Attribution Biases

people are subject to biases in their attributions.

-these biases can affect behavior and mental processes

Actor/Observe Bias

the tendency for those acting in a situation to attribute their behavior to external causes, but for observes to attribute others' behavior to internal causes

Fundamental Attribution Error

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

Self-serving Bias

the tendency to attribute our successes to internal causes, and our failure to external causes.

-take credit for triumphs and blame others for failures

Locus of Control

a psychological concept that describes a person's belief about whether they have control over the events in their life

External Locus of Control

perception that chance or outside beyond our personal control determines our fate

Internal locus of Control

perception that we control our own fate

Mere Exposure Effect

occurs when people are exposed to a stimulus repeatedly over time, which causes them to like the stimulus more

-reduces uncertainty

-makes understanding and interpreting easier

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

the process by which a person's expectations about someone else can lead to that someone else behaving in ways that confirm the expectations

Social Comparison

evaluating one's opinions and abilities by comparing oneself with others

Upward Comparison

we compare ourselves with those who we believe are better or superior to us.

-often focus on the desire to improve ourselves, our current status, or our level of ability

Downward Comparison

we compare ourselves to others who are worse off than us

-make us feel better about our abilities or traits

Relative Deprivation

the perception by an individual that the amount of a desired resource they have is less than some comparison standard.

Stereotype

A generalized belief about a group of people

-can help reduce cognitive load

Prejudice

an unjustifiable (and usually negative) attitude toward a group and its members. Prejudice generally involves stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings, and a predisposition to discriminatory action.

Discrimination

unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group and its members

Implicit Attitudes

those that individuals hold may be unaware of or may not acknowledge

-unconscious

Just World Phonomenon

tendency to believe that the world is just and that people get what they deserve

-believe its the victim's fault

Out-group Homogeneity Bias

-tendency to assume that the members of other groups are very similar to each other

In-group Bias

"us"- people with whom they share a common identity

-tendency to favor own group

Ethnocentrism

-measuring or judging one's own culture against another culture

-can lead to judging someone else's culture negatively

Belief Perseverance

the persistence of one's initial conceptions even after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.

Confirmation Bias

a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

we act to reduce the discomfort we feel when our thoughts are inconsistent with our behavior

-rationalizing

-changing attitude

-or change behavior

Social Norms

defined expectations and roles a society may have for its members in individual and social situations

Norms

a society's understood rules for accepted and expected behavior

-prescribe "proper" in individual and social situations

Social Influence Theory

talks about how people are more likely to do whatever they see as being the norm

-people have the tendency to change their behavior according to those around them

Normative Social Influence

influence resulting from a person's desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval

-changing one's behavior in order to fit in with the group

Informational Social Influence

Influence resulting from one's willingness to accept other's opinions about reality

-happens when a person lacks the knowledge and looks to the group for information and direction

Persuasion

The process by which a person's attitudes or behavior are without duress, influenced by communications from other people

Elaboration Likelihood Model

Theory of persuasion that suggests that there are two different ways people can be persuaded of something, depending on how invested they are in the topic

Central Route

When people are strongly motivated and have the time to think over a decision

-carefully weighs the pros and cons of a choice

Peripheral Route

When people are rushed or the decision is less important to them, they tend to be more easily persuaded by the peripheral route

-incidental cues

The Halo Effect

A type of cognitive bias in which our overall impression of a person influences how we feel and think about their character

Foot-In-The-Door

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

Door in the Face

-based on initially asking an excessive request and then reduce it

Conformity

Adjusting our behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard

Solomon Asch Conformity Experiment

group of participants said wrong lines and were trying to see if the actual participant would also say the wrong answer

Obedience

tendency to comply with the commands of those in authority

Stanley Milgram Obedience Experiment

aimed to investigate how far individuals would go in obeying authority, even when it involved potentially harming others

Individualism

emphasizes people's own goals over group goals and defines identity mainly in terms of unique personal attributes

Collectivism

prioritizes the goals of important groups(often one's extended family or work group)

Multiculturalism

the quality or condition of a society in which different ethnic and cultural groups have equal status and access but each maintains its own identity, characteristics and more.

Groupthink

the desire for harmony in a decision

-just agree with people just to keep the harmony

Group Polarization

refers to the tendency for a group to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclination of its members

Social Loafing

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

Diffusion of Responsibility

-created by presence of others

-people feel less responsibility for taking action in a given situation because there are also other people who are responsible

Deindividuation

the loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity

-lessens inhibitions against engaging in harmful behavior

Social Facilitation

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

-what you do well, you are likely to do even better in front of a crowd

Social Inhibition

the mere presence of others can impair performance on tasks that one is not particularly good at

False Consensus Effect

people often overestimate the levels to which others agrees with them

Superordinate Goal

shared goals that override differences among people and require their cooperation

Social Traps

occur when individuals do not unite and act in their own self-interest to the detriment of the group

Industrial Organizational Psychologists

study best practices in management of work, relationships among people working together, or for a common company or program, and how people feel about work

Burn-out

to become extremely tired or sick by working hard for a long time

Altruism

unselfish regard for the welfare of others

Social Reciprocity Norm

an expectation that people will help those needing their help

Bystander Effect

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

Psychodynamic Theories

unconscious processes drive personality

Unconscious(Freud)

mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings and memories

Unconscious(Modern Day)

Information processing of which we are unaware

-inaccessible to the conscious mind but which affects behavior and emotions

ID

-a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives; blind, impulsive, irrational

Ego

the largely conscious, "executive" part of personality that, according to Freud, mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality. The ego operates on the reality principle, satisfying the id's desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain.

Superego

-the part of personality that represents internalized ideas and provides standards of judgements (the conscience) and for future aspirations

Denial

-refusing to believe or even perceive painful realities

Displacement

shifting sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object of person

Projection

disguising one's own threatening impulses by attributing them to others

Rationalization

offering self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening unconscious reasons for one's actions

Reaction Formation

switching unacceptable impulses into their opposite

Regression

reverting to the behavior or emotions of an earlier developmental stage

Sublimation

transferring of unacceptable impluses into socially valued motives

Repression

Basis defense that banishes from consciousness anxiety provoking arousing thoughts.

Projective Test

a personality test that provides ambiguous images designed to trigger projection of one's inner dynamics.

-projective tests lack validity and reliability

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

a projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes

Rorschach Inkblot Test

the most widely used projective test, a set of 10 inkblots, designed by Hermann Rorschach; seeks to identify people's inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots