Social Psychology

Social Psychology

The scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to other people.

Social Norms

The implicit or explicit rules a group has for the acceptable behaviors, values, and beliefs of its members.

(Ex: holding the door open for others, facing one way in an elevator, shaking with our right hand, etc.)

Social Roles

Widely shared expectations about how people should act in certain situations or positions.

(Ex: teachers act a certain way, people act a certain in restaurants, etc.)

Scripts

The general belief of a sequence of expected behaviors or events for a given situation.

(ex: When buying groceries, the order of the events usually go as presented: Grab a cart --> Walk the isles & buy what you need --> go to the cashier & pay --> leave store)

Stanford Prison Experiment

Philip Zimbardo's study of the effect of roles on behavior. Participants were randomly assigned to play either prisoners or guards in a mock prison. The study was ended early because of the "guards'" role-induced cruelty.

Philip Zimbardo

Psychologist who studied social roles & their effect on human behavior through the Stanford Prison Study. He showed that peoples behavior depends to a large extent on the roles they are asked to play.

Attribution

An inference about the cause of another person's behavior.

(ex: If a waiter is rude to his customer, the customer may assume that the waiter is a bad person which caused the waitor's rude attitude.)

Situational Influences

Influences that result from circumstances, time, and location. In other words, people acting a certain way because of their situation.

(Ex: Your friend is grouchy because they stayed up. too late studying and then missed their bus.)

Dispositional Influences

Influences that result from internal traits. In other words, people acting a certain way because of who they are.

(Ex: Your teacher is grouchy because they are an ornery person.)

Internal Factor

An attribute of a person and includes personality traits and temperament.

Fundamental Attribution Error

Our tendency to attribute another's actions to their character or personality.

(Ex: You get upset at one of your group members for being lazy when they show up to work late.)

Actor-Observer Bias

Our tendency to attribute our own behavior to external situational factors outside of our control.

(Ex: You show up to the meeting late, but blame your tardiness on the situation-- like the bus coming late.)

Self-Serving Bias

Our tendency to take personal credit for success but blame failure on external factors, and to cherry pick explanations for our behavior that make us look the best.

(Ex: You pass a test for one of your classes and tell yourself that it's because you're really smart. You fail a test for another class and put the blame the teacher for not explaining things.)

Just-World Hypothesis

The assumption that the world is fair and that therefore people get what they deserve and deserve what they get.

Halo Effect

Our tendency to make general assumptions about an person based on a single characteristic.

(Ex: A teacher assumes you are smart because you have nice handwriting.)

Social Comparison Theory

The hypothesis that people compare themselves to other people in order to measure their own value, position, or ideas.

(Ex: When you ask other people about their opinions or how they scored on an exam.)

Upward Social Comparison

Comparing ourselves to people who are better than we are with regard to a particular trait or ability.

Downward Social Comparison

Comparing ourselves to people who are worse than we are with regard to a particular trait or ability.

Lateral Social Comparison

Comparing oneself to someone we think is more or less equal to us.

Social Facilitation

When we perform better on something when we know people are watching.

(Ex: You work harder when your boss is around to notice.)

Social Inhibition

When we perform worse on something when we know people are watching.

(Ex: We make more mistakes on a speech in front of the class than we did when we practiced at home by ourselves.)

Attitude

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

Cognitive Dissonance

An unpleasant feeling that happens when a person realized that their actions don't match their attitudes, or beliefs.

(Ex: You believe that humans should do better to help the environment, but still use plastic bags so you feel guilty every time you use them.)

Leon Festinger

Psychologist who came up with the ideas of social cognition and cognitive dissonance.

Yale Attitude Change Approach

The study of the conditions under which people are most likely to change their attitudes in response to persuasive messages, focusing on the source of the communication, the nature of the communication, and the nature of the audience.

Elaboration Likelihood Model

A model that describes two ways which people use to persuade: (1) central route and (2) peripheral route

Central Route to Persuasion

A logic-driven approach to influencing people. It uses data and facts to convince people.

(ex: A car company tries to sell you a car by emphasizing its safety and good gas milage.)

Peripheral Route to Persuasion

An emotion-driven approach to influencing people. It uses outside factors such as admired celebrities, music, social status, etc. to get people to do something.

(ex: You see an ad on YouTube that has your favorite musician using a certain hair product and want to buy that brand because of the celebrity appearance.)

Effect of Initiation

When we value or like being a part of a group more because it was hard to get into.

(Ex: Having to make it through tryouts makes us value being on a team more than if we just had to sign up.)

Justification of Effort

When we value something more because we had to work to get it.

(Ex: When you like a product you bought more because you did a lot of research about which version was the best. Or, when you value a relationship more because you had to work hard to build that friendship.)

