Social Psychology

Anecdata

Information based on personal intuition or observation.

Social Psychology

The scientific study of the thoughts, feelings, and behavior of individuals in social situations.

Actual, imagined, or implied presence of others

The influence that other people have on an individual's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Social Brain

The sophisticated neural architecture in our brains that processes social information.

Power of the Situation

The idea that the social contexts we find ourselves in shape the way we think, feel, and act.

Levels of Analysis

The different levels of social psychology research, including individual, interpersonal, intragroup, and intergroup.

Scientific Rigor

The importance of using scientific methods and replicability in social psychology research.

Critical Thinking

The ability to evaluate the quality of evidence and think skeptically in social psychology.

Benefits of Social Psychology

Insight into human behavior, understanding the causes and consequences of events, and tools for effective action.

Social Self

The holistic understanding of who we are as individuals that is influenced by social experiences.

Cover Story

A fabricated explanation given to participants in a study to prevent them from knowing the true purpose of the research.

Personality x Situation Interaction

The idea that a person's behavior is influenced by both their personal attributes and the situation they are in.

Social Identity

The part of our identity that comes from the groups we belong to and the shared characteristics we have with others.

The Social Me

The concept that who we are in different social contexts can vary, and our social relationships shape our self-knowledge.

Working self-concept

The subset of our self-knowledge that is brought to mind in a specific context, influencing our sense of self and guiding our behavior.

Self-categorization theory

The process of grouping ourselves and others into ingroups (groups we belong to) and outgroups (groups we don't belong to), with different identities becoming salient in different contexts.

Cultural identity

Our sense of self derived from the groups we belong to that have a distinct culture, which can be fostered directly through socialization efforts or indirectly through exposure to different ways of life.

Individualist / Independent self-construal

The cultural perspective that emphasizes the self as an autonomous entity separate from others, promoting individual goals and uniqueness.

Collectivist / Interdependent self-construal

The cultural perspective that emphasizes the self as fundamentally connected to others, promoting fitting in a community and fulfilling appropriate roles.

Construal

The interpretation or perception of a thing, in the context of the self, it refers to the interpretation or perception of the self.

‘Who am I’ exercise

An exercise where individuals list statements that describe who they are, with responses varying between context-free traits and preferences (individualist cultures) and context-dependent relationships (collectivist cultures).

Roadmap

The significance of the social aspect in our lives, how being with others can be beneficial for meeting basic psychological needs.

Sociometer Hypothesis

The idea that things that make us feel good about ourselves (self-esteem) are also the things that make others accept and like us (belonging).

Self-esteem

A measure of our perceived social standing with others, with high self-esteem indicating social inclusion and low self-esteem indicating social exclusion.

Social Comparisons

The process of comparing oneself to others to gain accurate self-evaluations, which can be either upward (comparing to those perceived as better) or downward (comparing to those perceived as worse).

Reflection

A process in the Self-Evaluation Maintenance Model where other people's success improves our self-evaluation, typically in domains not relevant to the self.

Comparison

A process in the Self-Evaluation Maintenance Model where other people's success worsens our self-evaluation, typically in domains relevant to the self.

BIRG-ing

Basking in Reflected Glory, a motive for enhancement where we align ourselves publicly with successful others to feel good about the groups we belong to.

CORF-ing

Cutting Off Reflected Failure, a motive for protection where we distance ourselves publicly from those who have failed to avoid feeling bad.

Better-Than-Average Effect

The tendency for individuals to view themselves positively and believe they are above average on a wide range of positive dimensions, contributing to positive self-evaluations.

Loneliness

A subjective feeling of distress when social relations do not meet the desired level of connectedness, influenced by both relationship quantity and quality.

Social Distance

A measure in social network analysis that quantifies the structure of social relationships, including who knows whom, popularity, and closeness between individuals.

Social Networks and Physical Health

Greater social integration and inclusion in social networks are associated with lower mortality rates and better overall health outcomes.

Social Networks and Mental Health

Loneliness can spread within social networks, leading to increased loneliness among connected individuals, with induction, homophily, and shared environment as potential explanations.

Ostracism

The act of ignoring and excluding an individual or group, which can lead to negative psychological effects and harm basic psychological needs.

Cyberball

An online ball-tossing game used to study ostracism and its effects, where participants are either included or excluded from receiving the ball.

O-Cam

A modern experimental paradigm that increases the realism of the ostracism experience by simulating interactive video conversations with others.

Discrimination

How others treat us based on our group membership, which can impact mental and physical health through stress, negative coping responses, reduced access to resources, and physical injury.

Stimulation Hypothesis

The belief that online interactions through social media strengthen existing relationships and provide social benefits.

Displacement Hypothesis

The belief that social media replaces offline, face-to-face interactions, resulting in social costs and weakened social ties.

Active Use

Engaging in social media to connect with others, which is associated with greater perceived social support and better well-being.

Passive Use

Monitoring others' lives on social media without direct exchanges, which is associated with less perceived social support and worse well-being.

The Impact of Social Media Depends on Us

How we use social media, whether actively engaging or passively lurking, can influence its impact on our social ties and well-being.

Motives for use

Definition:The reasons why individuals use social media, which can be categorized as either connecting with others or avoiding social anxiety.

Dale Carnegie’s Golden Rules for Becoming Friendlier

Definition:A set of guidelines created by Dale Carnegie that promote friendly and positive interactions with others, including principles such as avoiding criticism, showing appreciation, and being genuinely interested in others.

Making a first impression

Definition:The initial perception or judgment formed about a person upon meeting them for the first time.