Conformity

Adjusting your own behavior or thinking to match with a group standard.

(Ex: Following fashion trends.)

Normative Social Influence

Conformity because you want to fit in with a group.

(ex: You and your friends are deciding on what color you want to wear for a matching day. You want to wear blue, but your friends all want to wear orange. When its time to vote, instead of saying "blue" you vote orange.)

Informational Social Influence

Conformity because you are trying to follow the lead of someone you think knows best.

(ex: I want to each good Chinese food for dinner, so I look for a restaurant that I think has a lot of Chinese people eating there because I think they would know best.)

Soloman Asch

Psychologist who studied conformity through the famous line experiment.

Asch's Line Experiment

Famous experiement: 13 subjects (12 undercover and 1 real subject) were put into a room to judge which line (line A, B, or C) was the same length as a different line on the side (line X).

When the majority of group members agreed on the same incorrect response, around 75% of subjects conformed at least once by responding incorrectly.

Confederate

A person who is given a role to play in a study so that the social context can be manipulated.

(Ex: In Asch's Line Experiment, the fake subjects are confederates.)

The Asch Effect

The idea that the influence of the group often overrides a person's own judgement.

Compliance

When we do things that other people ask us to do.

Foot-in-the-Door Technique

Persuasive technique involving getting someone to agree to a small request and then working up to larger and larger requests. They key is that once someone says "yes", it's hard for them to know when to draw the line and say "no."

(Ex: A salesperson at the mall gets someone to stop to hear about a product, then test a sample, then look over the full-price options, and finally buy it.)

Door-in-the-Face Technique

Persuasive technique involving making an unreasonably large request knowing the person you're talking to will say "no", but then making a smaller request that will seem better by comparison.

(Ex: Asking for an brand new expensive phone, and when your parents tell you no, asking for last year's model instead.)

Lowball Technique

Getting someone to commit to an attractive proposition before revealing the hidden costs. The key is that once a person says "yes" they do not want to back out of their decision.

(Ex: When a car dealership lists a car for $14,000 to get you to agree to buy it and later tells you about fees and taxes that make the real total price $16,000. Or, asking a friend for some advice, before revealing that you need to tell them a 20 minute story to explain your problem.)

That's-Not-All Technique

A sales technique in which you an offer and then add something extra to make the offer right away to make it look better before the the person you're talking to can make a decision.

(Ex: Can you come to help with Junior Prom? And while we're there we're going to get bubble tea!)

Obedience

When you follow direct commands, usually from someone in a position of authority.

Milgram Obedience Experiment

Famous experiment that people will follow orders from people they see as authority figures, even if it requires you to do something they believe is wrong.

In this experiment, subjects were brought in and placed into the "teacher" role and gave shocks to "learners" who were secretly actors pretending to feel pain. Despite not wanting to shock the learners, the teachers followed orders.

Stanley Milgram

Psychologist who studied obedience. He ran the experiment in which people shocked "learners" who got questions wrong.

In-Group

A social group that you belong to.

Out-Group

A social group or category that you do not feel you belong to.

In-Group Bias

The tendency to favor individuals within our group over those from outside our group.

Stereotypes

A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.

Stereotype Threat

The fear people feel that their behavior might confirm a stereotype. Often, when reminded of the stereotype, people live up (or down) to it.

Scapegoating

The act of blaming an out-group when the in-group experiences frustration or is blocked from obtaining a goal.

Muzafer Sherif's Robbers Cave Experiment

Experiment that demonstrated how quickly in-groups and out-groups, as well as stereotyping and prejudice can form. In the experiment, two groups of boys at a camp competed against each other and then cooperated and became friends

Prejudice

An unjustifiable (and usually negative) ATTITUDE toward a group and its members. It generally involves stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings.

Discrimination

Unjustifiable negative BEHAVIOR toward a group and its members.

Racism

Prejudice and/or discrimination based on race.

Sexism

Prejudice and/or discrimination based on gender..

Agism

Prejudice and/or discrimination based on age.

Homophobia

Prejudice and/or discrimination against people who are part of the LGBTQ community.

Religious Prejudice

Prejudice and/or discrimination based on religions. Examples include anti-Semitism (prejudice of Jewish people/Judaism) and Islamophobia (prejudice of Muslims/Islam).

Xenophobia

Prejudice and/or discrimination against foreigners or strangers.

Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes Experiment

An experiment that showed how quickly humans can learn prejudice and discrimination. It was conducted by Jane Elliott on her third grade class.

Jane Elliott

Third grade teacher whose blue-eyes brown-eyes experiment demonstrated how quickly prejudice and discrimination can be learned.

Groupthink

When the desire for conformity in a group leads to errors in decision-making. There are various versions of this including deindividualization and Illusion of invulnerability.

Irving Janis

Psychologist who studied group dynamics and came up with the idea of GroupThink.

Deindividualization

A type of groupthink, when people lose their sense of personal responsibility.

(Ex: I wasn't cheating. Everyone did it.)

Illusion of Invulnerability

A form of groupthink when the members of the group believe that they the group will not make mistakes. In a way, everyone assumes that mistakes will be noticed and corrected by "somebody" in the group, so in the end no one is careful.

Self-Censorship

A form of groupthink in which people stop bringing up their own concerns because they don't want to upset the group's sense of unity.

Group Polarization

A tendency of group members to become more extreme in their beliefs after discussing an issue as a group.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

When an expectation causes you to act in ways that make that expectation come true.

(Ex: You think you're a good student so you sign up for AP classes and study hard. Your friend thinks they're not a good student so signs up for regular classes and skips homework. In the end, your beliefs are true, but because of how you acted.)

Robert Rosenthal

Social psychology who worked with Lenore Jacobsen to study the self-fulfilling prophecy and did the Pygmalion in the classroom experiment.

Lenore Jacobsen

Social psychology who worked with Robert Rosenthal to study the self-fulfilling prophecy and did the Pygmalion in the classroom experiment.

Pygmalion in the Classroom Experiment

Experiment which demonstrated the self-fulfilling prophecy. Teachers were told certain students were gifted and during the school year and then teachers treated them differently so the students excelled. In reality the students started off the same as all the others.

Aggression

Any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy

Hostile Aggression

Aggression stemming from feelings of anger and aimed at inflicting pain or injury.

Instrumental Aggression

Aggression motivated by the desire to obtain a goal.

(Ex: Damaging another student's science project in a competition so you can win. Bullying is another example.)

Frustration Aggression

Aggression that is a result of being upset about not getting something you want.

Frustration Aggression Theory

The theory that frustration increases the chances of aggression.

Prosocial Behavior

Any behavior that helps others, especially when there is no benefit to you.

Norm of Reciprocity

The unwritten rule that you should "return the favor" and help people who have helped you.

Social Responsibility

The feeling that you should help society. This leads people to volunteer or make donations.

Bystander Effect

A person is less likely to provide help when there are other people there who also could help.

Kitty Genovese

Woman who was murdered in front of many witnesses who all did nothing. Her death led to research on bystander effect.

Bibb Latané

Psychologist who studied how being around other people affects our willingness to help others.

Diffusion of Responsibility

When we feel less responsibility to help when there are more people around. More people \= less feeling that you individually need to do something.

Social Loafing

When we put in less effort because the task is assigned to a group.

(Ex: A good student who usually works hard slacks off when put into a group project because they think other people will do the work.)

Good Samaritan Study

An experiment in which participants were told that they were to give a presentation. On their way there was a person who needed help. The experiment showed that the main factor determining if the participant stopped to help was if there were other people around. When they were alone, they usually stopped to help, even if they were running late.

John Darley

Social psychologist sho studied diffusion of responsibility and the bystander effect.

Attraction

Feeling of being drawn toward another and desiring the company of a person.

Mere Exposure Effect

The tendency to start to like something or someone more as you are around it more.

(ex: The more you listen to a song that you first thought was "eh" the more it starts to sound good and the more you start to like it.)

Matching Hypothesis

The idea that males and females of approximately equal physical attractiveness are likely to select each other as partners.

Social Exchange Theory in Relationships

The theory that people remain in relationships only if the relationship has more rewards than costs.

Self-Disclosure

Voluntary sharing of information about yourself with another person. This leads to stronger feelings of affection and stronger friendships.

Triangular Theory of Love

Sternberg's theory that love has three components: passion, intimacy, and commitment.

Robert Sternberg

Psychologist who came up with the Triangular Theory of Love (and also the Triarchic Theory of Intelligence)

Intimacy

Feelings of closeness, connectedness.

(Ex: You know what your friend is thinking and you can finish each other's sentences.)

Passion

Feelings and desires that lead to physical attraction.

(Ex: This guy is hot!)

Commitment

Feelings that lead a person to remain with someone through time.

(Ex: Let's be exclusive, or Let's get married.)

Liking

Love based only on intimacy alone.

(Ex: Best friends)

Infatuation

Love based on passion but lacking intimacy and commitment; usually very sexually charged but shallow and devoid of much meaning.

(Ex: That couple that makes out all the time but doesn't even know each other's last names yet!)

Fatuous Love

Love based on passion and commitment but lacking intimacy.

(Ex: That couple that's acting to be so romantic and gave each other promise rings already, but don't share anything personal so they don't really know each other well.)