Snap judgments

Definition:Quick and instantaneous impressions formed about others based on limited information or brief interactions.

Thin slicing

Definition:The ability to form accurate impressions about others based on small snippets of information or short interactions.

Person perception

Definition:The process of forming impressions or judgments about others based on various factors such as appearance, behavior, and traits.

Warmth and competence

Definition:Two primary dimensions on which people judge others, with warmth referring to the perceived intentions of a person towards others and competence referring to their ability to achieve goals.

Impression by innuendo

Definition:The tendency to form impressions or make inferences about others based on indirect or implied information rather than concrete evidence.

Impression formation

Definition:The process by which people combine information about others to form an overall judgment or impression of them.

Algebraic models

Definition:Models of impression formation that involve mechanically combining information about a person to form an overall impression, such as summative, averaging, and weighted averaging models.

Configurational model

Definition:A model of impression formation that suggests people combine information about others into an overall impression that may differ from the simple sum of individual traits, based on Gestalt principles.

Initial liking

Definition:Factors that contribute to liking or positive feelings towards others, including familiarity, similarity, and attractiveness.

Mere exposure effect

Definition:The tendency to develop a preference for something or someone based on repeated exposure to them.

Beauty-is-Good stereotype

Definition:The belief that physically attractive individuals are also good on other dimensions, such as being more likeable, competent, generous, and kind.

Self-disclosure

Definition:The act of sharing personal information or experiences with others, which can help deepen connections and foster trust in relationships.

Self-disclosure

revealing personal information about yourself not readily known by the other person. Can build trust because we are being vulnerable.

Norm of reciprocity

When someone does something for us, we feel pressure to help in return. People are expected to provide benefits for those who provided benefits for them.

Obedience

Tell people what to do. Milgram's Obedience Studies:Experiments to examine how individuals could obey orders that instructed them to harm others.

Commitment

Once a choice has been made, people feel pressure from themselves and others to act consistently with that commitment. Can explain the commitment the teachers had in the Milgram obedience studies.

Door-in-the-face

Ask for a very large favor that will certainly be refused, and then follow the request with a more modest favor. People feel compelled to respond to a concession by making their own concession.

Foot-in-the-door

Make a small request to which most people agree, then follow it up with a larger request that was the real favor all along. Compliance becomes part of our self-image.

Elaboration Likelihood Model

Explains how people change their attitudes in response to persuasive messages. Proposes two pathways to persuasion:central and peripheral.

Social Norms

Our tendency to conform to the behavior of others around us can be harnessed to achieve compliance.

Majority influence

When most group members behave in a certain way, one tends to behave in a similar fashion.

Minority influence

Even if there is a strong majority, a consistent minority in the group can affect group members' attitudes and behavior.

Asch (1956)

A study in which participants were asked to determine which of three lines was the same length as a target line, and were influenced by the incorrect answers of confederates.

Majority Influence

The phenomenon where individuals conform to the views or behaviors of the majority group.

Anonymity

When individuals privately write their answer instead of publicly stating it, conformity decreases.

Expertise and status

Individuals are more likely to conform to the views of others they perceive as experts on the topic.

Group size

Conformity increases with more people reporting incorrectly, but only up to a point.

Group unanimity

The presence of even one person dissenting from the majority reduces conformity.

Minority Influence

When a small group or individual influences others' behavior to go against the majority.

Normative Influence

Influence based on the desire for social approval or avoidance of disapproval.

Informational Influence

Influence based on accepting information from others as evidence about reality.

Moscovici et al

A study in which participants conformed to the consistent opinion of a minority group regarding the color of slides.

Roadmap

A series of questions exploring whether humans are fundamentally selfish or selfless.

Out for ourselves

The belief that humans are primarily motivated by self-interest.

Dictator Game

A paradigm for investigating trust and generosity, where one participant decides how much money to give to another participant.

Social closeness

The proximity or relationship to the recipient influences the amount given in the Dictator Game.

Trust and prosociality

Individuals who are more socially oriented and care about others tend to give more in the Dictator Game.

Demographic factors

Women and older individuals tend to be more generous in the Dictator Game.

Giving Feels Good

Spending money on others increases happiness and creates a positive feedback loop.

Social Loafing

The tendency to exert less effort on a group task when individual contributions cannot be monitored.

Deindividuation

Feeling anonymous in a group, leading to a decreased sense of responsibility and effort.

Equity

Preconceived ideas that people don't work hard in groups, leading to reduced individual effort.

Reward

Belief that personal effort won't be recognized, resulting in decreased motivation and effort.

Social Facilitation

The tendency to improve performance on a group task in the presence of others.

Co-action effects

Performance boost when doing a task with others engaged in the same activity.

Audience effects

Performance boost when being watched by passive spectators.

Altruism

Prosocial behavior that benefits others without regard to consequences for oneself.

Competitive altruism

Motivation to outdo others in altruistic acts for social reward and status.

Batson and Shaw (1991)

Proposed several motives for altruism, including social reward, personal distress, and empathic concern.

Bystander Intervention

Assistance given by a witness to someone in need.

Bystander effect

The phenomenon where individuals are less likely to intervene in emergencies when surrounded by others who also aren't taking action.

The Smoke Under the Door Experiment

A study that investigated bystander intervention by simulating a smoke-filled room and measuring participants' responses.

Diffusion of responsibility

The presence of other people reduces each person's sense of responsibility in an emergency situation, leading to a decreased likelihood of intervention.

Pluralistic ignorance

Bystanders may be uncertain about the legitimacy of an emergency if they see others not reacting, leading them to believe it is not dangerous.